UNIT 1: MUSICAL LANGUAGE 1º ) BASIC ELEMENTS SCORE (US ...€¦ · Department of Music (IES Jiménez de la Espada) 1 UNIT 1: MUSICAL LANGUAGE 1º ) BASIC ELEMENTS SCORE (US: SHEET

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UNIT 1: MUSICAL LANGUAGE 1º ) BASIC ELEMENTS SCORE (US: SHEET MUSIC)

A score is a written form of a musical composition. Example: he studied the score of Mozart´s piano sonata nº 1.

1.1 STAFF, CLEFS AND NOTES

To show the sounds on paper we use a stave or staff. A stave is made up of five horizontal lines and four spaces between.

Each line and space represents a note. The name of the note is determined by the type of clef that appears at the beginning of the stave.

Names of the notes:

A B C D E F G

LA SI* DO RE MI FA SOL* * Spanish names

The most common clefs are the treble clef and the bass clef.

Treble clef or G clef:

The treble clef is used for high notes and for quite high pitched

melodic instruments (e.g. flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, trumpet, English horn and guitar) as well as for soprano and alto voices (female voices).

English horn: corno inglés (también cor anglais) (no confundir con French horn: la trompa).

Bass clef or F clef:

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The bass clef is used for low pitched instruments like the tuba, trombone, bassoon, cello and double bass (En castellano: tuba, trombón, fagot, violonchelo y contrabajo). It is also used for bass voices.

Some notes have to be written above or below the stave using short

lines which are parallel to the stave. These lines are leger lines. They are an extension of the staff (like additional lines). Each leger line contains one note.

In this case we use a leger line to write A.

Exercises:

1º) Draw a set of treble or G clefs:

2º) Name the following notes (letters and note names)

3º) What is the name of the “extra lines” above and below the stave? 4º) How many different letter names do we use to determine the notes? 5º) What are the sets of lines and spaces called? 6º) What is the name that we give to the sign which tells us the names of the notes?

7º) Vocabulary: o Score (sheet music): partitura o Written form: forma escrita o Musical composition: composición musical o Stave / staff: pentagrama o Sonata: Sonata (es una forma musical como el concierto o la sinfonía) o Musical notation: notación musical o Musician: músico o Lines: líneas o Spaces: espacios o Notes: notas o A clef: una clave o Treble clef (G clef): clave de sol o Bass clef (F clef): clave de fa o Musical symbol: símbolo musical o To place: colocar o To determine: determinar o Leger lines: líneas adicionales o Above: por encima de, más arriba de o Below: (por) debajo de o Stems: plicas tail (or flag): corchete o Sharp: sostenido flat: bemol accidentals: alteraciones o Natural: becuadro Major scale: escala mayor minor scale: escala menor. o Tones and semitones: tonos y semitonos

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Reading exercise with sol, fa and mi:

1.2 NOTE AND REST SYMBOLS

Note and rest symbols tell you how many beats to hold a sound or silence for. to hold something for: sostener (mantener)

The stem of a note on the middle line of a stave may be written up or down. The stems of notes above the middle line normally go down. The stems of the notes below the middle line go up (Both comments refer to a single melody writing.)

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EXERCISES: 1º) READING:

2º) Complete the statments:

A crotchet last the same as two _____________.

A crotchet rest lasts the same as one ___________________.

A semibreve lasts the same as four _____________________.

A semibreve is two __________________ long.

A quaver lasts the same as two ____________________.

Four semiquavers are one __________________ long.

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3º) Draw the note and rest symbols and indicate their duration using crotchets.

A semiquaver is one quarter of a crotchet. = 1/4 *

Useful expressions for this exercise: half of (la mitad de), to be worth (valer,

ser equivalente a)

quaver:

minim rest:

semibreve:

crotchet:

minim:

crotchet rest:

quaver rest:

1.3 TIME SIGNATURES

If you listen to a piece of music, you can hear that music has in general a regular beat and that some beats are stronger than others. The strong beats come at regular intervals, usually every 2, 3 or 4 beats. The strong beat is the first beat of each bar. If the strong beat comes every 3 beats, then the piece of music you are listening to has three beats in a bar.

The time signature is a fraction that goes to the right of the clef. The top number tells you how many beats there are in each bar . The bottom number tells you how long each beat is. In fact, the time signature is a fraction of semibreve that indicates the length of a bar.

This time signature is three-four time (You can shorten this

expression and say "three-four"). This fraction indicates that there are three beats in a bar (three is the top number of the fraction). The bottom number of the fraction refers to the length of each beat. In this case, a 4 at the bottom means each beat is one crotchet long.

To summarise this example, we can say that there are three beats in a bar and that each beat is one crotchet long.

Exercises: 1º) What is the name of each time signature? Indicate the number of beats in each bar as well as the value of each beat.

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2º) Fill in the uncompleted bars with one note or rest symbol.

3º) Indicate the beats below the rhythm and add the bar lines.

2º) THE PROPERTIES OF SOUND

tiny= very small to carry through air Music is an art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. That is why it is important for us to study sound qualities.

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We can define a sound with basically four properties or qualities. These qualities are the pitch, the duration, the intensity and the timbre (tone). 2.1. PITCH (Altura) https://youtu.be/pc4DmKyCYxs

We can differentiate high sounds from low sounds. To measure the pitch of a sound we use the frequency. High sounds have a high frequency. On the contrary, low sounds have a low frequency.

Sound is the vibration of matter, as perceived by the sense of hearing. Physically, sound is vibrational mechanical energy that propagates

through matter as a wave.

The frequency is the number of sound vibrations per second. One vibration per second represents one hertz. The unit of the frequency is the

hertz.

Example: The frequency of A is F1 = 100 Hz. It means that A has one hundred vibrations per second. Its frequency is (equal to) one hundred hertz.

Vocabulary: o Art: arte o Audible: audible o To organize: organizar o Sound: sonido (se utiliza también como verbo "sonar") o Silence: silencio o Sound qualities: cualidades del sonido o Properties: propiedades o High sounds / low sounds: sonidos agudos / sonidos graves o Vibration of matter: vibración de la materia o To perceive: percibir o Sense of hearing: sentido del oído o Physically, sound is vibrational mechanical energy that propagates

through matter as a wave: físicamente, el sonido es energía mecánica

vibratoria que se propaga a través de la material en forma de onda sonora. o Hertz: hercio o Low and high notes: notas graves y agudas. o Treble: los agudos (se utiliza al referirse a los equipos de música: for example

you can say “to turn up the treble on the stereo” en el sentido de subir los agudos, de añadir importancia a las frecuencias agudas en la reproducción del sonido).

o Stereo: a machine that plays CDs, etc., sometimes with a radio, that has two separate speakers so that you hear different sounds from each. (Stereo/ Mono)

o Speakers: altavoces

2.2. DURATION (Duración)

The duration refers to how long a sound is. A sound can be short or long. It can last a lot or be very short.

o To last: durar o The length: la duración

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2.3. INTENSITY (Intensidad) To refer to the intensity of a sound, we use for example the adjectives soft or loud. A high intensity sound is a loud sound. On the contrary, a low intensity sound is a soft sound.

To measure the intensity we use decibels (dB). The intensity depends on the amplitude of the sound wave.

o A high intensity sound: un sonido de gran intensidad o Soft: suave o Loud: fuerte (sonido) / alto (volumen) o volume: volumen o amplitude: amplitud

2.4. TIMBRE or TONE (timbre)

Each instrument or voice sounds in a specific way. Each voice or instrument has its own tone. This property of the sound is the timbre. If a sound is represented by a curve, this curve will have a particular shape.

What is Timbre? https://youtu.be/BLoM9bBr8lc Timbre: why different instruments playing the same tone sound different. https://youtu.be/VRAXK4QKJ1Q

EXERCISES:

1º) Listen to the following notes. Indicate for each group of two notes which of them is the highest. 2º) We can hear two different sounds, A and B. The frequency of A is F1=250 Hz and B frequency is F2= 350 Hz. Do you know how many vibrations will occur in 3 seconds with A? Which is the lowest sound? 3º) Listen to this piece of music. There is a sudden ______________ change.

4º) The violin and the guitar have different ______________.

5º) Voices and instruments have different _______________. 6º) Listen to the following notes. What can you say about their durations? 7º) Define the following sound using all the adjectives that describe its qualities. Example: This is a high, long, and soft sound. It is the tone of the piano (or it is the timbre of the piano). Vocabulary:

o The tone of this instrument is… el timbre de este instrumento es… o To listen to: escuchar o To involve: implicar o To follow: seguir

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o Each group: cada grupo o The highest (sound): el más agudo o To occur: producirse o Musical work: obra musical o Sudden change: cambio repentino o Piece of music: pieza musical o To refer to: referirse a

Exercise: Copy the curve you can see on the digital board and analyse its characteristics. What are the main properties of this sound?

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How the auditory system works

The sound wave enter in the ear canal and impacts the eardrum. The eardrum is a membrane. The vibration of the eardrum travels through the middle ear and is transformed into nerve impulses in the inner ear. This nerve impulses are perceived by the brain that processes the information and determines the properties of the sound.

Fill in the blanks:

The __________________ is a membrane that vibrates when the sound

wave impacts it. This vibration travels through the _____________

__________ and is transformed into ___________ _________________ in the

inner ear. The brain analyses the characteristics of these impulses to determine

the ___________________ of this sound.

3º) THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC:

https://youtu.be/q-aoIcJ2_yw https://youtu.be/cNUfMSgQrqM When a musician composes a piece of music, he uses several basic elements. These elements are related to the properties of sound because sound is the raw material of music. Among the most important elements of music, we can mention the rhythm, the melody, the harmony, dynamics and the timbre. Later on, we will deal with the texture and the form of music.

3.1. ELEMENT RELATED TO THE DURATION: RHYTHM

- A steady pulse: the beat. - The speed of the beat is the tempo. If the tempo is faster, the length of the note symbols is shorter. - Rhythm is the result of combining notes and rests that have different lengths (long and short sounds and silence).

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To properly perform a rhythm, you have to take into account the note symbols, the tempo and the time signature to know how to stress each note. (See weak and strong beats)

3.2. ELEMENTS RELATED TO THE PITCH: 3.2.1. MELODY

Horizontal dimension of music Time

A melody is a succession of different notes that expresses a musical idea. Each melody has a specific shape. It can be almost horizontal, ascending or descending, or a combination of all of these. In fact, melody symbolises the horizontal dimension of music on a score.

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Melodies are based on scales. A scale is a sequence of notes in an ascending or descending order, from any note to its octave. We can start the scale by any note so the scale receives the name of the note from which it starts. Each note of the scale represents a degree (We use Roman numerals

to indicate the degrees: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, (I)).

3.2.2. HARMONY More than one pitch at the same time creates harmony. Harmony is the vertical dimension of music on the score. Three or more pitches (sounds or notes with different pitches) sounding at the same time make chords. When you read the notes of a chord, you start by the bottom note and

read in a vertical way. For instance, in the first triad of this example the notes are C, E and G (Do, mi, sol).

Basic chords:

to harmonize: to write a harmony for a tune for example.

Exercise: fill in the blanks

In a rock band, the drums play the _____________, the singer sings the

_________________, the rhythm guitar and the bass play the

_____________________ which are a part of the __________________.

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Examples of different ways of harmonizing melodies.

INTERVALS:

An interval measures the distance between two notes. We have to

know how to identify intervals in order to be able to identify chords and scales. Musicians measure intervals using specifics units: tones and semitones (half

tone).

We count the degrees to find the interval. That is why it is important to know the order of the notes. For example, from C to E we have a third. From C to G we have a fifth and so on.

TONES AND SEMITONES:

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ACCIDENTALS:

Accidental: in music, sign placed immediately to the left of a note to show that the note must be changed in pitch. A sharp (♯) raises a note by a semitone; a flat (♭) lowers it by a semitone; a natural (♮) restores it to the

original pitch.

In general, the effect of an accidental lasts until the end of a bar. If you want it to affect the same pitch during the whole piece of music, you have to use the accidentals in the key signature. In this last example, F and C are F

sharp and C sharp during the whole piece until the key signature changes.

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Exercises: 1º)

2º) Indicate below the notes their accidentals, sharps, flats and naturals.

3º) Match each tune with its score

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For this exercise, pay attention to the first interval of the melody, the shape of the melody, the rhythm and the time signature.

ELEMENT RELATED TO THE INTENSITY: DYNAMICS

These dynamic markings indicate constant intensities. (In Spanish we use the term "matices").

These dynamic signs indicate gradual dynamic changes. (In Spanish we use the term "reguladores").

ELEMENTS RELATED TO THE TIMBRE: INSTRUMENTS AND VOICES

What is Tone Color? (Timbre) https://youtu.be/5tGEDgkZlC8

A composer has to decide which instruments and voices are suitable to perform a piece of music.

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MUSIC THEORY: - DOTTED NOTES: One dot lengthens the note or rest by half the value of the original note or rest. So, a dotted minim is worth three crotchets. A dotted crotchet is worth three quavers and so on.

- TIED NOTES: In music notation, a tie is a curved line connecting the heads of two notes of the same pitch and name, indicating that they are to be played as a single note with a duration equal to the sum of the individual notes' values.