LESSON 1:- Sound is vibrations that reach our ear, caused from variations in air pressure.
The frequency with which these waves reach our ear may be measured on a per
second basis. This frequency is given the name, Hertz and one 'Hert' happens
once per second. All the various metric denominations apply to Hertz, for instance:
100 Hertz = 100Hz
1000 Hertz = 1KHz (kilohertz)- A note in music is simply a name given to a frequency. For example, the 'A'
string on a guitar tuned to 'concert pitch' will have a frequency of 110Hz.
There may be other sub-frequencies that are higher, but they are not as powerful
and do not give any name to the note.
- Seven letters of the English or Latin alphabet are used to name the notes
of the Western Music System (referred to as WMS hereafter), A, B, C, D, E,
F and G. Each of these notes relates to a certain frequency, but also, the
increasing and decreasing factors of that frequency. For example, 'A' has a
frequency of 110Hz, but it also has 220Hz, 440Hz, 880Hz and beyond. This pattern
repeats in both directions without bounds. Humans can only hear sounds, roughly, between 20Hz
and 20,000Hz (20KHz) however.
- In the WMS, there is a finite division between the named frequencies, known
as a 'semi tone'. In other words, the smallest difference between two notes
used in the WMS is a 'semi tone'. Other systems of music have finer or courser
granularity. Studying the keyboard of a piano will clearly describe the musical
increments between the notes. All of the white keys are named for the seven
alphabetical letters:
The black keys represent alterations to these notes:
In the above image, yellow dots represent places on the keyboard wherein no
black key resides. In essence, some notes have a frequency gap between them
equating to two semi-tones (in musical parlance this is known as a 'whole tone')
and some have a frequency difference of a semi-tone. Because a semi tone is
the smallest difference available between two notes in the WMS, the layout
of the piano keyboard may now make some more sense.
- Why are there black keys? This will be answered later. For now, consider the
white keys. Have a look at the note 'C' on the piano keyboard and read the
ascending notes up from it, moving to the right of the keyboard. There is a
non-consistent pattern of semi-tones that connect the notes from the starting
'C', to the higher 'C'. A black key between two white keys indicates a gap
of a whole-tone (two semi-tones) and two white keys with no dividing black
key, represent a gap of a semi tone.
- When written out, this pattern of gaps is as follows:
Tone | Tone | Semi-tone | Tone | Tone | Tone | Semi-tone
- The ancient Greeks devised these musical spacings based on what they felt
sounded good. There is no other reason! They invented the 'white keys' as we
know them today. Of course, they did not have pianos, but the arrangement of
musical spaces are the same.
- This pattern that the white keys naturally follow is known as a 'Major Scale'
pattern and the white keys form a scale known as 'C Major'. In ancient Greece,
the names for the notes were different, but the only major scale they had was
equivalent to C Major. In other words, if they wanted the 'sound' and character
of a Major Scale, they had to play in the key of 'C'. If that doesn't make
sense, don't worry, it's just a circular reference that will eventually become
clear!
STOP!! Now is as good a time as ever to play these notes on a keyboard. There
are thousands of free options available to you, even if you don't currently
have anything remotely like a musical instrument. Download an app for your
phone! Download a program such as
Reaper or borrow you neighbour's piano accordian (maybe return it broken...). Chances
are, if you're here, you have 'something' you can use to try this example out.
-
Play the notes from 'C' to 'C', going from the left (lower note) to the right
(higher note) and think of whether that is a happy, sad or 'other' sounding
arrangement of notes. To me, it sounds pleasant and light. Nothing dramatic
about it at all. The ancient Greeks thought the same
- Now, play the notes 'D' to 'D' in the same fashion.
The pattern of tones and semitones between the notes in the scale is T-S-T-T-T-S-T.
This is NOT a Major Scale, it is a 'mode', known as the Dorian Mode.
- This is where the black keys come in! A note one semi-tone above another is
called the 'sharp' version of that note. Refer to the keyboard once again and
see that there's a black key directly to the right of every C note. This black
key is named C Sharp or in musical notation, C#. The hash symbol denotes a
sharp sign. Any black key to the right of a white key note, is the 'sharp'
version of that note. Also, be sure to understand that there is no sharp version
of 'B' or 'E'. This is because there is naturally a gap of only a semi-tone
between those two pairs of notes.
- 'Flats' are the notes of black keys that fall directly to the left of a white
key. The black key directly to the left of the 'C' white key is named C Flat
or Cb. A flat looking lower case 'b' is used to denote the flat symbol.
- So logic leads us to conclude that black keys must all have TWO names, since
they're always directly to the right and to the left of white keys. And this
is correct. Following this logic, technically, Cb could also be the note 'B'
and B# could also be the note 'C'. 'E' and 'F' share identical properties.
- Going back to playing the notes from 'D' to 'D', the reason why that arrangement
of notes sounds different is because the spaces between the notes are formed
from a different pattern to that which 'C' to 'C' possesses.
- To make a Major Scale out of eight consecutive notes, you need to have the
major scale pattern of spaces, which is:
TONE | TONE | SEMI-TONE | TONE | TONE | TONE | SEMI-TONE
- Our 'D' example has the following pattern:
D
tone E
semi-tone F
tone G
tone A
tone B
semi-tone C
tone D
- It doesn't matter where B, C and E, F appear, they ALWAYS have a gap of a
semi-tone naturally between them. In order to make the 'D' scale sequence into
a Major Scale, we need to make it fit the Major Scale template pattern of tones
and semi-tones. We can do this by using the sharp versions of some of the notes.
- If we use an F# instead of an F, we end up with the correct space of a whole-tone
between E and F#. And this happily, also corrects the spacing of a semi-tone
between the F and the G.
- So now we have: D -> E -> F# and G and our Major Scale template 'fits' so
far.
- Next there is a required gap of a whole-tone (or 'tone' either way is correct)
between G and A, which naturally exists.
- A to B is also naturally correct, but the gap between B and C is a semi-tone
where it needs to be a tone, to fit the Major Scale template. Easy, use a C#
instead, which produces the required semi-tone between C# and D to finish the
sequence!
- The ancient Greeks could never make the scale of D Major, but we can, because
we invented sharps.
That's all for lesson one, apart from some exercises that you may wish to try
in order to cement this information in:
EXERCISE 1: Without using any reference material, see if you can construct the
scale of G Major. Then, the scale of F Major.
EXERCISE 2: Play through all the combinations of white key scales (ie, begin
on a different white key each time and play the ascending consecutive seven
notes) and see if they hold different 'feelings' or 'flavours' to you. Possibly
some will sound happy, some will sound melancholy and some might just sound
quirky (like the ancient Greeks!).
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Topic: OCTOBER 2011 - Music Theory 101 [PART 1] (Read 103 times)