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INITAO COLLEGE Course Code: M13

Jampason, Initao, Misamis Oriental Course Title: TEACHING MUSIC IN THE ELEMENTARY
1st Semester, S.Y. 2020 - 2021 GRADES
Unit: 3 (Lecture)
Instructor:
JURIELLE Q. GALAROZA
Mobile Number:
09631358649
e-mail address:
indaijurielle@gmail.com
Contact Schedule:
Monday-Friday
8:00-5:00

MODULE 1&2
INTRODUCTION
The distinction between music and noise is mathematical form. Music is ordered sound. Noise is disordered sound. Music and noise are both
mixtures of sound waves of different frequencies. The component frequencies of music are discrete (separable) and rational (their ratios form
simple fractions) with a discernible dominant frequency. The component frequencies of noise are continuous (every frequency will be present
over some range) and random (described by a probability distribution) with no discernible dominant frequency.
Music in its simplest form is monotonic; that is, composed only of pure tones. Monotonic music is dull and lifeless like a 1990s ringtone
(worse than that even); like a 1970s digital watch alarm (now we're talking); like an oscillating circuit attached to a speaker built by a college
student in an introductory physics class (so primitive). Real music, however, is  polytonic — a mixture of pure tones played together in a
manner that sounds harmonious. A sound composed of multiple frequencies like that produced by a musical instrument or the human voice
would still be periodic, but would be more complex than just a simple sine curve.

The human voice and musical instruments produce sounds by vibration. What vibrates determines the type of instrument.

category vibrating part examples

whole bell, cymbal, musical saw,

idiophone
instrument wood block, xylophone

stretched
membranophone drums, kazoo, human voice
membrane

stretched
chordophone strings (violin, guitar, harp), piano
string

air woodwinds (saxophone, flute),

aerophone
column brass (trumpet, tuba), organ

electric
electrophone synthesizer, theremin
circuit

Classification of musical instruments

Like many other mechanical systems, musical instruments vibrate naturally at several related frequencies called  harmonics. The lowest
frequency of vibration, which is also usually the loudest, is called the fundamental. The higher frequency harmonics are called overtones. The
human auditory system perceives the fundamental frequency of a musical note as the characteristic  pitch of that note. The amplitudes of the
overtones relative to the fundamental give the note its quality or timbre — pronounced in English as tæmbər or in quasi-French by English
speakers as tɛ̃br with a nasal ɛ̃ for the medial e and silence for the final e. Timbre is one of the features of sound that enables us to distinguish
a flute from a violin and a tuba from a timpani.
Music is sound with a discrete structure. Noise is sound with a continuous structure. Music is composed of sounds with a fundamental
frequency and overtones. Noise is composed of sounds with frequencies that range continuously in value from as low as you can hear to as
high as you can hear — not necessarily at equal intensity, however. Music is described mathematically by an infinite sum of sines and cosines
multiplied by appropriately valued coefficients — infinite mathematically, but in practice only a handful of overtones really matter. Noise is
described by a spectral power distribution (or power spectrum), much like the statistical distributions of kinetic molecular theory. Music is
ordered. Noise is random.
Noise is what you hear when you tune an analog radio or television to an empty frequency. It's the overall sound of rain falling on leaves,
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soda bubbling in a glass, air escaping from a tire, or a crowd applauding.

"Noisy" describes some voiceless consonants used in English better than "musical".

Module 2

The foundation of music is the musical note: a combination of pitch (the musical word for frequency) and duration (the ordinary word for
amount of time).
Did I say music was based on notes? That's not true. Real music is based on intervals (the ratio of any two pitches) with high degrees of
consonance (shared harmonics).
A scale is set of pitches (pitch classes, more precisely) arranged in order of increasing frequency from which notes are selected and arranged
to create a musical composition. The exact pitches used in any scale are determined by the starting pitch (called the tonic), a set of rules for
generating intervals (called a tuning system), and the pattern of intervals selected (sometimes called the mode).

Western music theorists identified eight basic intervals defined by their relative size…

1. tonic or unison — an interval of one to one, perfect consonance

2. second
3. third
4. fourth
5. fifth — the third most consonant interval
6. sixth
7. seventh
8. octave — an interval of two to one, half of all overtones match

The intervals of adjacent pitches in a scale often come in two sizes called whole tones and semitones (or half tones). The relationship between
these should be obvious — two semitone intervals applied in succession equal a whole tone — but it turns out to be only approximately true
in most tuning systems. Combinations of tones and semitones may also be named by size…

 semitone — typically the smallest interval

 whole tone — two semitones
 ditone — two whole tones (a term that's rarely used)
 tritone — three whole tones, half an octave
 6 whole tones or 12 semitones equal one octave.

Each interval also needs an adjective to describe its quality…

 perfect — an interval that is an inversion of another

 major — the larger of two nearly equal intervals
 minor — the smaller of two nearly equal intervals
 augmented — a semitone higher than a major or perfect interval
 diminished — a semitone lower than a minor or perfect interval
Many, many, many interval patterns are used in musical composition. (That's too many manys.) A convenient way to organize them us by the
number of intervals they contain. Here's a list of the interval patterns that will be discussed in this book.
5. pentatonic
o blues
o egyptian
6. hexatonic
o whole tone
7. heptatonic
o diatonic
8. octatonic
o string of pearls
12. dodecatonic
o chromatic
Since notes separated by an octave sound similar, a musical scale can be completely described by a set of intervals with ratios ranging from
1:1 to 2:1. If you need notes above the octave, just double the intervals. If you need notes higher than that, double the intervals again. If you
need notes lower than the tonic, take all your intervals and halve them. If you need notes lower than that, halve all the intervals again. You get
the idea. This is called octave duplication or circularity of pitch.
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Pitches separated by an octave form a pitch class. They are always named using an uppercase letter (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and sometimes
include a modifier symbol called an accidental (♯, ♭, ♮).

symbol name description

♯ sharp raises the pitch by one semitone

♭ flat lowers the pitch by one semitone

♮ natural cancels any previously applied accidentals

Accidentals
Adding a sharp to a pitch is the same as adding a flat to the next higher pitch (usually). F♯ is the same as G♭, for example. This is known
as enharmonic equivalence. Similarly, adding a double sharp or a double flat to a lettered pitch changes the pitch by one letter (usually). C ♯♯
is the same as D, and D♭♭ is the same as C. I keep saying "usually" because there are exceptions around the notes B♯, C♭, E♯, F♭. A piano
keyboard is a familiar way to display all the pitch classes.
Magnify

Enharmonic equivalence is not a given. There are some tuning systems where the distinction between F ♯ and G♭ is real. That's part of the
reason we have two names for the same pitch today. Thankfully, most of us will never need to know what that distinction is. I have read
explanations, but I have never understood them. I think most formally trained Western musicians today would probably say the same thing.
Fans of Renaissance and Baroque music would be the exception.

Want to know whether you should say A♯ or B♭? Just look at the pitch classes of the scale used to create your musical composition. If you
say any letter twice, you've probably done it wrong. For example…

F, G, A, B♭, C, D, E

is correct, but…

F, G, A, A♯, C, D, E

is wrong because the letter A appeared twice. This is not a perfect rule, but it works for all the diatonic scales — the most used scales in
Western music. (Non-Western music theory is beyond the scope of this book. The same goes for  microtonal music — music that uses
intervals smaller than a semitone)

name pitch classes type

A minor diatonic A, B, C, D, E, F, G heptatonic

B♭ major diatonic B♭, C, D, E♭, F, G, A heptatonic

C major diatonic C, D, E, F, G, A, B heptatonic

C♯ string of pearls C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G, A, B♭, C octatonic

D♭ whole tone D♭, E♭, F, G, A, B hexatonic

E minor blues E, G, A, C, D pentatonic

F chromatic F, F♯, G, G♯, A, A♯, B, C, C♯, D, D♯, E dodecatonic

Assessment:
1. Write your own definition of music.
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2. Describe the song Beyond the Blue Horizon if it is music or noise, high pitch or low pitch.