The Complete Musician: Chapter 1 Notes

The Pitch Realm: Tonality, Notation, and Scales

Western music in the 17th-19th century is tonal (organised around a central note called the tonic)

Pitch and Pitch Class

8va = all’ottava= one octave above

8vb = all’ottava bassa= one octave below

pitch = to the relative highness or lowness of a sound, determined by frequency.

pitch class = all pitches with the same letter name

Accidentals

natural keys = white keys

chromatic alterations = adding accidentals to notes

accidentals = an accidental acts on the note it is attached to and all notes which follow it, until a note has an accidental attached to it. e.g.  A# C Gb  E would be the same as A# G# Gb Eb

Scales

chromatic scale = the 12 pitch classes in order, A ->G#

chromatic system = the system that uses those 12 pitch classes

chromatic half-step = half step between two notes with the same pitch letter, e.g. A -> A#

diatonic half-step = half step between two notes with different pitch letters, e.g. A# ->B

Enharmonicism

enharmonically equivalent = notes with different names but the same pitch e.g. B# and C

Scale Degree Numbers and Names   

 1/8           2                 3                    4                   5                    6                       7

tonic    supertonic    mediant    subdominant    dominant    submediant    leading-tone

Specific Scale Types: Major and Minor

Major scale-        W W h W W W h

minor scale-         W h W W h W W

harmonic minor scale: “  “   “   “  “ W+h h

melodic minor scale:   “  “   “    “  W W h   

keys of compositions are made clear by which pitches are used.

in major keys, the pitch one half step above the last sharp in a key signature is the tonic and the second last flat in a key signature is the tonic.

relative keys = Major and minor keys with the same key signature

parallel major/minor = keys and scales which share the same tonic but not the same key signature.  

Terms and Concepts

accidentals = a note which raises or lowers the following note according to its corresponding value

sharp = a note which raises all following notes by one semitone

flat = a note which lowers all following notes by one semitone

natural = a note which neutralises all preceding accidentals and returns all following notes to their original value

double sharp = a note which raises all following notes by two semitones

double flat = a note which lowers all following notes by two semitones

agogic = a longer (and therefore accented) note

bar line = a line upon which musical notes are written, usually found in groups of five.

chromatic = involving accidentals

chromatic system = 12 pitch classes

chromatic scale = these 12 pitch classes in order, A ->G#

chromatic half-step = half step between two notes with the same pitch letter, e.g. A -> A#

diatonic half-step = half step between two notes with two pitch letters, e.g. A# ->B

chromatic alteration = adding accidentals to notes

diatonic = involving the white keys, e.g. a diatonic half-step is one which the base letter name is changed

enharmonic equivalence = the concept of two or more notes representing the same sound

frequency = a property of sound waves, describes how steep the wave is. the frequency determines the pitch of a sound

grand staff = bass and treble clef stacked

interval = the distance between two notes

half step = one semitone

whole step = two semitones

key = the tonic of a tonal piece

key signature = the sharps or flats found in the key of the composition, written at the beginning of a piece.

ledger line = lines added above or below the bar lines to show the position of notes which do not fit on to the staff

major scale = W W H W W W H

natural minor scale = W H W W H W W

harmonic minor scale = W H W W H W+H W

melodic minor scale = W H W W W W H

mode = I have no fucking clue what this means. There seems to be very little/no difference between a mode and a scale, but there might be a difference. Modes are associated with those Greek ones? Scales are associated with tonal music? I don't know. We will get back to this when we go through the modal section of the book

octave sign = 8v

parallel major and parallel minor =  keys with the same key signature but different tonics

pitch class = pitches with the same note letter

register = the

relative major and relative minor=  keys with the same tonic but different  key signatures

scale = see above

scale degree names and numbers= names and numbers which designate the position and function of various notes within a scale.

staff = a group of 5 bar lines

step = a whole tone interval

tonic = the root of a scale

transposition  = the act of moving notes lowering or raising the pitch of a piece of music without changing the intervals between the  notes