Learn About Music!

Note Names

learnaboutmusic — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:30:19 +0000

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

learnaboutmusic — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:27:39 +0000

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.

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The Staff

learnaboutmusic — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:20:01 +0000

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

learnaboutmusic — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:55:47 +0000

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.

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Duration

learnaboutmusic — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:50:28 +0000

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.

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Pitch

learnaboutmusic — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:45:15 +0000

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.

Click for Example