COMPLETE COURSE ON MUSIC THEORY.

Worship, Praise, and Arts; Global Outreach Center.

 INDEX

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Title Page Number
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1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 LEVEL 1: Basic concepts and necessary signs for
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understand and write music.
3 1) The sound and the noise. 4
4 2) Properties of Noise. 5
5 3) The Music. 6
6 Fundamental Elements of Music. 6
7 Musical notes. 7
8 The Pentagram. 7
9 Musical Keys. 8
10 8) The Time Signatures. 10
11 9) Figures of Value and the Duration of Sounds. 11
12 10) Compass Formula. 12
13 The Ligature. 13
14 12) The Point. 14
 INTRODUCTION 3
When composing or interpreting music, it is necessary to have solid knowledge of
musical theory. This will allow us to create music with guarantees; since we will have mastery
about everything that can be expressed with music. In addition, we will have our
I gained the necessary knowledge to analyze other composers without having to
improvise the interpretation.

This theory course includes all the necessary topics to understand, analyze and
create whatever each one desires within music. It has a practical approach that
provide 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 effectively with music, you must make use of all harmonic resources.
and theoretical elements that constitute music.

The first topics focus on the reading and organization of music, but to
from topic 4, the contents are interconnected, which makes it necessary that
each topic is studied in detail to understand the subsequent ones.

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

Each topic will be evaluated weekly, it should not be left until the last minute, nor
deceive oneself, study and practice at least one hour daily, the theory and you
instrument for a more progressive advancement.
 LEVEL 1
Basic concepts and necessary signs to understand and write the
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music.

1) The Sound and the Noise:

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

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

The sound, then, is produced because some sound body vibrates, and the vibration that
It produces sound waves in the air, which are the ones that reach the eardrum. This does not mean
that all sound bodies are musical instruments, so we could
differentiate two groups within sound: musical sound and noise.

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

the vibration of the lips on a metal mouthpiece in the instruments of
wind, the strings in string instruments, a plate or membrane in
some percussion instruments, or the vocal cords in the voice. These sounds
they have a sinusoidal wave shape, without abrupt changes. The vibration
the sound body used in the instrument generates a set of harmonics
stable that result in the sounds of musical notes.

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

Noise: It is all the sounds that never have harmony or
harmonics, such as the engine of any vehicle. The waveform of the
do not
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produce

noise is much more uneven and has more peaks than musical sounds,
as can also be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Sound wave graph of noise.

2) Properties of Sound (applied to musical instruments):

Pitch: It is the tuning of the sound. That is, whether it is high, medium, or low. When it
it says that a sound is high or low, it means that it is out of tune towards the sharp or
towards the bass, respectively, concerning another sound or instrument (in the
in case there is more than one musician).

- Duration: It is the time during which that sound is maintained. The only
acoustic instruments that can hold sounds for as long as they want,
they are the string instruments with bow, like the violin, for example, because they don't need
to breathe or touch the string again. The wind instruments depend on the ability
pulmonary, and the percussive ones, from the hits. The guitar needs, just like the
piano, from a hammering that strikes the strings, and only the sound can be heard until
let the string stop vibrating.

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

Timbre: Timbre is called the color of sound, thanks to which we can differentiate.
instruments with each other. The difference between two voices or two guitars, also
it depends on the timbre: one can sound sweeter than the other, or more metallic, or
more opaque or shiny.
 3) The Music:

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

to evoke feelings. It is a free art, where feelings are represented with
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sounds, under different composition systems. Each composition system will
determine a different style within music.

Fundamental Elements of Music:

Melody: Melodies are what we sing or hum when a song touches us.
love. We cannot sing more than one note at a time. The melody is the form of
combine sounds, but successively. Hence many instruments are
melodic instruments, for example, a flute, a saxophone, a clarinet, or any
wind instrument, because they cannot produce more than one note at a time.
time.

Figure 3: Written representation of melodies on a staff.

Harmony: Using only melodies, the themes would sound 'empty'. In the long run
we would need something that serves as a base for us, and gives us the feeling of being
along with other musicians accompanying us. Harmony is the way to combine
simultaneous sounds. Each composer will use it to create different
climates. It can convey states of melancholy, sadness, or tension, up to
states of joy, calm, relaxation, etc. The instruments called harmonic,
like the piano or the 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 mark

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

In Western music, twelve sounds are used. There are seven natural sounds and five
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modified. Those are the notes. Once we reach the twelve sounds, we go back to
repeat them in the same order, throughout the record of each musical instrument. Each
one of these repetitions of twelve sounds is called octave. The higher we go,
Octaves are higher, and the lower we go, the more bass they are.

DO

YES
Greetings
The

SOL

FA

MI
GRAVES
RE

DO

Figure 5: Musical notes of the C Major scale.

There are two groups of notes:

Notas naturales:Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si.

Altered Notes: Do# / Reb, Re# / Mib, Fa# / Solb, Sol# / Lab, La# / Sib.
The altered notes are located between the natural notes, and they generate a sound that
is above the previous grade or below the following one, in the following way:

Do- Do# / Re- Re# / Mi- Fa- Fa# / Solb- Sol- Sol# / Lab- La- La# / Sib- Si- Do

According to this order, you can notice that there is no altered note between Mi and Fa, nor between Si.
And Do. A simple way to see this order in an instrument is in the keys of a piano,
The white notes represent the natural notes, and the black ones represent the altered notes.

The Pentagram:

The staff is the graphic symbol on which all musical notation is centered. It is in it
where musical notes and other musical signs such as measures or the
compass formulas. The staff is composed of five horizontal lines and
parallel; in addition to being equidistant. These five parallel lines form four spaces
among them. In these spaces, the musical notes are also located. In practice,
We say that there are five lines and four spaces. These lines and spaces are named as
bottom to top; for example, the bottom line can be referred to as the first one
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line.

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
it is known as additional lines. Sometimes the notes exceed the scope of the
staff, that is why the use of these additional lines is necessary.

Figure 7: Additional lines and spaces.

As we saw in Figure 5, as we ascend the staff,

Notes begin to be sharper, while if we go down, they will be deeper.

7) Claves Musicales:
The clefs are a reference to know the location of a specific musical note.
For example: how would we know that a musical sound is a note located in the second
Staff line? There is no way to know unless it is indicated which one it is.
note by means of some graphic symbol.
This symbol is what is known as a key, and it is, precisely, what gives us the key.
to discern the notes on the staff and also indicate the pitch of the note.

Figure 8: Writing and placement of the key on a staff.

There are 5 types of keys, and they are located differently on the staff, furthermore, their
uses depend on the instrument being played. Among them, we have 5 types:
G Clef: It is one of the most used. It is located on the second line of
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the staff.
staff, indicating that this is the note 'G'. It is often used to write the
acute notes.

Figure 9: Location and writing of the treble clef.

C Key: It is used to write the intermediate notes. It is the one that changes the most.
location, can go in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th line.

Figure 10: Location and writing of the key of Do.

F key: This can be found on the 3rd line and 4th space, and it is commonly used
to write the grave notes.

Figure 11: Location and writing of the Fa key.

Neutral clave: Also called percussion clave, unlike the rest of

clefs, do not assign musical notes to the various lines and spaces, but
assign indefinite pitch percussion instruments. It is a
convention that indicates that what is written below on the staff is for this
type of instruments, and therefore does not have any specific height or tuning. With
the exception of some common percussion distributions such as the drum kit, the
the encoding of lines and spaces to instruments is not standardized, so
A legend or indication on the staff is necessary to indicate what is there.
what to play. On the other hand, staff with a neutral clef are not always
they have five lines; sometimes, the musical notation for percussion only has
a line, although other configurations can be used.

Determinate pitch percussion instruments do not use the neutral clef.

but they are usually notated on different staff lines than the pitch percussion
undefined. The music for timbales is written in bass clef and the music for
 lamellophone percussion instruments (xylophones, metallophones, marimbas, etc.) are
they write in the treble clef or in a system of two staves.
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Figure 12: Location and writing of the neutral key.

Tablature key: Music for guitar,lowand other instruments withfrets

in many occasions it does not appear written in traditional staves but in
tablaturesUnlike the pentagrams, the note is not represented but the
finger placement on the frets. To indicate that it is a tablature, it
indicates at the beginning of the work with the letters TAB in vertical order instead of
a key. The TAB sign would have the same meaning as the percussion key,
since it is not a key in the strict sense but rather a symbol that
use instead of a key.

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

Figure 13: Location and writing of the tablature key.

8) The Measures:

In order for music reading to be organized, we need to divide the notation into a series.
of equal portions. These portions are called compasses and within these portions there are
They write the musical notes on the staff.

The measure is divided, in turn, into equal parts called beats. All
these divisions help in reading music. Imagine a staff without measures;
it would be impossible to read music, all the musical notes would be written continuously,
which would make it difficult to know which part of the score is being read.
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Figure 14: Writing of the dividing lines and location of the compasses.

As shown in the figure, there is a dividing line or compass bar that separates a
compás del siguiente.

This measure bar crosses perpendicularly to the staff. Furthermore, there is the double
bar that basically indicates to us that in the next measure a has been introduced
significant change 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 period at the end of a literary work.

Figure 15: Writing of the double bar and the final bar.

We can signal with the double bar:

The separation into parts of a score.

A modification of the key, or a variation in the meter.

Any change in the score that we want to highlight from the double bar.

There are measures of:

-2 times (binary)

-3 times (ternary)

-4 times (quaternary)

-5 times (of amalgam, 3 + 2, or 2 + 3)

-6 times (binary compound)

 -7

-9
times

times
(of amalgam,

(ternary compound)
4 + 3, or 3 + 4) 12
-10 times (zorcico, 5 + 5)

-12 times (quaternary compound)

9) Figures of Value and the Duration of Sounds:

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

The figures determine the duration of the sounds, and the rests the pauses.
momentary ones of them.

Each figure has its corresponding silence and are classified into 7, from highest to lowest value:
REDONE, WHITE, BLACK, EIGHTH NOTE, SIXTEENTH NOTE, FUSSY, SEMIFUSSY.

Figure 16: The figures of value and their corresponding silences.

The vertical line that originates from the white one is called plica, and the upper extension of the
The end of the line starting from the eighth note is called a bracket.

There is a relationship in the duration of the notes between the value figures; this relationship is
known as relative value, and it 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
the previous one and double that of the one that follows. For example, a white one is half of a round one.
and the double of a black one (I need two white ones to have the value of one round one, and two
blacks to have the value of a white.
 10) Compass Formula:

In the lesson dedicated to the compass, it has been said that it is divided into a series of
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equal portions called times. To know how many times, and the duration of
Each one, the beat is divided by a symbol called time signature.

It specifically refers to a fraction following the key in which the numerator is

indicate the number of times, and in the denominator the figure of value that serves as a unit
to measure the duration of such times.

Figure 17: Compass formula, the unit of time and the unit of the compass.

The value figure that equates in duration to a time is called a unit of time, this
it could easily be compared to the second hand of the clock, every time it moves
second hand would represent the unit of time. The figure of value that, in duration,
a measure that coincides with a beat is called a measure. For this reason, the duration of a
The figure is actually determined by the compass formula. The figures do not have a value.
fixed, they have a relative value between them.

The most common thing is that black is the unit of time, since 4 is used a lot.
as a denominator in the compass formula. The more we use shapes, as a unit
Over time, closer to the round, we will be able to use fewer short-duration figures.

Figure 18: Denominators corresponding to each value figure.

A simple way to understand and study Figure 18 is to see it in the same way as
nos enseñaron las fracciones, por ejemplo, imagina una torta, la torta es la unidad de
Compass means it is represented as the number '1'. As you start cutting the cake.
In parts, the representation of the unit of measure changes, and that piece of cake does not
not only acquires a new name (Name: half of the cake) but there is also a change
in its unit because it was fractioned, now it changes to '½', if divided into 4, it would be '¼', and so on
successively. In conclusion, these numbers only indicate the amount of portions that
It divided the largest unit of time, which is the round one.
 11) The Ligature:

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

It is worth noting that there are at least two figures connected, but there can be more notes.
affected by the tie. On the other hand, in practice, only the first note is played, and it
it keeps ringing for a time equivalent to the sum of the value figures
remaining including the first one that was played.

In the following image, this is shown more graphically:

Figure 19: Writing the tie between two notes on the staff.

In Figure 19, ties that are within a measure are shown; however, the
ties can exceed the bar, extending to the next one (even to one more)
The tie of value is renewed when it connects a note from the next measure.

Figure 20: Writing the tie of more than two notes.

12) The little point:

It is a dot that is placed to the right of the note or the rest; this dot indicates that there is
that increases half the value of the figure, or silence if it is next to a silence. There exists
an equivalence between the dot and the tied note value, this will allow for better understanding;
as seen in Figure 21.
Figure 21: Writing of the dot and its equivalent writing with ligature. 15