MUSIC THEORY ONLINE

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MUSIC THEORY ONLINE

• Music theory online is an attempt to help people
  learning music to understanding how it is written
  down, what the various signs and symbols denote,
  and what the common technical words used by
  musicians mean.

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Music Theory I

• Pitch
• Musical Alphabet
• Music Staff
• Whole and Half Steps
• Accidentals
• Treble Clef
• Bass Clef
• Time value
• Scale

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What Is Pitch?

• Pitch is the musician's term for the frequency of
  a note. Pitch refers to how high or low a note
  sounds. High pitches are on the right side of the
  piano keyboard and low pitches are on the left
  side of the piano keyboard. Pitch ranges are
  often referred to in terms of the human singing
  voice.
• Soprano - a high woman's voiceAlto - a low
  woman's voiceTenor - a high man's voiceBass - a
  low man's voice
• The accepted pitch standard is A-440, i.e., the
  note A above middle C has a frequency of 440
  cycles per second.

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Musical Alphabet

• The musical alphabet consists of the letters A,
  B, C, D, E, F, and G. These letters represent
  musical pitches and correspond to the white keys
  on the piano. As you move forward through the
  musical alphabet the pitch of each note gets
  higher. The musical alphabet is repeated a little
  over seven times on the 88 keys of the piano
  keyboard

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Music Staff

• The music staff consists of five lines and four
  spaces. Each letter of the musical alphabet A to
  G corresponds to a specific line or space. The
  plural of staff is staves. Staves are often
  connected by a brace or bracket and barlines.

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Whole and Half Steps

• The half step is the smallest unit of pitch used
  in Western music. On the piano, a half step is
  the musical interval from any one key to its
  closest neighbor, either black or white. Half
  steps occur naturally between the two white key
  pairs E-F and B-C. Two consecutive half steps are
  called a whole step.

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Accidentals

• Accidentals are symbols that alter the pitch of a
  note.
• Accidentals are placed immediately to the left of
  the note they affect.

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Treble Clef

• The treble clef is also called the G clef because
  the clef symbol curls around the line that
  represents the G above middle C.
• The names of the treble clef lines can be
  remembered by the saying "Every Good Boy Does
  Fine." The spaces spell "F A C E."

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Bass Clef

• The bass clef is also called the F clef because
  the clef symbol locates the line that represents
  the F below middle C.
• The names of the bass clef lines can be
  remembered by the saying "Good Boys Don't Fight
  At all." The spaces by "All Cows Eat Grass" or
  "All Cars Eat Gas."

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Time value Summery

• You will need to know what I will call 'THE RATE
  OF VALUE EXCHANGE'. The rate of value exchange is
  the relationship between the value of a given
  note to all other notes values in the chart
  above.

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What Is A Scale?

• A scale consists of a series of pitches arranged
  in ascending order, spanning an octave.
• The most commonly used scales are major and
  minor. Many other types of scales are used
  including Modes and Jazz Scales.
•  

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THE END

• Music Theory I