Download Elements of Music Review - Hamden High School Music Program

Hamden High School
Department Fine Arts
Elements of Music
Name_____________________________
I. Sound: Basic Ingredients of Music
A. Pitch
1. High/Low
Sounds can be described as generally high or low, such as a bird sounding high or
thunder sounding low. Don’t confuse pitch with loud and soft. A high pitched bird sound
can be soft and low pitched thunder can be loud.
2. Specific Tones
a) Specific pitches are identified by letters ‘A’ – ‘G’. Each key on the piano and each line
and space on the musical staff is identified by these letters.
b) The scientific name for pitch is frequency. The pitch ‘A’ above Middle ‘C’ is the
frequency 440 Herz (Hz). This means that the sound waves of this pitch are vibrating
440 times each second. Humans can hear sounds from as low as 20 Hz to as high as
20,000 Hz. Dogs, dolphins, and bats can hear higher than that! Other bigger whales
and elephants can hear lower than humans.
c) Scales are sets of pitches on which melodies are based. For example, C D E F G A B C
is a C scale.
B. Dynamics
1. Loud/Soft (or changes in loudness)
The word dynamics has the root “dyna” which means energy. Think of dynamite or
dynamo… lots of energy, right? When performing music, this means how much force
is behind the sound. For example, piano keys that are struck with more energy will
have a higher dynamic level than keys that are stuck softly. However, remember
that dynamics and pitch are different. You can play a low-pitched piano key loudly
and a high-pitched piano key softly.
2. Forte/Piano (Italian terms for loud and soft)
Most musical dynamics terms are related to the two Italian words for strong or loud
(forte) and soft (piano). Mezzo forte (mf) means medium loud, and fortissimo (ff)
means very loud. Likewise, Mezzo piano (mp) means medium soft, and pianissimo
(pp) means very soft. Other terms such as crescendo (get louder) and diminuendo
(get softer) are gradual changes in dynamic level.
Elements of Music
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C. Timbre (tam – ber or tim - ber)
1. Identity (ID)
Saxophone, trumpet, and violin are examples of timbres described by the identity of
the sound. People’s voices can also be identified by timbre. Law enforcement
personnel use this technique to capture criminals!
2. Material
Some timbres can be classified by the materials from which instruments are made.
For example, steel drums are obviously metallic sounding, while other sounds are
wooden or glassy sounding.
3. Quality
Timbre can also be described with adjectives such as bright and dark, or clean and
distorted.
D. Rhythm
1. Fast/Slow
Tempos are often measured in beats per minute. Other terms are used such as
Allegro (lively) or Adagio (relaxed) or Presto (fast) to indicate the overall speed and
character of a piece of music.
2. Short/Long
Larger note values (such as whole notes or half notes) are longer, while smaller note
values (such as eighth notes or sixteenth notes) are shorter.
3. Meter
Meter can best be described as how the beats of music are organized. If you are
dancing to a song and you are counting your steps in four or eight, the meter is
probably in four, but if you are counting steps in six or nine, the meter might be in
three. Time Signatures are a system of numbers in musical notation that indicates
the meter for each piece.
Points for this assignment:
10 pts. for participation in class discussion that shows evidence of 1) having read the above article,
and/or 2) asking questions to increase understanding.
20 pts. - quiz