Music Basics Home
"I hold it equally impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole and to know the whole without knowing the parts in detail."
- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
Before we can truly understand the rich musical traditions of the Western world, we must first explore the basic elements that these traditions are built upon. Music theory is the study of the organization and underlying structures of music, including pitch elements (pitch, melody, scales, harmony, and keys), time elements (beat and meter, and rhythm), as well as expression and form. Once we understand the stucture of music as it is conceived, we will examine the musical instruments and voices that transform compositions into performances. We will begin by discussing the idea of timbre, then we will cover instruments and voices themselves, and finally ensembles (groups of instruments and/or voices).
The style of a given piece of music is the result of the treatment and interaction of these basic elements, making their study the first critical step towards understanding music history and performance.
Reading Music Notation
In this section we will become familiar with music notation, which is the writing system used to create scores (sheet music). Developing basic music reading skills is critical to the study of music, just as reading maps is required for the study of geography, and reading graphs is necessary in the study of statistics.
Music literacy allows you not only to read, but also to write music, which will help you to understand the practical considerations that composers and songwriters face as they struggle to capture their musical ideas on paper. In many ways, reading music is also a gateway into music performance because it allows musicians to perform pieces that they have never heard before, whereas they would otherwise be limited to simply imitating each other. For now, your music reading will help you understand visual illustrations of theoretical concepts, which will be essential to the study of music history and performance in later sections.
Tablature (or tab) is a type of notation that also indicates how to play the music on a specific instrument. Since tablature is specific to each instrument, it does not work well for a broad discussion of music and will not be covered here. Other alternate forms of notation (such as graphic notation) may be mentioned in later sections, but, again, are limited in application and will not be covered in detail.
The basic terms and symbols used in music notation will be covered in the following sections, but can always be reviewed and referenced in the notation glossary.
Advanced Music Theory
If you are interested in exploring some advanced theory, there are additional sections on the folowing topics: