Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 175 views

    UNIT 1 - Properties of Musical Tones

    Uploaded by

    Olga Veiga
    This document discusses the four main properties of musical tones: pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre. It describes pitch as the frequency of a sound and how it is notated on a musical staff. Duration refers to the length of a tone and is represented by various note symbols like whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Intensity relates to loudness and is indicated using dynamics like piano and forte. Timbre is the unique quality of a musical instrument's sound.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    UNIT 1 - Properties of Musical Tones

    Uploaded by

    Olga Veiga
    175 views3 pages
    This document discusses the four main properties of musical tones: pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre. It describes pitch as the frequency of a sound and how it is notated on a musical staff. Duration refers to the length of a tone and is represented by various note symbols like whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Intensity relates to loudness and is indicated using dynamics like piano and forte. Timbre is the unique quality of a musical instrument's sound.

    Original Title

    UNIT 1 - Properties of Musical tones

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document discusses the four main properties of musical tones: pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre. It describes pitch as the frequency of a sound and how it is notated on a musical staff. Duration refers to the length of a tone and is represented by various note symbols like whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Intensity relates to loudness and is indicated using dynamics like piano and forte. Timbre is the unique quality of a musical instrument's sound.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    175 views3 pages

    UNIT 1 - Properties of Musical Tones

    Uploaded by

    Olga Veiga
    This document discusses the four main properties of musical tones: pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre. It describes pitch as the frequency of a sound and how it is notated on a musical staff. Duration refers to the length of a tone and is represented by various note symbols like whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Intensity relates to loudness and is indicated using dynamics like piano and forte. Timbre is the unique quality of a musical instrument's sound.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    1 Aula de Música – CPI Monte Caxado Unit 1 – Properties of musical tones

    PROPERTIES OF MUSICAL TONES

    A musical tone is characterized by its pitch, duration, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or
    quality)

    1.- PITCH:

    Pitch represents the frecuency of sound, and tells the difference between high sounds and low
    sounds. Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower", and are quantified as frequencies (cycles per
    second, or Hertz-Hz).

    Pitch allows the construction of melodies; To represent the pitch we use the staff and the notes.

    The staff (plural- staves) is written as five parallel lines. Most of the notes are placed on one of
    these lines or in a space between lines.
    Extra ledger lines may be added to show higher or lower notes.

    2.- DURATION:

    In sounds and music, a duration is a property of a tone that becomes one of the bases of rhythm.
    Durations may be described as long or short.

    PARTS OF A NOTE:

     Head (filled in  or not filled in):  

     Stem: 

     Flag: 
    2 Aula de Música – CPI Monte Caxado Unit 1 – Properties of musical tones

    These are the relationship of values between the different symbols:

    Name (USA) Name (England) Duration Symbol


    Whole Note Semibreve 4 beats

    Half Note Minim 2 beats

    Quarter Note Crotchet 1 beat

    Look at the relationship of values between the different symbols:

    Each whole note (semibreve):

    is divided into two half notes (minim):

    And each half note (minim),

    is divided into two quarter notes (crotchet)

    Thus, each symbol will have half the value of the preceding shape.

    There are smaller values that of the crotchet; here you can see symbols that take a half (50%) or
    a fourth (25%) of a beat:

    Symbols Name Value


    Half of a quarter note.
    Eighth note
    We can have two eighth
    (quaver)
    notes for each beat.
    One fourth of a quarter note.
    Sixteenth note
    We can have four of
    (semiquaver)
    these for each beat.

    It is common practice to beam together the flags of eighth notes and sixteenth notes that are
    part of the same beat, in order to facilitate reading.

    In music, silence is just as important as sound. How do we notate silence? We notate silence by
    using symbols called rest notes, or simply rests.
    3 Aula de Música – CPI Monte Caxado Unit 1 – Properties of musical tones

    There is an equivalent rest symbol for each note value. Below we can see the corresponding rest
    symbols for the note values we already know:

    Note Name Note Name


    Symbol Rest
    (USA) (England)
    Whole Note Semibreve

    Half Note Minim

    Quarter Note Crotchet

    There are also symbols to represent silence with the value of eighth notes (quaver) and
    sixteenth notes (semiquaver):

    Note Rest
    Eighth
    (quaver)

    Sixteenth
    (semiquaver)

    3.- INTENSITY:

    It is the sound’s property that tells us the difference between a loud sound and a soft sound. It’s
    represented with dynamics, and written with Italian terms. For example, the word piano (p)
    indicates softness; the word forte (f) indicates loudness.

    Also we can use dynamics as: crescendo (gradually playing louder), decrescendo or diminuendo
    (gradually playing softer ).

    4.-TIMBRE:

    Timbre describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do with the
    sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the
    same note, for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can tell that the only difference
    in this: a flute sounds different from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds.

    Timbre is caused because each note from a musical instrument is a complex wave containing more
    than one frequency. For instruments that produce notes with a clear and specific pitch, the
    secondary frequencies that are involved in the sound are called harmonics.

    You might also like