3 Secrets To Understanding What Music Is
Made Of
It’s no secret that virtually everyone loves music in
some form or other.
The country-western fan may not like jazz, but he or
she sure loves the sound of pickin’ & grinnin’.
And that’s as it should be. If we all liked the same
kind of music, there just wouldn’t be the variety that is available to us now.
We can choose from musical styles ranging from heavy classical and opera to rock
to children’s songs to Broadway musicals to gospel music to the blues.
Each has its place, and each seems on the surface to be
drastically different than another form of music. The key word is “on the
surface.” But beneath the surface of all music is a commonality that is organic
to all forms and styles of music.
So what does all music have in common?
At least 3 things – sometimes more, but never less:
-
Melody
-
Rhythm
-
Harmony
The melody is the part of a song or composition
that you whistle or hum – in other words, the tune of the song. In one sense, it
is the most visible of the 3 elements, because melody is what identifies a song.
Without melody, it would be difficult to even conceive of a song or piece.
In musical notation, the melody is almost always
written in the treble clef – also known as the treble staff. It consists of a
horizontal line of notes that move up and down on the clef as the tune moves
higher or lower.
Rhythm is the beat – the swing – the throb of
the music. It happens in repeating patterns, depending upon the type of music.
It is like a horizontal line of beats which occur at regular or semi-regular
intervals. A waltz, for example, basically consists of a heavy beat followed by
two lighter beats. So we say that a waltz is in triple meter – one strong beat
followed by two weak beats, then repeated.
A march, on the other hand, generally consists of a
heavy beat followed by a light beat, then another heavy beat followed by another
light beat. (I’m simplifying, of course – there are many varieties…) So a march
is in duple meter – as you might expect since we have two feet and we march in
left-right-left-right patterns.
All rhythms are some combination of triple meter and/or
duple meter, and the possibilities are endless – from boogie to R&B to mambos
and sambas and bossa novas and….on and on.
Harmony, the 3rd aspect of music, is
the musical background of a song – the chords, or intervals “behind” the melody.
Without harmony, a song sounds empty – like a vocalist singing without an
accompanist – or accapella. Music doesn’t HAVE to have harmony to function, but
in actual practice it almost always does, even if it is just the interplay of
two melodies, as in counterpoint.
You could spend a lifetime learning all the nuances of
music, but it its most basic form, it is these 3 elements combined together;
melody, rhythm, and harmony.
Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and music
educational materials such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids,
chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional
courses for adults. His book-CD-DVD course titled
"How To Dress
Up Naked Music On The Piano!" has sold over 100,000 copies
around the world. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon
University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern
Oregon. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online
e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing
Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions"
with over 58,300 current subscribers.
