Elements of Music

Unit One: Elements of Music

●Music plays a vital role in human society.

●It provides entertainment, emotional release, and it accompanies activities
ranging from dances to religious ceremonies.

●Our response to music or an artist is subjective and is rooted in deep feeling,

●People listen to music in many different ways and for many different reasons.

●“Elements” introduces concepts that can contribute to your enjoyment of a
wide range of musical styles.

OBJECTIVE

●KWBAT RECOGNIZE THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF MUSIC.

●KWBAT DEMONSTRATE THESE BASIC ELEMENTS OF MUSIC BY USING BODY
PERCUSSION. (clapping, singing, stomping ect..)

●KW LISTEN TO DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC AND APPLY THESE
ELEMENTS.

WHAT ARE THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF MUSIC?

1.

Sound: Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone color.

2.

Performing Media: Voices and Instruments

3.

Rhythm

4.

Music Notation

5.

Melody

6.

Harmony

7.

Key

8.

Musical Texture

9.

Musical Form

10.

Musical Style

Sound: Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone Color

1.

What is sound? Vibrations in the air.

2.

What is Silence? Absence of sound

3.

Would you say Everything is Music?

Sound: Pitch, Dynamics, and Tone Color

●Sound begins with the vibration of an object.

●The vibrations are transmitted to our ears by a medium, which is air.

●Our eardrums start vibrating too, and impulses, or signals are transmitted to
our brain.

●Music is part of this world of sound.

Four Main Properties of Musical Sound

1. Pitch
2. Dynamics (loudness or softness)
3. Tone color
4. Duration (Rhythm)

Pitch: Highness or Lowness of Sound

●Pitch is the relative highness or Lowness that we hear in sound.

●Pitch is determined by the frequency of its vibrations; speed.

○The faster the vibrations, the higher the pitch; slower the vibrations, the lower the pitch.

●A sound that has a definite pitch is called TONE.

●A specific frequency which is usually 440.

●Noiselike sounds (bad breaks, or clashing cymbals) have an indefinite pitch because
they are produced by irregular vibrations.

●The distance between any two notes/pitches is called interval.

●The interval of an Octave is important in music. Its the interval between the first note
of a scale and the last note of a scale.

●

Pitch: Highness or Lowness of Sound cont.

●The distance between the lowest and highest tones that a voice or instrument can
produce is called Range.

Dynamics

●Dynamics is the degree of loudness or softness in music.

●Sometimes this changes are written in music to inspire the performers feelings about the
music.

●When notating Composers often used Italian words and their abbreviations to indicate the
dynamic level.

Pianissimo = pp means Very soft

Piano = p means soft

Mezzo Piano = mp means moderately soft

Mezzo Forte = mf means moderately loud

Forte = f means loud

Fortissimo = ff means very loud

Dynamics Cont.

Gradual changes in Dynamics

SymbolTerm Meaning
﹤crescendo (cresc.) gradually louder

𝆓decrescendo (decresc.) or diminuendo (dim) gradually softer

Tone Color

●Tone Color, or Timbre (tam’-ber). The quality of sound of different instruments
playing the same note or the same dynamic level.