Natural

It’s time that I talk about a big important symbol that can change the whole music sheet or music but only for one note or…..perhaps the whole song.

I’m talking this thing called a “Natural”

Almost looks like two capital L’s normally and upside connecting.

Here’s what it looks like on the staff paper/music sheet.

See how it shows that the natural is placed between the note meaning the blank box has to be either in between 2 lines on have on line in the middle of the note.

See how the box is now between the line? It’s the same thing with a sharp.

You could only use this symbol is there is a sharp or flat present next to the time signature when you start on your music. It will sound simply as like you’re playing the note on the Key of C Major only it’s just for the one note though out the whole song unless you change it back to the sharp/flats in the next measure but that is up to you.

I like to thank you all for reading my blogs. It has been a pleasure your time reading these introductions I wanted to show you.

Double Symbols/Game Changers

Only one more post to end my Introduction to Music Theory.

The rest will be up to you my dear bloggers if you want to proceed or advance in Music Theory.

We talked about what you need, what to write, what should be in those lines, how to count them, what clef to use, now what happens if you add these things I like to call “Game Changers”  

I am going to talk about the 4 basic one in this blogs and one important symbol in the next blog.

For start this should be memorized in your head how each note should sound in a key signature but let’s pretend that it isn't there and show you how they look imaginable.

The flat next to a note is just simply lowering down the sound.

This sharp next to the note just raises the sound higher than before

SO those are the really starter ones but now what if we add one more flat or sharp?

How to they look like? Well this this is how they look.

That’s how the double flat looks like. Simply right? Just adding another flat to the flat making the sound much much much! lower than it was before.

Now you probably think that a double sharp has two sharps next to it but IT DOESN’T!

That’s how a double sharp looks. It just raises the sound of the note much much much! higher. Now if anyone asked how a double sharp looks like you’ll sound smart enough to answer it instead of thinking its two sharps next to a note.

Triads and Chords

Alrighty then this blog I will be talking about triads and Chords.

Triads are basically notes/circles on top of each other making a chord or smooth sound. Depending on what Key you are playing it’ll sound differently.

A chord is having two or more notes sounding together.

Im going to use the Key of C as an example for this.

Take a look at the picture below.

This is the Key of Major C exposed to you.

On the top of the picture is just one note/circle there but that specific note is whats called your “Root” Meaning it’s the main one.

On top of the one note/circle is the name of that Specific note. Remember in my previous blogs about the do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do? Well the first "do" is your “root” or what it says on the top of the picture is your Tonic. Another way of saying it is that where you started in that Key. Which in case you start at C in the Key of C Major

Now let’s look at the bottom notes/circles that are stacked up on top of each other.

Check out this picture.

These staked notes/circles are called triads.

They make a chord with the bottom note/circle as your root, the second note on top of the root is your 3^rd note, and the third note on top of the 3^rd circle is the 5^th note above.

As you can see see the first one is the root position triad which is the basic neutral chord easily because its laid out there in 1,3,5 where the root is the lowest note.

Then you got the 2^nd form of inversion called first inversion meaning the root goes up an octave and the 3^rd note goes in the bottom as the lowest note in that triad and doesn't move same as the 5^th note

Lastly the 3^rd form called second inversion meaning that again the root goes up an octave and ALSO! The 3^rd note goes up an octave also leaving the 5^th to stay where it is and becomes the lowest note in that triad.

So the root position is the neutral sound of the chords

First inversion sounds a bit higher

And Second inversion sounds the highest.

Important Terms To Checkout

In my latest blogs I have talked about some terms you should know that are the basics that should be important to know so you could be able to communicate with your musician.

Here are new terms that you should get to know before trying to communicate with future talent.

Coda: The end of a phrase meaning when you see the word “Coda” in your music sheet it means to start over in the beginning or where it tell you to start again.

Chorus: Is where the catchy phrase or lyrics come in with the instrument. In my opinion I think the chorus the first thing you should work on as in making a catchy tune or lyrics that won’t be forgotten and then from there you can work the rest of the song to match the feeling of the chorus or the build up for it.

There are four parts in Harmony and each one has a different roll from top to bottom

Soprano- The highest voice in this 4 part harmony. People with high pitched voices make a good roll for this part. Find someone that could be able to break glass with his or her voice and you got yourself a soprano.

Alto- The second highest voice in this 4 part harmony. This is more like a support for the soprano. Everyone always has to have some support no matter what it is in music.

Tenor- The second lowest in this 4 part harmony.

Bass- The lowest in this 4^th part Harmony 

An example of a bass of the 4 harmonies is in the video of my previous blog of the guy with the lowest voice in the world and for soprano it would be Ariana Grande or Adam Levine

Intervals

On this blog I will be talking about intervals.

Intervals are distances between two notes.

Each interval will have the same distance no matter what key it is. For this example I will be using the Key of C Major that has no sharps or flats.

So as you see up there shows 2 notes/circles/whole notes where number 1 has two notes next to each other. As number 2 has the right side note up one space higher than the note on the left.

Soooooo here’s a list of the first 8 intervals are called.

Perfect Unison – 1 P1

Major Second - 2^nd M2

Major Third - 3^rd M3

Perfect Fourth - 4^th P4

Perfect Fifth - 5^th P5

Major Sixth - 6^th M6

Major Seventh - 7^th M7

Perfect Octave - 8ve P8

The easy way to know which interval it is just simply count the spaces it went up. Starting from the note where it first starts for this example in the picture above of the Key of C Major starts at the C note in the bottom of the staff papper that where C is originally at.

Now looking at it here we got M2, M3, M,6, and M7. Just simply count how many spaces up it takes from the left note to go where the other note is above.

The reason why there is space between them is because one will sound higher than the other. It’s the difference between pitch basically.

If there is anything troubling you please inform so that I could make this more simpler to understand.

Review

I have just found an old book that contains notes on music theory when I first started here at the Art Institutes of Chicago.

So this blog is a little review.

If any of you people have had the great Mr. Malcolm for music theory then you could be able to remember this just by looking at the blog or if you happen to stumble upon the same notes I will be showing here.

Here are terms that you I personally think you should know. These are all coming straight from my Music theory Notebook.

4 Musical properties of sound are:

1.     Pitch- High or low (frequency)

2.     Duration- Time/length

3.     Dynamics- Volume or Amplitude (force)

4.     Timber- Different sound ( ex: Male voice and female voice) Or tone color

There are only eight notes in a key.

Have you ever heard or remember singing “do re mi fa so la ti do”? well that singing it just normally you are in the Key of C which have no sharps or flats. I never knew that was theory before but now it is because once you know what key you are in or want to be in then you can practice yourself to see how high or low your voice should go.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Do	Re	Mi	Fa	So	La	Ti	Do

The most important note is the fifth (5^th)

Rhythm- the organization of musical sounds and silences.

Beat- the basic unit of rhythmic measurement.

Tempo- Speed at which the beat moves.

Why is Syncopation needed?

Why do we need?

Who gives a damn?

Well if you want to know how to communicate with your artist and build up a friendship that will make him or her come back and create more tracks/albums/EP. The artist will care especially and he could tell all his other friends that are musicians that he or she has recommended you.

What I am doing in this blog is to help your readers understand the basics and tell you why its important to know at least what the musician is talking about or better yet to help him improve.

What if the musician is singing to fast or to slow? You could suggest him to sing faster by telling him “oh can we try singing the verse in quarter notes or sixteenth notes?” or slow as in “Hey how about we try the intro in half notes?” or one words could take up four seconds which is a whole note/bar.

You can’t get everything in one take. Let’s face it. Whenever you’re making music or recording something your ask yourself. “This sounds great” but then you ask someone to listen to it especially other Audio majors they will tell you’re the truth and say that something is off or this part is to fast or to slow. Then you start losing their attention because of it. Don’t be sad about it because if something is wrong then that means something needs to be improved in order to make sound better.

We audio majors are one big mission to make our listeners enjoy what we have created. I have always wondered why some bands take like about a year or 2 years for one album or an EP. They want their music to sound perfect or well-adjusted for listener to buy/download and end up going to concerts or buying merch.

What would you do? Would you release your music when you finished recording everything or would you rather wait until your music is ready?

What to write? (continued)

I wonder what you’re thinking about those black circles with a line on them

"Is the dotted black 1 beat?"

"Is the blank circles a whole 4 beats?"

"What are those?'

"Where do they come from?"

The answers are:

Yes it is one beat

Yes that blank circle is 4 beats

Those circle with sticks on them are called stems

Here is a picture of they actually look like....

There are 2 more Musical stems but these 5 are the main ones focused in writing music unless you want to be advanced.

Soooooo this is how they all work is that each note has a specific timing.

The way they are counted like in the last blog 1-2-3-4 this time its more like:

 1-e-+-a-2-e-+-a-3-e-+a-4-e-+a.

This is called Syncopation.

The things next to the notes saying rest is the same thing as the note but they go in silence as in like it says “Rest” on the whole note so those 4 seconds gives you time to take a breather and prepare for the next measure.

A whole note is all 4 beats so the chord or singer sings for four seconds on the same note or words on the key it’s on. So if you go for a high pitch you must maintain that high pitch for 4 seconds.

A half note is a 1-2 so in a measure the half notes make 4 seconds and a measure. Same thing with the rest but if there is a different note then you had 2 seconds to rest and be read for the next not or measure.

A quarter note is what you saw in my previous blog for my project where I had to count ho many notes there are in one measure. It’s basically one second to be in precise. Same with the res just one second to catch a quick inhale or exhale.

The eight note is different meaning it’s not a second but half a second meaning it goes like 1-a-2-3-a-4-a. Like saying 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi 3 Mississippi 4 Mississippi. Now the rest has to be a quick one like moving your finger slightly to change the pitch.

Lastly the sixteenth note is between that Mississippi examples I showed up there. Like a ¼ of that one second. It’s tricky at first but as you progress you’ll learn how to interpret that note.

What to write?

In my previous blogs I have talked about what you need now its time to answer that question “what do I write in those lines?” The next step is to figure what key you want to use. Now then you got your treble clef on standby in your staff paper the second thought is “how do I measure the rhythm in this?”

 The answer to that question is with number but with one on top of the other. This picture will show you what I mean…..

These are called Time Signatures and those number go next to your treble or bass clef.

There are nine time signature that I know of but I want to focus on this because it is the most common one in music.

Now the way how this works it to pay attention to the song you are listening and count to four then count again. GO 1-2-3-4 and see if you can catch the rhythm of the song you are listening to.

The reason why that is once you count to 1-4 and each one is called a beat and after once you count to four that is what we call a “measure” depending on what time signature you use but in this case it’s on the 4^th beat.

 For people who get paid counting this must be easy but remember they have to count back and forth for the whole song which could be time consuming but that depends how fast/long they sing it and what part gets the 4^th beat.

Not everyone can get it one go. I for one am one of those people where I had to constantly go back and forth counting on which took me a while. This is an example of what I did in my Music Theory class in college where I had to count the chorus and figure out how high/low/slow/fast the rhythm goes.

Music and Image

This is a short audio video my thoughts about what is more important between image and music. I’ll admit I am not good with Windows Movie Maker but I tried my best to  make this video for blogger.

Flats

Now that sharps have been talked about there is an other symbol I want to talk about and that my fellow bloggers is whats called a "Flat note"

These also have their order starting from the left and going up and down up and down slowly going towards the end on the right side. There are only seven flats and seven sharps. Why you ask? because there are only seven Keys OF COURSE!

How it sounds it really weird in a way where you question yourself if you can hear it or not.

Take A look of this guy wit his low pitched voice

Seeing this video made me want to go somewhere to find a "Throat Specialist" and ask how my vocal cords look. He explains how his vocal chords are twice as humanly possible which is pretty interesting.

Sharps

For this post I want to write about these little monsters Called sharps

It is always important to know which Key you are playing before just jumping in. Each key has a number of sharps not just all except int he last one "The key of C#" Her is a little Picture that can help you understand which sharp is what.

Now this picture show you which letter the sharps is and its in order of the circle of fifths. As you progress reading more and more music theory the more sharps the higher the sound might be.

How high can one person go? well take a look pop singers like Adam Levine from Maroon 5 or Ariana Grande.

These 2 people could go even higher than that in there other songs but I want to show you how it sounds. I would like to say that Ariana Grande has used some software in her song that make her pitch sound even higher BUT! some work and some don't like that Whistle effect made her sound way to high enough for me to get a headache but shows how high it could make you sound in the video above. I honestly didn't like it. What I like about Adam Levine is that you can hear more of his voice more than like reverb or delay. Some slight echoes but it stills sounds good but that's my view of him.

Circle Of FIfths

Alrighty so I have talked about why and what need in order to make music BUT!!!!......in the blog before you see a treble and a bass clef with lines in it and see letters. They are a very important detail in music theory and here is why.

Each letter indicates a certain note or to better to understand “note” is pretty much how high or how low you need to sound in your voice and instrument. 

Now it’s time for the Big Boy to come out. By that I mean a simple chart that is more like your manual.

 The capital letters that are shown in the chart are called Majors. They are most commonly announced as Key of (insert letter you wish to use) for example “C Major or Key of C Major”. Now it is important that we have to get the Circle of fifths memorized. Before we can start making some music we have to know what Key we are going to use. Each key is different but has the same use of the letters in order in the previous pictures shown below.

Just like I said before in my previous blog about the screaming example that particular screaming could be in any of those keys or note if you would prefer since your yelling a high pitched noise.

If you want to get in touch with me or anything else these are all the other social media sites and other electronic consoles/Devices I’m in:

Facebook: Kevin Maggot Ramirez

Instagram: Mockingbird42

Youtube: kevin901849

Google+: Kevin Ramirez

Email: kevinramirez10@yahoo.com

Klout: Kevin Ramirez

Xbox: Mockingbird42

Wii U: Mockingbird42

About Me

Staff Paper

Alrighty then fellow bloggers the first thing you MUST know before ever writing notes on that sheet of paper is what kind of paper you need?

This Sheet of paper is called a “staff paper” you can either do this or you just draw the six lines on anything and anytime but this is most preferred to a musician that you want to write a song for. This paper would be more easily readable then a piece of napkin. Now since we know what paper this is what do we write on first? The first thing we need to do is decide what clef we are going to use. A clef is more like an indicator on how high or low you should sing, strum your guitar, and how pick/strum your bass. The most common clef are these bad boys here….

Treble Clef

Bass Clef

Keep in mind that these clefs aren't the same. Treble clef is mostly for people who sing high and Bass clef is for people that sing low.

Now since we know what are they and how they look like where do we put them? Where? And how? Do we put them? This picture will show you exactly how its suppose to look.

The next question you’ll ask yourself is that you now know what you need and what needs to be on that paper so what’s next? The answer to that is to know what each of those spaces mean or what needs to be drawn in there. I really hope you know your alphabet because we are going to need A, B, C, D, E, F and G but where do we put them or in what order? This picture will help you where to put them at.

Introduction

Hello dear viewers my name is Kevin Ramirez

               

I will talking about a little bit by bit about music theory here and there and ask why this is important? Why indeed? Well the answer is simply. 

TO CREATE MUSIC!! OF COURSE. 

We need to learn some basic music theory in order to read music sheets or compose music of our own. Think of how much money that is being put into that piece of paper just to read so anyone can go out there and learn the song that YOU! Yes YOU! Created. 

We may not know it but music theory is everywhere. The way we speak, the way we communicate

with one another, the tones in our voice of how low or high they are and how to play an instrument. 

One example you’re across a street and trying to get someone’s attention but they don’t hear. What

do you do? You yell of course but the way in how music theory works is that you’re yelling is

somewhere in that sheet of paper as in you’re doing a music video. I for one didn't knew what music

theory was until I toke a class in high school and oh man….I was so lost and didn't knew what my

teacher was talking about. He broke it down for anyone to start to learn the basic and show how

other musicians use this music theory or “circle of fifths” that I will show you on my upcoming blogs.

              

 That s all for my introduction.