1 TERM 3 GRADE 5 Music Literacy
Contents Revision... 3 The Stave... 3 The Treble clef... 3 Note Values and Rest Values... 3 Tempo... 4 Metre (Time Signature)... 4 Pitch... 4 Dynamics... 4 Canon... 4 Unison... 4 Letter names of the Treble clef... 5 The Piano Keyboard... 5 Musical Genre... 6 Different genres (or styles) of music... 6 Blues... 6 Jazz... 6 Kwaito... 7 Soukous... 7 Rock... 7 Pop (Popular)... 8 Classical:... 8 Opera... 8 Musicals... 8 Theory of Music... 9 Accent... 9 Repetition... 9 Echo... 9 C Major Scale... 10 2
3 Revision The Stave The stave is the 5 lines and 4 spaces that music notes are written on. The Treble clef The purpose of the treble clef is to show the person playing or singing music, that the pitch will be high. The treble clef is mostly played with the right hand on a piano as the higher pitches on the keyboard are found on the right hand side. Note Values and Rest Values Whole note Half note Quarter note Eighth note Whole rest Half rest Quarter rest Eighth rest
4 Tempo The tempo of music is how fast or how slow the music is being played or sung. Metre (Time Signature) The metre is shown by using two numbers that make up a time signature. The top number of the time signature indicates how many beats there are in each group of beats and the bottom number indicates what value of note is given to each beat. The time signature appears at the beginning of a piece of music. Here are a few examples: Pitch Pitch is how high or how low a sound is. Dynamics Dynamics, in music, is how loud or how soft a sound is. Canon A canon is a piece of music in which two or more voices (or instrumental parts) sing or play the same melody, but start at different times. Unison The definition of unison is: to perform musical parts at the same pitch or in the range of an octave. This means to play or sing a piece of music on the same note.
5 Letter names of the Treble clef Each line and space on the stave has a letter name. The spaces can be remembered as FACE and the lines can be remembered by the rhyme Every Good Boy Drinks Fanta. The whole musical alphabet consists only of the first seven letters of the alphabet A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The Piano Keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the interval of an octave. The letter names on a keyboard.
6 Musical Genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions or it can be seen as a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterised by a particular style, form, or content. Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often subjective and controversial, and some genres may overlap. Every genre has multiple sub-genres and then every sub-genre has multiple sub-sub-genres to the point that it gets rather ridiculous. We are going to keep it simple and say that music can be placed in a genre with sub-categories. To give a few examples: Different genres (or styles) of music Blues Blues music (referring to melancholy and sadness) developed from African music. It was brought to America by slaves in the late 1800s. It is a mixture of American work songs, church music, rhythmic dance tunes and call and response lines, in which a singer would sing a line and a guitarist would answer. Examples: B.B. King, Eric Clapton. Jazz Jazz (which was the slang word used to refer to it) originated at the beginning of the 20 th century in African American communities in the Southern United States, particularly New Orleans. It came from a bringing together of traditions from Africa, Europe and American popular music. A jazz ensemble (group) traditionally includes a piano, guitar, drums, double bass, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and sometimes a vocalist. A key element of jazz music is improvisation - where the performer will never play the same composition exactly the same way each time. Examples: Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington.
7 Kwaito Kwaito is a music genre that emerged amongst the urban black, young people in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the early 1990s. It developed from a mixture of dance music, hip-hop, Jamaican influences, house music and R & B (Rhythm and Blues) combined with African sounds. The lyrics are often shouted, droned or chanted. Examples: Mandoza, Zola. Soukous Soukous (derived from the French word secousse meaning shake ) is modern Zairean dance music from the 1970s. It is also known as African Rumba. Soukous is characterised by clear guitar sounds. Example: Papa Wemba Rock Rock music started in the 1950s and has had many different branches grow from it: folk rock, blues rock, glam rock, hard rock, heavy rock, Indie rock, punk rock and grunge. It has been said that pure rock music has three chords, a strong insistent back beat, and a catchy melody. Rock groups mainly consist of an electric guitarist, a lead singer, a bass guitarist, a drummer and perhaps a keyboard player. Examples: Led Zepplin, ACDC, Nickelback, Linkin Park.
8 Pop (Popular) Popular music developed in the mid-1950s as a softer style to rock n roll, and later, to rock music. Pop music is the music that most young people listen to. The songs are easy to listen to, catchy and simple to sing, and commercially motivated (they make money). Examples: Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Drake. Classical: Classical music is music that began in the late 1700s to the 1820s. Classical music has a structured musical form which focuses on instrumental music and the symphony. It appeals to a serious musical taste. Mozart and Beethoven are well-known classical composers. Example: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. One of his most famous songs is: TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR Opera Opera is a musical drama which is expressed through a classical singing style. The singing is accompanied by an orchestra. It is most often sung in Italian or German. Examples: Carmen, Figaro, La Boheme Musicals Musicals are dramatic stories and plays that have music and songs presented at different parts throughout the storyline. Examples: Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, High School Musical
9 Theory of Music Accent In music, an accent is an emphasis, stress, or stronger attack placed on a particular note or set of notes, or chord, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase. Accent Accent Repetition Repetition in music is when a section, phrase or part of a song, is sung or played again, exactly the same as the first time. A literal repetition of a musical passage is often indicated by the use of a repeat sign, or the instructions da capo or dal segno. Repetition may be used as part and parcel of symmetry. This is a technique that may help to unify a melody, theme or rhythm. If one finds a melodic or rhythmic figure that one likes, and one repeats it throughout the course of the melody or song, one must be careful not to repeat it too much, as it may bore the listener. Echo A repetition or mimicking of a certain passage, usually with less force and volume than the original statement. Reflected sound producing a distinct repetition of the original sound. Echo in mountains is distinct by reason of distance of travel after original signal has ceased.
10 C Major Scale A scale is a sequence of 8 consecutive notes (seven different letter names) which progress in ascending order (going higher) or descending order (going lower). The word scale means ladder.