M100: Music Appreciation
Discussion Group
Ben Tibbetts, T.A.
Welcome! Please sign the attendance at the front of the room.
Thursday January 31, 2013
Welcome Kristen’s Students!
• Big class today
Heads up!
• Get the book if you haven’t already:
Listen to This by Mark Evan Bonds (Second
Edition).
Optional: “MyMusicLab”
Heads up!
• You’ll be taking the Elements Test next
class (Tuesday).
• Remember: this will test you on material
from discussion groups and the book.
• You’re allowed one hand-written doublesided 8 ½ x 11 sheet of notes.
• We aren’t on Moodle yet. In the meantime,
the slides from today and last Tuesday can
be found here:
www.bentibbetts.net/M100/spring2013/
Email
• My students: please send me an email if
you haven’t already with your full name
and a link to some of your favorite music.
This is so I have your email address and
can send you updates, class info, etc.
benjamintibbetts@yahoo.com
Today’s Agenda
• Pages 1-15
• Quickly reviewing some of Tuesday’s
material.
• Collecting the Elements Packet.
• Musical notation and elements
(continued).
Review: The Musical Staff
• The lines are numbered #1-5 from bottom
to top. Same with the spaces #1-4.
Review: Treble Clef
• The treble clef (also sometimes called the “G clef”
because the spiral circles around line number 2, or G)
can be used to write notes in a high register.
• The placement of these notes is as follows:
Review: Bass Clef
• The bass clef may be used to write notes in a
low register. The two dots surround line number
4, or F.
• The placement of these notes is as follows:
Review: The Beat
• The beat is a phenomenon which occurs in most
music—it is a regular, recurring pulse around
which musical events are temporally organized
(i.e. organized with regards to time).
• Sometimes the beat is obvious and/or loudly
represented by a percussive instrument. Other
times, it’s very quiet, or even only implied.
Review: Meter
• By accenting one beat over the others
(make it unusually loud or emphatic),
beats can be generally grouped together
in clumps of two or three.
• When beats are regularly grouped
together in this fashion, a meter has been
established. Meter is an “underlying
pattern of beats that maintains itself
consistently throughout a work.” (page
517)
Review: Duple versus Triple
Meter
• If it sounds like beats have been grouped together in
two-beat (or four-beat) patterns, then the music is said to
be in duple meter (or “quadruple meter”—for the
purposes of this course quadruple meter will be treated
as equal to duple meter).
• If it sounds like the beats have been grouped in threebeat patterns, then the music is in triple meter.
• Sometimes, the difference between them can be difficult
to notice. Other times, the music is clearly in one meter
or the other.
• Not all music is in a regular meter.
• Music doesn’t have to stay in one meter throughout.
Review: Measures
• In music notation, every group of beats is
shown through the use of measures, or
musical divisions shown by vertical
barlines.
• Each of these is one complete measure:
Review: Time Signatures
• A time signature is made up of two numbers,
one on top of each other. (Although it’s not a
fraction.)
• The top number indicates how many beats there
are in every measure. In the example below,
there are four.
• The bottom number indicates which note value
“gets the beat”—[rephrased: which note value
represents one beat].
Review:
Note
Values
The “value” of a note (black or white note head, whether or not it has a
stem and a flag) determines how long that note is to be held. Note
values are proportional: a “whole note”, the longest note value, always
is twice as long as a half note. A half note in turn is twice as long as a
quarter note, etc.
Review: Time Signatures
• The bottom number in a time signature indicates
which note value will represent the length of a
single beat. If it’s a 4 (as it often is), then the
quarter note is worth one beat (see the chart
below).
Review: Note Values
• In the time signature where a quarter note is equal to one beat
(again, this is the most common situation), then the beatmeasurements of all the other note values may be calculated
arithmetically:
Review: Rhythms
• Measures are filled with endless
combinations of note values—these are
called rhythms.
• For example: If a measure contains three
beats, and the quarter note “gets” the
beat, then that measure could be filled
with three quarter notes. Notice: rhythms
are totally unaffected by clefs.
Review: Rhythms
• Here’s another rhythm: Since a half note is
twice as long as a quarter note, the same
measure could be filled with one half note
and one quarter note (2+1=3).
There are endless other combinations.
Review: Intervals
• An interval is the distance between two
notes on the keyboard.
• If—counting the black keys—two notes are
right next to each other, then they are said
to be a half step apart.
• If there’s a note between them, then
they’re a whole step apart.
Review: Intervals
• The distance between F and G is a whole step. And the distance
between B and C is a half step.
• These notes correspond to notes on the page.
Review: Sharp & Flat
• Black keys are described in relation to white
keys. Two words and symbols are used to
accomplish this: sharp (#) and flat ( ).
• Sharp indicates that the note has moved
upwards by a half-step. C#, for instance, is the
black note one half-step above C.
• Flat indicates that the note has moved
downwards by a half-step. B , for instance, is
the black note one half-step below B.
• These symbols are called accidentals. They are
drawn beside the note head.
Review: The Keyboard
End of Review
• Questions?
Harmony vs. Melody
• The melody or the “tune” can be defined as “a single
line of notes heard in succession as a coherent unit” (pg.
517). It is often the most memorable aspect of a piece of
music.
• Harmony is “the sound created by multiple voices
playing or singing together” (page 516). Harmony also
refers to the music which usually accompanies the
melody—it is supplemental.
• Example: Music from Grave of the Fireflies (Japan) by
Michio Mamiya.
Excerpt #1: Melody by itself.
Excerpt #2: Melody accompanied by harmony.
Texture
• Musical texture is “the number and
general relationship of musical lines or
voices to one another” (page 518).
There are three main types of musical
texture:
• Monophonic (low complexity)
• Homophonic (medium complexity)
• Polyphonic (high complexity)
Monophonic Texture or
“Monophony”
• “A musical texture consisting of a single
melodic line” (page 517).
• Melody alone
• Example: Underground Theme from Super
Mario Bros. by Koji Kondo
Homophonic Texture or “Homophony”
• “A musical texture in which a melody is
performed with a supporting
accompaniment” (page 516).
• Melody + Harmony
• Example: excerpt from Hurt by Trent
Reznor (Johnny Cash cover)
• Example: excerpt from Cântec de Nunta
(Romania) music by Gheorghe Zamfir (?)
Polyphonic Texture or “Polyphony”
• “A musical texture consisting of multiple
lines of equal importance” (page 517).
• Melody + Melody(s)
or Multiple Melodies + Harmony
• Example: The Tonight Quintet from West
Side Story (music by Leonard Bernstein)
Scales
• A scale is “a series of notes that provide
the essential pitch building blocks of a
melody” (page 518).
• Music based off major scales seems to
generally evoke positive emotions.
• Music based off minor scales seems to
generally evoke negative emotions.
Scales
• A scale begins on the note it’s named
after (i.e., the C Major scale begins
on C).
• Listen: C Major Scale
Intervals in the Major Scale
• The intervallic pattern for the major scale
is WWHWWWH, or Whole-Whole-HalfWhole-Whole-Whole-Half
• On the keyboard: C to D is a whole step, D
to E is a whole step, E to F is a half step, F
to G is a whole step, G to A is a whole
step, A to B is a whole step, and B back to
C is a half step.
• Listen again: C Major Scale
The Keyboard
Minor Scales
• There are three minor scales: the natural
minor, the harmonic minor, and the
melodic minor.
• The intervallic pattern for the Natural Minor
Scale is WHWWHWW.
• Listen: C Natural Minor Scale
• Listen: C Harmonic Minor Scale
• Listen: C Melodic Minor Scale
Form vs. Genre
• Form is “the structure of a musical work;
the way in which its individual units are put
together” (page 516). What happens and
in what order.
• Genre is “the category of a work,
determined by a combination of its
performance medium and its social
function” (page 516). Why the music is
being played, for what occasion.
Timbre
• Timbre refers to the “character or quality of
a sound” (518).
• It usually refers to an individual instrument
or an isolated section of a piece.
• Video: “The Soundtrack” from Fantasia
(1940)
Dynamics
• Dynamics refer to the volume of music or
sound.
• From softest to loudest: pp p mp mf f ff
• Pianissimo = pp
• Piano = p
• Mezzo-Piano = mp
• Mezzo-Forte = mf
• Forte = f
• Fortissimo = ff
• Crescendo = gradually get louder.
• Decrescendo = gradually get softer.
Tempo
• Tempo refers to the speed of a musical
meter—how fast or slow the beat is.
• Point of confusion: Tempo does not
describe rhythms. Some music may be
played at a slow tempo (with a slow beat)
and still use fast rhythms (so there are
many musical events between the slow
beats).
• Example: two excerpts from First of the
Year (Equinox) by Skrillex
Final Reminders / Homework
• Don’t forget to pass in your Elements
Packet
• Elements Test next class (optional 8 ½ x
11 sheet of notes)
• Questions? Email:
benjamintibbetts@yahoo.com