Download The Elements of Music

Mrs. Schroerlucke with help from Roger Kaimien
Music and Appreciation
What makes music?
 Sound is organized
 Music is usually planned and predetermined
 Music contains several organizing principles
 Noise is not organized, it just happens
 Example of noise: everyone warming up on their own
 Analogy: What are the structural elements of a house?
What are some common elements
of music?
sound
Performing
media
style
Form
rhythm
elements
Texture
Melody
Key
Harmony
 Pitch= highness or lowness of sound
see.
Oh.
You.
.
Can.
say.
 Pitch changes with speed of vibration of a sound wave. The faster
the vibration, the higher the pitch, the slower the vibration, the
lower the pitch
 Each definite pitch is called a tone and has a specific frequency
 The distance in pitch between 2 notes is called an interval
 Question: How can you change the speed of vibration on an
instrument?
 The octave is the interval between the first and last
tones of the familiar scale used in Western music for
centuries.
 Note: in non-western music (Asian and African
continent) the octave may be divided into more tones
 The distance between the lowest tone and the highest
tone that one instrument can play is called the pitch
range.
 Some instruments have bigger ranges than others.
They can play more tones! For example a voice is about
1 ½ octaves while the piano can play 7 octaves!
 Loudness and softness in music. Composers
traditionally use Italian words or their abbreviations to
notate dynamics:
 Pianissimo pp very soft
 Piano
p soft
 Mezzo piano mp medium soft
 Mezzo forte mf medium loud
 Forte
f
loud
 Fortissimo
ff very loud
 Other symbols tell musicians to get louder or softer
 Tone color or timbre distinguishes one instrument
from another. Words like bright, dark, brilliant,
mellow and rich describe different instrument or vocal
sounds.
 How would you compare the sound of the flute to the
tuba?
Performing Media
 Strings: violin, cello, bass, viola, harp
 Woodwinds: flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, sax
 Brass: trumpet, trombone, french horn,
euphonium, tuba
 Percussion: drums, xylophone, timpani, cymbals,
gongs, triangle, tambourine, claves and more….
 Keyboard instruments: piano, harpsichord, organ,
accordian
 Electronic: guitars, synthesizers, MIDI (musical
instrument digital interface)
Rhythm
 Rhythm is comprised of beat, meter, tempo, accent
and syncopation
 Beat= a regular, recurring pulsation. It can be strong or
subtle.
/ / / / / / /
// / //
////
 Jin gle Bells Jin gle Bells Jin gle all the way
Rhythm
 Combinations of different note lengths create rhythm.
Some notes are long and some are short.
S s s
s
s L
 Happy Birthday to You,
 What are the long and short notes in:
 Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb
 Mary had a little lam her fleece was white as snow…
Rhythm--Meter
 In music, some beats feel stronger or more stressed
than others. This creates patterns of a strong beat +
weaker beats.
 Duple meter: 1 2 (While my guitar gently weepsBeatles)
 Triple meter: 1 2 3 (Crazier –Taylor Swift)
 Quadruple meter: 1 2 3 4 (Come together-Beatles)
Rhythm- Tempo
 Tempo is the speed of the music. Again, Italian words
are used to communicate how to play a piece of music.
Largo
Allegretto
Grave
Allegro
Adagio
Vivace
Andante
Presto
Moderato
Prestissimo
Melody
 “A series of single notes which add up to a recognizable
whole. A melody begins, moves and ends. It has
direction, shape and continuity. The up and down
movement of pitches conveys tension and release,
expectation and arrival.”Roger Kamien
 The melody is usually the tune, or the part that has the
words in the song
Melody
 What are some melodies that you can think of ?
Harmony
 When singers accompany themselves on guitar, they
add support, depth, and richness to the melody. This is
called harmonizing.
 Harmony is the way chords are constructed and how
they follow each other.
 A chord is a group of three of more tones sounded at
once.
Harmony
 Some chords are stable and restful. We call these
consonant.
 Some chords are unstable and demand a motion to a
more stable chord. These are called dissonant chords.
 Listen to these examples. Are these chords consant or
dissonant?

Texture
 Texture describes 3 possibilities in music:
 Monophonic: a single unaccompanied melody
 Polyphonic: Two melodies played at the same time of
equal importance
 Homophonic: a Melody with accompaniment. Most
popular music is homophonic.
 Listen to the examples and identify each texture.
Musical Form
 Form is the structure of a piece of music. It is like the
architectural blueprint of a house!
 Some types of Form: (there are others)
 A B A (ternary or 3 part)
 A B (binary of 2 part)
By using the principles of repetition and contrast,
composers are able to expand upon these forms,
creating mega-pieces!
Double Bubble Map
 Draw a double bubble map to compare to different
songs or pieces of music. The circles should represent
similarities and the other shapes should represent
differences. Use the musical vocabulary your have
learned in this presentation.
me
ter
melody
melody
1
2