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{{Top-Level Crumbs|1}}
{{Lesson Crumbs|1}}
{{Beginner Lesson Crumbs|5}}
Music is the art of sound. From an objective standpoint, there is no good music or bad music, no happy music or sad music. However, music can be subjectively evaluated. Is it pleasing to listen to? Does it inspire the ideas and emotions the composer/performer sought to communicate? Thus, there are good musicians and bad ones. Good ones understand that sound has objective properties, knows how to manipulate these properties, and puts this knowledge into action. The composer must know way more than I can cover here. The performer must be able to play understand his instrument and play with the desired techniquepurpose and direction.
== 4 Basic Elements of Music ==
Again, melody can get insanely complex...so what's our simple framework? Really, it's the same frameworks as harmony and rhythm. We take a subset of all possible frequencies and give them note names, and restrict them to 12 possibilities, with only 7 being "active" for a particular key or scale. Note duration is restricted to a common set, based around beats.
The big divergence from harmony is that pitch between octaves has signfigancesignificance. So, for example, if we take a common A minor ascending scale starting at A2 A<sub>2</sub> (110 HZHz) as our melody; our last note should be A3 A<sub>3</sub> (220 HZHz). Here is the example melody: A2A<sub>2</sub>, B2B<sub>2</sub>, C3C<sub>3</sub>, D3D<sub>3</sub>, E3E<sub>3</sub>, F3F<sub>3</sub>, G3G<sub>3</sub>, A3A<sub>3</sub>. This makes sure each note has an ascending pitch compared to the prior note's pitch. Similarly, A2A<sub>2</sub>, B3B<sub>3</sub>, C4C<sub>4</sub>, D5D<sub>5</sub>, E6E<sub>6</sub>, F7F<sub>7</sub>, G8G<sub>8</sub>, A9 A<sub>9</sub> is not the same melody, despite having all the same note names. It will sound much different to the listener. Ranges of notes grouped by pitch are called '''registers'''.
The melody stands out from the harmony by having louder volume or by being played in higher pitches. It typically has a less uniform or more complex rhythm than the rhythm accompaniment (consider a vocal melody compared to a drum beat).
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13
|-
! Frequency in HZHz
| 110.0 || 116.5|| 123.5|| 130.8|| 138.6|| 146.8|| 155.6|| 164.8|| 174.6|| 185.0|| 196.0|| 208.0||220.0
|-
|}
'''This matches the frets on the fretboard. ''' The 12th fret is the same note as the open string, just an octave higher. Notice the 12th fret is exactly the middle of the string. All the frets between the nut and 12th fret are spaced such that each fret is ~5.946% higher-pitched than the previous fret.
These pitches are named using the letters A-G. You may notice that is only 7 letters - the other 5 can be expressed using [[#Sharps and Flats|sharp or flat]] symbols next to some of the letter names, covered below. It is customary to define the "A" note to a specific frequency, with the standard being A = 440 HZHz. This determines the pitches of the other notes, given that they are all equidistant within an octave. Certain compositions may call for aligning the notes to different frequencies (A = 442 HZHz); however, this will not change the ''relative'' pitch between notes, which is our primary concern in terms of the art of music. Whether a melody is played with A = 440 HZ Hz or A = 442 HZ Hz will have the same emotional impact on the listener.
{|class="wikitable"
| 1 (A) || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 (A)
|-
! A = 440 HZHz
| 110.0 || 116.5|| 123.5|| 130.8|| 138.6|| 146.8|| 155.6|| 164.8|| 174.6|| 185.0|| 196.0|| 208.0||220.0
|-
! A = 442 HZHz
| 110.5 || 117.1|| 124.0|| 131.4|| 139.2|| 147.5|| 156.3|| 165.6|| 175.4|| 185.8|| 196.9|| 208.6||221.0
|-
|-
! Note Names
| A || A{{s}} || '''B ''' || '''C ''' || C{{s}} || D || D{{s}} || '''E ''' || '''F ''' || F{{s}} || G || G{{s}} || A
|-
! Alt Note Names
| A || B{{b}} || '''B ''' || '''C ''' || D{{b}} || D || E{{b}} || '''E ''' || '''F ''' || G{{b}} || G || A{{b}} || A
|-
! Frequency in HZHz
| 110.0 || 116.5|| 123.5|| 130.8|| 138.6|| 146.8|| 155.6|| 164.8|| 174.6|| 185.0|| 196.0|| 207.7||220.0
|}
{{sharp}} or '#' means '''sharp'''. {{flat}} or 'b' means '''flat'''. These terms indicate the named note is raised or lowered one semi-tone, respectively. Looking back at the chromatic scale above, we now see that either a sharped version of the note below or the flatted version of the note above fills in the gaps between the notes without such symbols.
Multiple sharps and flats can be used, and there are special symbols for '''double sharp''' {{Double Sharp}} and '''double flat''' {{Double Flat}}. For example, A{{flat}}{{flatDouble Flat}} is 2 semi-tones below A. A{{flat}}{{flatDouble Flat}} corresponds to the same pitch as G. Similarly, G{{sharp}} is the same pitch as A{{flat}}, and B{{sharp}} is the same pitch as C. For our purposes, we are unlikely to deal with double (or more) sharps or flats. But it's important to understand what they are to remove some of the mystique from them.
We can even represent the entire 12-tone scale in terms of a single note, using flats and sharps:
| A || A{{sharp}} ||B ||C ||C{{sharp}} ||D ||D{{sharp}} ||E ||F ||F{{sharp}} ||G ||G{{sharp}}
|-
| D{{flatdb}}{{flatdb}}{{flat}}{{flat}}{{flatb}} || D{{flat}}{{flat}}{{flatdb}}{{flatdb}} || D{{flat}}{{flatdb}}{{flatb}} || D{{flat}}{{flatdb}} || D{{flatb}} ||D ||D{{sharps}} ||D{{sharp}}{{sharpds}} ||D{{sharp}}{{sharpds}}{{sharps}} ||D{{sharp}}{{sharpds}}{{sharp}}{{sharpds}} ||D{{sharp}}{{sharp}}{{sharpds}}{{sharpds}}{{sharps}} ||D{{sharp}}{{sharp}}{{sharp}}{{sharpds}}{{sharpds}}{{sharpds}}
|}
Two notes are '''enharmonic''' if they have the same pitch but are spelled differently. For example, B and C{{b}} are enharmonic, as are B{{s}} and C. As noted above, notes can have multiple sharp/flat symbols, which gives us a wide variety of enharmonic notes.
* C = D{{b}}{{bdb}} = E{{b}}{{bdb}}{{b}}{{bdb}} = G{{b}}{{b}}{{b}}{{bdb}}{{bdb}}{{bdb}}{{b}}* C = B{{s}} = A{{s}}{{sds}}{{s}} = G {{sds}}{{s}}{{s}}{{sds}}{{s}}
{{top}}
}}
Each major scale has the same quality as every other. C Major will sound like C{{sharp}} Major will sound like A Major; they just start on different notes. It doesn't matter that C Major has no sharps or flats while C# {s} Major is all sharps (C{{sharp}} D{{sharp}} E{{sharp}} F{{sharp}} G{{sharp}} A{{sharp}} B{{sharp}}) and A Major has 3 sharps (A B C{{sharp}} D E F{{sharp}} G{{sharp}}). What matters is the whole-tone/semi-tone relationships between notes:
|--w--|--w--|-h|--w--|--w--|--w--|-h|
}}
Notice how the major scale is really just a whole, whole, half sequence, then a single whole tone, then another whole, whole, half sequence. (w w h) w (w w h). The (w w h) sequence is called a '''tetrachord''' (actually has 4 notes), and is historically very important in the development of music. It is our ''Do Re Mi Fa'' melody from above.
Notice also how we say Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do, and not Do Ti La So Fa Mi Re Do. In other words, by default, we are singing the ''ascending'' version of the scale. Whether we sing it ascending or descending doesn't change the fact that these notes form the major scale. However, it does reveal a bit about the scale itself. When we sing the scale, we encounter two semi-tones. Semi-tones, by nature are the most dissonant (non-harmonic) two notes in the 12 tone scale. Notice the location of the semi-tones in the major scale. There is one between the third and fourth note in the scale, and one between the seventh and the octave. If we are singing the scale ascending, that means our seventh note will be the most dissonant and create the most tension. Remember that our tonic note is like gravity - we find the most release there. So not only is the seventh note the most dissonant note in comparison to the tonic, it is also the tonic's neighbor in the scale, and will occur directly before reaching the tonic note in the ascending scale. '''The seventh is often called the ''<u>leading tone'' </u> because it leads into the tonic.'''
The other semi-tone occurs between the 3rd and 4th notes. Since the 4th is quite harmonic, it makes sense that there is a semi-tone here - you can sense the resolution from the 3rd. The 5th is arguably even more harmonic than the 4th, but if we were to lead into it with a semi-tone, then our 4th would be sharp, and we would no longer have the harmonic 4th note. Also, we don't want the 5th to have a greater resolution than the root/tonic note.
* Go listen to some music, trying to identify with each of the four basic elements of music: rhythm, harmony, melody, and timbre.
* Listen to a song while only focusing on one of the following: the melody, the drum-beat, the bass line, and accompanying chords.
* Know that the pitch 2x any pitch is its octave.
* Know that Western music is based upon the 12-tone scale - 12 equal divisions within one octave (excluding the octave itself).
* Be sure to know what half and whole steps are.
* Be sure to know that sharps and flats ({{s}} and {{f}}) raise or lower the pitch of the indicated note by a half-step.
* ''Do not'' start trying to memorize that the key of A has 3 sharps. It will not do you any good at this point.
* The only thing you should ''start'' to memorize at this point is the layout of the major scale - whole whole half whole whole whole half.