What is music?

1. What is music? • Music is the deliberate organization of sounds by people for other people to hear.

2. Melody, rhythm and harmony •These are the three basic elements composers use to organize and express their ideas.

3. Melody • Pitched sounds arranged in musical time in accordance with given cultural conventions and constraints. • Uses various combinations of steps, leaps and repeated notes

4. Elements of melody • Pitch – highness or lowness of a note • Interval – The distance between any two pitches • Phrase – A musical statement generally longer than a motif, but shorter than a period • Dynamics – loudness or softness of a note

5. Rhythm • Beat – pulse of the music • Rhythms – subdivision of the beat • Measures – a grouping of beats, a way in which rhythms are organized • Meter – number and length of beats within each measure • Syncopation – Accented notes that do not fall on the downbeat or strong beat of the measure • Tempo – speed, the number of beats per minute

6. Harmony • A combination of melody and its accompaniment • Scales – group of notes arranged in a specific intervallic sequence • Chord – formed when three or more different notes sound at the same time • Cadence – Conclusion to a phrase, section or piece of music based on a melodic formula, harmonic progression or dissonance resolution • Texture – describes the way in which different musical sounds are combined