(Summer “B” 2012, Class # 50585)
Instructor: Scott Warfield, Assoc. Prof.
Classroom Building 1, Room 121
8:00 am-9:50 am (Mon-Tues-Wed-Thurs)

•
One week from today : Monday, 9 July 2012 (8:00 am)
• Bring Scantrons & pencils
• Picture ID & know your PID (or be penalized)
• Covers anything assigned to date:
- Textbook: Intro & chapter 1
- Class Lectures (including songs on YouTube links)
- Podcasts (Publisher web site)
• Approximately 50-75 multiple-choice or T/F questions; some related to sound examples
• My review sheets to be posted soon on course web site
• Counts 10% of course grade

• My home web page :
Scott Warfield's Home page
• MUH 2017 home web page :
MUH 2017 - Survey of Rock
(see especially
“Daily Assignments”
)
•
Newcomers bookmark and read these pages

• Short life (1911-1938)
• Limited recordings
(1936-37)
• Extreme technique
• Very influential on rock guitarists of 1960s
• Ex.
YouTube - Roots of
Blues -- Robert Johnson
„Cross Road Blues"

• Performance in Urban
Environments (Bars, Clubs)
•
Chess Records
(“raw sound”)
- Amplification (distortion)
- “raw” sound
•
Howlin Wolf : Ex. Howling Wolf -
Evil (Is Going On).wmv -
YouTube (textbook, p. 62),
Ex. YouTube - Howlin' Wolf -
How Many More Years
• Muddy Waters : Ex. muddy waters i just want to make love to you - YouTube
• Bo Diddley : Ex. Bo Diddley - I'm
A Man (live 1959) - YouTube

• Church as center of Black
Community
• Emphasis on Vocal Praise
• “Doo Wop”
- a cappella (no instruments)
- “street corner” groups
•
The Chords - Sh-Boom –
YouTube (textbook, p. 13)
•
The Crew Cuts - Sh Boom
Sh Boom - YouTube

• “Jump” – small bands after WWII
• “Tympany Five” (actually 6)
• Very popular w/ white audiences (“crossover”)
- “King of the Jukebox”
• Ex. “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”
(1946) (# 1 on R&B, # 7 on Pop)
YouTube - Louis Jordan - Choo choo ch'boogie
• Ex. “Caldonia” (1945)
(#1 on R&B, #6 on Pop)
YouTube - Caldonia / Louis Jordan
• “Grandfather of Rock ‘n Roll”
Louis Jordan (alto sax at right)

• Kansas City
• “The Singing Barman”
• “Blues Shouter”
• Appears w/ boogie woogie pianists & big bands
• National performer & recording artist
• “earthy” lyrics
• Ex.
Big JoeTurner - Shake,
Rattle, and Roll (1954) –
YouTube (textbook, p. 69)

Some Useful Terms for Describing
Music
(also see Covach Podcasts)

--John Cage

•
The 4 Parameters of Sound
•
Pitch = the frequency of vibration (heard as
“high” vs. “low”)
•
Duration = the length of time a sound lasts
(heard as aspects of rhythm)
•
Timbre = tone color (the source of the sound, i.e., instrument, voice, other)
•
Dynamics = Loudness/Softness

• Pronounced “tam-ber”
• Also known as “tone color”
• The aspect of sound that makes a guitar different from a saxophone
• Literally, the source of a sound
• Technically derives from the “shape” of the sound wave [don’t need to know this]

•
Human Voices (probably the earliest way humans made music)
•
Musical Instruments
(devices or “tools” for making and controlling sounds)
• “Other” sources
, e.g.,
“natural” sounds, electronic devices (synthesizers), etc.

• From a Greek word (“rhythmos”) that means “flow”
• Refers to all temporal (durational) elements in a piece of music
• “The organization of time in music, dividing up long spans of time into smaller, more easily comprehended units”

•
Beat
– regular, unchanging pulse
•
Accent
– emphasis on a beat (or other)
•
Meter
– measurement of time in regular groupings of beats (textbook, p. 12)
•
Measure or Bar
– one group in a Meter
- can be Duple , Triple , or Quadruple
• Division of beats can be
Simple (2) or
Compound (3)
•
Tempo
– speed of the beat

• Function of “frequency” (how many vibrations per second)
• Usually described as “high” or “low”
• Individual sound sometimes called a
“note” (from the written symbol for a single sound)
• Range of human hearing 20 – 20,000 Hz

•
Interval
– “distance” between 2 pitches
•
Octave
– 2:1 ratio of frequency
•
Tonality
– organization around home pitch
•
Tonic
– the home pitch
•
Key
– collection of pitches around a tonal center
•
Scale
– set of pitches in ascending and descending order ( scala
[Ital.] = “ladder”)

• Use only some of all the available pitches
• Series of whole and half steps (7 notes)
•
Major
– sounds “bright,” “cheery”
•
Minor
– sounds “dark,” “somber”
•
Pentatonic
– uses only 5 notes
Major or Minor

•
Chord
– 2 or more simultaneous pitches
•
Triad
– 3-note chord
•
Tonic (I)
– chord on home note (name of scale or “key”)
•
Dominant (V)
– chord on 5 th note of scale
•
Subdominant (IV)
– chord on 4 th note of scale
•
Consonant / Consonance
– “pleasant” combinations of sounds (subjective)
•
Dissonant / Dissonance
– “unpleasant” combinations of sounds (subjective)

• The basic organizing principal in music
• “What comes next?”
• Three basic elements
Repetition
– the same thing
Contrast
– something new
Variation
– a mix of old and new

• Similar to Speech (words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc.)
• Musical
PHRASE
– coherent subdivision of a larger unit (similar to sentences or clauses in speech)
•
CADENCE
– resting point at the end of a phrase (full or partial, cf. punctuation marks, periods, commas, etc.)

• Alternating sections
Verse (same music, but changing words)
Chorus
(same music & words; “refrain”)
• “Song Form” – usually 4 equal phrases
- A A B A or A A’ B A” or AABC, ABCD, etc.
Bridge (3 rd phrase) often contrasts harmonically
•
12-Bar Blues
– 3 phrases repeated over and over
A - statement
A’ - restatement (intensification)
B – conclusion
• Call-Response