Course Music: A Beginner's Guide

Topic: Pitch
Lesson : Pitch and octaves
Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. We have a good sense of what high and low pitched sound
are, even if we've not spoken about them in this way.
All sounds are created when an object vibrates and the pitch of a sound depends on the pitch of this
vibration. The faster the vibration the higher in pitch the sound.
If we double the speed of vibration (or frequency) of a sound then something interesting happens.
The two pitches will sound similar and will blend together well. This special relationship is known as
an octave and is a central part of almost all music around the world.

Lesson : The 12 Pitches
In Western music, we split the octave up into 12 different pitches. These twelve pitches are used to
create almost all of our music.
One of the best ways to learn about how we think about these twelve pitches is to look at the piano
keyboard where they are clearly laid out for us.
The first thing you might notice is that the white and black keys follow a certain pattern and this
helps us to understand how the 12 basic pitches are organised. The white notes on the piano are
named after the first seven letters of the alphabet - A B C D E F G.
The black notes fill in the pitches between these letter named notes. We talk about these notes as
being - flats and sharps.

Lesson : Tones and semitones
A useful way to measure pitch is to work out how far apart two notes are in terms of their pitch.
We already know about octaves as one measure of pitch, but what about for smaller steps up and
down in pitch.
To measure these distances we can talk about tones and semitones. On a keyboard instrument like a
piano or organ each of the keys is one semitone apart. The distance between C and C#, for example,
is one semitone.
A tone is simply a distance in pitch of two tones. F to G, for example is a distance of a tone.

Lesson : Introducing Melody
Melody is such a central element of almost all music. I probably don't even need to explain what a
melody is, you probably already know.
A melody is a series of notes brought together in a particular rhythm to produce a memorable tune.
The melody is perhaps the most important element of any piece of music and so composers spend a
lot of time thinking up the best melodies they can.

topic : scales
Lesson -The major scale
If we were to use all twelve pitches of Western music all the time, our music might sound a bit
confused and overwhelming. That's because we tend to use pitches in smaller groups called scales.
The pitches of a scale tend to work well together and can be used to give our music a particular feel
or character.
Most of the music we tend to hear is based on either a major or minor scale. In this lesson, we have a
look at the major scale, what is sounds like and how we can build one for ourselves.

Lesson Natural minor scale
Sometimes we want to express darker emotions in music and the major scale isn't going to cut it. We
might consider using minor scales instead.
Minor scales sound darker and more sorrowful than major scales. There are few different flavours of
minor scale that we tend to use.
Lesson The harmonic minor scale
Another flavour of minor scale is the harmonic minor scale. It will be very useful to know about when
later we try and add harmony to pieces using a minor scale.
Lesson : The melodic minor scale
You might find that the harmonic minor scale is a bit angular at the top of the scale to write smooth
melodies. This is where the melodic minor scale comes in handy. It has a slightly different pattern of
notes at the top of the scale which some composers have found easier to use to write melodies.
But, if you're composing, you're in the driving seat, you should use what sounds good to you! Mozart
composed melodies with both the harmonic and melodic flavours of minor scale.

Lesson : Whole tone scale
A whole tone scale is very useful to know about. It is often used to produce a dreamy, fantasy-like
character to music and is used in film and television sound tracks to indicate moving from one
dimension to another - a flashback or dream sequence, for example.
A whole tone scale is really easy to build as well. Instead of a combination of semitone and tone
steps, like the major and minor scales, this scale is just a series of tones. This means that actually
there are only two different versions of the whole tone scale, making it very easy to remember.
It is a good idea, just like with any scale to try and learn what this scale looks like and sounds like
starting on a twelve different pitches.
In this video we have a look at the natural minor scale.

Lesson : scale degrees
Now we know a few scales, it will be a good idea to learn about scale degrees. Scale degrees help us
count the steps of a scale as it goes from start to end.
For example, in the key of C major, the first scale degree with be a C, the third scale degree will be an
E and the fifth scale degree will be a G.

Lesson : Scale Degree Names
Now we know about scale degrees, it might be a good idea to get to learn their names. That's right,
every step of a major and minor scale has a special name.
They might seem a bit difficult to remember at first, but you'll get there in the end. Every scale starts
on the tonic note (1) and is then followed by the supertonic (2), mediant (3), subdominant (4),
dominant (5), submediant (6) and leading note (7).
I remember these by using the mnemonic - "To see more sheep, don't say lunch", the first letters of
each of these words matches up with - tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant,
submediant and leading note.


Topic : Rythm
Lesson : Getting started with Rythm
What is rhythm? Well, rhythm is a very broad term to describe the way we organise sounds in time.
One of the special things about music is that it takes place over a set period of time and to really
master music we need to develop our ability to measure out sounds over a particular period of time.

It is rhythm that keeps an army marching in step together and also makes us want to dance. It is a
very powerful tool, but also very simple.

Lesson : what is beat
Almost all the music we hear is built on the foundation of a beat. A music's beat helps us to measure
out how long or short sounds in the music should be and how they should be arranged.

Even when music is slow and it isn't always obvious, there will normally still beat ticking along under
the music. Beats tend to be regular and steady even when the music sounds uneven and irregular.

In this video, we have a go at measuring some different beats.

Lesson Meet the metronome
You've probably seen a metronome before. There are old ones with a pendulum that swings from
side to side and new digital ones that beep. But all of these devices are designed to help you
establish a regular and steady beat.

Sometimes musicians find it useful to practice their playing along with a metronome to make sure
that they aren't rushing ahead or lagging behind the beat.

After lots of practice musicians tend to develop their own internal sense of time and beat which
keeps their playing in time.

Lesson Counting in beats
Have you ever head someone count in a piece of music with "One and a two and a". Why are they
doing this?

They're doing what is called counting in. It helps all of the musicians in a group play together it also
reveals something special about how musicians create their music.

Counting in beats is a how a musician can measure out sounds, and as such create a specific rhythm.

If we can count beats, we can measure a sound that is one beat, two beats or three beats long, for
example.

Lesson lets make some rythms
Now it is time to make some rhythms of our own. This can be as simple as just one long sound.

In this video we'll have a go at measuring out some sounds to make simple rhythms and hopefully
afterwards you'll feel confident to try composing some simple rhythms of your own!

Lesson note lenght names
Now we've had a go at composing some rhythms, it would be good if we could share these with
other people. Musicians have special words they use to describe notes of different lengths. All of
these relate to how long in beats a particular sound should be.

In this lesson we learn about whole notes (which last for four beats), half notes (which last for two
beats and quarter notes (which only last for one beat).
Some more note lengths to learn here with this lesson covering eighth notes (which last for just half
and beat) and sixteenth notes (which last for a quarter of a beat).

These notes are called eighth and sixteenth notes because we can fit 8 eighth notes into one whole
note and 16 sixteenth notes into one whole note.

It is these shorter notes that often help a piece of music to have a groove and make us want to
dance.

Lesosn build a drumbeat
A good way to learn about rhythm is to try and compose a drum beat. If you've ever seen a drum kit,
you'll know that it contains lots of different drums. Each of these can play a different rhythm pattern
to add to the music.

In this lesson we have a look at some simple drum beats. Hopefully you'll feel confident that you
could write a drum beat of your own!

Lesson introducing meter
Meter is a term used by musicians to describe larger groups that repeat throughout a piece of music.

You might have sometimes tried to count along with a piece of music, for a lot of music you'll be able
to this by counting 1, 2, 3 and 4 over and over again.

The reason this works is that the music is built on repeating patterns of four beats. When this is the
case the music can be said to have a meter of 4. In this video we look at some other examples of
music with a meter of 2 (meaning the music is split into two-beat groups) and 3 (meaning the music
is divided up into three-beat groups).

Lesson triplets and jazz eights
In this lesson we look at a triplet. A triplet is when we split a beat up into three equal pieces -
remember that an Eighth note is half beat and a Sixteenth note is a quarter of a beat. A triplet lasts
for a third of a beat.

Triplets can help give music a laid back a groovy rhythm. This might be why they are used a lot in jazz
music.

Topic Harmony