Basically...

Western music today is based on 12 notes. These notes are semitones apart. A semitone is the smallest interval that occurs between any two notes.

Natural notes are named by letters of the alphabet from A to G. So that's A B C D E F G then back to A, just that the last A is an octave higher than the first A. An ocatave is the distance between two notes that share the same sound at the next higher or lower pitch... hmm... best to just hear it... [click here to hear an octave]

"But that only makes 7 notes!" I hear you cry. And yes, you are right. But just hang on a sec, it'll all become clear soon... I hope.

Between any two letters is a tone (two semitones) except from B to C and E to F, which are semitones apart. This encompases all 12 notes. But what do you call the notes 'in-between'?

I highlighted 'natural notes' for a reason. You can use these as anchor points. When you say 'C' you mean 'C natural'. The 'in-between' notes are named through...

Accidentals...
Accidentals are used to indicate semitone differences. A letter without an accidental (besides natural) are natural notes (thus 'C' refers to 'C natural'). To denote the notes that are not natural, ie, the notes 'in-between' two basic accidentals are used:
Flat, 1 semitone below
Sharp, 1 semitone above

Natural, is used to signify a natural note. It's application will be explained shortly.

I stress that I've described Western music because, like most things in this world, music is not restricted to the West and does exist in other cultures and those cultures do not necessarily do thing like the West.

cont...

Ok. Now, lets move to the lines and dots.



The lines make what is called a staff. There are 5 lines in a staff. The dots represent the notes and can lie either on a line or in the space between lines.

At the beginning of every staff is a clef. Different instrument can use different clefs depending on their register. We will work in treble clef since that is the most common clef used today.

The notes that lie on the line are as follows:

A silly little mnemonic you can use to remember this is:
Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit.

I told you it's silly.

The notes that lie between the lies are:

Remembering this one's easy: FACE. We've all got one.

Ok. Now, if you want to write in notes that go lower than the 'Every' 'E' or higher than 'FACE' E, you need start adding in little lines. All you are doing is continuing the lines further up or down. Doing that, you can continue to add notes on or between lines.

Here is the friendliest scale you will ever encounter, C major:

As you can see, each step up from space to line or line to space is 1 natural note higher.

I'll finish on something interesting, well, sort of.

Here you can see how those 'in-between' notes are actually written. One rule in manuscript writing is that once a note has been written with an accidental, each time that note reappears in the bar the accidental still applies. In the above example if the second 'A' didn't have the 'natural' sign before it it would still be an A flat. This is why the natural sign is significant. It signifies that a note is indeed natural.

Finally, I will mention enharmonics. They sound fancy, but they're not. Basically, enharmonics are two notes that while written differently, sound the same. The G sharp sounds the same as the A flat, the A sharp sounds the same as the B flat.

I'll leave it there, at least for now. I hope this was helpful for you Radiomuters who are interested in learning a bit of music theory.

I'm sure there are people out there who can add to or ammend things I've said. I'm here to learn too! So more! more!

For the lines of the bass clef:

Good Burritos Don't Fall Apart.

Hey Papa.

I'd use "register" instead of "pitch."

Sorry, I have OCD.

Yeah, no questions or feedback. The C major scale is a little too much for the average Radiomuter. Wimps.

I have a feeling this forum will be quite useful to me in the future...

... some of this stuff looks vaguely familiar... but I thought the bass clef lines stood for
Great Big Dogs Fight Animals... somebody lied to me, I think...


--- drsquid


Squidquote of the moment follows:

I'm just living my life one dentist appointment at a time.

I used to use
Great Britain Does Fuck All

this reminds me of why the only theory i've ever learned and was able to remember was the B & E rule in relation to moving chord shapes up or down a guitar neck.

You mean powerchords or barrechords.

Don't worry about it, you don't have to read music to learn theory.

Scales are useful when starting out because it's very clear rules about which notes work with which. Later on you learn how to break those scales and use all 12 tones and yet it still sounds good.

C major is basic CDEFGAB like doh ray me fah so la tee doh.

If you play the same scale but have your base note as D you get DEFGABC. It contains the same notes but has a different feel, it's more minor and sadder. Starting A scale on a different note like this is called a mode, and they all have names. The one that starts from D is called the "Dorian" mode and is used a lot in funk.

So I'll list the modes of C major for you here with the base note..

C = Ionian (normal C major)
D = Dorian
E = Phrygian
F = Lydian
G = Mixolydian
A = Aeolian (normal A minor)
B = Locrian

That's a bit to start