Music For Beginners

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Music For Beginners
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Main Menu
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Notes
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• Notes can be loud or soft, fast or slow, high or
  low.
• In this section you will learn the names of some
  notes, how notes are written and how to tell how
  long a note is.

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Notes Menu
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• Click on a section to begin.

Note names
Note lengths
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Note Names
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• Notes are named after the first seven letters of
  the alphabet. They are A, B, C, D, E, F and G.
• They are written on a stave.
• A stave is made up of five horizontal lines and
  four spaces.

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Clefs
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• Notes arent always in the same place on the
  stave.
• A musical symbol called a clef is placed at the
  beginning of a piece of music to determine the
  letter names of each line.
• The two main types of clef are the treble (or G)
  clef and the bass (or F) clef.

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Treble Clef and Stave
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• The treble clef rests on the G line, which is why
  it is also known as the G clef.
• Working upwards, the spaces spell the word FACE.
• You can remember the names of the lines by using
  a rhyme such as Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge.

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Bass Clef and Stave
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• The bass clef rests on the F line, which is why
  it is also known as the F clef.
• Working upwards, the spaces are A, C, E and G.
• You can remember the names of the lines by using
  a rhyme such as Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always.

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Tiny Test
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• Nows your chance to see how much youve learnt
  in this section.
• Answer the following five questions in your head
  and click anywhere on the screen to check.
• If you dont want to take the test, click here.
• Otherwise click here to take the test!

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Question 1

• What is this?

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A Stave
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Question 2

• What is this?

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Bass Clef
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Question 3

• On the treble clef stave, what word do the letter
  names of the spaces spell out?

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Face
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Question 4

• What is the letter name of this line?

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B
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Question 5

• What is the letter name of this space?

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E
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Well Done

• Well done, youve completed the test!
• How many did you get right?
• If you answered any questions incorrectly, click
  here to go through the section again.
• Or click here to take the test again.
• Or click here to go back to the Main Menu.

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Note Lengths
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• Notes last for different periods of time.
• Some are long and some are very short.
• The different note lengths help to make a piece
  of music interesting.
• Notes are measured in beats.
• The more beats, the longer the note is.

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Semibreve
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• A semibreve is the longest single note possible.
• It lasts for four beats.
• A semibreve rest also lasts for four beats.

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Dotted Minim
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• A dotted minim lastes for three beats.
• Dotted minim rests are not very common.

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Minim
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• A minim lasts for two beats.
• A minim rest looks very similar to a semibreve
  rest.
• A semibreve rest lasts for four beats so it hangs
  but the minim rest only lasts for two beats so it
  has to sit.

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Crotchet
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• A crotchet lasts for one beat.
• Crotchet rests are easy to recognise because of
  their unusual shape.

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Quaver
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• Quavers last for half a beat.
• This is a single quaver.
• Two or more quavers are often joined together.
• A quaver rest looks like this.

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Semiquaver
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• A semiquaver lasts for ¼ of a beat.
• Like quavers, two or more semiquavers are often
  joined (beamed) together.
• This is a semi quaver rest, notice how similar it
  is to a quaver rest.

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Beats and Bars
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• Music is divided up into beats and bars.
• Beats keep the music at the right speed.
• If the music goes faster or slower, the beats go
  faster and slower as well.
• There are a certain number of beats in a bar.
• Bars help to divide the music up.

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Waltz
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page.

• You can recognise a waltz because of its time
  signature.
• The time signature is 3 ,4.
• The 3 tells us that there are three beats in a
  bar.
• The 4 tells us that they are crotchets.

Beat 1
Beat 3
Beat 2
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March
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page.

• The time signature for most marches is either 2,4
  or 4,4.
• 2,4 means there are two crotchet beats in a bar.
• 4,4 means there are four crotchets in a bar.

Beat 2
Beat 1
Beat 1
Beat 2
Beat 3
Beat 4
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Other Time Signatures
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page.

• Some less common time signatures are
• 6,8
• 9,8
• And 12,8
• The 8 means quavers, so in 6,8 time there are 6
  quavers in a bar.

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Musical Periods
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• A musical period is a period of time when all
  music has a similar feel to it, but is different
  from the previous musical periods.
• The four main musical periods are Baroque,
  Classical, Romantic and Modern.
• Each period has its own unique sound.

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Baroque
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page.

• Baroque was a musical period from the 17th to the
  18th Century.
• The music was based around one tune which was
  very complicated and often, very fast.
• Baroque composers included Johann Sebastian Bach,
  Georg Friedrich Handel and Antonio Vivaldi.
• You are listening to a Prelude by Bach.

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Classical
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page.

• Classical music was composed mainly between 1750
  and 1825.
• The music was often based on nature and had a
  simple tune.
• The main instrument used at this time was the
  piano.
• Classical composers included Ludwig Van Beethoven
  and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• You are listening to Andante from Sonata for
  Piano in B Major by Mozart.

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Romantic
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page.

• Romantic music was popular from 1850 to 1900.
• The music wasnt always based on love, often it
  was based around literature, art and
  superstition.
• The tunes are very long and emotional and there
  are a lot of dynamic changes.
• Composers included Johannes Brahms and Peter
  Ilich Tchaikovsky.
• You are listening to Dance of the Little Swans
  from Swan Lake, by Tchaikovsky.

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Modern
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page.

• Modern music was composed during the 20th century
  and is still being composed today.
• Modern music is experimental and was a huge
  change from the gentle Romantic music heard in
  the previous century.
• Modern composers included Bela Bartok, Pierre
  Boulez and George Gershwin.
• You are listening to Ive Got Rhythm by George
  Gershwin.

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The 7 Elements
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• Music is based around seven elements.
• Most of the elements can be found in any piece of
  music.
• The elements decide the musics speed, volume and
  many other important factors.

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The 7 Elements Menu
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• Click on a section to begin.

Pitch
Tempo
Timbre
Texture
Structure
Duration
Dynamics
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Texture
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• Texture tells us how thick or thin a section
  of music is.
• If there are lots of instruments playing at the
  same time, we say that the music has a thick
  texture.
• If there are only a few instruments playing, we
  say that the music has a thin texture.

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Timbre
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• Every instrument sounds different.
• Timbre is used to describe the characteristics of
  each instruments tone (sound).
• The timbre of a clarinet, for example, can be
  described as being woody or mellow.

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Pitch
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• Pitch tells us how high or low a note is.
• The lower on the stave a note is, the lower the
  sound is in real life.
• For example, this note is lower than this note.

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Tempo
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• Tempo literally means, the speed at which the
  music is played.
• Prestissimo, Presto, Vivace, Allegro, Allegretto
  and Moderato all mean fast but Prestissimo is a
  lot faster than moderato.
• Similarly, Andante, Adagio, Larghetto, Largo,
  Lento and Grave all mean slow, but Lento is a lot
  slower than Adagio.

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Dynamics
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• Dynamics are used to say how loud or soft a piece
  of music is.
• Words used to describe dynamics are
• Pianissimo Very quiet.
• Piano Quiet.
• Mezzo Piano Fairly quiet.
• Mezzo Forte Fairly loud.
• Forte Loud.
• Fortissimo Very loud.

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Structure
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• Structure means how the music is made up.
• For example, a piece of music could have an A,B,A
  structure which means that a tune is played,
  followed by a new tune, followed by the original
  tune.
• A very common structure is A,A,B,A.

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Duration
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• Duration tells how long a note is held for.
• The longest a single note can be held for is 4
  beats.
• The shortest a single note can be held for is a
  64th of a beat although notes of this length are
  very uncommon.