Music

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G-clef and the "A" note
Parts of a Note
Frequencies of different notes
Staff or stave lines and spaces
4 commonly used clefs
Notes of a musical keyboard
Diatonic scale on C
C major scale
Major scales

For more information check out this: List of musical symbols

Clef

A clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the stave, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the stave may be determined. Only one clef that references a note in a space rather than on a line has ever been used. There are three types of clef used in modern music notation: F, C, and G. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line on which it is placed.

Concert pitch

Concert pitch refers to the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over musical history. In the literature this is also called international standard pitch. The reference note most commonly used is the "A" above middle C. Notes are usually centred around the central note, A4. The current concert pitc for this note is 440 Hz.

Diatonic scale

Diatonic scale is commonly defined as a seven-note, octave-repeating musical scale comprising five whole tones and two semitones for each octave, in which the two semitones are separated from each other by either two or three whole tones. This pattern ensures that, in a diatonic scale spanning more than one octave, all the semitones are maximally separated from each other (i.e. separated by at least two whole tones).

Harmonic

A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental frequency, therefore the sum of harmonics is also periodic at that frequency. Harmonic frequencies are equally spaced by the width of the fundamental frequency and can be found by repeatedly adding that frequency. For example, if the fundamental frequency is 25 Hz, the frequencies of the harmonics are: 50 Hz, 75 Hz, 100 Hz etc.

Harmonic series

Pitched musical instruments are often based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous frequencies simultaneously. At these resonant frequencies, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves. Interaction with the surrounding air causes audible sound waves, which travel away from the instrument. Because of the typical spacing of the resonances, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples, or harmonics, of the lowest frequency, and such multiples form the harmonic series. The musical pitch of a note is usually perceived as the lowest partial present (the fundamental frequency), which may be the one created by vibration over the full length of the string or air column, or a higher harmonic chosen by the player. The musical timbre of a steady tone from such an instrument is determined by the relative strengths of each harmonic.

Loudness

Loudness is the characteristic of a sound that is primarily a psychological correlate of physical strength (amplitude). Loudness, a subjective measure, is often confused with objective measures of sound strength such as sound pressure, sound pressure level (in decibels), sound intensity or sound power. Filters such as A-weighting attempt to adjust sound measurements to correspond to loudness as perceived by the typical human. However, loudness perception is a much more complex process than A-weighting. Loudness is also affected by parameters other than sound pressure, including frequency, bandwidth and duration.

Major scale

It is a diatonic scale. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfège these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, (Do)", the "Do" in the parenthesis at the end being the octave of the tonic starting pitch. The simplest major scale to write is C major as it is the only major scale not to require sharps or flats, using only the white keys on the piano.

Mode

Mode is formed by naming a different note as the tonic instead of the original tonic of the scale. Thus, in a way, modes can be defined as displaced major scales. Ionian mode is the major scale. Patterns of different modes are, Ionian: W-W-H-W-W-W-H, Dorian: W-H-W-W-W-H-W, Phrygian: H-W-W-W-H-W-W, Lydian: W-W-W-H-W-W-H, Mixolydian: W-W-H-W-W-H-W where W is whole tone (whole step) and H is semitone (half step). Each mode has a very distinct sound; for example, the Phrygian mode sounds melancholy and reflects the music of Spain. The Lydian mode sounds happy and is often used in jazz and rock music. The Mixolydian mode evokes a bluesy sound and can often be heard in jazz, blues and rock music. The Locrian mode, on the other hand, has a very strange sound but is rarely used.

Note

Notes are the atoms of western classical music. It is actually a sign in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound. A pitched sound itself can be called a note too. Two notes with fundamental frequencies in a ratio of any power of two are perceived as very similar. Because of that, all notes with these kinds of relations can be grouped under the same pitch class. In traditional music theory pitch classes are represented by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) or Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni in Bengali.

Note head

Elliptical part of a note.

Octave

Octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems". It may be derived from the harmonic series as the interval between the first and second harmonics.

Overtone

An overtone is any frequency higher than the fundamental frequency of a sound. The fundamental and the overtones together are called partials. Harmonics are partials whose frequencies are integer multiples of the fundamental (including the fundamental which is 1 times itself). When a resonant system such as a blown pipe or plucked string is excited, a number of overtones may be produced along with the fundamental tone. In simple cases, such as for most musical instruments, the frequencies of these tones are the same as (or close to) the harmonics. An example of an exception is a circular drum, whose first overtone is about 1.6 times its fundamental resonance frequency. The human vocal tract is able to produce a highly variable structure of overtones, called formants, which define different vowels.

Pitch

Pitch is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound most closely related to its frequency. High pitch indicates high frequency and vice versa. Pitch is also measured in Hertz. Different vertical positions in the musical notation indicate different pitches.

Scale

Scale is any set of musical notes ordered in an ascending or descending sequence. Sometimes, scales contain both an ascending and a descending portion, such as the melodic minor.

Semitone

Semitone is the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale (e.g. from C to C♯).

Sharp

Sharp means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone.

Staff

Staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch.

Staff position

The vertical position of the notehead on the staff indicates which note to play: higher-pitched notes are marked higher on the staff. The notehead can be placed with the center of its notehead intersecting a line (on a line), or in between the lines touching the lines above and below (in a space). Notes outside the range of the staff are placed on or between ledger lines—lines the width of the note they need to hold—added above or below the staff. Exactly which staff positions represent which notes is determined by a clef placed at the beginning of the staff. The clef identifies a particular line as a specific note, and all other notes are determined relative to that line.

Timbre

Timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. This is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness.

Tone

A whole tone or a second or a major second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions. For example, the interval from C to D is a major second, as the note D lies two semitones above C, and the two notes are notated on adjacent staff positions.

Tonic

Tonic is the first scale degree of a diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord. More generally, the tonic is the pitch upon which all other pitches of a piece are hierarchically referenced. Scales are named after their tonics, thus the tonic of the scale of C is the note C.

Treble clef

When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the stave, it is called the treble clef. This is the most common clef used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous.