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Posts Tagged ‘Melody’

To me, music may mean Beethoven, Debussy, and Mozart. To you, music could be Eminem, Busta Rhymes, and 50 Cent.

The Catholic Church had actually banned music that was characterized by polyphony, which is when more than one musical part is played at the same time. The Church feared that polyphony would result in people doubting the unity of God.

The Church even banned the musical interval known as an augmented fourth, which is the distance between C and F-sharp. Apparently, this interval was dubbed extremely dissonant, that is must have been brought to Earth by the Devil. The church named in “Diabolus in musica.”

Bob Dylan was booed by the audience in 1965 when we picked up an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. People even began to leave.

But why?

Pitch and Timbre. Pitch caused the medieval church to respond in uproar, and timbre was the musical attribute that got Dylan booed all the way off stage.

So, what do the music of Bob Dylan, Busta Rhymes, and Claude Debussy have in common on the most basic level?

The answer: Music is organized sound. Let’s take a closer look at the building blocks of music.

Tone – usually a discrete musical sound. The word “note” can also be used, but most often the word “tone” refers to what is heard, and the word “note” refers to what you see written on sheet music scores.

Pitch – a completely psychological aspect of music. Pitch relates to the actual frequency of a specific tone and also to its relative position on the musical scale. Basically, it answer’s the question “What note is that?”

Rhythm – The durations of a collection of notes and the way they are grouped together. Think of the beat in your favourite song. It represents a variance of notes over time.

Tempo – the overall speed or pace of music.

Contour – the general and overall shape of a melody. Think of a melody that has patterns of notes going up or down.

Timbre – distinguishes between certain instruments, for example, between a cello and a piano. This “tonal colour” is produced by overtones from each instrument’s vibrations.

Loudness – another psychological aspect of music that relates to the physical amplitude of a sound.

Spatial Location – where the sound is coming from.

Reverberation – refers to the perception of how far away the source is while also taking into account how large a room is in which the music is being played or heard. This can also be referred to as “echo.”

Generally, these musical attributes can be separated. Thus, they are known as “dimensions” of music because they can be separated, varied, and studied, one by one, without disrupting the other attributes. The difference between random sounds put together and “music” has to do with the way these dimensions are strung together to produce a relationship between them. When these are combined and form relationships in a meaningful way, they cause us to notice higher-order aspects of music, known as meter, key, melody, and harmony.

Meter – refers to how tones are grouped together in relation to time. It is created by the human brain, extracts information from rhythm and loudness.

Key – has to do with levels of musical importance within a piece, and does not truly exist in this world, but only in the human mind. It is a mental comprehension that exists as a function of our experiences with different musical styles and idioms.

Melody – the main “theme” of a musical piece, more simply, the part that you sing with. The notion of melody is different across all genres of music.

Harmony – the relationships created between the pitches of different tones. These tones create pitch setups that lead humans to expect certain things in a musical piece, often expectations that a skilled composer or musician can either meet or disrupt for artistic and expressive instances. Harmony can be considered to be a simple, parallel melody to the primary melody, or it can refer to a chord progression.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Take a listen to your favourite classical, rock, pop, country, or jazz song. See if you can distinguish between the several musical attributes that I discussed above. It’s really interesting once you try, in fact, you’ll realize that you will start listening to songs more closely, no matter WHAT you find yourself listening to!

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I’m going to share with you a video I found a few months ago, of two extremely talented musicians. It’s a pretty popular video, all over Google and YouTube. Pianist John Schmidt is my hero. Not to mention, piano and cello harmonies are my favourite. Both instruments complement each other so incredibly beautifully, and you’ll be amazed at the sound that comes from these two instruments when they’re played together.

Not only that, but I never thought I’d ever be such a big fan of music from Taylor Swift, nor Coldplay. Incredibly, piano arrangements of popular songs can sound a hundred times more amazing than the original pop song.

I love how the Cellist (Steven Sharp Nellson) really establishes beat of the piece, moves into more of a harmonization between both instruments. The bridge of “Love Story” is delivered beautifully, before returning to the original chorus and structure of the song, and then the piece almost builds up a sort of climax, as the piano delivers an amazing and extravagant set of chord progressions while the cello plays one of the corresponding chorus melodies.

With the common rhythm aspects between the two songs (Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Love Story by Taylor Swift), the entire performance drifts smoothly into the second song (Viva La Vida). I’m more of a fan of the Love Story arrangement because I feel like its more creative in comparison to the original song and the melodies and bass are more distinct in relation to when they move into the Coldplay song.

Also, as they move into Viva La Vida, they decided to add the whole sort of lyrical verse, “Ohhhh ohhhhh ohhhh ohhhh oh,” and so on. There are also some other instruments that I can hear in background, such as such more percussion and even perhaps other string instruments.

All in all, this is an absolute masterpiece, a true work of art. I’ve watched it over and over again because I just can’t get enough of it. I have been teaching myself some Talyor Swift arrangements on the piano (Love Story and also Teardrops on My Guitar) but they are not ready at all, unfortunately. I’m thinking of purchasing the piano sheet music from John Schmidt’s website, but I’m afraid it won’t sound nearly as good without the harmonization of the cello.

Elise’S Musical Tip For The Day:

Watch this video! I hope it inspires you in some sort of musical and artistic way. Sometimes, I just completey adore popular arrangements. If they are built with a lot of variations and chord progressions, they usually sound extraordinary.

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