Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People

Fundamentals

tobyrush.com music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

so then the What is Music Theory? bassoon choir comes in like flaming Chances are there’s a piece of music honeydew melons that moves you in a profound way... from on high

a way that is frustratingly difficult to describe to someone else!

Like other forms of art, music often has the capability to create in the listener that emotional reactions please transcends other forms of communication. bradley it’s late though a single piece of music may elicit different reactions from different listeners, any and if i’m lover of music will tell you that they’re real, almost those feelings are real! they’re worthy done of study.

one of the most valuable parts coming up with terminology of music theory is giving names to doesn’t just help us talk to musical structures and processes, others about music, though... which makes them easier to talk about! it actually helps us learn!

but while it’s an important step, and a great place to start, music theory is much more than just coming up with names for things!

when composers write music — whether it’s a classical- era symphony or a bit of japanese post-shibuya-kei glitch techno — they are not following a particular set of rules. If anything they are often trying to break them! so while a lot of people think music theory is about learning the rules for how to write music, that’s not

m quite right. music theorists don’t create rules for n ozart akata writing music; they look for patterns in music that is already written.

composers ...theorists create... analyze!

which leads to the most important why dissect music? what’s the question... the one that, as you point of figuring out rules study music theory, you should be that composers themselves why? weren’t even worried about? constantly asking yourself:

because somewhere maybe it’s in the notes. in there is the reason maybe it’s in the silence. music theory is why that piece of music maybe it’s somewhere but figuring out what moves you. in between. music theorists are going to makes music work. it may take a the reason it long time, or find it, makes you cry, even create because... And you just gives you chills, more questions joined the team. reminds you of home. than answers. grab your stuff... let’s go!

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music notation is the art of Notation: Pitch recording music in written form.

liz phair “what makes you happy” [melody from chorus] whitechocolatespaceegg (1998) #¶#g#F#d#DµD#SµS#d#Mf#SµSµg#F œ œœœ œœ œ œœœ œ œœ Œ modern music notation is a product œ of centuries of transformation... the system of musical notation and it is neither efficient nor intuitive! we use is essentially a stylized graph of pitch versus time.

pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ for example, a flute has the five lines on which notes a high pitch, while a tuba appear is called a staff. has a low pitch. pitch pitch time a note is a written representation of a particular pitch.

notation is based on the piano keyboard; lines and spaces on the staff represent F g a b c d e F g a b c d e the white notes on the keyboard. the white notes on the keyboard are labeled with letters from A to G.

to display notes outside the staff, we use shortened staff lines & called treblew clef B w B w w alto clef ledger lines. tenor clef ? bass clef the clef determines what notes each staff line corresponds to. the four modern middle c is the c that is closest to clefs are shown here; the note displayed the middle of the piano keyboard. on each staff corresponds to middle c.

these symbols are placed to The double sharp raises the To notate the the left of the note that they note by two half steps. black notes affect, and they apply to all the on the piano ‹ notes on that line or space keyboard, we use for the rest of the measure. accidentals, The sharp raises the which alter the note by one half step. note by one or ∫œ œ nœ ‹œ two half steps. # & bœ œ nœ #œ The natural cancels out a half step is any previous accidental. the distance n between two adjacent keys The flat lowers the on the piano note by one half step. keyboard, F g a b c d e F g a b c d e regardless b of what color The double flat lowers two notes which have the same the keys are. the note by two half steps. pitch (for example, f sharp and g flat) are called enharmonics. licensed∫ under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more Notation: Rhythm as thenoteto itsleft. noneofthesenoteshasa a which corresponds to a note. theseareusually writtenasagroup length; in thischart, eachsuccessivetypeofnoteis silence a a

of notesdelineated witha double whole rest double whole note the number W tuplet right ofanotehead. thoughsmall,thisdot œ rest q. wields some „ particular note. œ augmentation dot = 3 ties œ j œ ahalfnoteinonepiecemay bethesamelengthas q is aperiodof the lengthof of theoriginalnote’slength! two notestogether to create a is anynon-standard divisionofa + œ showing thedivisionbeing made. are curvedmarkswhichconnect for example, thesearen’t j exactly they areeach a single, extendedsound. e

whole rest an eighthnoteinadifferentpiece. whole note long as a w ∑ = licensed under a serious power: œ quarter notes; music theoryformusiciansandnormalpeople half note. q.. half rest half note h ∑ isadotplacedto the = third creative commons BY-NC-ND œ q bracket + œ j as e quarter rest quarter note itaddshalf = + q Œ x œ and .

) ederic chopin 1 (1846 fr jor, op. 62, no. nocturne in b ma

eighth rest eighth note e q... ‰ half aslong vertical axis, license - visit the = while possible! most tuplets aresimpledivisions,like often q to tie standard draw tiesbetween triplets somewhat arcane system involving noteheads, stemsandflags. + sixteenth rest sixteenth note pitch multiple dotscanalsobeadded, x e œ ≈ go to town each oneaddinghalfofthe + by more thantwo tobyrush.com use asingle,extendedtie. x œ chopin, toby w. rush previously addedvalue. note length is prettyclearly notated ona + œ to theleft. butanythingis x

K thirty-second rest thirty-second note œ x are indicated bythe ® marking placed onthestaff at a position asshownhere. forexample,would K note lengthsinapiece for more of apieceorsection. withthesethings. particular vertical usually restsare each note; isindicated using a notestogether, . sixty-fourth rest sixty-fourth note at thebeginning x Ù K K œ chopin, down, wha... GEt itoff! Get itoff! œ donot ack! one-hundred- one-hundred- œ gah! twenty-eighth rest twenty-eighth note boy! no! tempo x  œ K K K music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush a fundamental feature of most pieces of music is a Notation: Meter consistent rhythmic pulse. this pulse is called the beat, [drum intro] [drum the corrs knows” “heaven not (1996) forgiven, forgotten and a single pulse is called a beat unit.

there are two types of beat units: ...and those containing those containing two divisions, q q. three divisions, called simple beat units... E E E E E called compound beat units. in music, beats are organized into patterns of accented and unaccented beat units. in fact, if you listen to a sequence of repeated notes, your brain will probably start to perceive the notes as groups of two, three, or four, even if no accents are present! Q Q Q Q Q Q> Q Q Q Q> Q Q Q Q> Q Q Q Q> Q Q Q >Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q these groups are called measures, barline measure and they are delineated with barlines.

the organization simple TIME SIGNATURES are easy. of beat units and measures in the top number a piece is called indicates the number meter. Meter is of beats in a measure. described by two 3 Q Q Q Q Q Q numbers placed the bottom number the4 code for the bottom note at the beginning indicates the type of is pretty easy: 4 refers to of the piece: note which serves as a quarter note, to an eighth the beat unit. note, to a sixteenth8 note, the time signature. 3 16 4 and so on. compound TIME SIGNATURES are kind of lying to you.

the top number indicates the number of divisions in a measure. to get the number of beats, divide it by three. 6 Q. Q. Q. Q. the bottom number indicates the type of 8 note which serves as the division. in fact, wouldn’t this be to get the beat unit, use the note that an easier way to notate 6 is equal to three of these notes. 2 compound meters? in a compound meter, the beat unit is always a dotted note! sorry... the man says 8 you have to do it by looking at the top the other way. number of the time signature, you can tell two things about the meter: whether it’s simple notes that have flags can or compound, and how many be grouped together by using beats are in a measure. beams in place of flags.

simple compound

2

2 6 however, beaming is only used to group notes within beats. 3 for the most part, you shouldn’t beam notes between beats, 3 9 nor should you tie notes within beats. 4 beats per measure beats 4 12

licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush Hey, it’s Sparkythe music theory dog! kids! Dear Sparky: Q: I understand that we’re supposed to beam rhythms to show the organization of beats in the measure, but is there an easy way to beam complex rhythms? --A.Y., Owatonna, MN A: WOOF!*

*translation: notes should be beamed in groups that illustrate the meter. for simple rhythms, this is pretty easy to do; simply group any notes that can be beamed (eighth notes and smaller) into groups that are equal to the beat unit of the current meter.

3 œ œ œ œ œ œ 3 œ œ œ œ œ œ &4 J J J J J J &4 for complex rhythms, however, things can get complicated... when a rhythm includes things like syncopations or other off-beat figures, illustrating the meter may involve dividing notes across beat units with ties. fortunately, there is a step-by-step system for correctly beaming these complicated rhythms! for example, let’s take this rhythm, which is written 4 œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ without beaming. &4 J J R R R J R R find the smallest note value used, and fill a complete measure with this type of step 1: note, beamed in groups that are equal to a beat unit in the current meter.

&44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ add ties between individual notes to recreate the original rhythm. make sure that step 2: each tied group corresponds to a note in the rhythm you started with!

yes, i know it looks weird... but we’re not 4 done yet! &4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

original rhythm: 4 œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 J J R R R J R R find every group of two or more notes that are both tied together and step 3: beamed together, and replace them with a single note of equivalent value. if you have notes that are tied or beamed, but not 4 . . . both, then leave &4œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ them alone! a correctly beamed rhythm may include ties, but it will œ œ œ œ œ œ = œ very clearly show the beats in the measure... which, in don’tJ J hands yes... turn, makes it easier for the performer to read! touch! off! simplify it! DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY IS ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush one of the reasons that a particular piece of The Major Scale music sounds the way it does has to do with the group of notes the composer decided to use.

2 2

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oh eb inuett j M no œ#œ œ œ œ œ œ &43 œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙. take this melody, for example... let’s first remove all the duplicate notes, regardless of which octave they’re in. œ#œ œ &43 œ œ œ œ next, let’s put the notes in alphabetical order, œ #œ œ starting on the note œ #œ œ œ œ œ that the melody sounded œ œ œ œ like it was centering on. œ œ

what we end up with there are actually many is the for “palette” different types of scales, this particular piece... each with a different pattern of whole steps and half steps. œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ a half step is the distance between like the board on which a painter holds two adjacent keys the bits of paint being used in the painting on the piano keyboard, being created. regardless of color.

in music, this “palette” is called a scale. though we usually write scales from low to high, the order is actually unimportant; it’s the notes contained in the scale that help make a piece sound the way it does. this particular arrangement, where half steps occur between steps three and four and between steps seven and eight (or between seven and one, since eight and one are the same note), is called the major scale.

half a whole step is the whole whole stepœ equivalent of step#œ half whole stepœ two half steps. whole stepœ step whole œ stepœ œ stepœ (this scale, by the way, is called the g major scale, because it starts on g.)

knowing this formula, you can create a major scale on any note!

the f major scale the d flat major scale œ but remember... œ bœ œ œ œ bœ bœ œ bœ with & œ œ & bœ bœ œ bœ great power the b major scale the g flat major scale comes great bœ bœ œ bœ responsibility! & #œ #œ œ & bœ bœ bœ bœ œ #œ #œ œ #œ licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

A B E A D Key Signatures b b if you start writing major scales and pay attention to A f c g the accidentals that occur, # you are going to start noticing a pattern... B E b b b

for example look at the flat keys, starting with the key b f c g d a that has one flat, all the # way through the key with seven flats: the flats accrue c B E A D G C F in a specific order. b b same with the sharp keys!

c so if you look for a key that n has only a d flat, you won’t find it: if a key has a d flat, f c g d a e b it must also have a b flat, c # # an e flat and an a flat!

d B E A D G since writing an entire piece in b b c sharp major would have been a sure-fire way to get f c carpal tunnel syndrome with d # all the sharps involved, composers pretty quickly came up with a way to simplify things: e B E A key signatures. b b a key signature is a group of accidentals placed at the e f c g d beginning of every line of music, # just to the right of the clef, that instructs the performer to apply those accidentals to f B every corresponding note in b the piece unless specified otherwise. f f c g d a e for example, this key # # signature indicates that every f, c, and g in the piece should be sharped, regardless of octave! g B E A D G C b b oh, and another thing: the accidentals have to be placed g f in the correct order, and # they need to follow a particular pattern of placement that varies slightly depending on the clef being used! if you deviate from this, you, as a composer, will be mocked! tenor clef sharps! what’s your problem? you need to conform! ha ha... never!

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theorists find it convenient to The Circle of Fifths organize all the possible key signatures into a chart that shows their relationship to one another. this chart, called the circle of fifths, displays each key as a spoke on the circle, beginning with c major at the top and adding accidentals, one at a time, to the key signatures around the perimeter. we’ll return to this chart as we continue learning about how composers use keys. C F 0 G 1 1b # b #

as you move clockwise around the circle, you add sharps to the key signature. as you move counterclockwise around, B you add flats to the key signature. D b 2b 2#

to determine the key signature for a key, look to when adding flats to see which “spoke” of the circle a key signature, add them it’s on to determine how many in this order: flats or sharps it has, and add accidentals to the key b E 3b signature appropriately. beadgcf 3# A b # for example, when adding sharps, e flat major use the reverse has three flats, of the order above. so it should look like this: 4 4 b the keys down here line up # A enharmonically... for example, E the key of d flat major will sound b just like the key of c sharp major. so could you 7# 5# continue the 5 7 enharmonic b 6 b deal and have # the key of C B f flat major? notice how that 6 b yes, if you want beadgcf pattern # a double flat pops up all over C D in your the circle of F key signature: fifths? b # b weird! G b nooooo! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

an interval is Diatonic Intervals the distance in pitch between two notes. smaller the most basic way which we intervals identify different intervals is œ by counting the steps between œ œœ the two notes. & œ larger œ œ intervals specifically, we count scale degrees, but the easiest way to do it is to count lines and spaces when counting on the staff. the lines and spaces, we 7 can safely when counting, 6 ignore any begin with the 5 accidentals. as 4 bottom note one and count 3 this interval until you reach 2 is also a the top note. 1 seventh... we’ll discuss b how it’s this interval different is a seventh! very soon!

octave fourth fifth sixth seventh third unison second

two notes on the distance from the same line or a note to the next that’s latin for and that’s latin space is called closest note with “one sound”! for “eight”! a unison. the same letter name is called an octave.

and when you swap the two notes when we are talking about (move the lower note up by an octave intervals we sometimes discuss so it becomes the higher note), harmonic intervals and that is called inverting the interval. melodic intervals. œ THE RULE & œ œ œ œ œ 2nd 7th & œ œ it’s helpful to remember 3rd 6th harmonic melodic that seconds always invert 4th 5th interval interval to sevenths, thirds to sixths, and so forth... 5th 4th a harmonic interval is simply 6th 3rd two notes played simultaneously; the fact that each of a melodic interval is 7th 2nd one note these pairs add up to nine played after the other. is known to theorists as “the rule of nines.” OF NINES

licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush the distance of an interval is one part of its name, but there’s more: every interval has another Perfect Intervals quality to it, which we’ll call inflection. inflection is a bit harder to understand, partly because some theorists use it depends on the of interval. so let’s start by type the term quality for looking at unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves. this... that’s cool too.

& œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ

unisons and octaves are the easiest to label: if the two notes are the same (for fourths and fifths example, b flat and b flat), require a little more explaining. then the inflection is perfect: if you look at all the fourths and fifths you such an interval is called a can create using only the white notes on the perfect unison or a piano keyboard (in other words, using only notes perfect octave. without accidentals):

œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ each one is œ œ œ perfect except for those which use f and b! œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ well, if you were to count the that make up wait... half-steps each interval, you’d notice that all the other ones are why are the equal in size, but the b to f intervals are not: f to b is b to f intervals a half-step larger than a perfect fourth, and b to f different? is a half-step smaller than a perfect fifth. which raises the question: if the interval is not perfect, then what is it?

an interval that is a half-step larger than perfect is called augmented œ ∫œ bœ an augmented interval. & #œ & œ & œ A d5 d4 d8 œ #œ and there’s & bœ & œ no such thing as a A5 A4 diminished unison... perfect #œ œ bœ just like two things & œ & can’t be negative two feet A1 P away from each other! A8 you can go further, to doubly augmented and an interval that is a half-step doubly diminished intervals, diminished smaller than perfect is called but... do you really want to? a diminished interval. licensed under a creative commonsd BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush We’ve talked about unisons, fourths, fifths Imperfect Intervals and octaves, but what about the rest? are these other intervals somehow imperfect?

& œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ

well, yes, but not because they are somehow inferior to perfect intervals... seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths just work a little differently!

for one thing, the inflection for these intervals is never perfect; it will be either major or minor. minor intervals are a half-step smaller augmented than major intervals. like perfect intervals, though, they can also be augmented or diminished; augmented intervals are a half-step larger A than major, and diminished intervals are a half-step smaller than minor. how do we know if an interval is major or minor? we can actually use the major scale to find out. notice that, in the major scale, Mmajor intervals from the tonic up to another scale degree are major. œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ majorœ majorœ œ œ majorœ majorœ œ minor second third sixth seventh likewise, intervals from the tonic down to another scale degree m are minor. œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ diminished & œ œ œ œ minor minor minor minorœ œ d second third sixth seventh

knowing this, when you are confronted with a second, third, sixth or seventh, you can find its inflection by thinking about the key signature of the top and/or bottom note.

we know this is a major sixth and this is a minor seventh because d, the top note, is in because b, bottom note, is in the key of f major œ œ the key of a major (the bottom note). & œ & œ (the top note).

if the top note is in the major key of the bottom note, the interval is major. if the bottom note is in the major key of the top note, the interval is minor.

when the notes of the interval have accidentals, the associated key signatures can be more complicated... so it’s easiest to temporarily ignore the accidentals, determine the interval, and then add the accidentals back one at a time and track how the interval changes!

adding back adding back e is in the ack! what is the flat makes the sharp key of g, so that? let’s poof! the interval makes it even poof! we know first hide the smaller, so smaller... bœ œ this is a bœ bœ accidentals... it’s now a a diminished & # œ & œ major sixth. & œ & # œ M6 m6 minor sixth... d6 sixth!

licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush Hey, it’s Sparkythe music theory dog! kids! Dear Sparky: Q: Since we are supposed to use different approaches for identifying perfect and imperfect intervals, can you summarize them all into one system? --I.M., Staten Island, NY A: WOOF!*

*translation: the following chart shows an approach for identifying any interval. a similar approach can be used when you need to write a particular interval above or below a given note: first, add a note above or below the given note at the correct distance, then follow steps 2 through 4 of this chart to identify it. Then, if necessary, alter the note you added with an accidental to create the interval called for.

count the bottom 7 determine the distance of the interval 6 5 note as one, and 4 3 2 by counting lines and spaces. 1 continue until you STEP 1: reach the top note.

poof! cover up all accidentals. bœ poof! œ STEP 2: & # œ & œ

determine the inflection of the interval in front of you STEP 3: (the one without accidentals!) as follows: if it is a if it is a if it is a second, third, unison or octave: fourth or fifth: sixth or seventh:

if the top note is if the interval uses in the major key of the interval shown the notes f and b, the bottom note, is a it is either an perfect unison the interval is augmented fourth major. or or a perfect octave. diminished fifth. if the bottom note is in the major key of really. otherwise, the the top note, it just is. interval is the interval is perfect. minor.

add the original accidentals back, one at a time, and track how STEP 4: the interval changes inflection. œ bœ bœ perfect imperfect intervalsdiminished perfect augmented intervalsdiminished minor major augmented & œ & œ & # œ d P A d m M A M6 m6 d6

remember: accidentals can never affect This method may seem complicated at first, the distance of an interval... all they can but it becomes easier and faster with ever do is change the inflection! practice... and it gives you the correct answer every time! DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY IS ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush There are actually two things that define a key: the key signature is the most obvious one, but The Minor Scales another important part of a key is the tonic... the around which the key this key is defined note centers. by a key signature of no sharps and flats, but also by the fact that it œ œ centers around c. œ œ & œ œ œ œ but what if we change the tonic? what if we use the same notes for the key signature, but change the note that the key is centered around?

if we center the key around the sixth scale degree of the major scale, we get a new scale: the minor scale. the œ œ œ natural œ œ œ minor œ œ scale & the whole step the thing is, common practice period composers here didn’t have weren’t all that crazy about this scale, because the tension it lacks something the major scale has: they liked going a half-step from seven to one. into the tonic!

so here’s what they did: they raised the leading-tone by a half-step with an accidental. This gave them the tension they were looking for!

the œ œ #œ œ harmonic œ œ half- minor œ step! scale & œ

this scale is great for building chords, so we refer to it as the harmonic minor scale. however, composers didn’t use it for writing melodies, because it had a problem: an augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degrees.

so, for melodies, they made another change: now we only they added another accidental to raise have whole steps the sixth scale degree by a half-step. and half-steps! #œ œ the œ #œ & œ œ œ œ melodic minor scale œ Nœ Nœ œ & œ œ œ œ now, remember... the reason we raised the leading tone in the first place was to create tension from the seventh scale degree to tonic. but in a melody, if the seventh scale degree is followed by the sixth scale degree, we don’t need that tension, so we don’t need to raise the leading-tone at all. the way we illustrate this is by differentiating between ascending melodic minor and descending melodic minor; for descending melodic minor, we don’t raise anything!

licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush Hey, it’s Sparkythe music theory dog! kids! Dear Sparky: Q: What does it mean when music theorists talk about “relative minor” and “parallel minor”? In what ways can major and minor keys be connected? -M.T., Canton, OH A: WOOF!*

*translation: when two keys that have the same key signature but different tonic notes, we say they’re related.

sure, d minor Since D minor has the same œ œ œ might use a key signature as F major, & œ œ bœ œ c sharp as we say that D minor is the Fœ major a raised leading-tone, relative minor of F major. but we don’t œ consider that as & œ œ bœ # œ part of the dœ minorœ œ key signature.

parallel keys, on the other hand, are œ œ keys that have the same but œ bœ œ œ tonic note, &Fœ majorœ different key signatures. œ œ So F minor is the parallel minor of F major! bœ bœ œ bœ b &Fœ minorœ C related 0 it’s convenient to add minor keys to F G 1 the circle of fifths; they’re usually 1b a # placed on the inside of the circle d e in lower case.

because relative keys share the B D 2b 2# same key signature, they also b b g parallel share the same position on the circle of fifths! the

have different circle parallel keys of key signatures, but seeing 3 3 them on the circle of fifths E b c f # A illustrates their consistent b fifths # key relationship: minor keys always appear three degrees counterclockwise from their parallel major key. f c 4 # 4# So to find the key signature for A b b g E a minor key, start with the major b b # key signature with the same tonic and a d# a either add three flats, subtract three 7 # b5 or some of both! # e # sharps, combination 5 7 b 6 b b 2 1 0 1 # # # b 6 B poof! C b - - + # # poof! # C & # # & # & b & b D F b D major...... D minor! b G# DOING STUFF THE SPARKY WAY ISb ALWAYS FUN! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

music is made up of Dynamics and Articulations a lot more than pitch and rhythm! dynamics are symbols that show how loud to play or sing. Ï ƒ f F P p π ∏ ñ soft loud piano forte niente inaudible very soft very loud pianissimo medium soft fortissimo notated music medium loud specific mezzo piano very soft

very loud uses interpretation

italian terms pianississimo mezzo forte fortississimo to show relative is left to the volume. performer!

gradual dynamic changes are indicated with hairpin symbols or the italian terms crescendo (increase volume) cresc. or diminuendo (descrease volume). dim. dynamics are usually placed below the staff on instrumental parts, and above the staff for vocal parts... to stay out of the way of the lyrics!

articulations other symbols affect are symbols that groups of notes... show how to treat specific notes. 8va

with additional all’ ottava: play the notes an octave higher v accent emphasis or lower, depending on where the symbol is. (two octaves is 15 ma , and three octaves is 22 ma !) > short and staccato detatched

. emphasized and tenuto held for full value pedaling: On the piano, this symbol indicates when the damper pedal should be held down, - short and allowing the piano strings to ring freely. marcato accented older scores use for down and for up. ° * ^ very short and staccatissimo forceful

´ suddenly loud sforzando and accented and then a simple shape sfz hold longer there’s with a bunch of fermata than indicated this thing... different uses! U rapidly alternate in most music it’s a tremolo between two notes slur, for bowed strings grouping notes like violin, it’s a which should be bow marking, up bow æ (bowed instruments) played smoothly showing notes start at tip of bow and connected! that should be played without switching ≤ (bowed instruments) the bow’s direction. down bow start at frog of bow in vocal parts, it shows melismas: groups of notes in any score, it can also rapidly alternate trill ≥ sung on a single be used on larger groups two adjacent notes syllable! of notes, where it serves as a phrase marking... helping Ÿ “roll” chord: notes the performer see the overall arpeggio added separately shape of the music! licensed gunder a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

globe theatre london, england Complex Meter compound meter, compound meter, wherefore art thou simple meters and compound meters compound? are both used quite a bit in the common practice period, but they were rarely found together... most pieces exclusively used one or the other! &&&&

on the rare occasion that they were uh, because combined, it was generally as mixed meter, of this dot...? when the meter changes from one measure to the next.

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r S e ar n st o “Am We le 957 1 >œ > bœ œ œ >œ > >œ 6 œ œ œ 3 œ 6 œ œ œ œ 3 œ 6 bœ œ œ 3 bœ 6 bœ œ œ 3 & 8 œ œ œ 4 œ œ 8 œ œ 4 œ 8 4 œ 8 bœ œ œ 4 œ œ > > > > > > consistent alternations like this are often written with two time signatures at the beginning, like this: 86 43 but twentieth-century composers — especially those who were working in a style called primitivism, which featured primal, unpredictable rhythms — would take the combination of simple and compound rhythms to the next level!

simple complex compound meter meter meter

beat unit includes simple beat unit divisible by and compound beats divisible by two three

beat shown by 5 œ œ. beat shown by undotted note & 8 compound beat! dotted note

simple beat!

in these meters, the beats will be uneven! so these eighth the note that serves as the division of the beat 5 notes should all be remains constant throughout the measure. & 8 œ œ œ œ œ the same length!

like compound meters, the time signature for complex meters is based on the division of the beat. but, in fact, these meters still have two, three or four beats per measure! 5 7 8 9 10 11 can8 be can8 be can be can8 be can8 be can8 be written as written as written8 as written as written as written as

2+3 3+2+2+2 3+3+2+2 10 2+3+3+3 5 2+2+3 7 2+3+3 8 & 89 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 118 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ or & 8 & 8 & 8 or or or or or 3+2+3+2 10 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2+3+2+2 9 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 8 3+2+3+3 11 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 3+2+2 3+2+3 8 & 8 or & 8 3+2 5 7 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ or or œ œ œ œ œ & 8 3+2+2+3 & 8 or or 10 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2+2+3+2 9 & 8 3+3+2+3 11 & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ or & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ or or 2+3+2 7 3+3+2 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2+3+2+3 10 & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 8 & 8 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2+2+2+3 or 3+3+3+2 & 89 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 118 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 2+3+3+2 & 108 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ of course, while using for the bottom like or number is most common in modern scores, 2+2+3+3 or ! 8 & 108 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 11 any note can be used as the division! 167 ... 2 2 licensed under3 a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com4 for more