Tag: music theory conceps

0. What Is Music Made Of?

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

Notes and rests

Music is mostly made up of notes and rests. 

A musical note has 5 properties:

  • Pitch: how high or low a note sounds.
  • Note length (duration): how long a note sounds for.
  • Dynamics: how loud or quiet a note is.
  • Articulation: how the note is expressed, such as an accent (the start of the note is emphasised), staccato (the note is cut off quickly) or legato (the note is played evenly for its full length).
  • Timbre: the tone colour or texture of a note (warm, bright, honky etc.). Timbre is usually an overall characteristic of an instrument, although players have some control over how to vary it. To a degree, notes can be made to sound warm or bright depending on how they’re played.

Dynamics, articulation and control of timbre all contribute to the expression of a note.

Other effects, such as glissando (sliding pitch), vibrato (wavering pitch) and tremolo (rapidly repeating note) are considered to be effects which are applied to notes. Apart from vibrato, which is considered a form of expression akin to timbre control, they fall under the general category of ornamentation.

A rest is like a silent note: a deliberate, timed silence between notes that forms part of the music.

Music Notation

All these qualities can be indicated in music notation.

Although notation can indicate a great deal of musical information, there is always room for interpretation by the player. Many nuances of performance can only be indicated in a general way: in order to add authenticity to the performance, it is expected that a player has some understanding of what’s appropriate to the genre and style of the music.

By far the most significant qualities of a musical note are pitch and duration. 

Note pitches are named using the letters A to G and the symbols # (sharp) and b (flat). For more, see 1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves and 2. Notes On A Stave: Pitch.

Note and rest lengths are described in multiples or fractions of a beat. For more, see 3. Beats, tempo and timing: learning how to count, 5. How Long Is A Note? Note values 1 and 7. Rest Values, How To Count Rests.

Melody, Rhythm and Harmony

Notes can be played one after the other, in succession, as in a melody. Notes and rests played in succession also have a rhythm. Several notes can also be played together, producing harmony, such as a chord.

  • A melody is a series of notes (and rests) in succession. Typically a melody starts in a key, visits various neighbouring keys then comes home.
  • Harmony is the combining of notes which sound at the same time. The most recognisable use of harmony is in chords, often used to accompany a melody.
  • Rhythm is the the effect of how notes and rests progress over time. The more obvious rhythms are short and repetitive. Both melodies and chords can have a rhythm. In many ensembles, the underlying rhythm is highlighted by percussion/drums.

Apart from a few small edits, this post in its entirety is taken from my pocket guide to basic music theory, The Tiny Music Theory Book, available exclusively from this site.

Lesson 1 Starts Here

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

The Cycle (circle) of Fifths

OK, this isn’t quite a beginner’s tip, but it’s a great hack for remembering key signatures, relative majors/minors and chord relationships.

The cycle of 5ths, or circle of 5ths if you prefer, is a list of all the major keys and their relative minors, ordered by their key signature. For convenience it’s usually written as a circle rather than a long, endless line. The keys are represented by chord names. A letter by itself is a major key or chord and a letter followed by “m” is a minor key or chord.

The pattern is centred around C major and A minor, which have no sharps or flats. Reading clockwise, you progress further into sharps. Reading anticlockwise, you progress “backwards”, further into flats.

At the bottom there is an overlap where two possible note names can be used to describe the same root note. The trade-off here between naming these keys as sharps keys or flats keys is minimal. In actual usage, the choice may become clearer when considering the natural (easily played) keys of the instrument(s) chosen to play the piece and what other keys are visited within the piece.

in theory, you could continue in either direction, beyond 7 sharps or 7 flats, but then you’re doubling up with much simpler key signatures for the same sounding key so you would need a very good reason to go beyond 7.

For a piece in a given key, say A major, the most closely related keys and the primary chords are found immediately to the left and right of the home key, and their relative minors or majors inside or outside the purple line.. In the case of A major that’s A, D, E, F#m, Bm and C#m.

Note: in most gentes, the chord on the next key (the dominant) is played as a major chord, even if the home key is minor. For example, for A minor, the chords are Am, Dm, E (rather than Em), C, F and G.

The Cycle (circle) of Fifths

Primary school students are usually taught the sequence of letters as a mnemonic – at my school it was “Go Down And Enter By Fifths”, with a C at each end. It’s boring and it’s technically incorrect (the pattern goes up in fifths the way it reads, not down). I’m sure you could make up a better one…

The Cycle of 5ths is explained in more detail in 12. Major Keys And The Cycle/Circle Of Fifths.