Music is a pattern of sound.

Sound is a wave of energy. These waves cause air molecules to bump into each other, spreading vibrations throughout the air. Our inner ear takes these vibrations and turns them into what we hear.

Waves are fluctuations in energy. Please click on the images to hear the different qualities of waves.

1. The taller the wave, the greater the AMPLITUDE. Greater amplitude means greater VOLUME - a louder sound.

2. The closer the peaks, the greater the FREQUENCY. Changes in frequency create changes in PITCH - how "high" or "low" a sound is.

3. Changing the shape of the wave gives us different SHAPES. This creates a difference in sound unattributable to pitch or volume - a change in TIMBRE.

You can add waves together. Heavily layered and quickly changing arrangements of waves can create complex sounds. All sounds are waves of varying complexity.

The focus of music is CONTRAST. This is the focus of all audible and visual arts. Good music is interesting because of the way it changes over time.

Without contrast, a red painting would look like this:

Without contrast, music sounds like this.

Most modern music is based off of creating small patterns of contrast for the listener to hold onto, then breaking away from those patterns before it gets boring. However, creating lots of contrast repeatedly can be confusing, because we won't be able to tell what the important parts of the song are. If you want to create music, you must learn how changes occur in a song and utilize them effectively.

Music is a pattern of sound. These patterns are created out of the arrangement of changes in these five qualities.

Quick changes in volume create the sounds of many instruments we're familiar with. A drum would not have its distinctive sound if you struck it and the volume slowly faded in.

Over a larger period of time, volume choice and change can create a great difference in power and mood. A cinematic fight scene with quiet music won't do, but if there's never a quiet part in the song we won't be able to appreciate the loud parts.

Arrangements of specific pitches create distinct strings of notes called MELODIES. Combination of pitches create HARMONIES or CHORDS. A CHORD PROGRESSION is way that chords change throughout the song, and are mainly responsible for the mood.

Here's a C MAJOR CHORD. It sounds kind of happy.

Here's a C MINOR CHORD. It sounds mysterious, or possibly sad.

A SCALE is the series of pitches that melodies/chords are usually chosen from. In Western music, we have 12 notes that we can create a scale from, and we almost always create scales with 7 different notes. The easiest one to play on the piano is the C major scale - you start on the "C" key and move up the white notes.

Have you ever heard a sound that feels "round?" How about a sound that feels "grainy?" A sound that feels "metallic?" Even if a grunge metal band plays the exact same song at the same volume and pitches as a children's choir, the songs will sound vastly different.

The difference in these is the timbre of the instruments used. Say it with me: Timbre!!!!

Combining different TIMBRES together creates a TEXTURE. While the chords can contribute a lot to the "mood" of a piece, texture usually contributes a lot to the "setting." Ambient music is a genre of music that focuses primarily on texture.

Rhythm is the timed pattern on which notes are played. It is the difference in TIME - SHIFTS IN VOLUME, TIMBRE, or PITCH.

A BEAT is a single unit of musical time. Most music is separated into MEASURES, made up of a specified number of beats. Most songs have 4 beats per measure - some songs, like waltzes, have 3. Check out Harlequin from Homestuck - 3 beats per measure. Songs with strong, predictable beats are usually very danceable.

TEMPO is the speed at which a whole piece of music is performed. A faster tempo can give a more urgent or excited feeling to the piece - a slower tempo can be relaxed, or grave.

"Panning" refers to whether a sound comes out of the left speaker, the right speaker, or both. It only applies to stereo recordings. With certain recording setups, we can create a very natural sound.

-

Together, these qualities act together to create INTENSITY. The order of patterns and changes in a song is called STRUCTURE. I will talk about both of these in another lesson.

If you want to focus on composition, think about all of this. Are you comfortable with utilizing all of the aspects I mentioned? Are you comfortable with composing changes in all of the qualities?