Music is a language for expressing thoughts and feelings. It is not simply a collection of notes. To understand music, you need to understand the connections between sounds and the notes they represent. You need to listen to a piece of music and tell what sort of musical message it carries. To do this, you need a knowledge of music theory. It is the study of patterns and relationships in music.
Think about how different instruments sound when played by other people. You’ll see that although each sound is unique, the way the notes ring together creates a whole that makes more sense than the sum of its parts. Learning music theory will improve your musical intelligence.
Here, I dig deep into basic entities of music theory and how they are essential in music.
Rhythm
How is rhythm important in music? It’s a straightforward principle. If you studied music as a child, you might have learned that a great beat is determined by; a specific number of beats followed by a momentary pause. The same thing happens if you listen to music while working out.
If you go too fast or too slow, the music will stop, and you’ll have to start over. This simple principle is used in many genres of music. What is interesting is how this relates to the context.
Rhythm conveys the feeling of inspiration and completeness in music. As a result, rhythm forms the basis for creating entire pieces, phrases of poems, or songs.
Pitch
Pitch is the fundamental frequency (Hz) of a musical note. Each musical instrument uses an uncommon combination of notes, which results in the audio medium we used to hear music. The pitch of a note is modified by the volume of the music being played and its pitch family.
The pitch family refers to how many octaves a note spans. When crafting a pitch, try creating an emotional connection between you and your audience using words. You can also do this in combination with other musical instruments. By knowing what determines the pitch of a musical note, you will identify notes on your own.
Music Notes
Music notes are a common language used by different musicians from all over the world. In music, each note has a name and a pitch. Certain tones are easier to play when compared to others. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a lot of A’s or a few tones in the half-note range – as long as they’re not tricky or hard to play, you will be fine.
Much like language, tones can vary depending on the ear. People with good hearing usually identify notes faster than those with imperfect hearing. Notes are classified into Major notes and Minor notes. Playing the “Major” notes creates a theme, and playing the “Minor” notes breaks the theme up into phrases.
Playing Major notes is like introducing yourself. Minor notes are like breaking the conversation up into bits.
Melody
Have you ever whistled a merry tune or hummed along with a song? Well, chances are it was a melody. A melody is a repeated pattern of notes that has different words or chords. You can change the terms and chords to create different melodies. Music theory helps you understand why the correct note goes with each word of lyrics, and why certain chords sound better than others.
Harmony
Harmony in music occurs when sounds from different instruments reinforce each other’s pitches. If you are playing an acoustic guitar and a singer is singing a high note, the two instruments will ring ideally together. This is how harmony is created. The same thing happens when you listen to music and hear distinct notes being played by different instruments.
Listen closely, and you will hear all the different frequencies that are created. Harmony makes a groove and creates emphasis in a song.
Chord
Chords are the building blocks of musical phrases and arrangements. Chords are a way of connecting the sections of a song. For example, if you have a guitar and want to play a piece of music with three chords in it, you would need all three chords to play the song. If you only knew two out of the three chords required for the music, your brain would remember the third one you didn’t know.
Familiarize yourself with the world of chords! Use them to help you memorize your favorite songs and build a better understanding of music.
Chord Progression
Chord progressions are essential for music. Chord form is vital for songwriting. Learning how to play a new instrument? You should know how harmony and progression of chords works.
Chords increase in number as you go higher in any key. Beginner players can often play simple chords using only three or four chords. As you progress lower in the key, it becomes more challenging to handle notes. This is because there are over four notes to play within each bar.
Scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of tones measured in semitones. In music theory, a scale is a sequence of notes that is the sum of their pitches. Major and minor are the most common scales used in Western music. For Instance, there are four notes on a major scale: C, D, E, and G. Each note comprises a different number of steps or degrees. As you increase the number of steps on a major scale, the tone with the most prominent action decreases from C to D.
The tone with the smallest step increases. Learning how the various notes within a scale sound can help improve your memory. It also helps when playing music, as all notes contain frequencies.
Interval
Intervals in music create a progression from one pitch to another. They are used to creating harmony based on the similarity between notes. When you run out of time, switch to another key. Interval training is effective in improving your musical understanding. Changing gears quickly interrupts what you’re listening to and affects the tension in your ear canal.
If you run into issues while learning music, try practicing intervals at a slower tempo. You can also opt to listen to music through headphones and turning off your computer when changing keys.
Bottom Line
Music can evoke robust emotional responses such as chills and thrills in listeners. It can help people sleep better, focus better, party harder, and prevent stress-related disorders. Music theory provides a framework for appreciating music. That’s about it. The key is understanding the formal structure of music and how it links to other arts and disciplines. The goal of Music Theory is to provide you with the tools to recognize, understand, and think about music so that you can enjoy it in a more profound way.