Our System of Music

Our system of music is a man-made system based on nature and math. Over many centuries music theory evolved and stabilized into what we use today. With a few variations, today’s music theory applies to all styles of music in the Western world whether jazz, classical or any style of pop music.

Whereas most of these terms are nature- and math-based, some of the terms derive from people agreeing to call a certain thing a certain thing simply because it works — an arbitrary (something done based on individual preference or impulse). I mention this because students often ask “why” something is called what it is. Some of the answers are lengthy and technical (math-based), while some answers are “just because.” At this point, unless your curiosity takes over, as long as you understand what these words mean and how they relate to what you are learning (application), keep it simple and just go for understanding what’s here. The full explanation of why these terms are called what they are can be fairly involved and are topics for another text. (One of the reasons why certain college texts can be tough is because you can get too much information too soon: too much too soon doesn’t work most of the time.)

Since music deals with sound, you should demonstrate (play) everything on an instrument as much as possible. It can be difficult to fully understand what all of these things mean unless you hear what the words represent. Since the words represent sounds, you should hear the sounds. (Very often a person has already heard the sounds and can now put a name to them!)

The Language of Music

As we communicate with words when we speak, we communicate with music when we play. There are only so many symbols, sounds and words to understand and when you learn them you can speak, read and understand music. Then one either develops a small yet functional vocabulary or a large and involved one.

You could break down the musical language into three categories: melody, harmony and rhythm. Melody is a series of single notes, Harmony is combinations of notes and Rhythm is the placement of sounds and notes through time. Besides physical technique and lyrics – that’s all there is to the mechanical fundamentals. The mechanics of music are finite. The creative application is unlimited.

A

arpeggio: the notes of a chord played one at a time for either accompaniment or part of a melody. Finger picking on a guitar and the main melody of the song “In The Mood” are examples of arpeggios. Bass players also use arpeggios in making “basslines”.

C

chord inversions: (more about) The word “inversion” means the position of the notes. Chord inversions are named according to what the lowest note is: the lowest note determines what the inversion name is. Different inversions have different “flavors” to them and many melodies are built around specific inversions.

Inversions get their names from being “inverted” from low to high. (I suppose whoever named these could have named them going from high to low!) After reading this, the following examples should make thing clear.

Take the “1″ of a chord and put it on top, leaving the “3rd” on the bottom and you have a “1st inversion” chord. This is the first time the order of notes was changed from the root position.

 

• Root position: the position of a chord where the root (the 1) is the lowest note.



 

• 1st inversion: the position of a chord where the 3rd is the lowest note, with the 1 placed an octave higher (at the 8).



 

• 2nd inversion: the position of a chord where the 5th is the lowest note, with the 3rd placed an octave higher, above the 8. (The ‘ on the E just means that that note is above the 8.)



 

• Going from the bottom up, here is another diagram about chord inversions. And as previously mentioned, the apostrophes show that those notes are above the 8.

chords of a key: there is a chord built from every note in a scale. The key of C contains seven basic chords. A chord built from the C, the D, the E, etc. Some of the chords are major and some of the chords are minor. (More on this entry over the next few weeks.)

M

major scale: the word “scale” comes from the Latin word scala meaning “ladder”. There are many types of scales. The most common scales are series of notes going up and down in alphabetical order. C D E F G A B C is a “C major Scale”. What makes a major scale is the arrangement of 1/2 steps and whole steps. The formula for a major scale is: all whole steps except 1/2 steps between the 3rd and 4th notes and the 7th and 8th notes.

minor scale: a “minor scale” is the next most used scale after the “major scale”. The formula for a minor scale is: all whole steps except 1/2 steps between the 2nd and 3rd notes and 5th and 6th notes.