IES Las Encinas 1º de ESO Proyecto Bilingüe

UNIT 1:
QUALITIES OF SOUND

INDEX:
1.Sound, noise and silence

2. Qualities of sound
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Basic Vocabulary
Acoustic pollution : contaminación Quaver, Eighth note: corchea
acústica. Rest: silencio (figura).

Crotchet, Quarter note : Reverberation: reverberación.

Negra Echo: eco. Rough: áspero.

Clef (G): clave (de sol). Semibreve, Whole note : redonda
Duration (long/short): duración Semiquaver, Sixteenth note :
(largo/corto). semicorchea
Frecuency : frecuencia. Silence : silencio (sensación).
Glossy: brillante. Smooth: suave.
Notes : notas musicales. Sonorous waves: ondas
Intensity (loud / soft): intensidad sonoras. Sound : sonido.
(fuerte/suave). Staff : pentagrama.
Harmonics: armónicos. Timbre: timbre.
Ledger lines : líneas adicionales. To beam: en música, unir varias figuras
Matt: mate. mediante una barra.

Minim, Half note : Tough: resistente, fuerte.

blanca Noise : ruido. Vibration : vibración.
Pitch (low / high): afinación
(grave/agudo).
Propagation : propagación.
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1. Sound, noise and silence

Some interesting definitions…

Essentially, music is sound. SOUND is produced when an object vibrates

and it is what can be perceived by a living organism through its sense of
hearing. It travels through PHYSICAL MEDIUMS by sound waves and it is
normally a pleasant feeling.

NOISE is a disagreeable auditory experience but this is a subjective

definition (for instance, most of the percussion instruments produce noises
when they are played). Anyway, the physical difference between sound and
noise is the sort of waves: sound waves are regular and in a noise the wave is
irregular (look at the pictures in your book).

Finally, SILENCE is the absence of sound or noise.

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2. Qualities of sound

There are 4 basic qualities:

PITCH (Hz) Low sound/High sound

DURATION (Sec.) Short sound/Long sound

INTENSITY (dB) Forte/Piano

TIMBRE (Harmonics) What kind of sound?

2.1. PITCH

This is the the characteristic of

sound that tells us the difference
between a high sound and a low
sound. To represent the pitch we use
the staff and the notes. The staff (plural
staves) is written as five horizontal
parallel lines. Most of the notes of the
music are placed on one of these lines

or in a space between lines. Extra ledger lines may be added to show a note
that is too high or too low to be on the staff.
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To surf the Web!

We are going to look through an amazing music theory web! Look at this web
site and choose the English version (for sure!):

www.teoria.com
(1) Tutorials
Click on… (2) Reading Music

Click on… (3) Reading musical notes

Click on the question to begin!!!

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2.2. DURATION

This is the the characteristic of sound

that tells us the difference between a short
sound and a long sound. The duration of a
sound is indicated using several symbols. In
standard notation, a single musical sound is
written as a note.

The Parts of a Note

All of the parts of a written note affect how long it lasts.

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2.2.1. Notes and values

Name (USA) Name (England) Duration Symbol

Whole Note Semibreve 4 beats

Half Note Minim 2 beats

Quarter Note Crotchet 1 beat

Note 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.

The smallest value we have seen up to this point is that of the quarter
note, which lasts for a whole beat. Of course, there are symbols for notes of
shorter duration.
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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.

Sixteenth note One fourth of a quarter note.

We can have four of
(semiquaver)
these for each beat.

It is a common practice to beam together the flags of eight notes and

sixteenth notes that are part of the same beat, in order to facilitate reading.
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2.2.2. Rests

In all music, silence is just as important as audible notes. How do we

indicate/show silence? We do so by using symbols called rest notes, or simply
rests. 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 Rest

Whole Note (USA) Semibreve (England)

Half Note (USA) Minim (England)

Quarter Note (USA) Crotchet (England)

There are also symbols to represent silence with the value of

eighth notes (quaver) and sixteenth notes (semiquaver):

Note Rest

Eighth

(quaver)

Sixteenth
(semiquaver)
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2.3. INTENSITy

This is the the characteristic of

sound that tells us the difference between
a loud sound and a soft sound.

Dynamics are the loudness or softness of

a composition. The term piano (p) is used
to indicate softness and forte (f) to
indicate loudness. Each of these is
augmented if the letter symbolizing it is

doubled or tripled (e.g. "pp" - "pianissimo", "very soft"; "ppp" - "pianississimo",

"very, very soft"). Each one is also lessened if proceeded by mezzo (m) (e.g.
"mf" - "mezzo forte", "somewhat loud"). Also included in dynamics are the
crescendo ("slowly growing louder"), decrescendo ("slowly growing softer"), and
the sforzando ("sudden loudness").

INTENSITY

It’s represented by DYNAMICS

(Non progressive) (Progressive)

LETTERS ITALIAN TERMS / PROGRESSIVE SIGNS

f, pp, mf...

crescendo diminuendo
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Gradual Dynamic Markings

2.4. TIMBRE

One of the basic elements of music is called color, or timbre. Timbre

describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do
with its 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 is this: a flute sounds different
from an oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds. Timbre is caused
by the fact that 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. The human ear and brain are capable of hearing
and appreciating very small variations in timbre.

Another approach would make possible to look at and to touch music.

You could refer to the colour of a given sound (light or dark), to its brightness
(glossy or matt) and to its touch (smooth or rough), its weight (heavy or light), its
width (wide or narrow), its consistency (soft or tough) and its temperature (warm
or cold).
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Exercises

Exercise 1:

Complete the sentences using one of the words in the chart:

a) People living in the city center complain about __________________ at

weekends.

b) ________________, please. You are in a hospital.

c) Please be quite. There is too much ___________________ in the room.

d) Don’t repeat everything I say. You sound like my __________________.

Exercise 2:

Ready to answer the questions? Have a try! If you don’t know the
answer, ask your teacher.

1.- Sound is a form of energy.

True/False

2.- Sound travels in _________.

a) waves b) streams c) rivers

3.- Sometimes you can feel sounds on your body (by vibrations). True/False

4.- Sound waves must travel to the _______________ to be heard.

a)brain b) ear c) heart

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5.- Noise is unwanted sound.

True/False Why?

6.- Damage occurs when sounds are very

a) high b) loud c) long

Exercise 3:

Group discussion

Considering everything you have learned, what do you think about the following
ideas? Discuss in groups.

“Silence, an impossible treasure?”

I agree because …

I don’t agree because …

“Acoustic pollution. A real problem?”

I think it is…

I think it isn’t...

Exercise 4:

-Try to create a mime in order to remember all the qualities of timbre -Compare
the timbre of two of your favorite singers (two males or two females)
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