COMPLETE COURSE OF MUSIC THEORY.

Worship, Praise and Arts; World Outreach Center.

 INDEX

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Qualification Page No.
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1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 LEVEL 1: Basic concepts, and signs necessary to understand
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and write music.
3 1) The sound and the noise. 4
4 2) Properties of Noise. 5
5 3) Music. 6
6 4) Fundamental Elements of Music. 6
7 5) Musical notes. 7
8 6) The Pentagram. 7
9 7) Musical Keys. 8
10 8) The Compasses. 10
11 9) Figures of Value and the Duration of Sounds. 11
12 10) Compass Formula. 12
13 11) The Ligature. 13
14 12) The Point. 14
 INTRO DUCTION 3
When composing or performing music, it is necessary to have solid knowledge of music
theory. This will allow us to create music with guarantees; since we will have control over
everything that can be expressed with music. In addition, we will have at our disposal the
necessary knowledge to analyze other composers without having to improvise the
interpretation.

This theory course includes all the necessary topics to be able to understand, analyze and
create what each person wants in music. It has a practical approach that provides the tools
that will be used the most.

Once all the theoretical knowledge of music and its different aspects is assimilated, this
information can be used consciously and not just intuitively. If you want to express yourself
effectively with music, you must use all the harmonic and theoretical resources that music
consists of.

The first topics are focused on the reading and organization of music, but starting with
topic 4 the contents are chained together, which makes it necessary that each topic be
studied in detail to understand the subsequent ones.

One should try not to take theoretical knowledge as a method isolated from the execution
of an instrument. To make the most of what will be learned in this course, the study of
each topic must be applied in a practical way in conjunction with the study of the
instrument that is being learned or mastered.

Each topic will be evaluated weekly, do not leave it to the last minute, nor deceive yourself,
study and practice at least one hour a day, the theory and your instrument for more
progressive progress.
 LEVEL 1
Basic concepts, and signs necessary to understand and write music.
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1) Sound and Noise:

Sound is everything that reaches the ear, and is produced by something that vibrates,
called a sound body (which may or may not be a musical instrument).

It can be transmitted through air, and also through water or a solid medium; and our ear
works as a receiver of transmitted sound.

Sound, then, is produced because some sound body vibrates, and the vibration it
produces generates waves in the air, which are those that reach the eardrum. This does
not mean that all sound bodies are musical instruments, which is why we could
differentiate two groups within sound: Musical sound and noise.

- Musical sound: It is the sound generated by musical instruments, through

vibration, whether the lips on a metal mouthpiece in wind instruments, the strings in
stringed instruments, a plate or membrane in some percussion instruments, or the
strings. vowels in the voice. These sounds have a sinusoidal sinusoidal waveform,
without sudden changes. The vibration of the sound body used in the instrument
generates a set of stable harmonics that result in the sounds of musical notes.

Figure 1: Graphics of musical sound waves and representation of their harmonics.

 - Noise: These are all sounds that never have harmony or do not produce
harmonics, such as the engine of any vehicle. The noise waveform is much more
uneven and peaky than that of musical sounds, as can also be seen in Figure 2 .
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Figure 2: Noise sound wave graph.

2) Sound Properties (applied to musical instruments):

- Height: It is the tuning of the sound. That is, if it is acute, medium or serious. When
a sound is said to be high or low, it means that it is out of tune towards high or low,
respectively, with respect to another sound or instrument (in the event that there is
more than one musician).

- Duration: It is the time during which said sound is maintained. The only acoustic
instruments that can maintain sounds for as long as they want are those with
bowed strings, like the violin, for example, because they do not need to breathe or
touch the string again. The wind ones depend on lung capacity, and the percussion
ones depend on the blows. The guitar needs, like the piano, hammering to hit the
strings, and the sound is only heard until the string stops vibrating.

- Intensity: It is the same as talking about volume: a sound can be weak or strong.

- Timbre: Timbre is the color of the sound, thanks to which we can differentiate
instruments from each other. The difference between two voices or two guitars also
depends on the timbre: one may sound sweeter than the other, or more metallic, or
more opaque or bright.

3) Music:

Music is the art of combining sounds successively and simultaneously, to transmit or

evoke feelings. It is a free art, where feelings are represented with sounds, under different
composition systems. Each composition system will determine a different style within the
music.
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4) Fundamental Elements of Music:

- Melody: Melodies are what we sing or hum when we like a song. We cannot sing
more than one note at a time. The melody is the way of combining sounds, but
successively. Hence many instruments are called melodic, for example, a flute, a
sax, a clarinet or any wind instrument, because they cannot sound more than one
note at a time.

Figure 3: Written representation of the melodies on a staff.

- Harmony: Using melodies alone, the songs would sound “empty”. In the long run
we would need something that acts as a base for us, and that gives us the feeling
of being with other musicians accompanying us. Harmony is the way of combining
sounds simultaneously. Each composer will use it to create different atmospheres.
It can transmit states of melancholy, sadness, or tension, to states of joy, calm,
relaxation, etc. Instruments called harmonics, such as the piano or guitar, are those
that can play more than one note at a time.

Figure 4: Written representation of the harmonies on a staff.

- Rhythm: When we are listening to music, it is very common for us to beat

intuitively with our foot or hand. We call each beat time or pulse, and they would be
the units into which the different rhythms are divided. Rhythm is the pulse or beat
at constant, regular intervals. There are fast rhythms, like rock and roll, or slow
ones, like ballads, and we can basically differentiate them between those that are
binary, and those that are ternary, like the waltz.

5) Musical notes:

Twelve sounds are used in Western music. There are seven natural sounds and five
altered ones. Those are the notes. Once we reach the twelve sounds, we repeat them
again in the same order, throughout the register of each musical instrument. Each of these
repetitions of twelve sounds is called an octave. The higher we go up the octaves are
higher, and the further we go down they are lower.
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DO

YE
TREBLES
TH

ON
FA

M SERIOUS
C
DO

Figure 5: Musical notes of the C Major scale.

There are two groups of notes:

Natural notes: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si.
Altered Notes: C# / D b, D# / E b , F# / G b , G# / A b, A# / B b.
Altered notes are located between the natural notes, and generate a sound that is above
the previous note or below the next one, as follows:

C - C# / D b - D - D# / E b - E - F - F# / G b - G - G# / A b - A - A# / B b B B – C

In this order, you may notice that there is no altered note between E and F , nor between
B and C. A simple way to see this order on an instrument is on the keys of a piano. The
white keys represent the natural notes, and the black keys represent the altered notes.

6) The Pentagram:

The staff is the graphic symbol on which all musical writing is centered. It is where musical
notes and other musical signs such as time signatures or time signature formulas are
written. The pentagram is made up of five horizontal and parallel lines; as well as
equidistant. These five parallel lines form four spaces between them. Musical notes are
also located in these spaces. In practice, we say that there are five lines and four spaces.
These lines and spaces are named from bottom to top; So, for example, we can name the
bottom line as the first line.
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Figure 6: The staff and the numbering of its lines and spaces.

More lines and spaces can be added to this musical staff through what are known as
additional lines. There are times when the notes exceed the scope of the staff, which is
why the use of these additional lines is necessary.

Figure 7: Additional lines and spaces.

As we saw in Figure 5, as we go up the staff, the notes begin to be higher, while, if we go

down, they will be lower.

7) Musical Keys:
The keys are a reference to know the location of a certain musical note. For example: how
would we know what musical sound is a note located on the second line of the staff?
There is no way to know unless what that note is is indicated by some graphic symbol.
This symbol is what is known as a clef, and it is precisely what gives us the key to discern
the notes on the staff and in turn indicates the pitch of the note.

Figure 8: Writing and location of the clef on a staff.

There are 5 types of clefs, and they are located differently on the staff. Furthermore,
their uses depend on the instrument being played. Among them we have 5 types:
- Treble Clef: It is one of the most used. It is located on the 1st and 2nd lines of the
staff, indicating that this is the “G” note. It is usually used to write high notes.
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Figure 9: Location and writing of the treble clef.

- Clef of C: Used to write the middle notes. It is the one that changes location the
most, it can go on the 1st , 2nd , 3rd , 4th and 5th line.

Figure 10: Location and writing of the C clef.

- Bass Clef: This can be placed on the 3rd and 4th , and is commonly used to write
low notes.

Figure 11: Location and writing of the bass clef.

- Neutral clef: Also called percussion clef, unlike the rest of the clefs, it does not
assign musical notes to the various lines and spaces, but instead assigns
percussion instruments of undetermined height. This is a convention that indicates
that what is written below on the staff is for this type of instrument, and therefore
does not have any specific pitch or tuning. With the exception of some common
percussion layouts such as drums, the coding of lines and spaces to instruments is
not standardized, so a legend or indication on the staff indicating what to play is
necessary. On the other hand, staves with a neutral clef do not always have five
lines; Sometimes musical patterns for percussion only have one line, although
other configurations may be used.

Percussion instruments of determined pitch do not use the neutral clef, but are
usually notated on different staves than percussion of undefined pitch. Music for
timpani is notated in bass clef and music for reed percussion instruments
(xylophones, metallophones, marimbas, etc.) is written in treble clef or on a two-
staff system.
 Figure 12: Location and writing of the neutral key. 10
- Tab key: Music for guitar, bass and other fretted instruments is often not written on
traditional staves but on tablatures . Unlike staves, the note is not represented but
rather the position of the fingers on the frets. To indicate that it is a tablature, it is
indicated at the beginning of the work with the letters TAB vertically instead of a
key. The TAB sign would have the same meaning as the percussion clef, since it is
not a clef in the strict sense but rather a symbol that is used instead of a clef.

The number of lines in the tablature is not necessarily five, since each line
represents one of the instrument's strings. The numbers that appear on the lines
describe which fret should be played on the string.

Figure 13: Location and writing of the tablature key.

8) The Compasses:

For the reading of music to be orderly, we need to divide the spelling into a series of equal
portions. These portions are called measures and within these portions the musical notes
are written on the staff.

The beat is divided, in turn, into equal parts that are called beats. All these divisions help
the reading of music. Imagine a staff without bars; It would be impossible to read the
music, all the musical notes would be written continuously, making it difficult to know
where in the score you are reading.
 Figure 14: Writing the dividing lines and location of the compasses. 11
As can be seen in the figure, there is a dividing line or bar line that separates one measure
from the next.

This bar line crosses perpendicularly to the staff. Additionally, there is the double bar that
basically tells us that a significant change has been made in the next measure, such as a
change in tempo. Finally, there is also the final bar which, as its name indicates, signals
the end of the reading. It would be like the full stop in a literary work.

Figure 15: Writing the double slash and the final slash.

We can signal with the double bar:

- The separation into parts of a score.

- A modification of the key, or a variation in the beat.
- Any change in the score that we want to highlight from the double bar.

There are measures of:

- 2 times (binary)
- 3 strokes (ternary)
- 4 times (quaternary)
- 5 times (amalgam, 3 + 2, or 2 + 3)
- 6 beats (binary compound)
- 7 times (amalgam, 4 + 3, or 3 + 4)
- 9 stroke (ternary compound)
- 10 beats (zorcico, 5 + 5)
- 12 stroke (quaternary compound)

9) Figures of Value and Duration of Sounds:

If there was no armed system that encodes the duration of each sound, it would be
impossible to reproduce a song as it was made by the composer. The same to be able to
play music from different countries, no matter what their language is. Hence music is the
universal language.

The figures are what determine the duration of the sounds, and the silences determine
their momentary pauses.
Each figure has its corresponding silence and is classified into 7, from highest to lowest
value: ROUND, WHITE, BLACK, 8TH, SEMI-SIXTER, FUSAN, SEMIFUSA.
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Figure 16: Value figures and their corresponding silences.

The vertical line that starts from the half note is called stem, and the upper extension of the
end of the line from the eighth note is called bracket.

There is a relationship in the duration of the notes between the figures of value; This ratio
is known as relative value, and is 1:2. Music has a lot of mathematics, so you just have to
know that, following the corresponding order, a figure is worth half of the previous one and
double the one that follows it. For example, a white is half of a round and twice as much as
a black (I need two white to have the value of a round, and two black to have the value of
a white).

10) Compass Formula:

In the lesson on the beat it has been said that it is divided into a series of equal portions
that are called beats. To know how many beats, and the duration of each one, the
measure is divided into, we have a symbol called the measure formula.

Specifically, it is a fraction following the key whose numerator indicates the number of
times, and in the denominator the value figure that acts as a unit to measure the duration
of said times.

Figure 17: Compass formula, time unit and measure unit.

The figure of value that is equivalent in duration to a time is called a unit of time, this could
easily be compared to the second hand of the clock, each time the second hand moves it
would represent the unit of time. The figure of value that, in duration, coincides with a
measure is called a measure unit. For this reason, the duration of a figure is actually
determined by the time signature formula. The figures do not have a fixed value, they have
a relative value between them.
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The most common thing is for the quarter note to be the unit of time, since 4 is widely used
as a denominator in the time signature formula. The more we use figures, as a unit of time,
close to the round, the fewer short-term figures we can use.

Figure 18: Denominators that correspond to each value figure.

A simple way to understand and study Figure 18 is to see it in the same way that we were
taught fractions, for example, imagine a cake, the cake is the unit of measure, that is, it is
represented as the number “1” . As you cut the cake into parts, the representation of the
unit of measure changes, and that piece of cake not only acquires a new name (Name:
half of the cake) but there is also a change in its unit because it is fractioned, now it
changes to “½” , if it is divided into 4, it would be “¼” , and so on. In conclusion, these
numbers only indicate the number of portions the largest unit of time was divided, which is
the round one.

11) The Ligature:

The ligature is a symbol that serves to join the duration of two figures of value that are at
the same height. It is a small arc, parallel to the staff that unites the two musical notes.

It should be noted that at least two figures are joined together, but there may be more
notes affected by the ligature. On the other hand, in practice only the first note is played,
and it remains playing for a time equivalent to the sum of the remaining value figures
including the first one played.

The following image shows this more graphically:

Figure 19: Writing the ligature between two notes on the staff.
Figure 19 shows slurs that are within a measure; However, ligatures can exceed the
measure, extending to the next (even one beyond). The ligature value is renewed when it
joins a note from the next measure.
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Figure 20: Writing the ligature of more than two notes.

12) The point:

It is a point that is placed to the right of the note or rest. This point indicates that you have
to increase half the value of the figure, or silence if it is next to a rest. There is an
equivalence between the point and the ligature of value, this will allow us to understand it
better; as seen in Figure 21 .

Figure 21: Dot writing and its equivalent writing with a ligature.