Basic Elements of Music
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Pitch
Rhythm
Phonic Structure
Form
Medium
I. Pitch
• Pitch refers to the relative quality of
“highness” or “lowness” of a tone
• A pitch or tone results when some
medium vibrates at a particular
frequency (measured in Hz)
Interval
• An interval is the distance spanned
between two pitches (measured by the
relative difference in frequency)
• Many musical systems divide the
octave into a set number of intervals
Tuning Systems
• Entire collection of pitches used in a
given musical tradition
• Melodic toolkits for music-making
Scale
• A scale consists of a set of pitches
(therefore intervals) used in particular
performances
• Scales can include both equal and unequal
sized intervals
• Common scales include heptatonic (7
tones) and pentatonic (5 tones)
Western Major Scale (7 tones)
“Oriental” scale (5 tones)
Pitch Functions
• Within a scale, different pitches can
take on certain functions or tonal
significance
• Ex:
tonic/dominant
 Pitches 1 and 5 in a Western major scale
vadi/samvadi
 Pitches 1 and 5 in a South Asia raga (mode)
Kiembara Xylophone Orchestra,
Ivory Coast, West Africa
Modes
• Modes are tonal frameworks for
composition and improvisation
• Includes both pitch sets (scales),
tone hierarchies, characteristic
melodic motion, and emotional
connotations to generate a
unique modal identity, or mood
Sargarm (North Indian solfege)
Creating Melodies
• Range is the span of pitches a given
instrument or voice is capable of
producing
 Described as wide or narrow
• Register is the relative highness or
lowness of pitches a voice or
instrument is capable of producing
 Described as high or low
Susap, Papua
New Guinea
Cantonese Opera
Creating Melodies
• A melody is an organized succession of
pitches forming a musical idea
• Pitch and rhythm (duration of the tone)
combine to create a melody
• Melodic contour is the shape of a melody
(ascending, descending, etc)
“Frere Jacques”
“Take Five”, Dave Brubeck Quartet
Building on Melodies
• Ornamentation is the embellishment
of a melody
• Text setting is the relationship
between words and melody
 Syllabic (one pitch per syllable)
 Melismatic (several pitches per syllable)
II. Rhythm
• Rhythm refers to the relationship
between sound durations
• “A rhythm” is a particular succession
of sound durations
Beat and Tempo
• A beat is a regular pulsation of sound
• Tempo is the rate or speed of the beat
• Music with an irregular beat or pulse is
said to be in free rhythm
“West End Blues”, Louis Armstrong
Organizing Beats into Units
• A unit is a grouping of beats that
organizes the rhythmic elements of a
piece of music
• When a unit contains a pattern of
accented and unaccented beats, it is
called a meter
Kinds of Meters
• Meter can be constructed in many different
ways
 Duple meters have multiples of 2 beats
 Triple meters have multiples of 3 beats
 Syncopation occurs when a usually weak beat is
accented
 Compound meters subdivide each beat into 3
equal divisions
More Meters
• Additive meters contain assymetrical
subdivisions
 Ex: a meter with 7 pulses can be
subdivided 3+2+2, thus have 3 accented
beats
• Try clapping on pulse 1, 4, & 6 (these are the
accented beats)
“Makedonsko horo”, Bulgarian tambura
Other Metric Structures
• Some meters are determined by how they
are articulated in performance
• Rhythmic modes require a musician to play
a “signature” skeletal pattern that identifies
the mode
 Ex: North Indian tal, SE Asian colotomic meters,
Korean changdan, Middle Eastern iqá
Polyrhythm
• Polyrhythm is the musical texture of
performing multiple rhythmic meters
simultaneously
 Sounds like duple and triple meter
performed together (“2 against 3”)
 Held together by a timeline (often played
by bell)
III. Phonic Structure = Texture
• Phonic structure is the organizational
relationship between or among sounds
• Different combinations result in different
textures
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Performing one melody
Performing one melody with another part
Performing multiple melodies
Combination of pitched and non-pitched
instruments
Performing One Melody
• Monophony refers to a melody sung or
played by a single person alone (solo)
• Unison refers to a single melody sung or
played by a group
• Interlocking parts (“faceting”) split a melody
up among several musicians
• Heterophony refers to several musicians
playing the same melody slightly differently
One Melody with Another Part
• A drone is a constant pitch over which
a melody is played
• Homophony refers to accompanying a
melody with underlying chords
(groups of intervals)
Performing Multiple Melodies
• Polyphony refers to performing
multiple melodic parts together
IV. Form
• Form is the shape or underlying structure of
a musical performance as it unfolds over
time
• A form can be a structure (a composition or
song) and it can be a process of structuring
(combining a succession of forms in
performance)
• Form varies greatly cross-culturally and
depends on the performance context
Types of Form
• Sequential form refers to passing through
an ordered succession of musical material
• In Part-Counterpart form, one or more
supporting parts respond to another part
• Music in which the content changes
continually from beginning to end is
through-composed
Types of Form cont.
• Strophic form refers to a melody that
is repeated while the text changes
• AAAAA
• Binary form refers to music with two
contrasting melodies
• ABABAB
Form in Performance Context
• Musical form can be dependant on
context (where, when, who, why)
• Form takes into account aesthetic
considerations to create musical
impact through building expectations
and contrasts
V. Medium
• A medium is a physical body that vibrates to
create a pitch
 A string, drumhead, solid object, or column of
air
• The quality of sound produced is called
timbre (pr. tamber)
 Timbre is how we distinguish between the sound
of a violin and an electric guitar
 Timbres are described with adjectives, ie. sweet,
scratchy, smooth, heavy