The intervals post is done. Since I started it yesterday it shows up in yesterdays posts. You should be able to listen to the musical examples by clicking on the links that say listen. Let me know if that doesn't work for you. Also, let me know if this doesn't make any sense.
Musical WOD
Originally created as a companion to a Wednesday night bible class I was teaching, this has now become the official home of the Musical Workout of the Day. I will be posting short musical workouts, lessons that will help to develop ear training, sight singing and musicianship in general
Thursday, February 02, 2006
I had an idea for a big fun moment. Let's play stump the band. We bring somebody up from the audience, interview them and get them to name some song that they think we don't know. Then we sing the song. Except we'll prepare 3-4 different songs in goofy styles and one of us just makes up words off the cuff, the dumber the better. It could be beautiful.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
So the interval stuff is taking me a long time. I'll finish it up tomorrow. It's going to be so sweet.
Do the note identification thang and see if you can get 100 correct. Click on the settings button and try a different clef. Go as fast as you can.
http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id82_en.html
Post results to the comments.
You guys are awesome.
Intervals
So musical pitches are given letter names to distinguish between the different pitches, right? So when you talk about musical intervals you are counting the span of the letter names between each pitch, plus a word (major, minor, perfect, augmented, diminished) that describes something about the quality of the interval.
Perfect unison, prime, first. They all mean the same thing. Same note. Duh.
listen
The other easy one is the perfect octave. Easy to sing or play, hard to describe. Mathematically, the frequency doubles for an octave. A is 220hz and the A above it is 440hz. An octave is the same note but higher or lower. God just made it that way.
listen
A perfect 5th is an interval whose span is five notes, i.e. C to G. Count 'em C, D, E, F, G, that's five letters.
listen
A perfect 4th is an interval whose span is four notes, so C to F, that's C, D, E, F, yeah, four notes.
listen
These intervals are all called 'perfect.' Why? Well it has to do with the way they sound, and a little history. Early church musicians had some pretty strong opinions about the sounds of different intervals based on their consonance or dissonance. Consonant intervals are ones that sound stable, like they just go together. The dissonant intervals seem to clash and your ear wants to hear them resolve to a more stable, consonant interval. Another way of describing it, dissonant intervals have tension, while consonant intervals are more relaxed. So the church musicians called the unison, octave, 4th and 5th the perfect intervals, because they have the least dissonance and to them that meant holiness, purity, intervals that were suitable for praising God. That's why in early church music, like Gregorian chants, almost all the chords are made up of 5ths and 4ths.
Another thing about perfect intervals has to do with what happens when you invert them. Inversion just means that I take the bottom note and move it up one octave. So if my interval is C to G, a perfect 5th, and I move the C up an octave, I get G to C, which is a perfect 4th. Perfects always invert to perfects.
So the next interval, if you're thinking in terms of consonance anyway, is the 3rd. C to E, count the letters, C, D, E. C to E is a major 3rd. It's fairly stable, sounds nice, so it's a consonant interval. If you lower that top note a half step, C to Eb (remember that b is a flat) you get a minor 3rd. Still pretty stable but a little more dissonant than the major 3rd.
listen
If you invert that major 3rd you get E to C. Count the letters, E, F, G, A, B, C, that's six. So this is a 6th. If you listen to the quality of the interval, it's a little dissonant. So E to C is a minor 6th. And we've also just learned something about inverting major and minor intervals. If you invert a major, you get a minor, and if you invert a minor, you get a major. So C to Eb was our minor 3rd, inverted Eb to C is a major 6th.
listen
On to the 2nds. C to D, major 2nd. Invert it? D to C is a minor 7th. Take that D and lower it half a step, like so: C to Db? Minor 2nd. Db to C is a major 7th. Cool?
listen
listen
That leaves one interval left. There's this nasty little mug that sits right in between the perfect 4th and the perfect 5th. It's called a tritone, or depending on the context an augmented 4th or a diminished 5th. It's pretty much the most dissonant interval in music without adding a third note. Definately hardest to sing.
listen
Note Duration, Measures and Time Signature
OK, so today I'm going to send you over to the music theory site and have you look at the two of the lessons. They are animated and really short, and you'll have a good understanding of how rhythm is notated.
http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id11_en.html
http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id12_en.html
When you're done with that, come back and I'll talk about intervals.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
More on Key Sigs
Just realized that I might need more explanation for the key sigs that use flats. They will always be a 'flat' key, with the exception of F (one flat). Two flats is B flat. three flats is E flat, four flats is A flat, etc. Make sense?
Plus, I also forgot C#. So there're two sharp keys. I suck. It has seven sharps in the key signature. So I guess it's Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds F#requenty, C#heesface, or whatever.
So why are there only two sharp keys? The reason is enharmonics. Enharmonics are notes that have the same sound but more than one name depending on the circumstances. We're basically talking about the black keys on the keyboard. The key between G and A could either be called G# or A flat.
So while you could say that your song is written in the key of G# major, you'd be playing the same notes as A flat, so why bother?
I've corrected this topic three times now. Don't be too surprised if there are more errors.
Key Signatures
Here's a quick trick to figure out the key of a song.
If the key signature uses sharps, use this mnemonic device:
Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds F#requently
So if the key signature is blank, no sharps or flats, its in the key of C major or A minor (we'll leave the minor keys alone for now...)
If it has one sharp (it'll be on the F line) then it's the key of G.
If it has two sharps (one on the F, the other on the C) then it's the key of D, and so on...
If the key signature uses flats, then you imagine that the flats are in a race, moving from left to right. The flat furthest to the right is in 1st place. The guy in 2nd place is the key. Now this doesn't work for the key of F. It only has one flat, on the B line. You're just going to have to remember that one. But all the others work.
Now try it out:
http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id83_en.html
Click on the settings and make sure all of the key signatures are selected, and only do the major ones for now. We'll get into minor keys later.
Do fifty or so and post your results to the comments.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Get some practice identifying the notes on the bass staff at:
http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id82_en.html
Try 50 and post your results to the comments.