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Pitch
Notation |
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Pitch Musical tones: Tones are the individual musical sounds produced by a singer or on a musical instrument. Musical tones have three primary characteristics: pitch, loudness and tone quality. Pitch is a concept of the relative highness or lowness of a musical tone. Loudness is the relative strength of the tone. Tone quality (or timbre) is the difference of musical tones of equal pitch and loudness. For example, the difference in the tones of equal pitch and loudness produced on the flute and trumpet is a difference in instrument tone quality or instrument timbre. Finer differences in tone quality can also be heard between two performers of the same instrument or between singers. Notes: A note is a symbol which represents the pitch of a musical tone in written notation for sheet music. Note names for pitch notation of individual musical tones, ascending (from low to high), involve the first seven letters of the alphabet, A B C D E F and G. These name notes represent individual tones produced on the white keys of a piano or electronic music keyboard.
A, B, D, E, F and G are also referred to as the “natural” notes. For example, the note A is an abbreviated name for the note “A Natural”. Musical intervals: A musical interval is the pitch difference between two musical tones. Half-step interval: In traditional Western music theory, a half-step is the smallest possible musical interval or pitch difference between two notes. Notice that the keyboard does not have a black key between notes B and C or between notes E and F. Therefore, the pitch interval between B and C, or between E and F, is a half-step. Whole-step intervals: A whole-step interval is the addition of two half-steps. Whole-step intervals occur between notes A and B, C and D, D and E, F and G, and G and A. Accidentals: An
accidental is used to indicate that a note should be raised or lowered by
half-step or two half-steps. A sharp (#) is a symbol used to indicate a note one
half-step higher than the natural note. A double sharp (x) is used to raise a
natural note by a whole-step. A flat (b) is a symbol used to indicate a note one
half-step lower than a natural note. A double flat (bb) is used to lower a
natural note by a whole-step. A natural sign is used to indicate the removal of a
sharp or flat, making the note “natural” again. Note names of the black keys of the piano: The black keys of a music keyboard indicate notes that are one half-step above or below the note of the other white key “natural” note names. For example, the black key between C natural and D natural white keys is called C-sharp or D-flat.
Pitch notation Staff: The
pitch of musical tones is illustrated graphically as pitch notation (notes) using
a music staff of five lines and its four spaces.
Treble clef (or G clef): A music staff used for high frequency musical tones such as
women’s voices has a treble clef sign at the beginning of the staff. .
The treble clef is also called a G clef. When drawing a treble clef, the beginning
of the clef is drawn starting on the second line from the bottom, which is
the line for the note G. The notes on the lines of the treble clef, from bottom
to top are: E, G, B, D and F. An easy way to remember the order of the
line notes is the sentence, Every Good Boy Does Fine, using the first letter
of each word in the sentence.
The treble clef notes on the spaces from bottom to top are F A C E, which spell the word “face”. Bass clef (or F clef):
A music staff used for low frequency musical tones such as men’s
voices has a bass clef sign at the beginning of the staff.
The bass clef is also called an F clef because the bass
clef sign is drawn starting on the second line from the top which indicates
the note F. The two dots in the bass
clef sign are also placed in the spaces above and below the F line. The notes on the lines of the bass clef, from bottom to
top are: G, B, D, F and A, the first
letters in the words of the sentence, Good Boys Do Fine Always.
The notes on the spaces of the bass clef, from bottom
to top are: A C E G, which can be
remembered using the first letters of the words in the sentences, All Cows
Eat Grass, or All Cars Eat Gas. Ledger lines:
Small lines used to indicate notes above or below a musical staff are
called ledger lines. C Clefs: C
clefs are used to indicate Middle C on the piano keyboard. Middle C on the Treble clef is placed on
the first ledger line below the staff.
Middle C on the Bass clef is placed on the first ledger line above the
staff. C Clefs indicate Middle C on a
line in the staff.
The C clefs were originally used for individual vocal
ranges in choral music of the Renaissance era, 1450-1600 A.D. For example, the vocal range of the
soprano involves mostly notes above Middle C, allowing most of the notes to be
placed on the staff. The vocal range of a baritone voice usually involves
notes below Middle C. Today, C clefs are rarely used in vocal and choral
music because the treble and bass clefs can be used for the general ranges of
high and low notes, respectively.
However, the Alto clef is still used for staff notation in the note
range of musical instruments such as the viola and is often called the Viola
clef. The Tenor clef is often used
for writing high notes for bass clef instruments such as the cello, bassoon,
or trombone, instead of writing these high notes with many ledger lines above
the bass clef staff. Grand staff: A combination of staves (plural of staff)
with treble and bass clefs is defined as a Grand Staff which is generally
used to indicate music notation for the piano and other music keyboards and
for choruses with female and male voices.
Grand
Staff with treble clef (upper staff) and bass clef (lower staff):
The notes shown on the Grand Staff above represent the “natural”
notes that are played on the white keys of a piano keyboard over four octaves
(an octave interval is the difference of eight notes in a scale; see intervals) starting with C2, the second lowest C on
a piano keyboard. The notes shown in the bass clef (lower staff) from low
to high comprise two octaves,: C2, D2, E2, F2, G2, A2, B2, C3, D3, E3, F3, G3, A3, B3
and C4. C4 shown as the last note of the bass clef and the
first note of the treble clef is commonly referred to as “Middle” C. The notes shown in the treble clef (upper staff) from
low to high comprise two octaves,: C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, A4, B4, C5, D5, E5, F5, G5, A5, B5
and C6. |
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