This document provides an overview of the basic elements of music, including rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony, tone color, texture, form, and articulation. It defines these elements and provides related musical terms. For each element, examples are given to illustrate musical concepts like tempo, pitch, intervals, chords, monophonic and polyphonic texture, and musical forms like binary and ternary. Instrument families and their timbres are also briefly described.

1. Elements of Music
You are embarking on an adventure through musical
time, and this journey will be more pleasurable if you first
become familiar with some basic musical concepts. Keep in
mind that most new experiences require some initial
adjustment and insight. The process is similar to visiting a
distant country for the first time: You are instantly
immersed in a different culture and surrounded by people
who speak an unusual language or follow unfamiliar
customs.

2. This new experience could be either very
exciting—or quite unbearable—depending on your
perspective. If you were not prepared for this
journey, your naive responses and actions might
bring you embarrassment or instill the anger of
others. Worst of all, you would get very little from a
potentially rewarding experience.

3. These new ideas will be introduced gradually,
systematically and actively, so for now, focus on learning
the fundamental elements of music and their related
terms Listen carefully for these aspects in the music you
hear, and—in time—you will attain a heightened
understanding that will open your ears, mind and soul to
the deeper levels of musical thought.

4. ELEMENT Basic Related Terms
Rhythm: (beat, meter, tempo, syncopation)
Dynamics: (forte, piano, [etc.], crescendo, decrescendo)
Melody: (pitch, theme, conjunct, disjunct)
Harmony: (chord, progression, consonance, dissonance, key,
tonality, atonality)
Tone color: (register, range, instrumentation)
Texture: (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, imitation,
counterpoint)
Form: (binary, ternary, strophic, through-composed)

5. A musical line, is a combination of pitch and
rhythm (some say "duration"). Sometimes a melody
is considered to be the theme of a composition. We
might characterize melody by its contour (rising or
falling) and the size of the intervals in it.
Melody

6. A melody that uses mostly small intervals (or
scale steps) and is smooth is said to be a conjunct
melody. Not surprisingly, a melody that uses large
intervals is called a disjunct melody. A motif (or
motive) is either a very short melody or a distinctive
part of a longer melody. I might describe the opening
four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a "motific
cell."

8. Rhythm
is the duration of sound ( how long or short
the notes are ). Rhythm has three parts: (1) Beat.
The Pulse. A rhythmic unit of time. (2) Tempo. The
speed of the beat. How fast or slow the music is. (3)
Metre. The organization of strong and weak beats.
Indicated by measures and time signature.

9. Rhythm is the element of "TIME" in music. When
you tap your foot to the music, you are "keeping the beat"
or following the structural rhythmic pulse of the music.
There are several important aspects of rhythm:
DURATION: how long a sound (or silence) lasts.

10. • TEMPO: the speed of the BEAT. (Note: Tempo indications are often
designated by Italian terms):
Largo = "large" or labored (slow)
Adagio = slow Andante = steady "walking" tempo
Moderato = moderate
Allegro = fast ("happy")
Presto = very fast
Largo Adagio Andante Moderato Allegro Presto Beats per
minute 40-65 66-75 76-107-108-119 120-167 168-208
NOTE: These tempos are not specific—but RELATIVE to each other.

11. Form
Structure; The pattern or organization of a musical
composition.
The large-scale form of a musical composition can be projected via any
combination of the musical elements previously studied. Traditionally,
however, musical form in Western music has been primarily associated with
the order of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic events (or the text) in a piece.
Letters (i.e., A, B, C) are used to designate musical divisions brought about by
the repetition of melodic material or the presentation of new, contrasting
material. Some of the most common musical forms are described below:

12. BASIC FORMS (more sophisticated forms will be covered later in this
book) Strophic Form: a design in VOCAL music, in which the same music is
used for several different verses (strophes) of words. [Example: "Deck the
Halls" has many verses of words sung to the same music.] Verse 1 . . . Verse 2
. . . Verse 3 (etc.) Through-composed a structure in which there is no repeat or
return of any large-scale musical section. [Example: Schubert's "Erlkönig".] A
B C D E . . .
Binary Form a two-part form in which both main sections are repeated
(as indicated in the diagram by "repeat marks"). The basic premise of this
form is CONTRAST: Ternary Form a three-part form featuring a return of the
initial music after a contrasting section. Symmetry and balance are achieved
through this return of material:
_____________________________________________ 1 2 3 A B repeat mark A B A.

13. Harmony
is what you hear when two or more notes or
chords are played at the same time. Harmony
supports the melody and gives it texture. Harmonic
chords may be described as major, minor,
augmented, or diminished, depending on the notes
being played together. In a barbershop quartet, for
example, one person will sing the melody.

14. Harmony is the VERTICALIZATION of pitch. Often,
harmony is thought of as the art of combining pitches into chords
(several notes played simultaneously as a "block").
These chords are usually arranged into sentence-Other basic
terms relating to Harmony are: Modality: harmony created out of
the ancient Medieval/Renaissance modes. Tonality: harmony that
focuses on a "home" key center. Atonality: modern harmony that
AVOIDS any sense of a "home" key center.like patterns called
chord progressions.

15. Texture
Texture refers to the number of individual musical lines
(melodies) and the relationship these lines have to one another.
Monophonic (single-note) texture: Music with only one note
sounding at a time (having no harmony or accompaniment).
Homophonic texture: Music with two or more notes sounding at a
the same time, but generally featuring a prominent melody in the
upper part, supported by a less intricate harmonic accompaniment
underneath (often based on homogenous chords—BLOCKS of
sound).

16. Polyphonic texture: Music with two or more independent
melodies sounding at the same time. The most intricate types of
polyphonic texture— canon and fugue—may introduce three, four,
five or more independent melodies simultaneously! This manner of
writing is called COUNTERPOINT.
Imitative texture: Imitation is a special type of polyphonic
texture produced whenever a musical idea is ECHOED from
"voice" to "voice". Although imitation can be used in monophonic
styles, it is more prevalent in polyphonic art-music— especially
from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

17.  Heterophony – “mixed” or multiple similar versions of a melody
performed simultaneously.
 Collage – mixing of extremely different textures or sounds.
Sound quality or tone color; timbre is the
characteristic that allows us to distinguish between one
instrument and another, and the difference between vowel
sounds (for example, long "a" or "ee").

18. Timber
Sound quality or tone color; timbre is the characteristic that allows us to distinguish
between one instrument and another, and the difference between vowel sounds (for example,
long "a" or "ee").
Terms we might use to describe timbre:
bright, dark, brassy, reedy, harsh, noisy, thin, buzzy, pure,
raspy, shrill, mellow, strained.
I prefer to avoid describing timbre in emotional terms (excited, angry, happy, sad,
etc.); that is not the sound quality, it is its effect or interpretation. Rather than describe the
timbre of an instrument in other terms, it is often more clear just to describe the timbre by
naming the instrument, once we have learned the names and sounds of a few instruments.

19. Strings – Lute, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp &
Guitar Timbre – pizzicato (plucked strings), arco (with the bow),
col legno (with the wood of the bow), double stopping (playing two
strings at once), tremolo – rapid movement upon one string.
Woodwind – Flute, Piccolo, Recorder, Clarinet, Saxophone,
Bassoon, Oboe, harmonica Timbre – Flutter tonguing (achieved by
rolling an ‘R’ with the tongue), Pitch Bending (Bending of notes,
achieved by sliding fingers off the keys), Staccato (different sounds
are achieved by single and double reed instruments).

20. Brass – Trumpet, Cornet, Trombone, French Horn, Baritone,
Euphonium, B flat Bass, Tuba Timbre – Played with a mute (stick
it in the bell to change the sound)
Percussion (tuned & untuned) – Drum Kit, Side Drum,
Piano, Maracas, Wood block, Agogo bells, Cow bells, Triangle,
Tambourine, Cymbals, Congas, Bongos, Glockenspiel, Xylophone,
Tubular Bells etc. Timbre – Piano – prepared piano (experimental
music), playing percussion with beaters, sticks, hands etc. Hitting
different parts of the drum kit e.g. centre of snare or rim of snare.

21. Articulation
Legato – Smooth
Staccato – Short, detached
Accent - Emphasise the note
Tenuto – Stress the note
Voices:SATB choir.
Soprano – Female (Highest)
Alto – Female
Tenor - Male Bass –
Male (Lowest)

22. Dynamics
All musical aspects relating to the relative loudness (or
quietness) of music fall under the general element of DYNAMICS.
The terms used to describe dynamic levels are often in Italian:
pianissimo [pp] = (very quiet)
piano [p] = (quiet)
mezzo-piano [mp] = (moderately quiet)
mezzo-forte [mf ] = (moderately loud)
forte [f ] = (loud) fortissimo [ff ] = (very loud)
(ppp) pp p mp mf f)

23. loud or soft. A composition that has extremely soft passages as well as
extremely loud passages is said to have a large or wide dynamic
range. Dynamics can change suddenly or gradually (crescendo, getting
louder, or decrescendo, getting softer.)
Other basic terms relating to Dynamics are:
Crescendo: gradually getting LOUDER
Diminuendo (or decrescendo) : gradually getting
QUIETER…
Accent: "punching" or "leaning into" a note harder to
temporarily emphasize it.