Some Elements of Music: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Genre

1. Elements of Music
Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Genre

2. What is Music?
Organized Sound and Silence

3. Properties of Sound
Amplitude Duration
Frequency Timbre
Sound

4. Frequency = Pitch
Amplitude = Dynamics
Duration = Rhythm
Timbre = Tone Color

5. Melody
Organized succession of pitches

6. Melodies have contour
Up (by a lot or a little)
Down (by a lot or a little)
Stay the Same

7. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”

8. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

9. Melodies are made of Intervals
Interval = distance between two pitches
Half-step smallest unit in WCT

10. Half Steps & Whole Steps

11. “Major Scale”
W-W-H-W-W-W-H

12. Melodic organization
Beginning , Middle, End
Internal resting points, “musical punctuation”
Some portions repeated, some portions
different
Smaller units beget larger units

13. Harmony
Two or more pitches heard
simultaneously
Can feel at rest or unstable
Tonic, or “Home Base”
Musical Punctuation (Cadences)

14. Rhythm
Rhythm, Meter, Beat

15. Genre
A set of expectations
Very broad or very specific
“classical” vs “popular”
String quartet vs symphony
Country vs hip-hop
Progressive Rock vs Punk Rock

16. Next Time…
Music and History