THE RUDIMENTS OF MUSIC
SOUND: SOUND is produced by regular and irregular vibrations in the air. The irregular vibrations make NOISE while the regular ones produce a musical sound called TONE.
PITCH: Such vibrations are of different speed. The difference of the slowness or the fastness of these vibrations determine the height or the depth of the sound, which is called the Pitch. The faster the vibrations - the higher the pitch; the slower the vibrations - the lower the pitch.
NOTES: Each of these sounds of different pitches, no matter how lower or higher they may be, have definite Length or Time Duration - longer and shorter. The duration of such sounds is expressed by different symbols in music notation which are called NOTES.
DIFFERENT TYPE OF NOTES
In the Western Music system, the following SEVEN type of Notes are commonly used, of which the Whole-Note is the longest while the Sixty-Fourth-Note being the shortest.
|
i) |
SEMI-BREVE
|
 |
A
WHOLE-NOTE and the
time duration is 4 beats or 4 counts |
| ii) |
MINIM |
 |
A
HALF-NOTE and the time duration is 2
beats or 2 counts. |
| iii) |
CHROCHET |
 |
A
QUARTER-NOTE and the time duration is
1 beat or 1 count |
| iv) |
QUAVER |
 |
An
EIGHTH-NOTE and it receives 1/2
beat ( 2 notes per beat) |
| v) |
SEMI
QUAVER |
 |
A
SIXTEENTH-NOTE and receives 1/4 beat
( 4 notes per beat.) |
| vi) |
DEMI-SEMI
QUAVER |
 |
A
THIRTY SECOND-NOTE and receives 1/8 beat
( 8 notes p.b.) |
| vii) |
HEMI-DEMI-SEMI
QUAVER |
 |
A
SIXTY-FOURTH NOTE and receives 1/16 neat.(16
notes p.b) |
NOTE: Each of the above Notes represents only the RELATIVE duration of sounds. The Actual Duration depends upon the speed at which the music is played or sung.
THE STAFF & THE CLEFS
The STAFF (Stave) and the CLEFS are used to express the varying pitches of sound.
THE STAFF: The STAFF consists of FIVE parallel LINES and FOUR SPACES between these five lines. The Notes are written or placed on the LINES or in the SPACES.
The first SEVEN letters of the English Alphabet A B C D E F G are used to identify the different pitch of notes.
LINE NOTES: The Notes E G B D F are placed or written on the FIVE lines as follows:
NOTE:The Lines including the Notes placed on them are always read upwards (starting from the Ist line at the bottom) as shown in the above diagram.The higher the position of the notes on the lines or in the spaces, the higher will be their pitch. The lower their position, the lower the pitch.
SPACE NOTES: The Notes F A C E are placed or written in the FOUR spaces as follows.
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