Music for the Simple Man

By Dexter Nelson

Looking for a fun but structured class to begin or rekindle your interest in music This course will build a solid foundation of the theoretical elements of music, including sound, pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, and notation. Music for the Simple Man is a complete and progressive, music theory course. You begin with a solid foundation of the theoretical elements of music, then intermediate theory, core composition concepts, and songwriting. Next you move on advanced theory and methodology, and put it all into practice with graded exercises and real world examples. You will become one of my private students! I am always available to help you! Are you a beginner, a professional or somewhere in between Music for the Simple Man is an invaluable book to add to your collection. You will reference it time and time again. Begin site reading and composing music in as little as two weeks!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257422463

Book preview

SHREDDING!

Chapter 1: Notation & Basic Music Theory

Section 1: Staves

In this first chapter we are going to begin building the foundation of what every musician will need - Music Theory. Music Theory is the study of the theoretical elements of music including sound and pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, and notation.

You are encouraged to take notes and actually write out the examples used. This will help you to not only understand what you see when you look at sheet music, but it will back up in practice, everything that you will learn. So Let us begin with two definitions.

Score: The notation of a musical work; 2. the written form of a composition for orchestral or vocal parts; 3. the music written for a film or a play.

Staff: A set of horizontal lines and intermediate spaces used in notation to represent a sequence of pitches, in modern notation normally consisting of five lines and four spaces.

Just as every writer needs paper to write on, so does a good composer. Music is written on a special type of paper called a score. The score is made up of a series of lines called a staff, (Figure A). Do not let the definition above throw you off. As you can see, a staff is simply five lines and the four spaces between them. The plural of staff, by the way, is Staves.

Each of the lines and spaces represent a different note. The lines, (from bottom to top), are named E, G, B, D, and F. The spaces are named F, A, C, and E. An easy way to remember this is with a simple catch phrase, Every Good Boy Does Fine, and of course the spelling of the word FACE. As you advance in this course, you will learn the ability to read and play the note or pitch when you see it on a