It's time for a quick review of what we've accomplished in the last two issues. In the beginning, we looked at the length of time notes are held. This let us recognize whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteenth notes. We also found out that a dot after a note increases the length of time it is held by 50%. The second installment went into most of the symbols that are found at the beginning of lines. Covered were the treble and bass clef signatures, the names of the notes on each staff and the time signature, which often looks something like a fraction. I was going to get into the key signature bit this month, but we have to understand sharps, flats, octaves and intervals a little better first.
First we'll approach the concept of the sharps and flats. These are those symbols you often see at the start of each staff. It's really easy to tell the difference. The sharps are represented by symbols that look like pound or number signs. This symbol can be related to its name if you recognize that it has eight sharp points sticking out of it. The flats look a lot like the small letter "b."
Each of these two symbols really have only one type of function. A sharp will raise the basic note it is associated with by a half-tone, while a flat will lower it by one half-tone. If the sharp or flat appears at the beginning of a staff, the half-tone raising or lowering applies to all notes of a given name, regardless of what octave it is in. In addition to finding sharps or flats at the beginning of staffs, they may also occur within the body of the music. These internal notations operate differently from those at the beginning, in that they apply only to the notes within that measure. An exception to that limitation occurs when a note is carried over to the following measure.
Now we'll touch upon the octave. You have often seen the prefix "oct" appear at the beginning of words. You should be aware that an octopus has eight tentacles, an octet has eight singers and October is the eighth month. Well, it used to be, but we won't get into that.
The musical octave from C to C has eight notes in it, if you don't count the black keys. This octave has the notes; C, D, E, F, G, A, B and another note called C. On a piano, these are what you hear when you use only the white keys. Of course, you can't just start with any white key to play the scale of C.
There are some black keys, too. In fact, they are grouped in sets of three and two. The note C that you have to start on is just to the left of a set of two black keys. Now it's time to get a little messy. We said that an octave has eight notes in it, but only if we don't count the black keys. However, they do count. This means that there are 13 notes in an "octave," counting the black keys. Hey, nobody said that music notation was always obvious.
You've often heard of intervals between notes. The BASIC interval of music is the half-tone. Any two adjacent keys will always be a half-tone apart, when you include both black and white ones. Now go look at the piano and follow the key of C up the scale (white keys only.) You should see that there are two places where two white keys are adjacent. Everywhere else, the white keys are separated by an intervening black key. This means that the notes and normal intervals in the major key or scale of C are:
Notes: Intervals:
For ANY OTHER major key or scale, the names of some individual notes will be amended by sharps or flats in the key signature at the beginning of each staff. However, the interval sequence must remain as given above. The only purpose of those sharps or flats at the beginning of each staff is to retain the above interval relationship.
For our discussions, we'll be sticking with major keys or scales, since we use them for most barbershop songs. (There are also minor keys, and these use a slightly different interval set.) Next month we'll be covering major keys other than C.