Notes on Fundamentals of Music Theory (1)

Prologue

Last December (2019), I received an email about a survey from Coursera. After filling it out, I was given the chance to take a course from Coursera for free. The options were limited to entry level lessons from a variety of fields, from which I picked The Fundamentals of Music Theory offered by The University of Edinburgh.

Notes for Week 1

Musical Notes

• Early in the history, there was not a universal form for representing musical notes, nor was there audio recorder, so keeping record of a piece of melody became problematic, especially when the aim was to pass it on. The stave (staff) with musical notes was hence eventually formed to represent melodies in a standardized way.

  

• The lines on a stave are called ledger lines.

• There are seven alphabetical note names in ascending (⬆️) order:

  • A (La)
  • B (Ti)
  • C (Do)
  • D (Re)
  • E (Mi)
  • F (Fa)
  • G (So)

• Notes on a keyboard (commonly piano):

  

• When necessary, additional line segments can be used to supplement (extend the range of) ledger lines so as to mark higher (lower) notes.

• The four ascending (⬆️) notes that fall prespectively in the four spaces in the standard 5-line stave are F-A-C-E, “face”.

• Middle C: the lower C with one ledger line segment below the stave, normally at the middle (center) of a keyboard:

  

Octaves

• The inteval between two alphabetically adjacent musical notes is called a second.

  • Similarly, there are third, fourth, fifth, up to seventh.

• When the interval reaches 8, it becomes an octave

  

Tones and Semitones

(Refer to a keyboard)

• Tone: the distance of a second that has a black key in the middle
• Semitone: the distance of a second that does not have a black key in the middle
  • There are only two sets of semitones: between B and C, and between E and F

Scales

• Diatonic mode: natual octave scales
  • “When the pattern of tones and semitones is different, the scale sounds different - formally it has a different quality.”
• The seven diatonic modes
  • C Ionian (same as C major): TTSTTTS
  • D Dorian: TSTTTST
  • E Phrygian: STTTSTT
  • F Lydian: TTTSTTS
  • G Mixolydian: TTSTTST
  • A Aeolian (same as A natural minor): TSTTSTT
  • B Locrian
• “Music doesn’t always start on its tonic, but it often finishes on it, … should feel like home.”

The C Major Scale

• C is the tonic
• Diatonic scale: a scale that has a pattern of 2 semitones and 5 tones within an octave
• Some C major songs:
  • Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
  • Frere Jacques (Brother John or Are You Sleeping)
  • Mary Had a Little Lamb

Chords

• A chord: Music notes played simultaneously to harmonize melody

• Triad (chords): a three-note chord consisting of 2 thirds

  • Represented as three notes stacked

• C major triad is the tonic of the C major scale.

  

• A minor triad is the tonic of the A minor scale.

  

• Perfect fifth: a fifth containing 7 semitones (a tone is counted as two semitones)

  

• Major third: a third containing 4 semitones

  

• Minor third: a third containing 3 semitones

  

• A perfect fifth is:

  • A major chord if starting with a major third
  • A minor chord if starting with a minor third

• 7 natural triads: 3 major chords, 3 minor chords, and a diminished chord

  • Cmaj, Fmaj, and Gmaj
  • Dmin, Emin, and Amin
  • Bdim (diminished, as having an imperfect fifth)

The 3 primary chords

• Tonic triad: triad built on the tonic (starting note) of a scale
• Subdominant triad: triad built on the fourth note of a scale
• Dominant triad: triad built on the fifth note of a scale
  • For C major scale: Cmaj is the tonic triad, Fmaj is the subdominant triad, and Gmaj is the dominant triad respectively
• Harmonization using natural (primary) triad chords

References

1. Reading materials from the course
2. Example of stave
3. MusicTheory.net