Notation: Pitch
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1music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush
Notation: Pitch
music notation is the art of
recording music in written form.
liz phair
“what makes you happy” [melody from chorus]
whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)
modern music notation is a product
of centuries of transformation...
the system of musical notation
and it is neither efficient nor intuitive!
we use is essentially a stylized
œ œ œ œ œ
graph of pitch versus time.
&
œ œ œ
pitch is the highness or
lowness of a sound.
the five lines on which notes
for example, a flute has
appear is called a staff.
a high pitch, while a tuba
has a low pitch.
time
a note is a
written representation
of a particular pitch.
notation is based on the piano keyboard;
F g a b c d e F g a b c d e
lines and spaces on the staff represent
the white notes on the keyboard.
the white notes on the keyboard
are labeled with letters from A to G.
&
w
B
w
B
w
w
to display notes
outside the
?
staff, we use
shortened
staff lines
treble clef
called
alto clef
ledger lines.
tenor clef
bass clef
the clef determines what notes each staff
middle c is the c that is closest to
line corresponds to. the four modern
the middle of the piano keyboard.
clefs are shown here; the note displayed
‹
on each staff corresponds to middle c.
these symbols are placed to
The double sharp raises the
To notate the
the left of the note that they
#
note by two half steps.
black notes
affect, and they apply to all the
on the piano
notes on that line or space
keyboard, we use
for the rest of the measure.
œ b
œ
œ n œ #
œ ∫
œ
œ n œ ‹
&
accidentals,
The sharp raises the
n
which alter the
note by one half step .
note by one or
two half steps.
The natural cancels out
b
any previous accidental.
a half step is
the distance
between two
The flat lowers the
adjacent keys
note by one half step .
on the piano
∫
keyboard,
F g a b c d e F g a b c d e
regardless
of what color
The double flat lowers
two notes which have the same
the keys are.
the note by two half steps.
pitch (for example, f sharp and
g flat) are called enharmonics.
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