The Language of Music

Contents

1.    Clefs and bar lines.
2.    Musical Notes.
3.    Scales.
4.    Accidentals and Key Signatures.
5.    Time Signatures.
6.    Ties, Slurs and Beaming.
7.    Triads or Chords.
8.    Intervals.
9.    Tempo and Dynamics.


Introduction.

The Language of Music is concise and straight forward. Like any other languages it has changed through the years. In this page I have prepared in nine sections all you will need to know to read and understand a piece of music on a sheet and also compose some music for others to play.

1.    Clefs and Bar Lines.

Five lines are used across the page to place the notes on. Most musical instruments and human voices can play or sing a bit more than eight different pitches of notes. The five lines and the four spaces between gives nine positions for those notes. If there were more than five lines it would be difficult to read quickly. Extra short lines are placed above or below the five lines, when needed, that are called ledger lines for individual notes to be placed on, and another set of five lines is added for keyboards/pianos.

Many instruments have the same sort of range as the female voice. Some of them are Oboe, Violin, Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, Clarinet, Flute.
For these instruments and voices a sign which is an old fashion G is used at the beginning of every set of five lines called a Treble Clef sign. This sign is placed in a specific place around the second line from the bottom which is named G.

The male voice and some other instruments find the treble clef too high to be used. They use the bass clef which has a sign placed around the second from top line. These notes are named as shown.



The naming of the notes in Western Classical Music is based on the white keys of the piano. (sorry this piano only plays one note at a time)

Notes are placed on the treble or Bass clef to correspond with the key's names.

Note. There are other clefs used very rarely for specific voices and instruments.

Bar Lines

Music is rhythmical with most songs having 100 or more notes in them. To avoid the reader losing the place on the sheet of music, bar lines are placed at regular intervals, usually every three or four beats, throughout the piece or song. These bar lines are only guides for the reader’s eyes.

Other Special Bar Lines

A Double bar is used when the music ends or when a section is completed. Sometimes a section of music is to be repeated by a performer, then a repeat bar is placed around that section.

2.    Musical Notes and Rests.

Some notes are played or sung short in length and some are long. There is a range of notes with two common ways of naming them. Here are the usual notes listed by length.

It is often necessary to make in-between note lengths. A dot is placed after a note to make it HALF as long again.




The stems or sticks of the notes are placed either up or down, as with the letters P or d, on the music clef to avoid the note falling out of the clef where possible.
A REST is an instruction not to play a note. EACH BAR of music needs to complete its time value. If there is no note to be played at a certain point, a REST of the appropriate value is placed at the correct place in the music.

3.    Scales.

A grouping of individual musical notes is selected by a song writer or composer to please the listener and performer or create an impact.
An OCTAVE is a specific doubling or halving of the frequency of a note's pitch to our ears. Human beings recognize this octave relatively easily and singers find it very easy to pitch their voices an octave apart depending on their singing ability.
Western Classical Music divides the octave into twelve semitones or steps, however it is rare to use more than seven of these twelve in a musical sequence. Grouping the commonly used notes in order of pitch is called a SCALE. There are two main types of scales, happy scales called major scales, and sad or moody scales called minor scales. When learning to play a musical instrument or improving singing, scales are used to great effect to help mind-to-finger or mind-to-vocal cord cooperation.

The English speaking world have named the pitches of the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, based on the spacing of a scale. it is important to learn the names of the notes you will be playing.
[Between A and B there is another Note which we call either A sharp or B flat depending on the key we are playing in. When we are playing in the key of F we use the A, but instead of the B we use the note in between A and B, so we call it B flat. ie. F G A B flat C D E F
There are also corresponding half notes between C and D, D and E, F and G, G and A to complete the twelve steps.]
A MAJOR or happy scale can start at any pitch. It is set out through the twelve semitones as follows,
Root [or start], 2 steps, 2 steps, 1 step, 2 steps, 2 steps, 2 steps, 1 step. [This final I step achieves the octave].
A MINOR HARMONIC scale changes the step pattern to, Root, 2 steps, 1 step, 2 steps, 2 steps, 1 step, 3 steps, 1 step.

Different instruments are designed to play the notes of the scale in different ways,
The piano uses a pattern of 2 and 3 shorter keys to make all the twelve accessible and easily visible.
Most woodwind instruments use eight fingers of the two hands to achieve a designated octave scale and then extra keys or fingerings to play all the twelve steps.
Brass instruments use the their tube’s harmonics and valves with extra tubing of different lengths to play those steps.
When the melody deviates from the scale in use it is called an ACCIDENTAL and is marked accordingly in front of the note in the music.

[Examples of various scales can be seen in the SCALES section of this website like this from Recorder Grade 1.]

4.    Accidentals and Key Signatures.

When we play music, sometimes we want to play a note halfway between two others. for example if we are playing in the key of F we whant to play the note between A and B and we call it B flat.

In fact from time to time we may wish to play any of those half notes, sometimes we call them flats and sometimes sharps and we have some special symbols to show them.

Just Occasionally we refer to a note as a double sharp or double flat, and we have symbols for them too.

Evan more rearly we have to call the triple sharp or triple flat, guess what, there's symbols for them too.

When we have to use these symbols we call them accidentals.

As stated previously, music is usually performed in keys. Because of the scale sequence, it is necessary to provide regular information to the performer about which notes to play during a song. If the song is in the key of F Major the performer will be playing B flats during the song and is unlikely to play any Bs.

To make the music easier to read we put a FLAT on the B line at the beginning of each line of the music to remind the performer so we don't have to put a flat on every B in the piece.

Here are examples of the commonly used Key Signatures which are written specifically in order. It is helpful to learn these Key Signatures at a glance.

The MINOR scales don’t have their own Key Signatures, they use their relative MAJOR signature which is three steps or semitones higher in pitch.

5.    Time Signatures.

The time signature of a piece of music reflects its style of performance. It is placed after the first Clef sign and Key Signature of the music. It is not repeated at the beginning of each line of the music, but a new Time Signature maybe inserted if the style changes.

The UPPER number shows the number of beats or clicks in each bar.

The LOWER number shows which note is being used to make the beats or clicks.

4 for Quarter note

8 for Eighth note

Often composers will use a Large 'C' instead of writing 4/4

If there are groups of notes within a bar it is called Compound Time.

The first two examples are Simple Time, the next two are Compound Time

6.    Ties, Slurs and Beaming.

Ties

Occasionally it is necessary to play a longer note over a bar line. To show it is one note as opposed to two separate notes, a curved, smiley type of line is used to connect the notes on the sheet. A tie can also be used for an unusual length of note within a bar.

Slurs

Slurs look the same as Ties but connect notes of different pitch. These signify breathing, bowing or phrasing.

Beaming

As you can see in Section 2, 1/8th notes and 1/16th notes have flags on them to signify the difference from 1/4 notes. It has been found much easier to read the notes quickly if the flags are grouped together where possible. Basically, all types of adjacent quavers are Beamed together in groups to make it easier to read the rythmn of the piece.

7.    Triads or Chords.

Many instruments play accompaniment to others to enhance the music.
Officially, the root, 3rd and fifth note of the scale when played together make a triad or major or minor chord. Instruments that only play one note at a time can play this item as a broken chord also known as an arpeggio. We learn major and minor chords and they follow the instructions of the Key Signature or Accidental.
There are many more advanced chords that follow the numbering of the notes of the scale.
Example.. C9 is C, E, G, D [played in ascending order]

8.    Intervals.

The distance up or down the scale between two adjacent notes in the music is called an INTERVAL. Singers find practicing interval singing useful in improving pitch control.
The interval is measured by counting the notes up the scale including the first. For example C to E is a 3rd, D to B is a 6th, D to A flat is a flat 5th

NOTE:
The seventh chord comes in 3 types, 7, Maj7, and Min7.
In this example we have chosen to show a C7 chord which has a B flat.
A C maj7 chord would have a B natural and a C min7 chord has an E flat as well as a B flat.
In a lot of music we use the 7th chord as a leading chord to take us someware else.

9.    Tempo and Dynamics.

Apart from the previously mentioned instructions, it is useful for a composer to add further details on how to perform the music. Italian, and more often today English words are placed above the line of the music to explain how fast to play the music.

In addition to speed instructions there are volume instructions placed below the line of the music.
Examples,

Sometimes gradual dynamics are used to make a small change and sometimes they a used to make a large change. In our little example see how much easier it is to read with the gradual dynamic, but of course both examples mean the same.

Dynamic instructions apply until another instruction is given however an ACCIDENTAL or note correction of a sharp, natural or flat applies only for the rest of the bar it is in.

THIS PAGE IS LIKELY TO BE UPDATE FROM TIME TO TIME