Poleni it’s been a while, mashughuli za billionaire huku na kule; golf hapa, yachting kule but anyway back to serious business. I hope you learn fast coz I’m cramming a lot in one lesson
As a musician, it is important that you are familiar with these basic musical concepts and words:
[ul]
[li]Sound, pitch and frequency[/li][li]Notes and intervals[/li][li]the octave[/li][li]Accidentals[/li][li]The chromatic scale[/li][li]the diatonic scale[/li][li]scales and modes[/li][li]chords[/li][li]concert pitch[/li][/ul]
They arent difficult but they are important
1. Sound Pitch and Frequency
While a generic noise is an irregular vibration in the air, a sound vibrates the air at a constant regular frequency. I know you’ve met people who say music is just organised noise.
The frequency is measured in vibrations per second or Hertz
The pitch of a note is determined by its frequency. Low frequencies produce low pitched notes and high frequencies high pitched notes. Humans can hear sounds from 30 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A guitar will produce notes in a range from 75-1200 Hz while a bass will do 35-300 Hz
Bigger heavier strings vibrate more slowly than thinner lighter ones thats why bass strings produce low notes or even the low E of a guitar produces lower notes than the High E (I’ll get to that in time)
Another factor is the tension of the string. The higher the tension the higher the vibration, the higher the pitch
The length of the string will also determine pitch.
2. Notes and Intervals
A note is a sound with a specified frequency/pitch while an interval is the relative “distance” (I’ll also get to that) between two notes e.g notes E and F are a semitone apart. Guitar frets are positioned to be semitones apart. The fret is the space in between the two metal wires on the fret board
http://guitarsecrets.com/pictures/guitar2.gif
http://www.start-playing-guitar.com/image-files/fretboard.jpg .
The semitone is the smallest interval and all other larger intervals are multiples of the semitone.
[B][U]3. Interval Names
http://i.stack.imgur.com/IxOVK.png
http://www.songwriting-unlimited.com/images/intervals-emotions.jpg
[/U][/B]
Like in that image, how you use the interval will determine the mood fo the song and the feeling it will give. Or you can mix emotions completely, it’s up to you.
3. The octave
This is the interval between two notes where the frequency of the high note is exactly double the frequency of the low note. For example on your guitar, play open E string and then play the same string on the 12th fret. That note is also an E and it is exactly twice as high as the open E.
The 12th fret divides the length of the string exactly in half and by playing at the 12th fret, the string vibrates the air at twice the frequency.
3.1. Division of the octave
In Western Music, the octave is divided in 12 small and equal intervals called semitones and on the guitar, each fret corresponds to one semitone. One octave therefore has 12 frets.
You will notice that most guitars have a double dot on the side of the 12th fret (refer to photos above) to show where the second octave begins
The 12 notes are named as follows: C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab, A, A# or Bb, B (then continue again from C-C# e.t.c)
4. Accidentals
because there are 12 notes in the octave but only 7 note names, in come the accidentals
A note without accidentals is called “natural”
The hash sign # means a Sharp, yaani the note is a semitone higher than the one before it. The b represents flat which means the note is a semitone lower than the note before it. It also means A# and Bb are the same note and are therefore are “enharmonic”.
A whole tone is equal to two semitones. An octave is therefore equal to six whole tones.
Note also that while the 12 semitones are perfectly equal and regularly spaced, the 7 basic notes (C,D,E e.t.c) are not equally spaced, having in some cases one semitone and in other cases two semitones between each other (I’ll explain later)
There are also less used accidentals double sharps and double flats which obviously reduced or increase pitch by two semitones.
http://www.songsofthecosmos.com/images/accidentals.jpg
A good example is the Piano. All the white keys are natural notes and the black keys are accidentals
Nimeitiwa phobe, Maswali muwekelee hapo shini nitarudi kujibu maswali
http://www.relatably.com/m/img/funny-memes/Funniest-Meme-12.jpg