2. INTRODUCTION TO MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND NOTES
Similar to the letters of a language that is used to inscribe and record
the word in a written form, the Musical notes and notations are used to
inscribe and record the musical notes in a written form. Like the Letters of the language which is evolved over a long period, the musical notations
were evolved over a long period too. Today many people use different
ways to denote the musical notations according to their own culture and
linguistics.
The Western notations have five lines with four spaces, Indian music
notations are represented by sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, da, ni, and there are various
other notations that are in use today.
Musical Elements
The common elements of
music are pitch
(which comprises melody and harmony), rhythm
(associated concepts such as tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the
sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the
"color" of a musical sound). Different styles or
types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these
elements.
Pitch is a subjective sensation to judge musical sounds, notes, or
tones as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with
musical melodies, basslines, and chords. Pitch can only be determined in sounds that have a
frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. For
example, it is much easier for listeners to discern the pitch of a note played
on a piano than discerning the pitch of a crash cymbal that is struck.
A melody
(also called a "tune") is a series of pitches (notes) sounding in
succession, often in a rising and or falling pattern. The notes of a melody are
typically created using pitch systems such as scales
or modes. Melodies also often contain notes from
the chords used in the song. The melodies in the folk songs and traditional
songs mostly use only the notes of a single scale. The scale is associated with
the tonic note and it is the key
of a given song. For example, a folk song in the key of C (also referred to as
C major) may have a melody that uses only the notes of the C major scale (the
individual notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C; these are the "white notes" of a piano keyboard. On the other hand, contemporary music from the 20th and 21st
centuries may use melodies with many chromatic
notes (i.e., notes in addition to the notes of the major scale on a
piano; a chromatic scale would include all the notes on the keyboard, including
the "white notes" and "black notes" and unusual scales,
such as the whole
tone scale (a whole tone scale in the key of C would contain the
notes C, D, E, F#, G#, and A#). A low and deep musical line played by bass
instruments such as double
bass, electric
bass or tuba is called
a bassline.
When musicians play two, three, or more different notes
at the same time, this creates a chord. In Western music, including classical music, pop music,
rock music, and many related styles, the most
common chords are triads–
three notes usually played at the same time. The most commonly used chords are
the major chord and the minor
chord. An example of a major chord is the three pitches (C, E, and G)
together. An example of a minor chord is the three pitches (A, C, and E)
together.
Harmony refers to the "vertical" sounds of
pitches in music, which means pitches that played or sung together to create a chord. Usually, this means the notes are played
at the same time, although harmony may also be implied by a melody that
outlines a harmonic structure (i.e., by using melody notes that are played one
after the other outlining the notes of a chord).
Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in
time. A meter shows time in regular pulse groupings, called measures
or bars, which in Western classical, popular, and traditional music
often group notes in sets of two (e.g., 2/4 time), three (e.g., 3/4 time, also
known as Waltz time, or 3/8 time), or four (e.g., 4/4 time).
Meters are made easier to hear because songs and pieces often (but not always)
place an emphasis on the first beat of each grouping. Notable exceptions exist.
Musical
texture is the
overall sound of a piece of music commonly described according to the number of
and the relationship between parts
or lines of music: monophony,
heterophony, polyphony,
homophony, or monody.
Music that contains a large number of parts
(e.g., a solo instrument accompanied by 100 orchestral instruments with many
interweaving melodic lines) is generally said to have a "thicker" or
"denser" texture than work with few parts (e.g., a solo flute
accompanied by a single cello).
Timbre, sometimes called "color" or
"tone color". It is the quality or sound of a voice or
instrument. Timbre is what makes a particular musical sound different from
another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness. For example, a
440 Hz A note sounds different when it is played on oboe,
piano or violin. Performers, including singers and
instrumentalists can add musical expression to a song or piece by adding phrasing and effects such as vibrato (with voice and some instruments, such as guitar,
violin, brass instruments, and woodwinds), dynamics (the
loudness or softness of piece or a section of it), tempo fluctuations (e.g., ritardando or accelerando,
which are, respectively slowing down and speeding up the tempo), and by
changing the articulation of the notes (e.g., making notes more pronounced or
accented, or by making notes more legato-smoothly
connected).
In music, Form
describes how the overall structure or plan of a song or piece
of music describes the layout of a composition as divided into
sections. Western pop and rock songs are often in verse-chorus
form, which is based around a sequence of verse and chorus
("refrain") sections, with new lyrics for
most verses and repeating lyrics for the choruses.
2.1.
MUSICAL
NOTES:
There are
only twelve notes out of which seven are natural notes (Diatonic/ Tone) and 5
other is Half notes (Chromatic/ Semitone) as Follows, which is repeated over
again and again with different frequencies.
C
C#/Dþ D D#/Eþ E
F F#/Gþ G G#/Aþ A
A#/Bþ B
1
1 1/2 2 2 1/2 3
4 41/2 5 51/2 6
6 1/2 7
|
NOTE:
‘#’should be read as ‘sharp’ and ‘þ’ should be read as ‘flat’
2.2.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS:
There are various musical instruments that
were used and evolved over the centuries. The musical instruments could be
classified into four major categories.
1.
Percussion
Instruments
A percussion
instrument is sounded by
being struck or scraped by a beater. It could be struck, scraped or rubbed by
hand; or struck against another similar instrument or sticks. The percussion
family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following the human voice.
The percussion
section of an orchestra most
commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, etc. However, the section can
also contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles and sirens, or a blown conch shell.
Keyboard percussion instruments
such as the glockenspiel and xylophone (which do not have piano keyboards)
are included. Some of the typical percussion instruments in the Indian context are
Tabla, Dholak, Mridangam, Pakhavaj, Ghatam, Thavil, etc. Percussion instruments are most commonly
divided into two classes: Pitched
percussion instruments, which
produce notes with an identifiable pitch,
and unpitched percussion instruments, which produce notes or
sounds without an identifiable pitch.
2.
Wind
Instruments
A wind
instrument contains some type
of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into
vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece that is set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the
vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications
of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some
wind instruments, the sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require
buzzing into a metal mouthpiece. Wind
instruments are typically grouped into two families: 1. Brass instruments (horns, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, and tubas). 2. Woodwind instruments (recorders, flutes, oboes, clarinets, saxophones, Digeriddo, and bassoons). Some of the Wind instruments
in Indian context include Nathaswaram, Harmonium, Shehnai, Magudi, etc.
Stringed instruments are also called
String instruments or chordophones.
They produce sound from vibrating strings. In most string instruments, the
vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which also vibrates,
along with the air inside it. Common instruments in the string family include the violin, guitar, sitar, electric
bass, viola, cello, harp, double
bass, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele,
etc. Some of the Common Stringed instruments in India are Veena, Tanpura,
Sarangi, Dilruba, etc.
4. 4. Electronic
Instruments
An electronic
musical instrument produces
sound using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio
signal that ultimately goes in to
the loudspeaker.
An electronic instrument might include a user interface for controlling its sound, often by
adjusting the pitch, frequency, or duration of each note. Electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles
of music. The development of new electronic musical instruments, controllers, and
synthesizers continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field of
research. Specialized conferences, notably the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression,
have organized to report cutting-edge work, as well as to provide a showcase
for artists who perform or create music with new electronic music instruments,
controllers, and synthesizers. The Common Electronic instruments are Keyboard, Themerin, Electronic Pad, etc. and many Instruments of the other three classes are
also electrified for amplification and modulation of sound.
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