Theory Of Music 1

...global music resource

Concepts of music

The followings are some concepts of music:

1. Musical Alphabet

2. Octave

3. Pitch

4. Clef

5. Staff, etc

ALPHABETS

      Musical alphabets are taken from the firsr-seven English Alphabets I.e A, B, C, D, E, F and G

 OCTAVE

      In music the word octave means 8 notes,  just like in mathematics where octagon means 8 angles. 

      Octave which means 8 notes, Is just the repetition of the first note to make the eight note. I.e A as an octave : A B C D E F G and A (when u get to the seventh note u will go back to the first note)

            B as an octave: B C D E F G A B

            C as an octave: C D E F G A B C

once it is not up to eight notes that means it is not correct.

PITCH

     Pitch is highness or lowness of a musical sound, I.e whether a musical sound is high or low.

For example; in this octave A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A  The first A which is number 1 is low in pitch, while the second A which is number 8 is high in pitch.

CLEF

      Clef is the sign written on a piece of music at the beginning of a staff in order to determine or indicate its pitch. That is, the clef will be what will make us to know how to use the staff (it tells us what to call the names of lines and spaces).

       We have different types of clef, e.g Treble clef, Bass clef, Soprano clef, Alto clef, and Tenor clef. But for this level, we will only discuss the two major ones which is the treble clef and bass clef.

Treble clef is also known as G clef

Bass clef is also known as F clef

THE STAFF

      The musical staff is also known as a stave; it consists of five parallel lines which are horizontal and four spaces. 

When counting the stave, you will start frm the bottom.

       We also have different types of stave, and they take their names after the different clefs that we have E.g Treble Stave, Bass stave, soprano stave etc

For this level, we'll only discuss Treble and bass stave.

     As the treble clef is also known as G clef, the treble stave is also known as G stave. And as Bass stave is also known as F stave.

The next thing we'll be discussing is the names of the lines and spaces of both the treble stave and bass stave.

                         TREBLE STAVE

The names of lines of the treble stave

Line 1 is E

Line 2 is G

Line 3 is B

Line 4 is D

Line 5 is F

For easy recognition, u can say:

Every

Good

Boy

Deserves

Favour

The names of spaces of the treble stave

Space 1 is F

Space 2 is A

Space 3 is C

Space 4 is E

I.e FACE

Note: the names of lines and spaces are written in CAPITAL LETTER

                           BASS STAVE

The names of lines of the  Bass stave

Line 1 is G

Line 2 is B

Line 3 is D

Line 4 is F

Line 5 is A

For easy recognition, u can say:

Good

Boys

Deserve

Favour 

Always

Names of spaces of the Bass stave

Space 1 is A

Space 2 is C

Space 3 is E

Space 4 is G

For easy recognition u can say:

All

Cow

Eats

Grass

THE GREAT STAVE

      The Great stave is also known as Grand Stave or Grand Staff. The Great Stave is the combination of Treble Stave and Bass Stave with use of brace. It consists of eleven lines and ten spaces.

The Great Stave have the following features:

1. Treble Stave

2. Bass Stave

3. Brace

4. Ledger lines (middle C), and

5. Double bar

- As you can see on the above image, there is a bracket look-like symbol, holding the Treble Stave and Bass Stave together. The symbol is the brace.

- The ledger line is the short line in between the Treble Stave and Bass Stave, usually to accommodate extra notes above or below a Stave.

- The Double bar line are the double vertical lines at the end of a stave, which is use to indicate the end of a section in a piece of music. You must learn how to draw the Great Stave using the two pictures above and the explanations.

Note: The names of lines and Spaces still remain the same, except for the presence of the ledger line. The ledger line in between the Treble and Bass Stave is also called 'middle C', the space above the ledger line and below line 1 of the Treble Stave is D, While the Space below the ledger line and above line 5 of the Bass Stave is B.