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Music Theory Basics

199 bytes added, 03:24, 17 March 2015
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Melody
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 HZ) as our melody; our last note should be A3 A<sub>3</sub> (220 HZ). 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).