This
image includes a segment of a staff, a G-clef, a sharp symbol to signify
the key signature of 'g' major, a subscript "8" octave notation, and the
symbol for "common time"
, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5-B, 6, 6-B, 7, 8, 8-B, 9, 9-B,
In this lesson I'll explain the four basic elements of music: Pitch, Rhythm, Dynamics, and Timbre. In later lessons I'll explain and demonstrate how these basic elements interact to allow infinite possibilities to exist for musical expression. Music always contains its four basic elements, and it's important to be conscious of, and to control all four elements of music AT ALL TIMES during your playing. Music notation has evolved over the years to include a very rich repertoire of symbols. These various symbols allow a composer to indicate many aspects - BUT NOT ALL - of each element of music. As I introduce each basic element, I will discuss its more common notational elements. This lesson should NOT to be interpreted as an attempt to be a complete dictionary of musical notation. My principal source of information on this subject on other all material presented in these lessons is the "Harvard Dictionary of Music" Second Edition, by Willi Apel, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This lesson will not deal with more advanced aspects of music, such as scales, which are pre-defined ordered groups of pitches which are played sequentially; chords, which are two or more notes played simultaneously; tonality and harmony, which uses the natural psychological tensions and resolutions created by various pitches to drive the music in the direction intended by the composer, or voices, which are independent melody lines within a piece of music that require a separate focus on each of the four basic elements. Those topics will wait until later lessons, after you have a working knowledge of the basic four musical elements.
Pitch
Lesson 5 discussed pitch and its physical basis in the frequency of vibration of some material object. This lesson will introduce the elements of notating pitch in printed music. These elements include: the staff; the clefs, including the subscript; Key Signature; the "note", including sharp, flat, and natural signs (accidentals); the Glissando and Portamento; and Harmonics.
The music we will be discussing is composed of pitches which are discrete in nature. This is in contrast to music such as that which is composed for a synthesizer which can produce arbitrary pitches which may have no relationship to our 12 tone even-tempered scales.
This
image includes a segment of a staff, a G-clef, a sharp symbol to signify
the key signature of 'g' major, a subscript "8" octave notation, and the
symbol for "common time"
This
image includes a segment of a staff, a G-clef, a single flat sign to signify
the key signature of 'f' major, a "dotted" half note which makes the note
have a duration of 3 quarter notes, and the use one ledger line to place
the note one line below the staff.
The Staff
A notation of pitch has been developed which uses a set of parallel horizontal lines and spaces on which "notes" are drawn to represent distinct pitches. A grouping of five lines with the four spaces between each line is referred to as a "staff". From any starting pitch, notes increase by one letter name for each progressively higher space or line on the staff, and decrease by one letter name for each progressively lower line or space. "Ledger lines" are small line segments which are used to place notes above or below a staff to indicate pitches higher or lower than can be represented on the staff itself.
The Clef
The clef is a symbol that is placed at the left edge of each staff which defines a reference pitch from which all other notes on that staff are computed. There are three types of clefs, the G-clef, the F-clef, and C-clef. Most modern publications use only the G-clef and the F-clef with the older C-clef being replaced by the use of a G-clef with an "subscript 8" to indicate that pitches on the staff are to be played an octave lower than those with the usual G-clef.
The G-clef resembles a large number eight with each circle in the 8 shaped as a vertically oriented oval, the bottom oval being about 3 or 4 times larger than the upper oval. The lower oval is drawn as an open loop where the loop encircles the second line from the bottom of the staff. That line is defined as g' ("g-one-line" is the first g above middle-c on the piano). The G-clef is the clef which is used in Classical Guitar music. Because the actual pitch of the guitar is an octave lower than that which is indicated by the standard G-clef, the correct method for notating Classical Guitar music is to place a small numeral 8 below the G-clef symbol. That small 8 tells the reader that the actual pitches which follow are to sound an octave lower than indicated. Unfortunately, it is very uncommon to see the 8 subscript in Classical Guitar music; the reader is expected to know that the pitches are an octave lower than written.
I HAD a wonderful guitar that had developed a small crack in the back of the instrument. Since the repair of that part of the guitar is pretty straightforward, I chose to bring the instrument to a violin repair person because there were no guitar repair shops in my town. When I came to pick up the instrument, there was a huge crack in the top of the guitar. I was told that the instrument had "just cracked as I tried to tune it"... It was about a year later when it dawned on me that the violin repair person probably didn't know that the guitar should sound an octave lower than its music would indicate....Ouch! As I said, I HAD a wonderful guitar...
The F-clef, often called the "Bass clef", resembles a backward C with a full colon close to the outside right edge of the symbol. The full colon of the F-clef straddles the second line from the top of the staff and defines the placement of the pitch f (f below middle c on the piano).
The C-clef resembles the numeral 3 with a heavy vertical line drawn close to the left edge and is used to define the pitch c' (c-one-line, or middle c on the piano). This clef can be placed in either of two positions on the staff. The C-clef is placed on the staff so that the intersection of the top and bottom curves in the symbol (essentially the "center" of the 3) touches either the middle line of the staff (alto or viola clef), or the second line from the top of the staff (tenor clef). Historically, this clef was used as a "moveable clef" to reduce the need for "ledger lines", but modern publishers are tending to avoid its use altogether and to opt instead to use the aforementioned subscript 8.
A key signature is a method whereby all of the pitches within a line of music can be assigned a set of "sharps" or "flats" in order to reduce the number of individual sharp or flat symbols that would otherwise be required. Later lessons will deal with scales and the theory behind the creation of key signatures, but suffice to say here that the key signature has a big effect on the pitch of notes placed on the staff. Classical music is notated with the key signature placed at the start of each staff for every line of music.
The Notes
A "note" is the smallest unit of music that can be represented in our system of notation. In modern music notation, a note is drawn on a staff as a circular mark with a diameter that is approximately equal to the distance between the lines of the staff. Notes that are drawn on a line are centered on the line, notes drawn in spaces almost touch the lines above and below the note. The position of any note drawn on a staff determines its "lettered tone", ranging from A to G.
Sharps, Flats, and Naturals -> the "Accidentals"
Pitches which exist between any of the lettered tones are notated by the use of symbols called "sharps(#)", "flats(b)" - similar to a lower case b, or "naturals". These symbols can occur, at the start of each line of music to define a key signature, at any point in the music where a change in key signature is to occur, or just before any note in the music to indicate that its pitch is to be altered. The sharps, flats and naturals are referred to collectively as "accidentals".
This
image contains a sharp sign with a natural sign above it, and a flat sign
on the next instance of the same note which had the natural sign.
Natural signs are similar to sharp signs with the upper right and lower left line segments removed and the two horizontal lines terminating exactly at the vertical lines they touch.
Glissando and Portamento
The Harvard Music Dictionary defines Glissando as "the execution of rapid scales by a sliding movement". This is sometimes confused with the term Portamento which is where the pitch is raised or lowered from one note to another with a continuous movement. It is not possible to execute a Portamento on a Classical Guitar because the pitch will always change in discreet increments when the fingers cross a fret as they slide from one note to another. The Glissando on the guitar is a chromatic scale - each succeeding tone of the scale exactly one half step from the last preceding tone - from the starting pitch to the ending pitch. It is notated by connecting the note or notes which are to be slid by a straight line, usually with the abbreviation "gliss." written above the connecting line(s).
This
image contains three notes drawn with a hollow diamond shaped head to indicate
that they should be played as harmonics.
The last element of pitch notation that I will discuss is the use of the harmonic pitch indicator. The sad truth is that there is no true standard for notating guitar harmonics in printed music. One common aspect of almost all harmonic notation is to draw a hollow note in a diamond shape instead of in the shape of a circle. Confusion arises because sometimes the composer indicates the actual pitch, sometimes indicates just the position of the fingers above the fret and string where the harmonic is to be created, and sometimes notates the pitch on the staff one octave below the desired pitch with the standard diamond harmonic shape. The guitar can produce natural and artificial harmonics (see lesson 5), and that also adds to the notational confusion. There are too many common variations in the notation of harmonics, but music from a reputable publisher - usually - explains how to interpret the notation of harmonics in a preface to the music in that publication. If that is not the case you should either listen to a recording of the piece, or, just use your best guess based on how it sounds to you.
Rhythm
Rhythm can be defined as the quality of music which determines its motion through time. In this lesson I will introduce the most common notational elements used in printed music to express rhythm. These include: the Beat; Measures; Time Signature; the "Rest"; Tempo Markings; Stems, Flags, Dots, and Ties; Legato(slur), Portato, and Stuccato; and Fermata.
The Beat
The beat of the music is the primary recurring pulse which moves the music forward. In popular music, the beat is usually very obvious. It's the feeling that makes you want to "tap your foot". Classical music does not usually exaggerate the beat to that extent. As a matter of fact, it is very often the case that classical composers deliberately write music to de-emphasize the primary beat in order to create rhythmic "flows" which can extend through many measures. It is important in your playing to always be aware of "where the beat is" so that you can work within, but not necessarily on, the beat in order to give life to the music.
Measure
The basic rhythmic "container" used in musical notation is the "Measure". A measure of music is defined as the musical notation contained within a vertical line which extends from the upper line of the staff to the lower line of the staff and the next vertical line encountered on the staff. Accidentals which occur within a measure (not key signatures) apply only to the note where the accidental appears and to subsequent identical notes within that same measure. If the composer wants the same accidental in the next measure it must be notated again. A measure MUST contain the exact number of beats of music as defined in the current time signature.