< BACK Have you ever wondered why some music makes you want to march (ONE-two, ONE-two), while other music makes you want to sway or dance a jig (ONE-two-three, FOUR-five-six)? The difference lies in how the rhythm is organized, specifically how the main heartbeat of the music (the beat) is divided. In music theory, we classify these patterns into two main families: Simple Time and Compound Time. Let's look at how they differ using standard musical notation. 1. Simple Time: Dividing by Two Simple time is the most common...
Read more...
< BACK The Grammar of Music: A Guide to Basic Notation Music is a language. While we can enjoy it just by listening, notating music—writing it down—allows us to capture complex ideas, preserve performances, and communicate specific musical thoughts to others. Just as written language uses letters, punctuation, and paragraphs, written music uses a precise set of symbols. 1. The Stave and Clefs: The absolute foundation of music notation is the Stave (plural: Staves). The stave consists of five horizontal lines and the four spaces between them. Think of...
Read more...