November 21 2021

The Secret to Modes

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Before we dive into modes, here are a few basics that might make it easier to understand modes.

The Major Scale

A major scale consists of 7 notes. Each note is called a ‘scale degree’.

The intervals between a major scales’ scale degrees are TT 1/2 TTT 1/2.

T = Tone = 2 frets

1/2 = Semi-tone = 1 fret

Therefore the distance between C and D in the C major scale is a T.

D to E = T = Tone

E to F = 1/2 = Semi-tone

F to G = T

G to A = T

A to B = T

B to C = 1/2

This is what gives us that familiar major scale sound we all know from singing “do re mi da sol la si do” which literally translates into the American alphabet C D E F G A B C. The “do re mi” is the European system while the alphabet is the American system.

The above ‘formula’ can be applied to any starting note and this is what causes some notes to be sharp or flat. In the key of C Major there are no ‘accidentals’ (sharps or flats) however if you were starting your scale on A, it would require an F, C and G sharp for the major scale formula (or pattern) to be met.

A B C D E F G A would require an F, C and G sharp (depicted by a # whereas a flat would be depicted by a ‘b’).

Therefore, the A major scale would be:

A B C# D E F# G# for there to be a T between A and B or B and C# otherwise the distance between B and C would be a 1/2 when the formula calls for a T. Raising the C to a C# therefore creates the necessary space (2 frets) between them to sound the way a major scale should sound. The same applies to the F and G notes.

Scale Degrees

Scale degrees are depicted using numbers therefore the first scale degree in the key of C major is 1 (C), the second is 2 (D) and so on until the 8th degree (C) which is either called the ‘octave’ (8) or the 1 again as it is exactly 8 notes away from the 1st note and also the same note as the 1st note. In the key of C major, or the C major scale, the 1st scale degree is C and the 8th is also C. The notes are C D E F G A B C.

When 2 notes are played together, this is called an ‘interval’ (such as C and E played together) however when 2 or more intervals are played together this is called a chord.

Chords

If you build a 3 note chord (triad) over each scale degree of a major scale you have 7 chords. The ‘quality’ (minor, major, diminished, augmented, or perfect) of the 2 intervals between the 1st and 3rd scale degree and the 1st and 5th scale degree) will determine the quality of the chord.

In a major scale, the chords are depicted using roman numerals. Uppercase roman numerals refer to major chords while lowercase roman numerals refer to minor chords when using a number system to identify chords and specifically what function a chord will play. When using a chord name for example: a C major chord would simply be labeled as C while a C minor chord would be labeled as Cm. That said, this does not let us know what position or what function the chord holds. Is C Major the first chord of your key or is it the fourth or fifth chord since any one of these would be a major chord.

The 7 chords of a major key are :

I ii iii IV V vi vii*

The I, IV and V chords are major chords while the ii, iii, and vi chords are minor.

Major chords consist of a major 3rd and perfect 5th interval (as in C to E and C to G) while minor chords consist of a minor 3rd and a perfect 5th interval (such as C to Eb and C to G.

The vii chord is an exception however as although it consists of a minor 3rd between B and D, the interval between B and F is not the same distance as C to G in terms of fret distance. It is a diminished 5th, a flat 5th, or tritone, therefore the vii chord is a diminished chord.

Modes

Most people learn that modes are basically scale names for a scale’s different start and end points. For example, playing the notes C D E F G A B C is a C major scale and is often also called the C Ionian mode. Playing the same notes while starting on D instead (D E F G A B C D) would therefore be called the D Dorian mode. Each progressive start note would then have its own name:

C Ionian

D Dorian

E Phrygian

F Lydian

G Mixolydian

A Aeolian

B Locrian

The problem however is that people just stop here and assume this is what modes are all about when in reality this is not only the beginning but actually incorrect altogether.

Playing a scale from a different scale degree is simply ‘a beginning from a different scale degree’. There is definitely a relationship between each scale degree and the mode name that is mistakenly attributed to it however it is incorrect to call a set of notes by a mode name as a mode does not refer to the scale itself but rather to a mood or style that results from a specific note that will be used as a tonal center for a piece of music.

In other words: a mode is a ‘fashion’ a ‘style’ or a ‘mood’ but since it’s difficult to indicate whether it is ‘happy’ ‘sad’ or ‘angry’ since it will trigger different feelings in different people (depending on other variables or circumstances), a neutral name is given to it so that it can be named without misleading someone in a particular direction or emotion. Some say Dorian sounds like Santana however it doesn’t need to be the case. In fact, this is a case of the chicken or the egg as Santana does happen to play in the Dorian mode a lot therefore leading one to believe that Dorian = Santana whereas it is really Santana = Dorian instead, if that makes sense. Dorian however can still sound happy or sad, as well as angry if the rhythm, tempo, timbre or choice of instruments and even actual lyrics are such that they lead you to feel that particular emotion. What you’re feeling however is Dorian and that is an important indicator or instruction for a musician if you need to communicate this. The actual scale you choose to express that Dorian feeling through however is not determined by the mode name. In fact, you may play the major scale with your root note on the sixth string regardless of what mode you’re in as the scale or key only determine what set of notes will be strongest or safest to play. The scale position or pattern you choose may be completely and solely related to where you feel most comfortable playing on the guitar or bass neck.

How do we create the ‘mood’?

Before we go further it’s important to state that there is also a difference between rhythm and mood. One example is that you might choose to play a Disco beat which has a particular rhythm and you may even decide that the tempo will be 120bpm … but what emotion will the music have? Is it a sad lyric, an angry one? What if it’s instrumental? How do we communicate or choose an emotion without requiring the band to listen to your song first? That’s where modes are very helpful as you can play a Disco rhythm at 120bpm, in A Dorian and that will automatically instruct the drummer, bassist and guitarist on what to do. With this info alone you can literally just count in 4 beats (at 120bpm) and everyone should know exactly what to play as a first note as well as what do do for the next 3-5 minutes!

So what is it that makes everyone know what to do?

1. It will be a Disco rhythm

2. It will be 120bpm

3. The first and recurrent note and tonal center is A

4. Since this is A Dorian and Dorian is built using the 2nd scale degree as the tonal center, we must be in the key of G major and can therefore play any notes from that key

5. The IV and V chords that will be implied regardless of the actual chords or notes being played will therefore be C and D major since they are the IV and V chords in G major.

The tonal center (in point #3) together with implying the IV and V chords (in point #5) are the main elements to establish the mode as the two major chords of a key (sub dominant and dominant) will establish the key while the repeated ‘home note’ or tonal center will force a particular feeling… the mode.

A Dorian would therefore include a combination of C major (IV), D major (V) and the A note or A minor chord (ii). Often you will see these chords written as follows: C/A or D/A which indicate that although an C chord is played, the A note is the tonal center (as would be the case for D/A). Note that the notes of C major are C-E-G therefore by adding an A note in the bass you would be playing A-C-E-G which is an Amin7 chord. The notes of D/A would be D-F#-A with an A in the bass which would simply be a D major chord with a double A note.

G Ionian = C/G and D/G

A Dorian = C/A and D/A

B Phrygian = C/B and D/B

C Lydian = C/C and D/C

D Mixolydian = C/D and D/D

E Aeolian = C/E and D/E

F# Locrian = C/F# and D/F#

Trick: to remember the order of the modes, the following phrase is often used:

If Dora Plays Like Me All’s Lost

If = Ionian

Dora = Dorian

Plays = Phrygian

Like = Lydian

Me = Mixolydian

All’s = Aeolian

Lost = Locrian

What’s left to know?

The only items left would be to know ‘how to start’ playing (count in for a full band or if someone will start first before others join in), to listen for cues on who might take a lead or to the dynamics (playing softer of playing louder, quieter, or fuller, punches, accents, tempo changes, key changes) and finally ‘how to end’ (fade off, punch, or just one instrument making a final statement or conclusion).

This last portion is where the musicians will get to know one another and what will make this group unique. There is no reason for one person alone to be the sole ‘leader’ as anyone must be able to influence the direction of a creative jam however it may help to have a specific person who can bring the band back or that might be able to provide a cue for beginnings and endings. Besides this, the rest is really a matter of how well you know your instrument and how well you can communicate the melodies or emotions you feel at a given moment.

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November 14 2021

Chord Diagrams

Chord Diagrams are basically diagrams that show you which notes (strings and frets) to hold down to play a specific chord. The diagrams will either be in a legend at the top or bottom of a song chart OR the chord diagram for the specific chord will show directly above the staff, tablature, or lyrics of a song as shown in the image below. 

Note that the chord name appears above the chord diagram. The diagram is made up of the following parts: The Strings (from thickest to thinnest in descending order from left to right), the nut location, the frets and the black dot showing which fret to place your fingers on. Note that in the image below, I have also include the fret markers so that you can better orient yourself if you compare it to a guitar neck however the fret markers don’t usually show on chord diagrams as they are too similar to fret notes. 

The chord diagram below shows how a chord will look. Strings that do not have a black dot on them (in this case : string 6) are not to be played. 

Here are a few more examples of various diagrams. The white circles above the diagram indicate that the string is open … which means there are no frets that are to be held down. You would still strum this string however you are playing the note that the nut represents. 

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November 7 2021

Tablature

Since standard notation requires one to learn to sight read music and since rock ‘n’ rollers of the 1960’s probably didn’t want anything to do with the ‘classic’ approach to learning music since rock ‘n’ roll was probably the first rebellious period in modern music … musicians didn’t care much about standard notation and looked for a different way to notate music for guitar (and bass) that might be easier for them. The concept of tablature is very simple: since a guitar has 6 strings and the fret positions are always referred to using numbers, six lines are used to represent the six strings (4 lines if playing a 4 string bass etc) and the notes themselves are simply numbers representing the fret that is to be held. Tablature is often shown just below standard notation so that a player can also see the equivalent music in standard notation format however depending on what is being displayed (ie. if the timing of the passage you are about to play is obvious), you may also see only tablature. Similar to standard notation, tablature also uses bar lines to divide the music into smaller chunks according to the time signature. There are two types of tablature that you will see. The first is the true tablature format and looks more official and usually also has the standard notation above it and the second is a notepad text format where the lines/strings are simply dashes with numbers on them. This is a much simpler format that allows you to notate music without needing a tablature making program.

In the image below, the left tablature (tabs) are the ‘official’ tabs with the standard notation above and the tabs below. On the right, you can see the notepad version of the same music. 

The format on the left is the format you will see in magazines or in some online official notation/tablature providers. They usually also include a Tablature Legend so that you can refer to it as needed however you can easily just search the web for ‘guitar tablature legend’ and you’ll see a few versions of the legend. The format on the right however doesn’t always include a legend as this is a format that is used by ‘regular joes’ that don’t have tablature creation software. You’ll see a lot of these types of tabs online as well as in the 1way2rock lessons therefore below is the notepad version of the tablature legend.

Note however that we will not go into too much detail about each technique or note listed here since we will deal with guitar techniques in a later lesson as well. If you’re just starting to play, this can confuse or discourage you at this point. Having said this, don’t be too concerned about the terms you see in the legend as most of these names are more intimidating than they are difficult to play. Just take things step by step. We’ll get there! The most important thing right now is to understand how standard notation differs from tablature and that there are multiple ways of notating music. Understanding how the strings and frets are displayed is the goal so that we can move ahead to get you playing.

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October 31 2021

Standard Notation

The standard notation is the notation that everyone has seen at least once in their lives. It is the most common form of notation that we encounter very early on in our lives as it has become a symbol of music thanks to the great Classical composers of our time. We will not cover any advanced details of standard notation since we don’t need full knowledge at this time. We simply need to understand the most basic concepts so that you can recognize the differences in notation formats as well as the upcoming lessons. Please understand that while standard notation is considered ‘standard’ it is by no means ‘simple’ but can actually be a huge topic. In fact, standard notation is the ultimate form of notation as there is literally a symbol, instruction, or notation for everything that any instrument can do. We simply don’t need all that information at this time.

Standard Notation therefore consists of 5 horizontal lines. Each line and space represent a note.

When looking at standard notation, from left to right, the first symbol you will see is the ‘clef’. Coincidentally, the word ‘clef’ is the French translation to the word ‘key’ however the word ‘clef’ in this case specifically refers to the symbols you first see on the staff (single term for staves) and although it does not refer to the ‘key’ of a song as we described in the lesson about Keys, it does provide an idea of the note ranges of a song. There are 3 different types of clefs and the only way you can really understand how they look is to refer to the following image as I don’t know how to actually describe the shapes of these symbols.

The first clef is the Treble or G clef. Just as we saw in the lessons about tone where ‘treble’ is used to describe higher frequencies, the treble clef is used for notes or phrases that fall within the higher range of pitches. The reason it is called a G clef is that the bottom part of the symbol wraps around the line where the G note would be as shown in the following image.

Similarly, the bass clef or F clef refers to the staff line representing the F note (the line between the colon or the line on which the swirl begins on).  Contrary to the ‘treble clef’ the ‘bass clef’ is used for lower ranges of notes and the ‘alto’ or C clef is used for mid-ranged instruments. The staff line that runs through the center of the alto clef is designated as a C note therefore musicians interpreting music with a C clef will need to use the middle line as the C note. The clef can be moved higher up or lower than the position in the image above. Doing so would change the position of the C note and the musician will therefore need to adapt to playing the music according where the C note is indicated.

The reason the clefs are used is that some instrument ranges fall above or below the standard treble clef range therefore the notation of those instruments would be very difficult to read if left as is. By adding the appropriate clef at the beginning of a staff, the musician will have a better idea of what ranges the music spans and will also have a reference note (G, F or C) for them to be able to correctly play the notes that follow. For very high or low ranges, the treble and bass clef sometimes have a small number 8 above or below them. This would simply mean that the expected range should be an octave above or below that which the clef is pointing to.

In the above image you can see that both the treble and bass clef are being used. For piano players this usually refers to which ranges of notes are to be played with the right or left hand as the right hand would player higher ranged notes (therefore the treble clef staff) and the left hand would play the notes on the staff with the bass clef. Standard Notation includes many symbols as there is a way to describe or indicate every imaginable technique since the notation would be the visual representation of the music. We cannot go through all the symbols in this lesson however I can almost guarantee you that if your instruments of choice are guitar and bass, you might find it easier to use a different type of notation that suits those instruments more. Before moving on to the next notation type I do want to point out 2 more elements in the image above. The next symbol appearing after the clefs is called the ‘key signature’. The 3 pound symbols, called ‘sharps’, indicate the key of the song therefore if the example of Mary Had A Little Lamb had this information, there would be no guessing about what key the song might be in. The 3 sharps would automatically mean that this is in the key of A Major … or any other key that shares the same notes as A Major. In fact, the key signature sharps (or flats) always appear in a similar order therefore not only would you be able to instantly know that this is in A Major, but you would also know that the 3 sharps are F, C, and G as the order of sharps is F, C, G, D, A, E, B and the order of flats is literally the reverse order B, E, A, D, G, C, F. The following image shows the number of sharps or flats for each major key (and it’s relative minor). Notice how even though more sharps appear (from left to right), the order of the sharps remains the same, as is the case for flats in the second staff below.

There is a way to determine how many sharps or flats exist in each key however this is one of those things that is probably best memorized so as to avoid having to actually calculate this before interpreting a song.

Going back to the previous image once again, the third element I will point out is the meter or time signature following the key signature. To understand how this works please refer to the lesson about Meter and Time Signature. The remaining notations include instructions about the tempo (Andantino) and the dynamics to be used while playing. In the case below, the composer is instructing the player to play ‘sweetly’ if directly translating from the Italian word ‘dolce’ however it is more likely that they prefer a lighter or softer touch. Below the bass staff we also see that the player must apply the use of the pedal from the term ‘con Pedale’.

If your intention is to play piano, you would definitely benefit from diving deeper into this form of notation as there is literally a symbol or notation for every type of dynamic or song element that you can imagine. For the purpose of this lesson however, the intention is to introduce this form of notation to you and to move on to the formats that are better and more commonly used for guitar and bass instruments.

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October 24 2021

Intro to notation

By now you have certainly understood how music is a language and how understanding specific terminology allows musicians to communicate specific concepts to one another. Like any other field of study, music has some terminology that applies specifically to music. Music however cannot simply be expressed in words as it would be too inefficient for musicians to read through texts, paragraphs, or chapters in an attempt to understand what a composer or songwriter would like them to play.

This is where Music Notation comes in as it is a collection of symbols and information that communicates various elements needed for a musician to interpret how something is to be played. In fact, it is literally a written or documented version of what is being heard just as a sound wave file is a recorded format of what you are hearing. Music Notation could easily be compared to hieroglyphics or emojis/emoticons as they are a visual representation of the music. If we research the history of music notation we will come across formats of notation that are completely different than the formats we know today however to simplify this course, we will focus on 4 main forms of music notation that are still widely used so that you too can understand them and use them to communicate ideas to your fellow musicians.

If you’ve looked ahead at the titles of the upcoming lessons, you’re probably asking yourself why the topic of Intervals, Scales, and Chords is suddenly interrupted by a lesson on Music Notation before getting into the details of Intervals. The reason is simply that I would like for you to be able to visualize how notes appear in their various notation formats so that we can then dive deeper into the details of Intervals, Scales, and Chords.

The Music Notation formats we will cover in the next few lessons include:
– Standard Notation (Musical Staves)
– Tablature (Guitar Neck Diagrams)
– Graphic Notations (Guitar Neck Chord Diagrams)
– Lead Sheets (Chord Progression Charts)

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October 17 2021

Analyze This!

If we analyze a simple melody such as Mary Had A Little Lamb, we see that the melody is made up of 7 notes. The word ‘Ma-ry’ is made up  of 2 notes, one of which is lower than the first.

Since we don’t know what key or scale the song is in from the image, we don’t know what groups of notes apply to this melody however since that is the case, we can use the numbered scale degrees if we needed to describe the melody to another musician.

If you sing the melody (assuming you are familiar with this tune already) you’ll notice that the word had is the word that feels the strongest. Even though the word lamb is the longest in duration, the word had feels like note the other notes pull towards, therefore we can assume that it is the tonic of the key. Therefore the melody, using scale degrees, would be : 3 2 1 2 3 3 3. To clarify, the words and scale degrees for this melody  would be Ma(3)-ry(2) had(1) a(2) li(3)-ttle(3) lamb(3).

The interval between Ma- and -ry is actually 2, just as is the case between -ry and had or between had and aand a and li-. The interval between li- and -ttle and -ttleand lamb however is a 1 as there is no distance between one or the other since they are the same note. So why did I previously state that the melody in scale degrees is 3 2 1 2 3 3 3? The reason is that the interval I am describing is the interval between the word and the tonic. Therefore if we assume that the word had is the tonic and therefore the 1, then the Ma- of Mary is 3 notes away from had. The -ry is 2 away from had and a is also 2 away from had etc. The fact is that intervals can be used to describe either the distance between two notes that are consecutive as well as a note and it’s relationship to the topic. It really depends on the topic of discussion.

If the word had is a C note however and we feel that this is the tonic, then it may be safe to assume the song is in the key of C Major. I say it ‘may be safe to assume’ because we don’t necessarily know this at 100% since the image does not offer any other information that can confirm this for us at this point. We would strictly be making this decision based on what we ‘feel’ or about what we might already know about the song. If the song is unknown to us however, we might be completely wrong as we don’t have enough notes to make a decision on. Even though there are 7 notes, there are only 3 ‘different’ notes and these 3 notes can belong to any number of keys. If however the melody provided to us made use of all 7 notes and if we then notice that the 7 notes do not consist of any accidentals (sharps or flats -OR- black keys of a piano) it would make it that much safer to assume that we are in the key of C Major since C Major does not have any accidentals.

This section is a great way to demonstrate how the material we’ve covered so far might be applied in a discussion and how the new language that is available to us at this point allows us to communicate something that we otherwise would not have been able to put in words. This new knowledge allows you to discuss topics like sound, music, rhythm and time without even making or hearing a sound. That is pretty amazing if you think about how words or language alone allow us to describe things that we would otherwise have to demonstrate by actually playing or listening to an instrument. This demonstrates how music theory has great value in helping musicians communicate with one another without each necessarily requiring an instrument (that they both understand to boot!). Congratulations on your progress so far! Keep up the good work!

This actually makes a great segue to the next topic because the above excerpt of “Mary had a little lamb” is a good example of how we were not able to come to a definite conclusion on the key of the song. I mentioned that if all 7 notes were available to us that it might be easier to know what key the song is in however there are other ways of knowing this information as well that would have provided that clarification even with the 3 notes that were available to us.

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October 10 2021

Keys

A key is a group of pitches that belong together. The group of pitches are exactly the same as the scale notes, which will be explained in more detail in an upcoming lesson, however the term ‘key’ itself is simply used to identify the name of that group of notes in no particular order, through the tonic of the group.

The tonic of the group is the note that is the tonal centre of the notes and although there is a much more scientific reason why it is the tonal center, for all intents and purposes, it is the note that has the strongest pull towards it and that all other notes seem to want to resolve to. In fact, there is a particular interval each other note has to the tonic therefore as the reference note, it is also the ‘key’ note and therefore used to name the group. One example would be : The ‘key’ of C major contains the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Therefore the universe of notes that can be used together that would compliment C as their tonal center are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The ‘key’ of C major contains all natural notes and no other key is made up of the same notes.

On a piano, this would mean ‘all white keys’ therefore if you were to play a melody using all the white keys of a piano, without touching any black keys (which would be sharps or flats), you would be playing in what is called key of C Major. Resolving your melody on the C note would feel final compared to other notes, although we’ll get into exceptions later.

I don’t exactly know why the term ‘key’ is specifically used to describe this group of notes that belong together or to refer to the tonic, however some things just need to be memorized without a better explanation.

Note that the group of notes belonging to the key are also the notes used to create each of the seven chords that belong to a key. Using any note that is outside of the group means that either an exception has occurred, or an error has been made. More on this later. The ‘sharps’ or ‘flats’ are called ‘accidentals’ by the way. There is no particular reason that I’m aware of as to why they are referred to as ‘accidents’ as ‘accidentals’ are required to create the correct patterns of notes in different keys. If I do ever figure it out, I’ll update the portion of this course to provide that explanation for you.

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October 3 2021

Melody & Harmony

Melodies contain single notes of varying in pitches that belong to a particular scale, however they may also contain intervals and chords as well.

This next lesson is an introduction to intervals, scales, and chords however each of these topics will be individually described in more detail over the next couple of lessons as we progress in complexity.

Intervals is a term used to describe the distance between two notes with relation to how far up or down a note is from another note. Unlike the topic of time that describes a note’s duration and its placement from left to right within a measure, intervals describe a notes distance above or below another note. If an object is 5 steps away from another object, intervals would describe if it is 5 steps up or 5 steps down from the original note and whether they are big steps or small steps. The two notes can be spaced diagonally away from one another as in a staircase where one notes is 5 steps up or down from the other, or they may be vertically stacked as in a ladder. More on this a little later.

Scales are a set of 2 or more intervals that are spaced diagonally away from one another as in a staircase. Scales can range from 3 to 12 individual notes and represent the universe of notes available for a musician to select from when composing music in a specific key*. Scale notes may have either an alphabetical letter from A to G or the Latin La, Si, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol as their names. When speaking generally, or when not referring to a specific key, the scale notes, called ‘scale degrees’ are simply named using Arabic/Western numerals from 1 to 8 (in a key with 8 notes). The fifth note of a scale for example is the 5th scale degree. The third note of a scale is the 3rd scale degree and so on.

Chords are a set of 2 or more intervals (consisting of 3 or more notes) that are vertically stacked as in a ladder. All the notes of a chord are played at the same time. There are usually 7 chords within a key that has 8 notes and they too are numbered similar to scales. The difference being that rather than using Arabic/Western numerals, chords use Roman numerals instead. The seven chords would therefore be : I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii. The fourth chord would be IV while the sixth chord would be vi. Notice that I used uppercase for I, IV and V but lowercase for ii, iii, vi and vii. This is intentional and will be explained in more detail in the ‘chords’ chapter however it basically identifies the chord quality (major, minor, augmented, or diminished).

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September 26 2021

Rhythm & Melody

Rhythm is the combination of sound, silence, and meter as a sound without any interruption would simply be a long note. It would have an initial attack and perhaps sustain, however as we’ve covered in a previous lesson, once it goes into the decay phase, it will eventually result in silence as shown in example 1 of the following image.

If you take that same long note and break it up by introducing evenly spaced silences, you now have a series of notes … each with their own attack, sustain, and decay as shown in example 2 of the same image.

Applying meter to the sounds, will introduce more emphasis on some notes and less on others depending on the beat on which each note falls on, which results in different notes with varying volumes, including moments of actual complete silence as shown in example 3.

Visually, this is how it would look:

While clapping out this rhythm would result in steady beats that are evenly spaced apart, there would be obvious volume differences between each beat. The difference in volumes, called dynamics, are what makes the rhythm sound more human since a human cannot control volume so much that every note would consistently be at specific volumes. Although imperfect, this is an important part of ‘feel’ and ‘groove’.

If the rhythm above is being produced through a percussive instrument such as a drum, each note could have it’s own timbre if different parts of the drum are used for each note. For example, the first note can be a bass drum, the second can be a closed high-hat, the third can be a snare, and the fourth can be a closed high-hat once again.

The same above principles can be applied to non percussive instruments of course. Rather than playing different instruments as would be the case for a drum, melodic instruments allow you to change the pitch of the different notes and even sustain notes for longer or shorter periods by using any of the note duration we covered in the previous lesson. The timbre of the instrument would be consistent but the pitches produced by that instrument would vary instead.

When multiple pitches and note duration (including rests) are applied, you have what is called a ‘melody’. Of course, your melody can intentionally be repetitive notes of the same pitch or duration however in that case, the ‘melody’ would be more rhythmic than melodic as ‘melody’ implies that multiple pitches are occurring linearly. In fact, pitches matter more to melody than note duration as note duration is an attribute that falls within the topic of ‘time’ and therefore more rhythmic than melodic. Unlike the beat, which continues throughout a song, various combinations of notes and rests can exist within a measure and as shown, when a pattern of notes (and rests) repeats, this results in a rhythm as well. Therefore while one instrument such as a drum plays one rhythm, a melody or other instrument can play an independent rhythm of it’s own. Since they both share the same pulse or beat however, they will be synchronized since their meter and overall timing will either be the same or a subdivision of the beat. In the example below we see to staves (plural for staff) one labeled as ‘Clap 1’ and the other is ‘Clap 2’. which suggests that there are 2 people (or instruments) that will play the selection of music below. Clap 1 has a rhythm that spans 2 measures as measure 1 repeats at measure 3 and measure 2 repeats at measure 4. To keep things simple, I applied the same repetition to Clap 2. Notice however that the pattern for Clap 1 is different than that of Clap 2. When they play however, although they will have individual rhythms, they will be in sync since they are following the same pulse, or Tempo, of 90bpm and they will follow the same Meter therefore they will both put more emphasis on the first beat of each measure, slightly less emphasis on notes over beat 3, and even less emphasis on beats 2 and 4.

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September 19 2021

Notes & Rests

In this next image we can see that the first measure has one note underneath each numbered beat. Since each note occurs on the quarter beat and is followed by another note, the note is also called a ‘quarter note’. In the second measure however, there are  quarter notes each under quarter beats 1 and 2, a white note (called a half note) on beat 3 and nothing beneath beat 4. What is happening here is that the white note’s duration is actually 2 quarter beats therefore that note lasts for the duration of 2 beats.

To back up a little, since the time signature indicates that 4 quarter beats make up one measure, then it will take 4 quarter notes to fill the ‘whole’ measure. In the second measure however we see that there is a white note with a stem which is called a half note. The reason it is called a half note is because it lasts for ‘half’ the duration of the ‘whole’ measure. This means that it is possible to fill the whole measure by having any combination of quarter notes and half notes that would span the length of 4 quarter beats.

The half note could easily have been on the second beat instead which would have required a quarter note on the fourth beat instead, since the half note would have lasted over 2 beats, as shown here:

This doesn’t mean that there is silence on beat 3 but rather the note played on beat 2 lasts, or is heard, over beats 2 and 3. The note is ‘sustained’ for 2 beats.

Similarly, the half note could have been on the first beat instead, which would then require a quarter note on beats 3 and 4 to make up the whole pie/measure.

Since the half note lasts for 2 beats, you could also simply have a half note on beats 1 and 3 which would mathematically make the measure ‘whole’ since both notes last for 2 beats each, they would equal a total of 4 beats therefore making the measure whole. In this case, the pie is divided in half… and you would have 2 halves.

Since we have notes that last 2 beats and others that last 1 beat, you’ve probably already guessed that there are notes that last for 3 beats, 4 beats, and even smaller divisions such as 1/8 notes which last for half a beat, 1/16 notes which last for 1/4 of one beat, 1/32 notes which last 1/8 of a beat, and 1/64 notes which last 1/16 of a beat.

The examples above assume you want a sound to be heard throughout the whole measure however what if you wanted silence over any portion of a measure? For each note there is an equivalent symbol representing a ‘rest’ as well. The rest represents ‘silence’ and you would use the rest with the correct duration to complete the measure. If compared to a pie, if you divide a pie into 4 equal pieces (quarters) and you remove one of the quarters, the empty space would be indicated by a quarter rest. This would therefore instruct the musician to stop the previous note(s) and to play nothing during that beat.

The following rests and their equivalent notes are as follows:

The whole note and rest last for 4 beats. In a measure that has a 4/4 time signature, one whole note could be alone in the measure as the note or the silence lasts throughout the 4 beats.

A half note or rest would only occupy the space of 2 beats therefore they would looks as follows:

You may have noticed that there is a note and its equivalent rest for a 4 beat duration, 2 beats, and 1 beat however there isn’t one that lasts 3 beats. There are 2 ways to make a note last for 3 beats.

In figure A, you can see a half note with a dot next to it. This is simply called a ‘dotted half note’. The dot means that you need to add half of the duration of the note that is dotted to the duration of the note. In other words, the half note lasts for 2 beats. Half of that is 1 therefore a dotted half note lasts for 2 +1 beats, which is equal to 3 beats. The exact same thing applies to the dotted half rest or any other note. A dotted quarter note for example will last for a beat and a half since 1/8 which is half of 1/4 would be added to the 1/4.

In figure B we see a different way of notating a duration of 3 beats using what is called a ‘tie’. Whenever a note lasts beyond the duration of the measure, the note is simply tied to the next note since it would be incorrect to have notes within a measure that last longer than the number of beats within a measure. In this case, we have a half rest for the first 2 beats of the measure and a half note on beat 3 that is tied to the first note of the second measure. This note would last the same duration as a dotted half note as the tie means it is a continuous note and not to be played separately.

More about notes and their subdivisions :

The following diagrams show the duration of the various notes. I have not included the dotted notes here as the intention is simply to show how many of each of the shorter duration compare to the Whole Note or Rest.

A whole note can be alone in a measure as it lasts 4 beats however two half notes would be required to cover 4 beats. Four quarter notes are equivalent to one Whole Note but each quarter note is actually played on every beat. 8 eighth notes divided in groups of 2 (one couple for each quarter note) and 16 sixteenth notes divided in groups of 4 for each quarter note.

While quarter beats would be counted as 1 2 3 4 since there are 4 beats in a measure.

Eighth note beats however would be counted as 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & so that the second eighth over each beat can be included in the count. Sixteenth note beats would be counted as 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a so that 4 sixteenth notes can also be counted over each beat. Note that the & of a sixteenth beat exists in the eighth note beat count as well. Both line up vertically as they both occur on the same part of the beat as follows:

The beat count is consistent and is implied regardless of whether there is a note or silence as the beat is like time. Whether a person is speaking or not, time is continuous, therefore a rest is not similar to clicking on a pause or stop button but rather like hitting the mute button (as on a phone for example) where the conversation continues except it is not heard. Rest simply means that a musician rests/mutes their instrument for a specified period while the count continues. The musician is expected to be aware of the count so that they can begin playing again when expected.

A measure with a time signature of 4/4 (4 beats per measure) would require the following rests (or combinations of various rests) to fill a measure.

Note however that there would be no purpose to using 2 half rests on their own to fill a measure while a whole rest exists for that same duration. The same applies to quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, sixty-four rests. The reason these rests exist is that they can be used in combination with notes of smaller duration therefore you may have a half note and a half rest in the same measure for example as shown in measure 3 of the following image. Measures 4 to 7 show other examples of how notes can be combined with rests to complete the 4 beats of a measure.

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