Musical instruments. Wind

Woodwind Instruments

Flute | Clarinet | Saxophone | Oboe | English Horn | Bassoon 

Brass instruments

Trumpet | French Horn | Trombone | Tuba

Musical instruments. String

Bowed String

  Violin |  Viola | Cello | Double Bass

                                                   

Plucked String

Guitar | Harp | Lute

                                           

Struck String

Piano

Functions in music

Music is not only for entertainment and for pleasure. There are lots of functions in music. The most important are:

• Commercial.  Jingle. 

• Emotional expression. Right here waiting for you. Richard Marx.

• Symbolic.  National Anthem. USA.

• Ceremonial. Wedding March. A Midsummer Night´s Dream. F. Mendelssohn.

• Social identification. Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys.

Music styles

Music style is the way musical elements (melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, form, etc.) are presented in a composition. There are a lot of styles:

Popular music

• Reggae. Jamming. Bob Marley
• Soul. I say a little prayer. Aretha Franklin
• Heavy. Thunderstruck. ACDC
• Disco. Blame it on the boogie. The Jacksons
• Synthpop. Always on my mind. Pet Shop Boys

...

Art music

• Baroque. Summer. Four Seasons. A. Vivaldi.
• Romantic. Traumerei. R. Schumann

...

Music genres

A music genre is a category, a way to label music. Music can be divided into many genres according to a number of criteria, such as technique and instrumentation, music contents, means of transmission, geographical origins...

Vocal music

• A capella. Gregorian Chant
• Accompanied (Choral). For unto us a child is born,  G.F. Handel.

Instrumental music

• Orchestral. Symphony nº 5. Beethoven.
• Chamber. Schubert Trout Quintet. Theme and variations.

Absolute music

Absolute music makes sense without accompanying words, images, drama, dance, or other kind of extra-musical ideas. It excludes all vocal music.

• Symphony nº 88. F. J Haydn. Instrumental. Orchestral. Absolute.

Programme music

It is descriptive music, music that interprets an object, a landscape or an emotional experience.

• Italian Symphony. First movement. Felix Mendelssohn. Instrumental. Orchestral. Programme. 
• Scottish Symphony. First movement. Felix Mendelssohn. Instrumental. Orchestral. Programme. 

Theatre music

Includes a variety of subgenres designed to form part of a dramatic performance (opera, ballet, cabaret, film...).

• Papageno-Papagena Duet. The Magic Flute. W. A. Mozart. Vocal. Accompanied. Theatre. Opera.
• Swan Lake. P.I Tchaikovsky. Instrumental. Orchestral. Theatre. Ballet.
• Psycho Suite from «Psycho». Music by Bernard Herrmann. Instrumental. Orchestral. Theatre. Film.

Art music

Art music (also classical music) is music that is used as a form of a work of art.

• Clarinet Concert. 2nd movement. W.A. Mozart. Instrumental. Orchestral. Absolute. Art.

Popular music

Is music that is accessible to the general public and is broadcast to large audiences by one or more of the mass media and the music industry.

• So lonely. The Police. Vocal. Accompanied. Popular.

Traditional music

It´s music learned through singing and listening. Traditional music is part of the traditions of a particular region or culture.

• Morris Dance. Instrumental. Traditional.

Texture

Texture is the way in which individual musical lines interact within a musical work. Texture describes the complexity of a musical composition. There are different types of texture:

Monophony. Monophonic music has only one melodic line with no accompaniment.

 «Girls and boys come out to play» from Teledmus

Polyphony. Polyphonic music has several melodic lines. Types of polyphony:

• Drone. The simplest way to add harmony to a melody. The melody is played alog with a note fixed in pitch.

 Pericote. Asturian bagpipe

• Heterophony. Two or more voices simultaneously performing variations of the same melody. It ca be considered as a type of complex monophony.

«Good souls» from Curlew River by Benjamin Britten

from «Maintaining identity» Anthony Brandt. www.cnx.org

• Homophony. Is a texture in which two or more parts move at the same time, together in harmony. A homophonic texture is also homorhythmic.

If ye love me, by Thomas Tallys

from Wikimedia.org

• Melody-dominated homophony (also called accompanied melody). It has one clearly melodic line and all other parts provide accompaniment for the lead voice.

Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven
 from Wikimedia Commons

• Counterpoint. The combination of two or more independent melodies played at the same time. Parts move with rhythmic independence (contrapuntal texture).

Fugue nº 17 by J. S. Bach
 from Wikimedia Commons

Harmony. Chords and arpeggios

Harmony is the use of different notes (pitches) simultaneously.

from http://www.bluesjazzpiano.com

Most harmony is based on chords.

A chord is a group of notes played simultaneously. The basic chord is named triad. It consist of three notes: the root (any note you like) together with the the third an the fifth above the root.

When the notes of a musical chord are played one after another instead of together, we speak about an arpeggio.

• Chord
• Arpeggio   
• Arpeggios  by J.S. Bach 

Chords can be majors and minors. 

• The third above the root is major (two tones) in major chord.
• The third above the root is minor (one tone, one semitone) in minor chords.

from http://www.piano-play-it.com

• Major chord
• Minor chord

Consonance (concord) is a nice sound that you get when some notes are played together

Consonance

Disonance (discord) is an awful sound that you get when some notes are played together

Disonance

Listening examples from Wikimedia Commons

Ear training. Intervals

Improve your aural skills!

• Skips, steps and repeats
• Watch your step!
• Intervals listen to 2nd and 3rds 
• Intervals listen to 4ths and 5ths

from http://www.musictechteacher.com

Melodic phrases

A melodic phrase is a succession o notes that has a complete musical sense. Different phrases form melodies, periods and larger sections. When phrases are organised in pairs, the first phrase is called the antecedent phrase and the second is called the consequent.

Verse melodic phrase  from «Die young» by Kesha

by http://smartpopscott.tumblr.com

Now, listen to the song «Die young»

Accidentals

Accidentals change the pitch of a particular note

• Sharp. One semitone higher
• Flat. One semitone lower
• Natural sign. Cancels the effect of sharp and flat

Key signature: a group of sharps and flats placed on the stave indicating the notes altered in a piece of music. Key signature depends on the scale in which that piece is written.

Scales

A scale is a set of notes played or sung in order, going up or down. To create a piece of music, composers use only the notes of a particular scale.

The most common scales in western music are diatonic scales. Diatonic scales have five full tones and two semitones. The most important notes are the tonic (first note) and the dominant (fifth note).

There are two types of diatonic scales

Major. Scale model is C major (below and above). Major scales sound bright and cheery.

Minor. Scale model is A minor. Minor scales sound a bit sad.

Listen to «Pop goes the weasel»

Now, listen to the minor version

Range

The range is the interval between the top and bottom notes of a melody.

Top note is C, low note is F.
Range: fifth

Intervals

An interval is the gap between two notes.

You get the number by counting up from the bottom note to the top note

Fifth

Types of  intervals

• Melodic: if the two notes sound one after another (horizontal).
• Harmonic: if the two notes sound simultaneously (vertical).
• Ascending: from a low note to a high note.
• Descending: from a high note to a low note.
• Step: are intervals between consecutive scale degrees (e.g. C-D or D-E)
• Skip: are intervals between non consecutive scale degrees (e.g. C-E, F-B)

Third. Melodic. Ascending. Skip

Second. Melodic. Ascending. Step

Fourth. Melodic. Descending. Skip

Third. Harmonic.

Intervals from http://www.musicalintervalstutor.info

Melody

A melody (also tune) is described as a series of various pitches sounded in succession.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, from aboutmusictheory.com

Contour describes the linear motion of a melody up and down.  Melodic contour (shape) can be: ascending, descending, linear, undulating, broken line

Undulating. Good morning, from Teledmus

Broken line. From aboutmusictheory.com

Linear. One note samba. From jazz-styles.com

Surfing the net... Rhythm

Practice your rhythmic skills

• See Sawing Note Values
• How is Your Timing?
• Listening to Rhythm Patterns Quiz 

Surfing the net... Musical form

Learn to play the piano and put your knowledge of musical form into practice!

• Chopstix

• My Country Tis of Thee

• Twinkle,Twinkle, Little Star

from www.musictechteacher.com

Musical form in pop songs

Revise listening activities

• Yellow Submarine. The Beatles
• Beat it. Michael Jackson
• What can I do. The Corrs

Musical form

Basic musical forms

Strophic: A A A A...

• London Bridge is falling down

Binary: AABB

Ternary: ABA



Rondo: (Intro) AABACAA

Notation. The basics.

Notation

Pitch

Duration

Dynamics

Styles of singing

There are lots of styles of singing. Listen to some of them

• Bel canto:  singing beautifully, flexibly and smoothly, in a similar style from top to bottom.
• Scat: vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all (from 1:31 to 1:50 minutes, 2:15-2:34)
• Screaming: vocal technique often used in punk rock. Singers can sing very high or very low and always very loud. 
• Beat boxing: form of vocal percussion, the art of producing drum beats, rhythm and musical sounds using one's mouth.
• Yodeling: singing rapidly making changes from chest voice to the head register, making a high-low-high-low sound.
  
  

Forms of group singing

• Unison: same melody, lots of singers

• Singing in harmony: different melodies

• Call and response: alternation of singers

• A capella: only singers, no instruments

Vocal ensembles

Vocal ensembles 

A Choir is a group of singers. Each part is performed by more than one singer.

• Mixed voice choir
• Female choir
• Male choir
• Children´s choir

Depending on the number of singers there are many different vocal groups: a duet (2 singers), a trio (3 singers), a quartet (four singers)....

• Quartet
• Duet
• Sextet

Male voices

The countertenor is a special male voice, even higher than the tenor. Countertenors generally sing in the falsetto register.

• Countertenor (Rinaldo / David Daniels) from «Rinaldo» by G. F. Handel.

The tenor is the highest common male voice

• Tenor (Nemorino / Juan Diego Flórez), from  «The elixir of love» (L´elisir d´amore) by Gaetano Donizetti.

The baritone sings the top part of the bass range and the bottom part of the tenor range

• Baritone ( Fígaro / Dmitri Hvorostovsky), from «The barber of Seville» by Gioachino Rossini. 

The bass is the lowest male voice

• Bass (Sarastro / Kurt Moll), from «The magic flute» by W. A, Mozart.

Female voices

The soprano is the highest female voice

• Soprano (The Queen of the night / Diana Damrau),  from The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart

The mezzo-soprano is the middle-range type for females.

• Mezzo-soprano (Carmen / Anne Sofie von Otter), from «Carmen», by Georges Bizet.

The contralto (or alto) is the lowest female voice 

• Contralto (Nathalie Stutzmann), from «Songs on the Death of Children» (Kindertotenlieder nº 2) , by Gustav Mahler.

Voice system

Do you remember the vocal mechanism? This picture can help you.