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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 significance. So, for example, if we take a common A minor ascending scale starting at A<sub>2</sub> (110 HZHz) as our melody; our last note should be A<sub>3</sub> (220 HZHz). Here is the example melody: A<sub>2</sub>, B<sub>2</sub>, C<sub>3</sub>, D<sub>3</sub>, E<sub>3</sub>, F<sub>3</sub>, G<sub>3</sub>, A<sub>3</sub>. This makes sure each note has an ascending pitch compared to the prior note's pitch. Similarly, A<sub>2</sub>, B<sub>3</sub>, C<sub>4</sub>, D<sub>5</sub>, E<sub>6</sub>, F<sub>7</sub>, G<sub>8</sub>, 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
|-
| 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}}
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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|