Basic Music Theory

Starting from the very basic, we'll progress slowly throughout understanding why music works the way it does.  For some students, this will be an easy approach to music. Others will take to music from an entirely different approach.  As we progress in our lessons, we can easily discuss the various aspects of music if we can give them names by which to refer to them by.  You can always refer to the Glossary if you can't remember what a musical term means.

Let's break music down into two categories for starters and then we'll delve into each category deeper as you progress!  We'll start with these two basics:

1. Rhythm
and
2. Pitch

Rhythm is defined as the organization of music in respect to time or the regular occurrence of beats.   Basically, the position of the the note's beginning and the duration of the note.  In music, rhythm is the aspect that allows more that one person to play together as one.

Pitch is the actual frequency of a note.  That is, how fast the note is vibrating.  In music, the pitch create the melody and the harmony.  The melody is a succession of notes creating a distinctive pattern. For instance, anything that you can hum is a melody.  The harmony is notes played simultaneously that create a distinctive sound, often pleasing to the ear.  For instance, if you play a chord on the guitar or more than one note at the same time on the piano, you are playing harmony.