Clefs & Notes

7 Notes

Clefs:

The First symbol that appears at the beginning of every music staff is a clef Symbol. It is very important because it tells you which note is found on each line or space.

Two Clefs are normally used: The Treble and Bass Clefs.

Treble Clef:

This is an ornamentel form of alphabet 'G'

a treble clef symbol tells you that the second line from the bottom is ' G '. Any note placed on this line becomes G.

The note on the space above G is A. (Remember, there is no "H" note).

Bass Clef:

This is an ornamentel form of alphabet ' F '

A bass clef symbol tells you that the second line from the top is F.

Any note placed on this line becomes F.

Why use different clefs?

Music is easier to read and write if most of the notes fall on the staff.

Voices and instruments with higher ranges usually learn to read treble clef, while voices and instruments with lower ranges usually learn to read bass clef.

Memorise:

One of the First steps in learning to read music in a particular clef is memorising where the notes are.

Note Duration:

The length of time that a note is played is called its note duration, which is determined by the type of note.

The whole note has the longest note duration in modern music.

The half note has half the duration of a whole note.

2 half notes occupy the same amount of time as 1 whole note.

The quarter note is a fourth (or a quarter) of a whole note.

4 quarter notes occupy the same amount of time as 1 whole note. 2 Quater notes = 1 Half note.

Notes smaller in duration than a quarter note have flags. Each flag halves the value of a note. i.e 2 Eighth notes = 1 Quater note.

The above chart displays the relationship of all five note types.

tbc...

MUSIC THEORY - Intorduction

Sound
What is sound?
The medium for the transmission of music is sound.
A good understanding of music implies at least a basic understanding of the sounds from nature and how we became aware of it. Sound consist of vibrations of the air (these vibrations are responsible for a human behaviour and suddenly i dont want to jump in to astrology, will write about it later.). It will be very easy to understand the sound if we have a good view of air. Air is a gas, we cant see them cuz the molecules of air are not close to each other as they are solid.
A question pops up in my mind or you might have this doubt. Why don't the molecules in the air just fall down?.


An experipment says that movements of air molecules under a normal room temperature is as fast as a jet travelling at 1,600 KMPH, but we dont feel the collisions with our skin because of extreme lightness of the air molecules.


Now we can imagine why air molecules dont fall down.


The air is actually bouncing off each other so the air pressure is produced. So when a body vibrates, it causes waves of increased and decreased pressure in the air. These waves are the sound.
So we produce sound from vibrating an instrument. In my theory class my honorable Teacher Mr.Chandramohan said that "the sound waves have 4 main attributes which affect the way they are perceived.
1. Amplitude = size of the vibration(loudness)
2. Pitch = Frequency
3. Timber = Spectrum &
4. duration = Lenght"


All these can be sensed by human ear, and sorry i dont know how the human ear works. According to me, its very complicated to understand.


Okay now lets come to Music.


Music- Its a language and languages are invented by the people. There are rules, clean grammer, clarification of spellings and the relationship between words.
People composed music long before it took a written format. Some people still play by ear learning. (thats a good talent) but written music is very useful, the same reason that reading books are useful. Music is easier to study and share if it is written down.


To write music one must be very strong in its theory....


Staff:


The notation are written in Staves. (staff in singular) Stave are 5 parallel lines. the music notes are place on one of the lines or in the space between lines and the vertical bar line divides the staff into short sections called measures or bars. A double bar line used to mark the end of the largeer secion of music and heavy double bar line denotes the end of the piece.












The music of the staff is read from left to right.


to be continued.....