The Elements of Music!
Melody
The main theme in a piece of music or song - the tune; the part of the song that is sung. Most of the time it’s the melody that is the most recognizable part of a song or piece of music. Just think about when we play Encore - we are singing the melodies to the songs!
Rhythm
The combination of short, long and repeated musical sounds that adhere to a steady beat. Even more basic than melody, rhythm is the most fundamental building block of music. Without rhythm, there is no music. Every sound you hear in music has a rhythm. Here are some rhythm patterns:
Beat & Meter
The underlying steady pulse of the music is the beat.
The organization of beats into groups (usually 2’s, 3’s or 4’s) is the meter represented by a time signature (2/4, ¾, 4/4, 6/8, 12/8, etc.)
Harmony
Occurs when two more different musical sounds are played or sung at the same time. Harmony can be heard when a piano player plays chords on the piano (3 or more notes played at the same time or in arpeggios). Or, when a guitarist is strumming three or more strings at the same time, or plucking them in a quick manner.
Check out these examples of vocal harmony: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Call Your Girlfriend"
Pitch
It is the highness and lowness of a musical sound. Pitches are named using the first seven letters of the alphabet (A-G). Pitches are altered by using flats and sharps. You can sing many different pitches. If you play a musical instrument, you also can play many different musical pitches. Sometimes we use solfeggio syllables to help determine pitch: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do (solfeggio pitches of the major scale).
The Grand Staff (treble & bass clef staff) shows pitches from low F in the bass clef to a high G in the treble clef. These pitches represent the majority pitches used by the human voice.
Tonality
It is usually described as major or minor; sometimes modal (similar to major or minor keys, but a few differences). Composers often name pieces of music in a particular key followed by major or minor. For instance, Beethoven’s most famous Symphony No. 5 in C minor (he used the notes of the C minor scale to create most of the melodies and harmonies in the symphony). One of my favorite symphonies is Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G major - listen to the 3rd movement of the symphony where it starts in G minor, but ends in G major .
Tonality (cont.)
For the most part, when songs or pieces of music are in a major key they evoke thoughts and feelings of joy, triumph, majesty, happiness, calm, peace, etc.
When songs or pieces of music are in a minor key, they evoke thoughts and feelings of sadness, melancholy, longing, determination, mystery, boldness, etc.
Tonality helps convey the emotional content in the music. Which is a large part of music is really about - the communication of feelings through musical sounds.
Texture
Refers to how many voices or instruments are singing or being played at the same time. Also, refers to the range of such voices & instruments. It can be categorized in a basic manner as thick, medium or thin texture. One way to visualize texture would be to follow a score - all the notated instrumental and/or vocal parts. Check out the score Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in C minor, 1st movement - it’s the notation of all the parts and serves as a visual representation of the texture.
Texture (cont.)
You can look at texture another way - check out this visual representation of music without notation.
Tone Color
Tone color or timbre (pronounced “tam-ber”) is the specific sound of an instrument or voice that you can recognize and identify. Example: the sound of the trumpet, or the sound of the flute. Tone color is often described using adjectives like “light, brilliant, mellow, dark, etc.”. Also refer to Timbre: specific sound of an instrument or voice.
Can you guess these instruments by their tone color/timbre?
Form
Form delineates (outlines) the main sections of a piece of music or song. For instance, a song or piece of music with two main sections might be recognized as “AB” form or “ABA” form. Sections are usually determined by the melody or theme; new melody = new section. Check out this quick video that further explains form (sorry about the annoying ads during the video!)
Form
Listen to the song, "Blinding Lights" by The Weekend, and notice how it follows the song form as discussed in the video on the previous slide: AB AB C B.
A (verse 1), B (pre-chorus/chorus), A (verse 2), B (pre-chorus/chorus), C (Bridge), B (chorus)
The song form shown above is an overall AB form.
You can view the lyrics here.
Here’s a "live" performance of "Blinding Lights" from The Weekend’s performance on SNL in March 2020.
Last, but not least, Dynamics!
Dynamics refer to the loudness and softness of music. Dynamics help create contrast when used in a piece of music. Unfortunately, most pop music doesn’t really incorporate dynamics...it’s usually just LOUD. There are some exceptions. To really hear dynamic contrast, listen to jazz, classical, ballet, and musical theater to name a few.
Dynamics are expressed using the following markings/terms:
pp - pianissimo (very soft), p - piano (soft), mp - mezzo piano (medium soft)
mf - mezzo forte (medium loud), f - forte (loud), ff - fortissimo (very loud)
Listen to the dynamic contrast in this piece of music
“In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, you will hear the music gradually get louder, from pp to ff!
Watch these videos to learn more!!