Note Names
April 12, 2008
At this point we must take a minute to talk about note names. Note names start at ‘A’ and go through to ‘G’. There is no ‘H’ in music (at least not in English music). Instead, the note names go back to A again. Below is a keyboard with all of the note names for the white keys (we’ll get to the black keys later). The note names go from A to G, regardless of the instrument – it’s just visually easier to demonstrate on a keyboard.
Timbre
April 12, 2008
Listen to the following notes. They’re the same pitch, duration and volume. Yet they’re different. One sounds like a piano, and one sounds like a violin. The technical term for this “sound quality” is timbre.
The Staff
April 12, 2008
The staff is a set of (usually) five horizontal lines. It is used primarily to indicate pitch. Higher notes are placed higher on the staff. Notes can be placed in the four spaces between the lines as well as on the five lines. Lines and spaces are usually numbered from the bottom up. The range of the staff may be extended by use of ledger lines.
The Staff
Volume
April 11, 2008
Volume is the loudness of the sound. In the following example, pitch, duration and timbre are kept the same. The only difference is that the each sound is louder than the last.
Duration
April 10, 2008
Duration refers to how long the note lasts. In the following example, the pitch, volume and timbre are kept the same. The only difference is that the notes get successively shorter.
Pitch
April 10, 2008
Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. In the following example, the duration, volume and timbre are kept the same. The only difference between the notes is the pitch. It starts off high with each successive note being lower than the previous.
