Music is EVERYWHERE! What is music then? Music is sound, noise, writing, recording, speech music can even be imagined. In order to understand how Music works in song and other compositions it helps if we understand that music is not just limited to the stuff that is on the radio on CD. In fact music is part of everything we do all the time, we just need to listen to it.
Something you can try at home...
Spend two minuets in your room listening. Write down seven sounds you hear in this time. Describe the sounds using adjectives (colourful words) to express the nature of the sound.
In high school music we understand music by dividing it up in to different categories we call "Elements of Music". Over the next few weeks we will focus on just two of these elements...
DURATION = long and short sounds
and
PITCH = High and Low sounds
Next we will look at how some of the things are written down. That is how they are 'notated' on paper or on screens.
Duration - long and short sounds
Note Values
Note Value (that is the length that the note plays for) are a little bit different to understand we use different symbols for each of these.
Here is a helpful table that explains note duration
Bars, beats and Time signatures
Bars
A bar, or measure, is a division grouping an amount of beats that will repeat throughout a section of music.
Time Signatures
Time signatures help group beats into block patterns. Time Signatures are composed of numbers the top number tells us how many and the bottom number tells us what note value.
4/4 time is the most common time signature
listen to this beat played in 4/4 time.
3/4 Time: Listen to tune... An der schönen blauen Donau (The Beautiful Blue Danub) by composer Johann Strauss II count the time signature
Have a go at playing rhythmic patterns in different time signatures.
Other Rhythmic Features
Syncopation
Syncopation
is when the accent* is on the offbeat. Therefore we play a strong beat in an
unexpected place, according to what we 'normally' hear… 
Have
a go at clapping some syncopated rhythms…
Anacrusis
An Anacrusis is a
lead in note/s that step the music into the first bar.
Consider the song
Amazing Grace
Observe the first bar
- how many beats in the first bar?
- why is it not full?
Compose a short rhythmic ositnato
Pitch
Music has been written in many different ways throughout history. The most common way known is Western traditional notation. There are a few elements that are helpful to understand when reading it...
The Treble Clef
The Treble Clef
Here is the C Major scale
Copy the above image in your workbook, label the following...
- Treble clef
- Staff/stave
- Double bar line
- Note names EGBDF, FACE
Hear are some helpful sayings for remembering note Names on the stave
The higher the line the higher the pitch...
Listening Activity: Brook Fraser's "Love Is Waiting"
Pitch (High and low) Things to notice in this song
- Contrast in high and low voice in the piece
- much higher voice in the chorus than the verse
- in the verse the note move by small steps in the chorus bigger steps
Duration ( long and short)
- a mixture of long and short notes
- Mostly shorter notes used in the verse compared to the chorus
- lots of repetition of shortish notes especially from the guitar pattern (riff)
The Major scale, Tones and Semi Tones,
The Major scale is made up of a specific sequence of intervals (distance between notes) that placed in acceding/descending order, form the Major scale.
the curved lines show whole tones, the pointed lines show semitones.
Singing the Major Scale, Singing intervals
We can sing the major scale, you have probably head this before. But, singing the major scale as well as common intervals with in it helps us to understand and tunes our ears into these common useful intervals which form the basis of many of these songs we hear.
Here is a picture that shows where the piano keys line up with the musical stave
exercise...
Piano Key notes: Carefully copy this pattern into your books
...notice the sequence of the keys and the tones semitones from last week...Can you match the pattern?
Performance
Ode To Joy is a piece by Beethoven you probably hear it at Christmas time.
1. What instrument plays the opening ostinato?
2. Clap in time with beat tempo
3. Describe the use of pitch in this song. Comment on the melody (does is flow or jump up and down?)
4. What is the time signature of this piece?
4. Is it in a major or minor key?
Lets talk about assessment! Your assessment for this unit will be made up of two parts firstly an in-class informal performance assessment based on your progress during class performance time. This mark will be 10% of your total grade for this year.
The next task is a written test that will examine your knowledge of the content we have covered this term (most of which is on this blog page) it is worth 15%.
STEMS up or down?
as you can see in the above picture stems can either go up or down. This depends where the note head is on the stave. If the note head is bellow the middle line (in the case of treble clef the B line) the stem goes up, if the note head is above the middle line the stem goes down. If the note head is on the middle line then the stem can go either way but it follows the orientation of the notes before it.
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