°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°INTRODUCTION°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

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      Well, what to say? Everybody knows what is music.:-)

              Almost every human being likes it. But the 'ishq' changes according to their  taste. For eg: Some like fast numbers while others like Slow.  This is the only field where every one being  so selfish. Everybody thinks that the best music is only their interested field.

                    As if we are aware of  English letters, we should aware of the musical notations. I dont know how far this tutorial  can go. Anyway let us start the theory of music.

                It is some times ridiculous that 'Everybody likes music ,But Y we are not try to understand it?'.I think(not sure) it is because of the fake belief 'I cant sing a song'. First of all I must say that music is not only singing .Or, U Dont need any skill to sing ( It is better U try to sing).

                       By saying Music notation, I mean the western representation of music. Let Us start from some History.

 

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°HISTORY°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

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Western music notation has developed over two and a half thousand years of civilization.

The ancient Greeks, and later the Romans, used letters of the alphabet to indicate different pitches.

 Boethius (A.D. 470-525, an adviser to the court at the end of the Roman Empire), wrote five text books describing the music theory of that ancient era.
The first 15 letters of the alphabet were used for the pitches of two octaves, which was the official working range of sounds in those days.
Boethius' books remained standard texts throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and beyond.

From the 7th Century a system of Neums was introduced for the notation of plainsong. The Neums consisted of grave ( ` ) and acute ( ´ ) accents and horizontal lines, placed over the lyrics to indicate where the melody line was going up or down.

The sign of the trill in our present system is a relic of the old Neum system.

To present accurate note pitches the device of the staff (or stave) was added.
This began as a single horizontal line, then more where added until a four line staff was standardized for the plainsong (= simple melody line without chords or harmony). This staff was probably introduced for the first time by Guido d'Arrezo, a famous music expert around 1000-1050.
The notes were written on (and in between) the lines of this staff which defined their exact pitch.

In the late 13th Century a classification of note head shapes also defined the note duration. This important step is ascribed to Franco of Cologne.

Our present notation system developed from this plainsong staff and the old letter name system introduced by the Greeks.

Ha Ha Ha !!!!!!!! This is a perfect theft <--------JoCk¥---------->

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   In Western Music representation there are two main Systems Used: They are;

1.   Staff Notation
2.   Tonic Sol-fa

                

               Staff  Notation is the mainly used system  while  Tonic Sol-fa is mainly Used for sight singing.  (Experts Only).

  So, we are going to look at Staff Notation.

THE GREAT STAFF

          We all know that Music consists of Seven pitches. Don't U? :-}

               Ok, Let me clarify.

    IN WESTERN :      Doh - Reh - Mee - Fah - Soh - La - Te

    IN INDIAN     :        Sa - Re   - Ga   -  Ma  - Pa  - Dha - Ni

    Indian and Western  can considered same to an instant . But slight deviation in sound occurs.We are not going to that part now because it is very complicated.

  So, These seven pitches are arranged in a certain way (Of course some laws are applied). To represent this we use seven English letters.

            A - B - C - D - E - F - G

  These Seven notes are represent in keyboard as in the figure shown:

                                             

WHY USING KEYBOARD?

         Because keyboard is the easiest instrument to understand. And using ur common sense U can see the whole thing in a 2D pic :-)

As U see in the picture, After the seven letters it is being repeated. From A-A there are eight notes .So, we call it as an Octave. U can also see that these notes are placed in the white keys of the keyboard.

  WHY? Because there are half notes between these keys and how can they represent .Ofcourse, it is the black key on a key board. For eg:

Let C represent the note 'Doh'  and D represent  'Reh'. Then , The black key between C and D ( C# (sharp) or Db (flat) ) represents 'Deh' or 'Rah' that will be discussed later.

 Let us stop here The first lesson of ' Theory of music'. I have to do some home work in writing second lesson.

           If  you have any questions or to notify any error I made, about this section( I shall add it in Q&A Section of lesson 2),Please reply to : jibinestjohns@yahoo.com

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                    ThAtS  aLl  FoLkS !!!!!!!!!!!!  <----------JoCk¥----------->

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