Learning to read and write music is very similar to learning a new language. Music theory is the study of the fundamental elements of music and how it is written.
Music Theory For Beginners was developed for anyone interested in learning to read and write music, a task that can be quite daunting for novices. This book, however, will allay any fears and set you on the path to learning what all those dots, lines, and symbols actually mean. It provides the necessary scholarly muscle to entice and inform the reader, yet it does not require any prior knowledge of music or force the reader to wade through hundreds of pages of jargon and details.
Whether your goal is to gain a cursory understanding of music, become fluent in reading music, or start composing your own music, this text will provide everything you need for a solid foundation in music theory. Anyone can pick up Music Theory For Beginners and instantly start learning about—and understanding—music theory.
Frequently asked questions
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Music Theory For Beginners by R. Ryan Endris, Joe Lee in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas & Teoría y apreciación musicales. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
NEARLY ALL OF the music in the world is built upon what we call a scale, a collection of five to eight pitches arranged in either ascending or descending order. There are many different types of scales used in world music. Although many date back to antiquity, we know the exact origin of only some. While rhythm and pitch are the most basic, fundamental elements of music, the scale is what is what really lets us create music. In modern Western music, scales consist of eight pitches arranged in patterns of whole steps and half steps. There are two main types of scale in Western music: major and minor. Together, they represent what is known as tonal music.
It wasn't until the early Baroque period (1600–1750, C.E.) that the concept of “major and minor” (that is, tonality) was truly established. Until then, composers worked primarily with the church modes.
The octave can be divided into twelve equal half steps. This is called the chromatic scale, and it essentially represents all pitches. Ascending, the chromatic scale is spelled with sharps; descending, it is spelled with flats. (Remember the enharmonic equivalents we learned about in Chapter 3.) Figure 5.1 shows both the ascending and descending chromatic scale. The scale starts on C in this example, but it can start on any pitch. If you compare the chromatic scale to the piano keyboard, you'll notice that it contains all of the black and white keys within an octave. The chromatic scale is seldom used in the composition of Western music, but it serves as an important starting point for the development of the major and minor scales that are prominent in Western music.
Figure 5.1. Ascending and descending chromatic scales
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is widely considered the greatest composer ever to have lived. He was such a master of composition that he wrote two pieces—a prelude and a fugue—in both the minor and major keys of each pitch of the chromatic scale, for a total of 24 pieces in a collection called The Well-Tempered Clavier. Of course, this wasn't enough for Bach; he actually did the same compositional exercise twice and divided the total 48 pieces into Book I and Book II.
Although most scales are some combination of whole and half steps, occasionally a scale will use an interval larger than a whole step. Scales give music its particular color or flavor, because the unique combination of intervals is then transferred to the melody and harmony. The major and minor scales are both seven-pitch scales containing five whole steps and two half steps, yet they sound strikingly different! In order to understand tonal music, you must remember that the melodic and harmonic patterns of music are the reflection of a pattern of intervals, the scales.
The major scale is a seven-pitch scale that consists of five whole steps and two half steps, with the half steps occurring between the third and fourth tones and between the seventh and first tones. When a major scale begins on the pitch C, the scale is simply all of the white keys played sequentially within the octave. In Figure 5.2 you can see that the half steps in a C major scale fall between E and F and between B and C. Compare the musical notation to the keys of a piano, and you'll notice that E and F and B and C are white keys that are immediately adjacent to each other.
Figure 5.2. C major scale
The major scale employs a particular pattern of whole steps and half steps: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. This pattern remains true regardless of which pitch you begin on. What gives the major scale such a distinctive, recognizable quality? First, there is the establishment of the tonic pitch, which is the foundation of the scale and—by no coincidence—the starting pitch of the scale. You might also think of this as the “home” pitch. The half step between the seventh and first tones of the scale creates a particular pull toward the tonic, and all other pitches want to find their way home to the tonic as well. The seventh tone is called the leading tone because it always leads toward the tonic. In many ways, this works like “aural gravity,” with the tonic acting as a large object pulling the sur rounding objects toward it.
Figure 5.3. The pattern of whole and half steps that comprise a major scale
As mentioned above, a major scale can start on any of the pitches of the chromatic scale, and if the pattern of whole steps and half steps remains intact, the result will still be a major scale. For example, if the scale were to begin on the pitch F, it would be necessary to add a flat to the B in order to create the half step between the third and fourth tones and thereby maintain the pattern (Figure 5.4). Similarly, an A-flat major scale requires four flats (one of which is simply to lower the A to A-flat). Figure 5.5 shows the pattern of whole steps and half steps required to make an A-flat major scale, as well as the necessary accidentals.
Figure 5.4. F major scale showing the pattern of whole and half steps
Figure 5.5. A-flat major scale showing the pattern of whole and half steps
Remember that as long as you keep the pattern of whole steps and half steps intact, you can form a major scale beginning on any pitch. The other important piece of information when creating a scale is that the letter names of the pitches must always be sequential. For example, the A-flat major scale in Figure 5.5 uses the pitches A
, B
, C, D
, E
, F, and G. Even though we can enharmonically spell B
as B# or D
as C#, we must use a sequential ordering of the pitches' letter names.
In the...
Table of contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: The Elements of Music
I. No Pitches Allowed—Rhythm, Beat, Tempo, and Meter
