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.