STUDY GUIDE MUSIC THEORY THE STAFF

STUDY GUIDE
MUSIC THEORY
THE STAFF
The Staff is the basis of written music. Notes are written on the staff.
A Staff consists of 5 lines with 4 spaces between them as shown
below. Always count from the bottom to the top of the staff.
BARS and MEASURES
The vertical lines on the staff are called Bar Lines. Bar Lines are used
to divide the staff into Measures. Thick double bars are used to mark
the end of a piece of music. Measures are frequently referred to as
“Bars”. In the example below you can see three single bar lines.
LEGER or LEDGER LINES
When you need to put pitches above or below the staff, a short line is
added above or below the staff. In the example below, there are two
leger lines above the Staff and two below.
CLEFS
A Clef is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns the pitch of
notes to lines and spaces on the Staff. A clef can be thought of as
assigning a certain pitch to a specific line or space on the staff.
The figure below is a TREBLE CLEF. Notice that the big curve of the
Treble Clef curls around the second line from the bottom of the staff.
That second line is the pitch G. That gives us the other name for the
Treble Clef which is the G CLEF
The figure below is a BASS CLEF. Notice that the two dots to the
right of the Clef are on either side of the fourth line from the bottom of
the staff. That fourth line is the pitch F. That gives us the other
name for the Bass Clef which is the F CLEF.
GRAND STAFF or “SYSTEM”
When staffs with bass and treble clefs are connected by a bar line and
a brace, they become the Grand Staff. This greatly increases the
range of pitches that can be noted. It is possible to combine more
than two staffs into one System. Sometimes a musician will see as
many as fifteen or more staffs in one System.
PITCH
Pitches are musical sounds that have letter names. There are only
seven letters used in naming pitches. Those seven letters are:
A B C D E F G.
The letter named pitches are shown below on a short keyboard – you
can see there are white and black keys. The black keys are either in
groups of 2 or 3. If you look at the group of any two black keys, you
will see that the pitch C is always the white key just to the left of the
two black keys.
HOW NOTES SHOW PITCH
The pitch a note indicates is shown by where the note is located on a
staff.
Look at the whole notes on the lines of the staff below. You will see
a Treble Clef on the staff. The pitches on each line are in blue letters.
The whole notes in the spaces show pitches also. They are in red
letters.
Below you will see whole notes on the lines and spaces of the Staff
with the Bass Clef. The line names in the Bass Clef staff are in blue
and the space names are in red.
As you can see below, there are pitch letter names for every line or
space on the staff. The two different CLEF signs change the names of
the five lines and spaces. Not only that, there are pitch letter names
for notes that are placed above and below the staff.
Since there are only 7 Letter Names for Pitches, those letters are
repeated over and over. Depending on the Clef and whether a note is
on a line or a space will determine the Letter Name for the Pitch.
Remember the Treble Clef is the G Clef. That way you can always
know that the second line of the Staff with the Treble Clef is for the
Pitch G.
Also remember the Bass Clef is the F Clef. That way you can always
know that the fourth line of the Staff between the two dots of the Bass
Clef is for the Pitch F.
HALF STEPS and WHOLE STEPS
When you look at the keyboard below, you can see that the pitch letter
names are repeated across the keyboard. This is because there are
only 7 Letters used for all of the pitches used in music.
Any key that is right next to another key is a HALF STEP apart. It
doesn’t matter if it is black or white. Look at the keyboard below and
you can see that from E to F, there is nothing in between. They are a
half step apart. The same is true from the B key to the C key. But if
you want to play a half step up from C, you must play the black key
just to the right of it. That key is called C Sharp (which is written like
this - C#). So, C and C# are a half step apart.
Look at the key marked D on the keyboard below. If you want to play
a half step below D, you would play the black key to the left of D.
That key is called D Flat (which is written like this - D ).
So, now you have learned two other names for musical symbols and
what they do – Flats and Sharps.
FLATS
lower the pitch of the note by one half step.
SHARPS
raise the pitch of the note by one half step.
So, what is a WHOLE STEP? It is the distance between two pitches or
keys that are two half steps apart. Look at the keyboard below and
you will see that the whole step from C to D has a black key in
between them. So, C to D is two half steps apart or a total of a
WHOLE STEP. Remember that a WHOLE STEP always has one other
key in between.
MAJOR SCALE
If you play the keys from one C to the C above or below it, you will
have played a scale – a C Major Scale. This is true if you play from
any letter name to its repeated letter above or below (D to D, E to E, F
to F). There are eight tones in the major scale.
However, there is something you must know before you try that, and
that is the SCALE PATTERN of whole steps and half steps. To play a
Major Scale, you start on any key and then proceed as follows:
Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step
Let’s say you start on the C Key. The next key you would play is D
which is a whole step higher than C. Next you would play E which is a
whole step higher than D. After that you play the F Key which is only
a half step higher. Following the pattern of W,W,H,W,W,W,H would
take you all the way to the top C and you would have played a major
scale. Here is the outline of the whole scale.
C–D
D–E
E–F
F–G
G–A
A–B
B–C
Whole Step
Whole Step
Half Step
Whole Step
Whole Step
Whole Step
Half Step
NOTES AND RESTS
Notes represent the length of time a pitch will be heard. Each note
will be equal to a certain number of regular beats.
Rests represent the length of time of silence in music. Each rest is
equal to a certain number of regular beats.
Sometimes, when there is more than one eighth note or sixteenth
note, they can be written without their flags. They can be connected
with one crossbar for eighth notes, and two crossbars for sixteenth
notes.
Two Eighth notes
Two Sixteenth notes
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HALF AND WHOLE RESTS
A Whole Rest Looks like this
a dark rectangle attached to a bar line, hanging down from the 4th line
of the staff.
The half rest looks like this
a dark rectangle sits on the third line of the staff.
TIME SIGNATURES
The way we find out what the value of a note is for any piece of music
is from the time signature which appears at the beginning of the
music.
Time Signatures
A time signature shows two things:
1. How many evenly spaced beats per measure there are in
a measure
2. What kind of note gets one beat.
The top number of the time signature shows how many beats there
are per measure. The bottom number of the time signature shows
what kind of note gets one beat.
In the example shown above, the top number shows that there are
four evenly spaced beats per measure and the bottom number shows
that the quarter note is equal to one beat.
If the Bottom Number is:
1
2
4
8
16
The Note
that gets
one beat
is a:
Whole
note
Half note
Quarter
note
Eighth
note
Sixteenth
note
SINGING WITH “DO RE MI”
SOLFEGGE or SOLFEGE
If you ever saw the movie “The Sound Of Music” you might remember
a song, “Doe, A Deer” when everyone learned how to sing a scale
using something called Solfegge. This is a system that uses different
syllables to sing a scale. Each syllable represents a particular step of
the scale. Here are the Solfegge syllables for the Major Scale.
DO
RE
MI….FA
SOL
LA
TI….DO
If you were to sing the eight tones of the major scale all the way up
and down, then you would sing the Solfegge syllables up and down the
Major Scale like this:
DO
RE
MI
FA
TI
LA
SOL
DO
TI
LA
SOL
FA
MI
RE
DO
Remember that the Major Scale has the scale pattern of whole steps
and half steps as follows:
Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step
In writing it out, you can abbreviate it as W, W, H, W, W, W, H.
THE CHROMATIC SCALE
If you were to play only the half steps from C to C, or D to D, then you
would have played something called a CHROMATIC SCALE. A
Chromatic Scale is made up entirely of half steps. Look at the
keyboard shown below and imagine what the sound would be if you
played the C, then C#, then D, then D# and so on until you reached
the top C. You would have played 13 keys. Remember, there are 13
tones in a CHROMATIC SCALE.
The solfegge syllables for a CHROMATIC scale are:
DO
DI
RI
FI
SI
LI
RE
MI….FA SOL
LA
TI….DO
RA ME
SE
LE
TE
Note the major scale solfegge syllables are in red. The ascending half
step solfegge syllables are indicated by the up arrow, and the
descending half step syllables are indicated by the down arrow.
INTERVALS
An Interval is the distance between pitches and is most often
expressed as an ordinal number (second, third, fourth, etc.). The
number represents the number of pitch names (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) from
the first to the second pitch. Remember, an interval is the distance
from the FIRST to the SECOND PITCH.
For example, the whole step F to G contains two pitch names, F and G.
This interval is called a second. The interval from F to A contains F, G
and A three pitches, therefore, it is called a third.
The interval containing eight pitch names (from C to C or from G to G)
is called an OCTAVE. It is the only interval not expressed as an
ordinal number
Intervals can also be determined using solfegge syllables. For instance
DO to RE represents the interval of a second, DO to MI, the interval of
a third, DO to FA the interval of a fourth, etc. DO to DO represents
the interval of an OCTAVE
MAJOR, MINOR, PERFECT INTERVALS
Intervals not only have numbers like 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc., they
also have characteristics such as Major, Minor, Perfect,
Augmented and Diminished. It takes a while to catch on to all
this, so be patient if you don’t get it at first. When you’re
tested on it, the grade won’t be so important that it wrecks
your grade in choir. Remember all those solfegge syllables that
we learned last semester? Well here they are again.
If we look first at the major scale solfegge, the intervals are
either Major or Perfect.
For example, when you sing from DO to RE, the interval is a
Major 2nd.
DO
RE
MI
FA
SOL
LA
TI
DO
When you sing from DO to MI, the interval is a Major 3rd.
DO
RE
MI
FA
SOL
LA
TI
DO
After that, however, there is a change in the characteristic of
the interval because DO to FA is a Perfect 4th.
DO
RE
MI
FA
SOL
LA
TI
DO
If you keep singing from DO to each of the higher
solfegge syllables in the Major Scale, the name of
the interval keeps changing. Here is the list from the
beginning:
DO
DO
DO
DO
DO
DO
to
to
to
to
to
to
Major 2nd
Major 3rd
Perfect 4th
Perfect 5th
Major 6th
Major 7th
RE
MI
FA
SOL
LA
TI
th
th
Only the intervals of 4 and 5 are labeled as
Perfect. All the others are Major.
Now things get somewhat more complicated because
we also have intervals that go from DO to some
place in the Chromatic Scale. Do you remember this
diagram?
DO
DI
RI
FI
SI
LI
RE
MI….FA SOL
LA
TI….DO
RA ME
SE
LE
TE
If you sing from DO to RA, the interval is a
minor 2nd
DI
RI
FI
DO RE MI….FA SOL
RA ME
SE
SI
LI
LA
LE
TI….DO
TE
If you sing from DO to ME, the interval is a
minor 3rd
DO
DI
RA
RI
RE
FI
MI….FA
ME
SI
SOL
SE
LI
LA
LE
TI….DO
TE
If you sing from DO to FI, the interval is an
AUGMENTED 4th or “TRITONE”. (Remember that 4ths and 5ths
are Perfect intervals in the major scale solfegge? In the Chromatic Solfegge they will
be Augmented or Diminished.)
DI
RI
DO
FI
SI
LI
RE
MI….FA SOL
LA
TI….DO
RA ME
SE
LE
TE
If you sing from DO to SE, the interval is a
DIMINISHED 5th or “TRITONE”. (Remember that 4ths and 5ths
are Perfect intervals in the major scale solfegge? In the Chromatic Solfegge they will
be Augmented or Diminished.)
DI
DO
RA
RI
RE
ME
FI
MI….FA
SI
SOL
SE
LI
LA
LE
TI….DO
TE
Here is a list of the intervals if you keep singing from
DO to each of the higher solfegge syllables in the
Chromatic Scale.
DO
DO
DO
DO
DO
DO
to
to
to
to
to
to
RA
ME
FI
SE
LE
TE
minor 2nd
minor 3rd
Augmented 4th - Tritone
Diminished 5th - Tritone
minor 6th
minor 7th
Please note that some of the chromatic solfegge
syllables are left out. Don’t worry about those right
now.
Please note also that the intervals of 4th and 5th in
the Chromatic Solfegge have names other than
minor.
KEY SIGNATURES
When you read music a key signature will appear at the beginning just
after the clef and before the time signature. This lets you know what
scale you would be using for the song. The easiest one is C Major
because it has no sharps or flats.
Key Signature
Major Key
Look!
No sharps
and
No Flats
So it has to be
C MAJOR
C Major
No sharps or flats
FLAT KEYS
Flat Key Signatures Major Key
F major
symbol (
1 flat
B major
2 flats
E major
3 flats
A major
4 flats
D major
5 flats
G major
6 flats
C major
7 flats
Please note that F Major
is the only flat key that
does NOT have the flat
) in its name.
SHARP KEYS
Sharp Key Signatures Major Key
G major
1 sharp
D major
2 sharps
A major
3 sharps
E major
4 sharps
B major
5 sharps
F♯ major
(♯) in their names.
6 sharps
C♯ major
7 sharps
Please note that only
F♯ major and C♯ major
have the sharp symbol
ACCIDENTALS
Accidentals change the pitch of a note by raising or lowering it by one
half step, but only in the measure where the accidental appears.
Accidentals stay in effect for all notes of the same pitch for the rest of
that particular measure. The effect is to temporarily change what the
key signature tells you. Remember that only one measure is affected
by accidentals. Here are the three accidentals you need to know.
FLATS lower the pitch of the note by one half step.
SHARPS raise the pitch of the note by one half step.
A NATURAL SIGN cancels out any previous sharps or flats and
returns the note to the original pitch of the key signature.
TIE and SLUR MARKS
Ties and slurs have different effects on two or more notes. TIES
connect notes of the same pitch, essentially forming one longer note.
SLURS indicate that notes under the slur should be sung without any
breaks. The first set of notes above shows a TIE, the second shows a
SLUR.
The example below of a TIE shows that two dotted half notes should
be sung for a total of six beats without a break in the sound.
DOT
A dot after a note increases the value of a note by half the note’s
original value. If a note is worth four beats, then the dot would be
worth two beats. The total value of the dotted note would then be six
beats.
In the example below, you can see a dotted half note. This would be
sung for the same length of time as if you were to tie a half note to a
quarter note.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HALF AND
WHOLE RESTS
A Whole Rest Looks like this a dark rectangle attached to a bar line; it hangs down from 4th line of
the staff
The half rest looks like this a dark rectangle sits on the 3rd line of the staff.
DYNAMICS – The range of volume
- This symbol is pianissimo, it means very quiet.
- This symbol is piano, it means quiet.
- This symbol is mezzo piano, it means moderately quiet.
- This symbol is mezzo forte, it means moderately loud.
- This symbol is forte, it means loud.
- This symbol is fortissimo, it means very loud.
- This sign is an indication for a crescendo meaning to
gradually become louder. “Crescere” is the Italian verb meaning “to
grow”.
- This sign is an indication for a decrescendo meaning to
gradually become quieter.
MUSICAL TERMS
- Sforzando - A sudden, strong accent.
- Fermata – A sign above a note that indicates to hold the note
longer until conducted to stop.
Chord
A combination of three or more pitches sounding at the same
time.
“Common Time” - Another name for the 4/4 TIME
SIGNATURE, it is written on the staff as a large
capital C.
“Cut Time” - Another name for the 2/2 TIME SIGNATURE, it
is written as a large capital C with a line drawn
vertically through it.
Dissonance
A combination of sounds that produce harsh, discordant results,
and increase the desire for resolution.
Enharmonic
Two notes that are written differently but have the same sound.
C
=
D
Here is an example of two enharmonic pitches
Subito
Suddenly
Unison
When singers or instrumentalists are singing or playing exactly
the same pitches at the same time.