Music Notation and Theory for Intelligent Beginners

[Pages:113]Music Notation and Theory for Intelligent Beginners

by

Jono Kornfeld

Cover art by

Jason Dullack

? 2001, revised 2005 Jono Kornfeld All rights reserved. No part of this book may be duplicated in any form without written permission of the author.

Artwork ? 2004 Jason Dullack: all rights reserved

Music Notation and Theory for Intelligent Beginners ? 2001, revised 2005 Jono Kornfeld

Table of Contents

Notes, The Staff

1

The Keyboard

2

Clefs

3

Ledger Lines

5

The Grand Staff, Accidentals

6

Simple Intervals

7

Enharmonic Equivalence

8

Double Accidentals

9

Note Values

10

Beaming

11

Stem Direction

12

Stem Length

13

Measure, Bar Line

14

Time Signatures

15

Beat Emphasis

16

Putting Notes into Practice

17

Counting Eighth Notes

17

Counting Sixteenth Notes

18

Rests

19

The Dot

20

Ties

21

Slurs

22

Other Time Signatures

23

Compound Time Signatures

24

The Triplet, Syncopation

25

Tempo I

26

Tempo II, Tempo Changes

27

Dynamics

28

Articulation

29

Economical Devices I

30

Economical Devices II

31

Economical Devices Exercises

32

The Major Scale, Keys

33

Scales Using Flats

34

Scales Using Sharps

35

Key Signatures, The Key

36

The Circle of Fifths

37

Transposition

39

Scale Degrees, Note Names

40

The Minor Scale

41

The Three Minor Scales

42

Review

43

Continuity

44

Motion

45

Intervals

47

Spelling Intervals

50

In the scale

51

Determining Intervals I

53

Determining Intervals II 54

Inversion

56

Compound Intervals

58

Hearing Intervals

59

Identifying in Context

61

Triads

63

In the Scale

64

Roman Numerals

65

Harmonization

65

Minor Key Harmonization 66

Terminology

67

7th Chords

70

Inverting Chords

73

Figured Bass Notation

74

Application to Analysis

76

Position of Upper Notes 77

Voicing a Chord

78

Contemporary Context

81

Cadences and Phrases

82

The Period

83

Melodic Aspects

84

Analysis

85

Melodies and Voice Leading

87

Examples

89

Combining Melody and Harmony

91

The Process

92

Non-Chord Tones

93

Passing Tone

94

Neighbor Tone

95

Suspension

96

Modulation

98

Appendix /Review

Scales

A-1

Keys & Key Signatures

A-3

Circle of 5ths Reference A-5

Major Scales Reference A-6

Intervals & Figured Bass

Reference A-7

NOTES One of the most basic elements in music is the note. In written music, it might look like this:

Or this (if there are more than one): or

X h q e

Some free-standing notes

THE STAFF The five horizontal lines on which the notes sit are called a staff.

a staff with no notes on it

Each line or space on the staff is for its own note.

Notes represent sounds called pitches. Because music employs a set of pitches (ranging from low to high), the staff acts like a map for the notes--allowing us to hear, read or write them as:

Higher (higher on the staff)

Lower (lower on the staff) We read the sequence of notes from left to right. Another way to understand the idea of pitches being lower or higher is to compare it to bears and birds. A bear's voice is low-pitched, while the voice of a bird's is high (this explanation works well for children!). A less musically specific term for pitch is frequency, which is also referred to as low or high.

1

1

THE KEYBOARD

In Western music, pitches and notes are specific and have specific names. We use the first seven letters of our alphabet: A through G.

To see these notes in connection with a music making device, let's look at a standard keyboard:

A modern keyboard has a total of 88 keys (black and white combined) as opposed to the 60 in this illustration

...etc

etc...

lower register

middle register

each white key is a different note

Register refers to high or low pitch range and is more often a relative term.

higher register

Since there are obviously more than seven pitches on the keyboard, the A to G series repeats itself many times. Above we have C to C in brackets for reasons that will soon be obvious. You will notice that the pattern made by the white and black keys also repeats with the series.

Because there are also more than seven combined lines and spaces on a staff, we can begin to see how a staff, or two staffs, could accommodate all these notes.

N.B. in these examples we will see how music notation connects with the keyboard. It should be understood that this notation works with all instruments.

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2

CLEFS

The clef, a symbol that sits at the leftmost side of the staff, specifies which lines and spaces belong to which notes. In a sense, the clef calibrates or orients the staff to specific notes.

The three most common clefs are: The Treble clef for high range notes

The Bass clef for low range notes

The Alto clef for middle range notes

The Treble clef (also called the G Clef because it looks like a calligraphic "G") works as follows:

Notice that the curl of the clef circles the line that will be the note G (the 2nd line from the bottom).

The G note on the G line

The Bass clef (also called the F Clef because it looks like an "F") works as follows:

The two dots surround the line that will be the note F (the 4th line).

The F note on the F line

The Alto clef (also called the C Clef):

The two curls pinch the C line (the 3rd line).

The C note on the C line

3

Although it is important to know about the Alto Clef, we will spend more time talking about and working with the Treble and Bass Clefs.

3

The staff itself is flexible with regard to which notes the lines and spaces represent. But once a clef is put on a staff (and we always put one on), the notes become assigned and fixed.

Here is how it works in relation to the keyboard:

The C in the middle of the keyboard is called Middle C

...etc

etc...

The Bass Staff

The Treble Staff

The Alto Staff

The three staffs and the basic ranges they cover as seen on a keyboard

Again, notice that:

? the notes on the Bass Staff refer to the lower notes (below Middle C) on the keyboard ? the notes on the Alto Staff refer to the middle notes (surrounding Middle C) on the keyboard ? the notes on the Treble Staff refer to the higher notes (above Middle C) on the keyboard

REMEMBER: every instrument uses the staffs and clefs in the same way as the keyboard. Most instruments, however, do not have as wide a range as the keyboard. An instrument like the flute plays relatively higher notes (like the birds in our earlier analogy) so we say it has a "high range". Accordingly, the flute only reads from the treble staffs (and NOT the other staffs) because most of its playable notes fit nicely (in a visual sense) onto the treble staff. In fact, a regular flute cannot go as low as the top line of the bass staff, so the bass staff is useless for a flute player!

Likewise, a low-sounding instrument like the tuba only reads from the bass staff (and let's not forget our bear!). The range of notes on the treble staff are too high for what the tuba can play, so it has no use for the treble staff.

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4

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