Transcript Elements of Music - La Salle University

Duration
• The element of time.
Duration
• Beat - the steady pulse that flows
through a piece of music.
• Fast or slow
• May be easy to hear (or feel), or it may
not be.
• Nonmetric - If the beat is not evident.
Duration
• Meter - how the beats are grouped.
• Most often in either in 2, 3 or 4 (most
common)
• Usually first beat is accented.
• Occasionally, meter is in another
grouping.
Duration
• Tempo - the speed of the beats.
• Fast or slow.
• Remember, the beat usually remains
steady
Duration
• Rhythm - a pattern of beats and
accents, shorts and longs.
• Often the rhythm is a pattern that
repeats.
Measure
• Measure or "Bar" - when we break up
the beats into patterns of two or three, a
measure is one complete time through
the patterns. Ex. 1 - 2, 1 - 2, 1 - 2 is
three measures.
Find the Meter
• To determine the meter, find the beat
first, then try to locate the downbeat
(beat 1 of the pattern). How many beats
until the next downbeat
• 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, etc.
Examples of Meter
4 beats is most common - really almost the
same as 2 beats
• 3 beats is triple meter. Not nearly as common.
• Happy Birthday, The Star-Spangled Banner,
Break Away by Kelly Clarkson is in 6/8, End
Of The Road by Boyz II Men, Louis
Armstrong´s Wonderful World, Seal - Kiss
From a Rose, Beatles, You've Got To Hide
Your Love Away and Norwegian Wood.
Raining In Baltimore Counting Crows, the
verses of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds",
Hallelujah used in Shrek, George Michael
One More Try
Duration
• Syncopation - when the emphasis falls
on a beat that is normally not accented.
• An exception in “classical” music, but a
feature of “popular” music.
Groove
• The energy present in a piece of music.
• Makes you want to tap your foot or nod
your head in time.
Rhythm
• An organized and repeating pattern of
beats and syncopations (or “shorts and
longs”) forming a musical idea.
Dynamics
• Volume. Loud or soft
• The relative loudness or softness.
• Relative - loud to a flute is not the same
as loud to a trumpet!
Dynamics
•
•
•
•
p = piano - soft
f = forte - strong (or loud)
Mezzo- = medium or half
-issimo = very
Dynamics
•
•
•
•
•
•
pp = pianissimo
p = piano
mp = mezzo-piano
mf = mezzo-forte
f = forte
ff = fortissimo
Dynamics
• pp - p - mp - - mf - f - ff
• -3 -2 -1 (0) 1 2 3
Dynamics
• Crescendo - gradual increase in volume
• Decrescendo - gradual decrease in
volume
• Subito - sudden change in volume
Decibels
• Decibels - Amount of air (or water)
pressure caused by a sound wave
Sound Pressure Level
• What would be the Sound Pressure
Level (decibel range) of an acoustic
classical guitar? 20-60 dB
Compression
• a technique of "squeezing" the dynamic
range of audio by making the soft parts
louder, and the loud parts softer, to
arrive at a more consistent dynamic
level.
Normalize
• a digital technique of anayzing a
waveform to identify the loudest sound,
and calculating the ratio that may be
modified to arrive at the point just below
distortion (clipping). It then processes
the entire selected audio sample that
amount, making the file louder.
The Loudness Wars
• a modern production technique to
obtain more density from recorded
audio. The selected audio is
compressed and normalized several
times to even out the dynamic range,
but enable the entire sample to be
louder. Each track is processed this
way, and the resulting mix is very
dense, and loud.
Timbre
Timbre
• Timbre can be a list of the instruments
or voices that you hear.
• Timbre can also refer to the variations in
tone color of a specific instrument (a
bright guitar or dark voice).