The melody is in the upper range while the lower voice supports the melody with a few supporting tones. In this form each of the hundreds of poems in the Maha Gita repertoire is memorized. This skeletal form is the instrumental basis for further embellishment and improvisation. It is used both in the chamber music medium of performance, for the hsaing ensemble, as well as by solo instruments, like the piano. Basic to this principle is the concept that certain melodic tones, particularly those which help to outline the tonal structure of the poerty on which the song is based, are supported by a second tone.
Some secondary tones are an octave lower than the emlody note, others, a fourth or fifth below.
Certain pitches appear as appoggiaturas, others as falling thirds and still others are harmonized as ninths or sevenths, etc. This pattern of support tones delineates and clarifies the tone pattern of the spoken Burmese language and follows the poetic line of the song text, even in entirely instrumental settings. The skeletal pattern of the melody, sometimes moving along in a two part setting with supporting octaves, fourths, fifths, ninths and sevenths as well as falling ornaments, and at other times becoming, for a short period, a single melody is the standard performance mode of Burmese music. These patterns follow the stress and duration tones of the spoken language. The falling ornaments, for example appear on tones which are assigned to those spoken tones which are ennuciated with a sharp falling pattern.