This lecture covers the 01 Elements of music part 1.
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1 Music 42 West Hills College Lisa Butts, Instructor [email protected]
Transcript
1
Music 42
West Hills College
Lisa Butts, Instructor [email protected]
ELEMENTS OF SOUND
PITCH-The relative highness or lowness that we hear in sound.
Without difference in pitch, speech would be monotone.
VIBRATIONS-The pitch of sound is determined by the frequency of its
vibrations.
The faster the vibrations, the higher the pitch; the slower the
vibrations, the lower the pitch.
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
In music, a sound that has a definite pitch is called a tone. It
has a specific frequency, such as 440 cycles per second.
Tones like crashing cymbals or squeaking breaks have an indefinite
pitch because they produce irregular vibrations.
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
The difference in pitch between two tones is called an
interval.
Two tones that are separated by an octave sound very much alike.
They will vibrate either twice that of each other or half that of
each other.
(A-440 then go up one octave to A-880, or A-440 and then go down to
A-220)
When sounded together, two tones that are an octave apart will
almost merge into one tone.
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
As time passed, 5 more tones were added to the original 7 to make a
total of 12.
These tones are produced by the black keys on the keyboard.
All twelve tones are duplicated in higher and lower octaves.
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
The distance between the lowest and highest note that a voice or
instrument can produce is called its pitch range, or simply
itsrange.
Composers use pitch range to indicate different moods. Low ranges
are used for sad music, high ranges for happy or dance-like music.
A steady rise in pitch can create tension.
Most music that we listen to is based on definite pitches, but
indefinite pitches also play an important part such as the boom of
the bass drum or the crash of the cymbal.
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
Dynamics
A performer can emphasize a tone by playing it more loudly than the
tones around it. This kind of emphasis is called an accent.
Skillful use of dynamics can make listening and playing music more
interesting.
Here is a list of the most common dynamic terms:
Pianissimoppvery soft
Pianopsoft
Mezzo pianompmedium soft
Mezzo fortemfmedium loud
Fortefloud
Fortissimoffvery loud
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ELEMENTS OF SOUND
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Symbols for gradual changes in dynamics:
Decrescendogradually softer
Diminuendo
Crescendogradually louder
ELEMENTS OF SOUND
Tone Color (Timbre)
We can tell instruments apart because of the color of their sound.
This quality is called timbre or tone color.
Words used to describe tone color
Bright
Dark
Brilliant
Mellow
Rich
Changes in tone color can create variety in music and bring
attention to different melodies, or instrument groups.
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