Elements of Music David Scoggin OLLI Understanding Jazz Fall 2016

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1 Elements of Music David Scoggin OLLI Understanding Jazz Fall 2016 The two most fundamental dimensions of music are rhythm (time) and pitch. In fact, every staff of written music is essentially an X-Y coordinate system where the horizontal axis is rhythm and the vertical axis is pitch. Notes occurring at the same time chords - are stacked vertically on top of each other because they have the same horizontal position. Besides these two most fundamental dimensions, there are many other attributes that are notated in other ways: loudness with p, m, and f symbols, release times with slurs and staccato markings, timbre by labeling each staff with an instrument name, and so on. Here are what are commonly defined to be the most fundamental elements of music: rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, and timbre. Rhythm Rhythm is when events, such as notes, chords, and rests, happen in time. In Western music, time is divided and subdivided into small, equal increments. The main units of time, or rhythm, are called measures or bars. Each bar contains a small number of beats, usually 4, 3, or 6. The number of beats per bar is usually set for an entire piece of music by the time signature at the beginning of the piece. Each beat within a bar can be further subdivided. In 4/4 time, also called common time, there are four beats in each measure. The kind of note whose rhythm takes up one beat, or a quarter of the measure, is called a quarter note. A half note takes up two beats, or half the measure. A whole note takes up the whole measure, or four beats. The beat is also subdivided. An eighth note takes up a half a beat; 1/8 of the measure. A 16th note is a fourth of a beat; 1/16 of a measure. A beat divided into thirds is called a 1/8 note triplet. On instruments on which a sound can be sustained, it is not only important when the attack time of the note is, but also when the release time is. Varying release times within a piece is a big part of musical expression. Releasing notes on precise rhythmic boundaries can add a lot of feel and rhythm to the music. 1

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3 Pitch The pitch of a note is the quality that makes it sound higher or lower. Pitch is determined by the frequency at which something is vibrating how fast it s vibrating which is measured in hertz (hz.), or cycles per second. Notes are given letter names A-G that designate their pitch, along with sharp and flat symbols, b and #. A flat moves the note a half step lower. A sharp raises the note a half step. A note that is double the frequency of another note sounds so similar, just higher, that we give them the same letter name. These are called octaves. The first two notes of the melody to Somewhere Over the Rainbow are an octave apart. There are only 12 note names before they start repeating in another octave: A, Bb B, C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G, G# The distance between two notes pitches is called an interval. The smallest interval is a half step, or a minor 2nd, such as C to C#. There are Intervals of unisons, 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, octaves, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Each of these intervals can also be flatted or sharped, so you have a b9 (flat 9) or a #5 (sharp 5). The distance between two notes pitches in a melody (or two notes in a chord) is called an interval. Intervals can be 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths the eighth interval is called an octave and sounds so much like the bottom note that they are given the same name: C to a higher C is an octave. Frequency-wise, when you double a frequency, you get an octave. They sound like the same note only higher. The first two notes of the melody to Somewhere Over the Rainbow are an octave apart. Melody The melody is the "featured line" in music. It is what gets sung if there is a singer. For many people it is regarded as the Identity of a tune; that is, if you want to describe a particular song to someone, you would usually sing the melody; not the chords, not the bass part, not the drums rhythm. Melodies are monophonic, single-note lines, meaning only one note is played at a time. Many melody instruments are strictly monophonic, such as saxophone, trumpet, and the human voice. Notes in a melody have both a pitch and a rhythm, and must also "fit" with harmony (the chord progression). Its rhythms fit into the rhythmic framework of 3

4 the tune, and its pitches fit into the harmonic framework of the tune; that is, the pitches in the melody are notes that agree with the current chord in the tune. Melodic lines tend to come in phrases, like sentences in English, with a space (rests) in between. A melody with no phrase breaks is like a run-on sentence. A phrase should have a beginning and an ending. Many melodies contain melodic fragments, called motifs, that are repeated, or modified or moved and repeated. When there is more than one melody played simultaneous, the way they work together and against each other is called counterpoint. Harmony Harmony is chords. Chords are groups of notes played simultaneously. There is an elaborate system of scales, chords, and chord progressions that has developed in the west over the last 600 years, called diatonic harmony. Whereas scales move in the interval of 2nds, chords are built by stacking 3rds, or playing every other note in a scale. The simplest chords, called triads, consist of the 1st 3rd 5th notes of the current scale, which is dictated by the composer of the song. When you lower the 3rd to the next nearest note (flat the 3rd), you get a minor triad. Particular groups of notes have been given names that are expressed in chord symbols, such as C7, Fmin9, Eb13, C#sus7, Dm7b5, C7#9, Db13b9#11. As a song goes by, the chords change, at specific places in bars. The progression of chords, which is part of each song s identity, is called a chord progression. Chords usually last for a whole bar (4 beats in 4/4 time), or a half a measure (2 beats), or two measures, for four measures. There are also songs where some chords will last for just one beat, or for 16 or more bars. The chords of a song dictate the scale choices that can be used for melodies, bass lines, and other monophonic lines that can be played against those chords. The way chords move within a key (signature) is not random. There are extensive and complex harmonic systems that have developed since the middle 4

5 ages in Europe. One of the most common systems is called diatonic harmony. Other common systems are blues-based harmony and modal harmony. We will not talk about atonal harmonic systems such as 12-tone, serialism (Arnold Schoenberg), or Harmolodics (Ornette Coleman). Timbre (tam-ber) Timbre is also known as tone color, or just tone. It is the sound of a specific instrument without regard to pitch. It is the quality of sound that distinguishes instruments from one another when they play the same note, such as a saxophone and a flute both playing middle C. Some instruments can have a variety of timbres, depending on the player and their style or sound. Some players on certain instruments will change their timbre within the same piece; sometimes note-by-note. Saxophones and electric guitar are examples of instruments whose timbre can be varied extensively, and used for artistic expression. A saxophonist can change his tone or get louder or softer while he sustains a note. A guitarist can add distortion with his amplifier or effects pedal and can change his sound (timbre) many other ways. Piano and vibraphone are examples of instruments that have limited timbral variety, and nothing can be done to change the timbre of the note after it is played and is decaying. But they can play lots of notes at once! 5