GCSE Elements of Music Workbook

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The text discusses the main musical elements of time, pitch, texture, timbre/sonority, and dynamics. It explores how these elements can be described separately but are heard simultaneously in music.

The main musical elements discussed are time (including duration, pulse, metre, tempo, and rhythm), pitch (including melody, tonality, and harmony), and texture, timbre/sonority, and dynamics.

Sounds can be differentiated from each other based on pitch, timbre/sonority, loudness, and other qualities like the frequency of vibration.

G C S E M U S I C – E L E M E N T S O F M U S I C W O R K B O O K

THE ELEMENTS
OF MUSIC

WORKBOOK
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INTRODUCTION
The different kinds of music played and sung around the world are
incredibly varied, and it is very difficult to define features that all music
shares; one piece might be characterised as a melody supported by an
accompaniment of chords, but another might have neither melody nor
harmony (chords) but still be regarded as music.
When we try to get inside music and understand how it works, we usually do this by identifying
different ‘elements’ that can be described separately – while remembering that in reality we hear
all of these elements simultaneously.
The first thing we can do in defining these elements is to distinguish the ways in which sounds are
differentiated from each other from the arrangement of these different sounds in time. The ways in
which sounds can be distinguished from each other are many (pitch, timbre/sonority, loudness and
so on) and they need to be picked apart a little further. Pitch is defined by the frequency of
vibration of a sounding body (a string, a column of air, a metal plate, etc.). Faster vibrations give
rise to ‘higher’ pitches, slower vibrations to ‘lower’ pitches. The description of pitch as relatively
‘high’ or ‘low’ is reflected in the notational convention of indicating higher pitches (those involving
faster vibrations) higher on a musical staff than low pitches. A succession of pitches gives rise to
melody; simultaneous pitches define harmony. Most real-world sounds comprise not a single
frequency of vibration but a complex mixture of frequencies, and this combination gives rise to the
perception of timbre/sonority: timbre/sonority is one of the principal elements that allows us to
distinguish a clarinet from a trumpet, for example, or to distinguish between the voices of two
singers. Although usually considered rather lower down in the list of elements, timbre/sonority
plays an essential role alongside melody and harmony in western music, and can be one of the
most important elements, especially in music that uses instruments without definite pitches.
Similarly, dynamic contrasts (between louder and softer sounds) are important in many kinds of
music. As for the ways in which different sounds are arranged, this gives us the broad category of
musical time (under which come rhythm, metre, tempo and pulse). This is also linked to other
phenomena, such as melody and harmony, since they involve the arrangement of sounds in time,
as noted above; melody and harmony are placed among the most important elements in western
music.
Finally, we must consider the ways in which different voices and instruments combine. This is
partly a matter of timbre/sonority (since different combinations of instruments have distinctive
timbral/sonorous characteristics) and partly of dynamics (i.e. dynamic levels and their variations),
but it can also be much more than that; the ways in which different lines of the music combine
together is described as its texture, which is another important aspect of music that we can
investigate. This gives us the following list of musical ‘elements’ which can be grouped in related
clusters, in the order in which they are discussed in
the following section:
 TIME: DURATION, PULSE, METRE,
TEMPO, RHYTHM.
 PITCH: MELODY, TONALITY, HARMONY.
 TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY,
DYNAMICS.

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TIME - DURATION
PULSE METRE TEMPO
AND RHYTHM
The way music proceeds through time is defined in several basic
ways, of which the most important are DURATION, PULSE, METRE,
TEMPO AND RHYTHM. Perhaps the easiest of these concepts to
grasp is DURATION: any performance of a piece of music lasts a
particular length of time. A song can be short, as little as two or three
minutes. An opera or a musical religious ritual can last several hours.
A concerto, a symphony or an Indian raga, might last anywhere
between fifteen minutes and an hour or so. There may also be sections within this overall duration:
three or four movements within a concerto or symphony, verses and choruses within a song. And,
of course, individual sounds also have DURATION.
Most music has a PULSE, which is perceived as a series of regular
beats. In some music it is obvious; in other music it is subtle. In certain
kinds of music there is no pulse, or a pulse that is weak or intermittent.
In most music the beats are arranged into a regularly repeating pattern,
in which some beats are stressed, others unstressed. This pattern is
called METRE (as in poetry). It is important to be clear about the
distinction between pulse and
metre. Pulse underlies the
basic beat, METRE is the way those beats are arranged
into patterns of stressed and unstressed. The most
common metres have measures (bars, groups or cycles)
of two, three or four beats (though many other groups
are encountered, particularly in musical traditions of the
Balkans, the Middle East and India). In western music
notation, the metre is indicated by a time signature (2/4,
3/4, 4/4, 6/8 and so on), and by division of the score into
bars. (The second or lower figure in a time signature refers to a particular note value, such as a
crotchet (/4) or quaver (/8); the first or upper figure gives the number of these note values per bar.)
The TEMPO of music is defined by the rate of pulse. Fast
music is music with a fast pulse; slow music is music with a
slow pulse.
RHYTHM is the general term to describe how sounds are
distributed over time (so pulse, metre and tempo are all
aspects of rhythm in this broad sense). During a piece of
music, notes or sounds will come and go in varying patterns
in relation to the pulse, metre and tempo. These patterns are
what is most often meant by the ‘rhythm’ of the music. The rhythm can consist of patterns of
longer or shorter notes in various combinations: even or uneven, emphasising the metre and
stresses or disrupting them. Patterns tend to be grouped in identifiable PHRASES, similar to the
phrases of speech. Much of the character of music is determined by this detailed rhythm and its
grouping into phrases, and the way they relate to pulse, metre and tempo.

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ACTIVITY 1
We’re going to begin exploring the ‘elements’ of music by looking at Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C
minor, a piece of late eighteenth-century western art music, with a duration of about half an hour.
It is divided into three sections called MOVEMENTS. We’ll begin by exploring the second
movement, the ‘slow movement’ of the Concerto.

Listen to the opening bars of the second movement on Elements Audio 1 and try to establish the
METRE. How many beats do you think there are to the bar: two, three or four? Try counting the
music in different ways (in twos, threes and fours) to establish what METRE you think the
movement has?

ACTIVITY 2
Look at the score of this passage from the second, (‘Larghetto’), movement of Mozart’s Piano
Concerto in C minor, given as SCORE 1 on the following pages. In this version of the score, the
orchestral parts have been reduced onto two staves, to make them easier to read. Look at the
opening bars, which are for piano only. Don’t worry if you are not used to reading a score on more
than one staff. All you are looking at is the number of beats in the bar – how many are there?

ACTIVITY 3
Now listen to Elements Audio 2, which repeats this passage, this time continuing a little further to
bar 12. As you do so, try to follow the score, given as SCORE 1 on the following pages. For most
of this passage you can just concentrate on the piano part, and particularly the upper staff of the
piano part, which carries the melody. You only need to follow the orchestral part in bars 5-8.
Think about the rhythmic character of bars 1-12.

How might you describe the rhythm of this music?

Does it have clearly defined PHRASES – is it easy to break up into short chunks – or are the
phrases difficult to identify?

Does the rhythm have sudden contrasts, or does it flow smoothly?

Does the rhythmic character of the music change during this passage?

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SCORE ONE
Piano Concerto in C minor, K491, second movement, bars 1–23 (piano reduction) -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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ACTIVITY 4
We’re now going to look at the opening of the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C
minor. Without looking at the score on the following pages, listen to the opening of the first
movement on Elements Audio 3. As you listen, try to establish in your mind the PULSE and
METRE of this movement, as you did with the slow movement. It may take you a while to be sure,
because the opening bars do not make it clear, but once the music “gets going”, try counting two,
three or four against the music, and try to establish the metre

Can you feel a regular pulse?

If so, how fast is it?

Is this movement in two-, three- or four-time?

ACTIVITY 5
Now listen to this same passage again on Elements Audio 3 and try to follow the score, given as
SCORE 2 on the following pages. Again, you don’t need to be able to pick out a lot of detail, just
think about the rhythmic character of the music. Use the times on your media player to identify
points where you think the rhythmic character of the music changes, and mark these points on the
score on the following pages. Then look specifically at bars 1-5 on the score and consider how
the rhythmic character of those bars is reflected in what you see on the score.

How does it compare with the rhythmic character of the second movement?

Does it flow smoothly, or are there distinct contrasts in rhythm in this passage?

If there are distinct contracts, what are they?

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SCORE TWO
Piano Concerto in C minor, K491, first movement, orchestral exposition, bars 1–99 (piano
reduction) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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PITCH - MELODY
TONALITY
HARMONY
Most music consists of notes of particular PITCHES
(though there are some exceptions – music for
unpitched drums, for example). Notes of different pitch
occurring one after another form MELODIES. Of course,
there needs to be a certain number of notes before one
really perceives a fully fledged melody, as the term is commonly used. Some music for
instruments is made up of little groups of two or more notes, which are more generally referred to
as PHRASES, or (if they recur) MOTIFS. You could say that these are fragments of melody –
though it is also possible for a motif to consist of just a rhythm.
The notes of a melody are chosen from the notes of a SCALE or MODE. There are many different
scales in the world. In western music from the eighteenth century onwards, the two most common
types of scale have been the MAJOR SCALE and the MINOR SCALE. A major scale is said to be
in a MAJOR KEY, and a minor scale in a MINOR KEY. The name of the major or minor key is
determined by the starting note (TONIC or key note) of that scale. So a major scale that starts on
the note G is a scale of G major.
When notes of different pitch sound simultaneously,
the generic term for the result is HARMONY. Any
single instance of notes sounding simultaneously is a
CHORD. When the harmony of the music consists
simply of a succession of chords, this is
HOMOPHONY (CHORDAL). But it is also possible
to create harmony in which one melody co-exists
with another, sounding simultaneously on a different
voice or instrument; this is POLYPHONY.

ACTIVITY 6
Listen to the first twelve bars of the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor
again from Elements Audio 2 following the score, given as SCORE 1. This time, as you listen,
think about the PITCH elements of the music.

During the first four bars, what is the melody doing?

Is it repeating the same note, going up, going down, moving suddenly or gradually, by small steps
or by larger steps?

What shape is being created by these movements up or down?

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ACTIVITY 7
Look at SCORE 1 and listen to Elements Audio 2 again.

What key is the second movement in? (Look at the key signature and the opening notes of the

music and use the “Key Signature Chart (Circle of Fifths)” below to help you)

Then, look at the melody of the first four bars. Do you think that it sticks closely to the notes of the

key, or does it deviate from it?

ACTIVITY 8
Look again at SCORE 2 showing the opening of the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in
C minor.
What key is the first movement in? (Look at the key signature and the opening notes of the music

and use the “Key Signature Chart (Circle of Fifths)” below to help you)

Look at the melody of the opening bars (bars 1-13). Does it stick closely to the notes of the key?

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ACTIVITY 9
Staying with SCORE 2, now consider the shape of the melody at the beginning of the first
movement and its groups into phrases.

How might you describe the phrases in the first nine bars: how is the music divided into phrases

and what are the melodic shapes of those phrases?

How would you compare this with the beginning of the second movement from Activity 6?

TEXTURE TIMBRE
SONORITY AND
DYNAMICS
When you have several different notes sounding together,
whether in simple chords or in complicated polyphony, whether
voices or instruments, this creates what is known as a TEXTURE.
This term is also used with a fabric, in which the combining of
threads creates a particular texture – fine or coarse, open or
dense, for example.
TIMBRE and SONORITY are the terms used to describe the tone quality of a sound, voice or
instrument, for example its brightness, mellowness or purity.
Finally, musicians use the term DYNAMICS to describe
levels of loud or soft.
The terms TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY and
DYNAMICS are grouped together in this section because,
in practice, they interact with each other. A TEXTURE of
different instruments playing together will sound quite
different, depending on the TIMBRE/SONORITY and
DYNAMICS of each instrument within it.
Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor is scored for piano
with quite a small orchestra (by modern standards), but it
contains a wealth of effects and subtleties in its use of
TEXTURE, TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS

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ACTIVITY 10
Listen again to the opening of the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor on
Elements Audio 3. Just listen straight through the track (bars 1-52). This time, listen out for the
different instruments and their combinations. Make a note of each striking change of TEXTURE,
TIMBRE/SONORITY and DYNAMICS in this passage. It is suggested that you do this twice, once
just listening to the recording and the second time following SCORE 2 again. Some of the
changes in TEXTURE are more striking than others. Where does the most striking change occur?

MUSICAL NOTATION
Notation also has a profound effect on the language we use
to describe music: for instance, we describe harmony as the
‘vertical’ dimension of music because harmony is notated
with the notes sounding together represented as vertical
stacks; rhythms are referred to as ‘dotted’ if their notation
requires the use of dots. This section on Musical Notation
thinks about the ways in which musicians use notation, what
it is good for and what its limitations might be. You will be
comparing three pieces of notation all asking you to listen to
a piece of music while attempting to follow it in a
corresponding piece of notation. This may be harder in one
or more examples than it is in the others, in which case don’t
worry about ‘following the score’ but concentrate on how the
notation is presented and what sense you can make of it.

ACTIVITY 11
Think back to the previous activities, where you were asked to listen to the first fifty-two bars of the
first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor while following the two-stave score given on
SCORE 2.

Which elements of the music you heard were indicated on the score and which were not? (Look

back at SCORE 2 and listen to Elements Audio 3 again).

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ACTIVITY 12
Repeat Activity 11, doing exactly the same thing using an audio track and printed music for a very
different piece of music – a song by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band called ‘Big Eyed
Beans from Venus’ – given as SCORE 3 and on Elements Audio 4. Since far less information is
contained on the printed music, you might like to make brief notes about all the things that could
have been represented in notation but have not been (at least in this version).

SCORE THREE
Big Eyed Beans from Venus – Captain Beefheart (words and music by Don Van Vliet)

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In sum, the score of the Mozart contains enough information for suitably trained musicians to play
the opening of his Piano Concerto in C minor. A pianist can sit down at a piano and play the two-
stave score. The full orchestral score contains more or less everything you need to know in order
to arrange a performance of the concerto by an orchestra and pianist.
By contrast, the printed music of ‘Big Eyed
Beans from Venus’ doesn’t contain enough
information to enable a rock group to do the
equivalent job. This kind of printed music,
comprising lyrics and guitar chords, is very
common in popular music; it is often
extremely useful in enabling bands or solo
guitarists to play passable versions of songs
(the same musicians would almost always
refer also to recorded versions of the songs
as a guide). If you are a guitarist and you like
Captain Beefheart’s music, you will want to
figure out how his guitarists play those riffs –
and if this is the only notation you have got,
you are going to have to figure it out for
yourself!
Of course, if you think of an actual rock
performance for a moment, this is entirely
logical; rock bands don’t play from notation
but from memory, and there simply isn’t a
score in the way that there is a score of the
Mozart. Rock musicians don’t generally learn
songs from notation either, although they
might use sheets like this to get a head start
in figuring out how another band’s song is to
be played. The point of this is simple but
fundamental: musical notation exists to do a
particular job within a particular musical tradition, so the ways in which notation is used and the
information that the notation contains vary between musical traditions.

ACTIVITY 13
Video clips of the Mozart and Captain Beefheart pieces in performance can be found on Elements
Video 1. Watch them now.

How, if at all, is notation used in the two performances?

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The basic notation of a song in pop or jazz is called a LEAD SHEET. It usually consists of the
melody (the ‘lead’), with lyrics if there are any, and indications of the accompanying harmony using
chord symbols as a shorthand. In jazz, lead sheets provide an aide memoire for a core repertoire
of standards (often American popular songs) with which jazz musicians are expected to be
familiar, but also provide a basis for sharing new compositions. The lead sheet provides only a
rough guide for performances, as the same composition can be performed in infinitely different
ways. Most significantly, jazz musicians will also decide on a particular ‘feel’ for their interpretation
– a combination of the tempo and ‘groove’, for example swing or bossa nova – which provides the
rhythmic basis for the performance. Even the melody and harmony are rarely performed simply as
notated on the lead sheet – often the rhythm of the melody is treated very freely, and different
harmonies are added or substituted. Of course, many elements of a jazz performance are not
usually represented on the lead sheet at all, such as a bass line, drum part and patterns for
accompanying chordal instruments such as guitar and piano, which, along with solos, are usually
improvised in accordance with the chosen ‘feel’ for the performance.

ACTIVITY 14
Listen to the first 0’54” of Veena Sahasrabuddhe’s performance of a composition called ‘Ranga de
rangarejavaa’ given on Elements Audio 5 following notation given below as you listen. The
notation has been given in two forms, firstly, the traditional Indian notation and secondary
transcribed into traditional western standard notation.

‘Ranga de rangarejavaa’ (Raga Madhmad Sarang, teental) as sung by Veena Sahasrabuddhe,


first line in Indian notation.
The top row (3, X, 2, 0) indicates the structure of the tala or metre: X marks beat 1 but occurs in the middle of the line
because the piece begins on beat 12. The letters on the second row indicate the main notes to be sung.

‘Ranga de rangarejavaa’ (Raga Madhmad Sarang, teental) as sung by Veena Sahasrabuddhe,


first line transcribed in western standard
With indications of the tala structure added. Written at the pitch used for the recording; the Indian notation indicates
only relative pitch.

How much does the notation tell you about the music you hear on the recording?

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ACTIVITY 15
Read the following regarding “Musical Notation” filling in the missing word or words choosing from
those given in the box below:
Of the three examples you’ve explored – the Mozart Piano Concerto, the Captain Beefheart Lead

Sheet and the Indian notation of Raga Madhmad Sarang, the score contains

by far the most , because it is intended to enable to

play the piece. Of course, it isn’t all they need to know, because to be able to carry out the

instructions properly requires many years of – musicians

bring an enormous amount of contextual and to bear in interpreting a

. Nevertheless, what this kind of notation allows

to do is to reproduce a very complex music, often

involving the coordination of many different , with a high degree of precision.

There are other examples of musical traditions involving the coordination of many different parts,

such as , which use notation very little or not at all. But in these

cases musicians tend to be much less concerned with playing music the same way it has been

played before, and more comfortable with the idea that the piece is being recreated in a slightly

different each time.

To some extent then, notation can help to a piece of music in a particular

form and slow down what would otherwise be an inevitable process of change; in western art

music this is often considered desirable. This doesn’t mean the of the music

doesn’t change over time, but the things that change most tend to be the things that aren’t

on the score: the instrumental and

, precise and

, rather than the actual notes. This is just one of many ways in which the nature of the

notation musicians use plays a role in determining the music which is played and listened to.

dynamics score stabilise western classical musicians specified information


sound musicians Mozart parts technical knowledge playing techniques
tempo markings timbres/sonorities Indonesian Gamelan training and practice form

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There are many other kinds of notation in use around the world, and to get a sense of this –
without getting into too much detail – we’re going to look at how a well-known melody –
“Greensleeves” – can be represented in different forms of notation.

‘Greensleeves’, in the Dorian


Mode – a simple transcription of
melody onto a single staff

‘Greensleeves’, including chord


notations for the guitar. This is
similar to a LEAD SHEET in
popular songs, but without the
words.
(Note the convention here of indicating
a minor chord with a lower-case letter
(e.g. ‘e’): the alternative way of writing
this same chord, ‘Em’ is more common
in lead sheets)

‘Greensleeves’, in a type of modern


guitar TABLATURE.
(Here, the horizontal lines represent not notes
but strings on a guitar. The small numbers
replacing note heads indicate which fret on
which the string must be pressed down when
it is plucked. The notation is therefore a direct
instruction to the musician where to place his
or her fingers. As long as the tuning is known
(and here it is given as the top line of the
notation), the pitches can be deduced, but
they are not represented directly as they are
in standard notation)

‘Greensleeves’, melody in CIPHER


NOTATION using Arabic numerals
(Number 1 refers to the first note of the scale, 2 the
second note, and so on. It does not indicate that it is
to start from the note E as the previous three examples
do, and nor does it specify which scale is to be used
(e.g. major or minor – this version of the tune is
actually in the DORIAN MODE).

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‘Greensleeves’, arranged for the Chinese lute


(pipa) by Tsun Yuen Lui.
(This is also a form of TABLATURE, but it is
very different! It is written for the Chinese lute
(pipa) and the two lines of characters in each
column represent the pitch (indicated in
cipher notation – using numerals) and the
right-hand plucking technique to be used).

Looking at these different notations of the same


melody – ‘Greensleeves’ – tells us different things:
they do not all convey the same information. The
first shows us the tune – that is, the pitches, the
relative durations of the notes and the metre – but
doesn’t tell us what instrument(s) it is to be played
on. The second indicates chords that can
accompany the melody, but leaves open the
question of how they might be played (guitar
symbols are given, but from the chord names, one
could just as easily make a simple
accompaniment on the piano, for example). The
third example specifies exactly how to play the
tune on a particular instrument, as does the fifth,
whereas the fourth gives the least information of
all – and is therefore the most flexible and
adaptable to different instrumental and vocal
ensembles.

ACTIVITY 16
Give your own definitions for the following “Elements of Music Key Words” on the following pages,
or look back at the information given in this booklet to help you remember.
Finally, complete the “Learning Outcomes” to monitor and evaluate your learning on the Elements
of Music.

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THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC


KEY WORDS
Understood Signatures
Key Word Meaning (tick) (staff, student, parent)

Chord

Duration

Dynamics

Harmony

Lead Sheet

Melody

Metre

Mode

Motif

Movement(s)

Notation

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G C S E M U S I C – E L E M E N T S O F M U S I C W O R K B O O K

Understood Signatures
Key Word Meaning (tick) (staff, student, parent)

Phrase(s)

Pitch

Pulse

Rhythm

Scale

Tempo

Texture

Timbre/Sonority

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G C S E M U S I C – E L E M E N T S O F M U S I C W O R K B O O K

(Grade 1-3) (Grade 4-6) (Grade 7-9)


Signatures
Learning Outcomes (staff, student, parent)

I can list the Elements of Music from memory


I can describe the musical elements associated with “Time” –
Duration, Pulse, Metre, Tempo and Rhythm
I can establish the Metre of different pieces of music when listening
I can describe the Rhythms of different pieces of music when
listening and compare and contrast rhythmic features
I can describe the musical elements associated with “Pitch” –
Melody, Harmony and Tonality
I can describe the Melody of different pieces of music when
listening and compare and contrast melodic features, melodic
movement and melodic shape
I can identify the Tonality (key signature) of different pieces of
music
I can describe the musical elements of Texture, Timbre/Sonority
and Dynamics
I can identify changes of Texture, Timbre/Sonority and Dynamics
when listening to a piece of music
I can describe what Musical Notation is
I can identify what Elements of Music are indicated on a musical
score
I can identify what elements of music are indicated on a Lead
Sheet
I can describe how musical notation is used during live musical
performances
I can comment on how much musical notation tells about the music
heard on a recording
I understand that there are different types of musical notation and can identify
what different elements of music different forms of musical notations tell the
performer and cab describe the limitations of different types of musical notation.

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