Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Music Theory For Beginners
    Music Theory For Beginners
    Music Theory For Beginners
    Ebook218 pages1 hour

    Music Theory For Beginners

    By R. Ryan Endris and Joe Lee

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Learning to read and write music is very similar to learning a new language. Music theory is the study of the fundamental elements of music and how it is written.

    Music Theory For Beginners was developed for anyone interested in learning to read and write music, a task that can be quite daunting for novices. This book, however, will allay any fears and set you on the path to learning what all those dots, lines, and symbols actually mean. It provides the necessary scholarly muscle to entice and inform the reader, yet it does not require any prior knowledge of music or force the reader to wade through hundreds of pages of jargon and details.

    Whether your goal is to gain a cursory understanding of music, become fluent in reading music, or start composing your own music, this text will provide everything you need for a solid foundation in music theory. Anyone can pick up Music Theory For Beginners and instantly start learning about—and understanding—music theory.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFor Beginners
    Release dateOct 20, 2015
    ISBN9781939994479
    Music Theory For Beginners
    Author

    R. Ryan Endris

    R. Ryan Endris, D. Mus, currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Colgate University. He is also in demand as an arranger of choral and instrumental music throughout the country, and his arrangements have been heard by audiences around the world. He is also the author of The History of Classical Music For Beginners. Visit him at www.ryanendris.com.

    Related to Music Theory For Beginners

    Related ebooks

    Music For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Learn To Read Music!

      May 5, 2021

      Okay, so we’ve all heard the joke. ‘How do you make a guitarist stop playing? Stick a piece of music in front of him!’ As amusing (or not!) as this may be, it’s true that there are many of us that don’t read music at all. And while this is no great d

      26 min read

    • Article

      Diatonic Chord Substitution

      Oct 22, 2019

      Diatonic Chord Substitution
      4 min read

    • Article

      Circle Progressions

      Sep 24, 2019

      Circle Progressions
      4 min read

    • Article

      Making the GRADE

      Mar 20, 2020

      Making the GRADE
      6 min read

    • Article

      the 6 WAYS TO TURN INTO SONGS

      Sep 19, 2019

      the 6 WAYS TO TURN INTO SONGS
      3 min read

    • Article

      Passing Chords

      Jul 10, 2019

      You know those short chords that, though not part of the main chord progression, help you pass from one chord to the next? Those are passing chords: extra points of harmonic detail that shore up the tune’s structure. Generally played quite briefly,

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Principles Of Songwriting

      Sep 19, 2019

      The Principles Of Songwriting
      9 min read

    • Article

      Part Of The New System

      Dec 25, 2020

      Part Of The New System
      3 min read

    • Article

      François-Xavier Roth

      May 14, 2020

      François-Xavier Roth
      6 min read

    • Article

      Classical Music

      Jun 5, 2020

      WHEN we use the term “classical music”, we’re referring to the unbroken Western musical tradition that has its roots in the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. This musical tradition stretches back so far

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fach It!

      May 9, 2023

      Fach It!
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Classical Voice

      Nov 10, 2020

      The Classical Voice
      8 min read

    • Article

      Timothy Vernon + Jordan de Souza

      Nov 6, 2020

      JORDAN DE SOUZA: What was it like to discover Vienna as a young person in the 60s and 70s? TIMOTHY VERNON: When I arrived to begin my studies in Vienna in 1965, the Staatsvertrag, which created the Second Austrian Republic, was only 10 years old. Wor

      7 min read

    • Article

      Branford Marsalis

      May 14, 2019

      Branford Marsalis
      8 min read

    • Article

      Raising The Tone

      Jun 4, 2021

      Raising The Tone
      2 min read

    • Article

      Paavo Järvi

      Jun 11, 2020

      Paavo Järvi
      5 min read

    • Article

      Performance Notes

      Jul 12, 2022

      GUITARIST DOC COYLE crafted this highly appealing modern metal song’s rhythm and lead parts using an unusual 7-string tuning of Csus4 (low to high: G, C, G, C, F, G, C). This is essentially a whole-step-down transposition of the popular 6-string “DAD

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tasty Soloing

      Aug 23, 2023

      Tasty Soloing
      3 min read

    • Article

      THE CROSSROADS Pt2 From Charlie Christian to Chuck Berry

      Dec 16, 2020

      This month’s lesson explores the idea of playing the same note on two different strings, exploiting the contrasting tones and allowing us to create great rhythmic interest with just a single note. The origins of this device in jazz can be traced back

      4 min read

    • Article

      John Rutter

      Nov 29, 2022

      John Rutter
      6 min read

    • Article

      String Theory

      Mar 24, 2020

      IN I GOT Rhythm, Part 2, we learned about two essential musical elements, rests and ties. A quick review: A rest is a “hole of silence” between any two notes or chords, and every rhythmic note value, such as a whole note, half note or quarter note, h

      3 min read

    • Article

      Richard Morrison

      Oct 28, 2021

      Most of us would agree that music is a language, arguably humanity’s most expressive and oldest language. What it doesn’t have, unlike speech and writing, is precision. Music can be used to express, for example, a feeling of love towards someone – as

      3 min read

    • Article

      JS Bach ON Two-Part Invention BWV 784

      Aug 26, 2020

      Today we revisit the work of that extraordinary composer, organist and violinist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Bach’s talents were recognised by a modest number of musicians and some patrons during his long and hugely productive life, but in 260

      3 min read

    • Article

      Scott Joplin The Entertainer

      Aug 28, 2019

      One of the most extraordinary and seminal figures in the history of American music is the multi-instrumentalist, teacher and composer, Scott Joplin (≈1868-1917). Although some dispute remains over his birthdate and place, it’s likely he was born in T

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Music Theory For Beginners

    4.5/5

    5 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a very great book for music theory lovers!

    Book preview

    Music Theory For Beginners - R. Ryan Endris

    PREFACE

    MUSIC THEORY IS the study of how music is written and the fundamental elements of music in the modern Western music tradition, known as the Common Practice (ca. 1700–1917). Music Theory For Beginners was developed for anyone interested in learning to read and write music, a task that can be quite daunting for novices. This text will allay any such fears and set you on the path to learning what all those dots, lines, and symbols actually mean. It provides the necessary scholarly muscle to entice and inform the reader, yet it does not require any prior knowledge of music or force the reader to wade through hundreds of pages of jargon and details. Anyone can pick up this book and instantly start learning about—and understanding—music theory. Some terminology may already be familiar to you, even if you have no prior musical knowledge; most of it, however, likely will be new. In any case, a straight-forward explanation of music theory terminology is provided in both the main text and the glossary. The words are both italicized and bolded the first time they are presented, to draw the reader's attention.

    Learning to read and write music is very similar to learning a new language. You might find it helpful to read a section once, let it digest, and then review it again at a later time. Whether your goal is to gain a cursory understanding of music, become fluent in reading music, or start composing music of your own, this text will provide everything you need to know for a solid foundation in music theory. While many music theory textbooks provide elaborate examples and figures from the classical repertoire, this book does not. This text presents musical figures in a simple, straightforward fashion to help readers easily understand the concepts. Examples, background information, and sidebar material are drawn from popular as well as classical music. (Not covered in this book is guitar notation, or tablature, since it is frequently taught in jazz methods books.) I strongly encourage you, however, to follow up your studies here by reading The History of Classical Music For Beginners and listening to classical music of your own choosing. I think you will find that it only enhances your experience of Music Theory For Beginners!

    — R. Ryan Endris

    Hamilton, New York

    January 2015

    Introduction:

    THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

    AS WE STUDY how music is put together, we will examine the four main characteristics of musical sound: pitch, duration, volume, and (to a lesser extent) timbre. Pitch is the result of the movement of air molecules caused by vibration, and we describe it in terms of highness and lowness. Higher pitches have higher frequencies, or vibrations per second. (Scientists measure frequency in hertz.) Lower pitches have lower frequencies. For example, the subwoofer in a home theater system produces all the low sounds in a movie (low-frequency pitches), while a dog whistle produces such high-frequency pitches that they are undetectable by the human ear. Duration is exactly what you would think it would indicate: the length of time that a sound lasts. It consists of the initial attack, or onset of the sound, and the amount of time the sound is sustained.

    One of the key characteristics of musical sound is volume, otherwise known as the dynamic level. While scientists indicate specific measures of loudness and softness in terms of decibels, musicians use less precise (and sometimes subjective) Italian terms like forte (loud), piano (soft), mezzo-forte (medium-loud), and pianissimo (very soft). Based on these, you can probably figure out that the terms for very loud and medium soft are fortissimo and mezzo-piano, respectively. The fourth characteristic, timbre, is more difficult to define. Musicians often refer to it as the color of a particular sound. For example, almost anyone—even non-musicians—can distinguish between the sound of a guitar versus the sound of a flute versus the sound of a violin, even if they are playing the exact same pitch. The distinguishing characteristic in the quality of sound that each one makes is timbre.

    We also examine music with regard to six key elements: rhythm, form, melody, harmony, timbre, and texture. We can think of these as pairs that work together on a micro and macro level. Rhythm, as you will read in Chapter 1, comes from the steady pulse of the music, while form describes the unfolding of the musical work as a whole. Just as a play or novel may take its form from a sequence of rising action, climax, and falling action, musical works, too, have both small- and large-scale structures. Melody is the linear unfolding of pitch over time, while harmony is the simultaneous sounding of multiple pitches in a particular instance. Finally, timbre is the quality or color of an instrument, voice, or any combination of them, whereas texture is determined by the number of such instruments or voices playing at a given moment.

    While we will spend more time learning about some of these elements (melody and harmony) than others (timbre and texture), it is important to understand that all of these characteristics and elements comprise what we call music.

    I.

    NO PITCHES ALLOWED—RHYTHM, BEAT, TEMPO, AND METER

    Chapter 1:

    THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF RHYTHM

    RHYTHM, BEAT, TEMPO: these are words we use all the time, often in reference to classical music, but also in talking about popular music and even the way people speak. You might hear someone casually say, She has really good rhythm, or I really like the beat of that song. Perhaps you've heard a political analyst comment on the rhythm or tempo of a presidential speech. We've all heard these terms, but what do they actually mean? These three words—rhythm, beat, and tempo—are often used interchangeably and incorrectly. They are never, ever the same thing, and your task for this chapter is to learn what differentiates them and how they are

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1