The document discusses the five elements of music: sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, and growth. It defines each element and provides examples. Sound is defined by its dynamic range, timbre, and texture. Harmony involves the simultaneous sounding of pitches to create chords. Melody refers to the tune and is defined by aspects like pitch, key, and mode. Rhythm provides the steady beat and pulse, involving tempo and meter. Growth examines how musical elements develop over the course of a piece through techniques like repetition, contrast, and defined structures or forms.

1. Week 1: What is
Music?
LA RUE’S
THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

2. La Rue’s Five Elements of Music
 Sound
 Harmony
 Melody
 Rhythm
 Growth

3. SOUND
 Sound is what we hear, that are audible
 Sound is comprised of three characteristics:
 Dynamic Range
 Timbre
 Texture

4. TIMBRE
The difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part, or piece of
music. We measure the ‘dynamic range’ from quiet to load.
DYNAMIC RANGE
Also known as “tone color” or “quality,”
Timbre is the unique color and/or quality of a sound. It is timbre that helps us to distinguish
one musical instrument from another (Ex: Violin vs. Piano)

5. TEXTURE
The number of ‘layers’ of melody used in a composition/song or how many musical lines
are happening within a piece of music.
 Monophonic – Only one melody line present, all singers/
musicians play the same melody
everyone in unison (literally “one sound”)
 Polyphonic - Multiple (two or more) melodic lines blending
together to make a piece of music
YouTube Video Example HERE

6. TEXTURE continued…
 Homophonic – The word means “the same
sound,” there is a single melody line with
supporting harmony underneath.
 Musical Example:
Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb_jQBgzU-I

7. HARMONY
 Harmony or harmonics is when you have multiple pitches (more than one)
being played at the same time. In most cases, harmony occcurs in the
simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches/notes which make up, what
we call ‘chords.’
 Much of the music we hear features a melody accompanied by a sequence of
harmonics (a “harmonic progression”). This creates a homophonic texture as
explained in Texture above.
 It is comprised of three factors:
 Consonance vs. Dissonance
 Musical Phrases & Cadences
 Key & Mode (Shared with MELODY)

8. Consonance vs. Dissonance
Consonance
 Stable
 Pleasing Sound
 Sounds in ‘agreement’ with one
another
Dissonance
 Unstable
 Tension and Clashing
 Jarring
Musical Example of Consonance vs. Dissonance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Ph0sa0Gc0

9. Musical Phrasing
 Just as we naturally divide our words into sentences, we can naturally
divide most melodies into a number of distinct phrases. This is especially
true in the case for music with lyrics (words), but musical phrasing is a
common feature of instrumental music as well.
 A phrase is a single musical thought. Multiple phrases are put together to
create a song. A phrases ends naturally, in cases with lyrics it is when one
would take a breath.
 Phrases typically end with a cadence, the ending of a musical phrase.
There are strong cadences and weak cadences.
 Strong cadence: at the end of a musical phrase and feel like they are “finished”
 Weak cadence: a midpoints in the song and feel like they want to go on to finish the
thought.

10. Musical Phrasing continued…
For example, in “Mary Had a Little Lamb” we have TWO phrases. There is a natural
pause in between phrases. Click HERE to hear.
WEAK CADENCE
STRONG
CADENCE

11. MELODY
 Melody is a memorable set of pitches or the “tune” of a song.
 Comprised of
 Pitch/Melodic Range
 Key
 Mode
 Major
 Minor

12. Pitch & Melodic Range
 Harmony and melody are united by a focus on pitch, a single note (one sound) or,
scientifically, the relative frequencies of different sounds.
 We can say that a melody which varies greatly in pitch has a wide melodic range
 Melodic Range is the distance between the lowest and highest pitch/note in a piece.
 If a melody in a piece is close together with no skips or leaps it is a narrow melodic range.
Also known as conjunct or close.
 If a melody has leaps and varying low and high notes, it has a wide melodic range. Also
known as disjunct not close.

13. Melodic Range
 Narrow/Limited Melodic Range
 Conjunct
 Wide Melodic Range
 Disjunct
Melodic Range can also reflect the melodic shape, or the direction a melody draws.
EX: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb little lamb | Mary had a little lamb with fleece as white as snow ||

14. Key
 The whole idea of keys is that we can play the very same melody using different
starting pitches as long as the relative distance between each subsequent pitch
remains the same. Consequently, you might not hear much of a difference
between a melody played starting on one note vs. one starting on another.
 Key is a group of pitches (scale) which a musical composition is based upon. Each
key is built upon a tonic or home note. For example if a piece is in the KEY of C,
then tonic or ‘home’ note is C.

15. Mode
Unlike a change in key a change in mode, what major or minor scale a piece is
stationed in, can radically alter the feel of the music. In technical terms, the
pattern of whole steps and half steps that forms the minor scale begins with a
whole step and a half step—unlike the major scale, which begins with two whole
steps. This little change means everything.
MAJOR
 “Happy” Sounding
 Starts with 2 full steps on a piano
 Ex: C Major
MINOR
 “Sad” Sounding
 Starts with 1 full step and 1 half step on a piano
 Ex: C minor

16. RHYTHM
 A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound
 Is the steady beat that provides a rhythmic foundation for the music
 Most songs have a steady and regular beat.
 Comprised of:
 Tempo
 Meter
 Duple & Quadruple
 Triple

17. Tempo
 Is the speed at which rhythm goes within any one piece
 It can be either fast or slow
 Keep track of the beat in a song and you can determine whether the
tempo is fast or slow.

18. Meter
The re-occurring pattern of stresses or accents that provide the
pulse/beat in music
 Duple Meter – Meter is divided into
groups of 2
 Quadruple Meter – Meter is divided into
groups of 4
 Example:
Duple Meter
 Triple Meter – Meter is divided into
groups 3 beats
Quadruple Meter vs. Triple Meter

19. GROWTH
 Development
 Contrast
 Repetition
 Form
 Large-scale Forms

20. Development
 How a piece can grow or expand within itself:
 Contrast – how a piece can develop or grow through contrasting or different
types of musical elements (melody, tempo, etc.)
 Repetition – how a piece can grow through repetition, Ex; the more you repeat
a phrase, the bigger the piece becomes.

21. Form
 Form is the shape or structure of a piece of music, wherein a song is
divided into sections.
 For example:
 Large scale form:
When a piece has multiple
sections to it.

22. END WEEK 1