Class notes
HUM 2020 Basics of Music Notes
- Course
- HUM2020
- Institution
- Florida Southwestern State College
This is a comprehensive and detailed note on basics of music.
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Basics of Music- Elements of music
- Tone – Sound that has a definite frequency
– Pitch – the name a frequency is given in a specific musical
system. Western music has 12 pitch classes that reoccur.
– Each new pitch or sound is called a note
– Octave – all 12 pitch classes before they repeat
- Key – the basic way of organizing pitches in western music
o Named after the first pitch C major
o Followed by the type, major or minor
o Contains 7 of the 12 possible pitches
- Scale – the 7 pitches of a key in order starting with the first pitch.
- Melody – a group of notes having a perceivable beginning,
middle, and end. Generally, the primary musical line of a piece of
music.
- Harmony – When more than one note sound at the same time
- Consonance – pleasing to the ear
- Dissonance – unpleasant to the ear
- Example: once aupon a dream from sleeping beauty
- Time – the primary organizational element of all music
- Tempo – Speed at which a composition is played (you can think
of this as the beat)
- Rhythm – Temporal relationships of sound
▪ Example – “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac
▪ Specific rhythms can define different genres of music
– Swing music (Swinging notes)
– Salsa music (clave rhythm)
- Timbre - A quality given a musical tone that distinguishes musical
instruments from each other, as well as all voices
▪ Dynamics – how loud or soft the music is
– Crescendo – gets louder
– Diminuendo – gets softer
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