I. Rhythm

1. Generally, rhythm refers to the way music moves in time. It is the aspect of music having to

do with the duration of notes in time.

2. More specifically, rhythm refers to the specific duration of musical sounds, as measured by the

following notational system:

1 Whole note

= 2 Half notes

= 4 Quarter notes

= 8 Eighth notes

= 16 Sixteenth notes

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Whole Half Quarter Eighth Sixteenth

Mus 109 Examples[Composer]

Pulse: All of the rhythmic values shown above represent regular pulses; for each value,

each pulse is of the same length.

Rhythmic Notation: Some Details

Stems: All notes except whole notes have stems. Since we will only be using rhythm

notation, you can always put the stem up and on the right. (If the stem extends below

the note, it is placed on the left.)

Flags or beams: Used to indicate values smaller than a quarter note.

Flags: Always extend to the right of the stem. Eighth notes have 1 flag, sixteenths have 2,

etc.

Beams: Used in place of flags for groups of eighths, sixteenths, etc. The number of beams

responds to the number of flags the notes would have.

Rests: Place holders used to show points in time where a note is not heard. For every note

value, there is a rest symbol of equivalent value:

2

1 Whole note

= 2 Half notes

= 4 Quarter notes

= 8 Eighth Notes

= 16 Sixteenth Notes

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Whole Half Quarter Eighth Sixteenth

Mus 109 Examples[Composer]

Beat: The regular pulse underlying most music. By convention, in most popular music the

beat is notated as a quarter note.

Rhythmic levels: When we clapped through “Sergeant Pepper,” we discovered that there

was more to rhythmic organization than the beat. Rhythm is organized on many

different levels.

Subdivisions: Rhythmic pulses smaller than the beat—for example, eighth notes and

sixteenth notes. The notational system shown above assumes duple subdivision (on as

many levels as you want; there can be thirty-second notes, sixty-fourth notes, etc.). But

beats can also be divided into three—see below.

Meter: Beats are in turn organized into larger rhythmic units called measures (also called

bars). This organization is called meter. The most common meter in rock is 4/4 time

(also called common time). Meter is indicated by a time signature, which is expressed

as a fraction: the numerator indicates the number of beats per measure, the denominator

the value of the beat. (Thus the denominator is always a multiple of 2). So:

4 = number of beats

4 = duration of beats (quarter notes)

3

Most popular music is in 4/4 time. Other frequently occurring time signatures are 3/4,

2/4, 2/2, 6/8, and 9/8. For simplicity’s sake, we will notate most meters in this class in

terms of quarter notes, that is, the denominator will always be 4.

Triple rhythm: At any rhythmic level, pulses can be grouped either by 2’s or 3’s. (There

can be more complex groupings—by 5’s, 7’s, etc.—but these usually break down into

combinations of 2’s and 3’s.)

Triple meter: Occurs when beats are grouped by 3’s. The most common of these is 3/4

time, such as is heard in a waltz.

Triple subdivision (of a beat): Our rhythm notation system arbitrarily chooses groupings

by 2’s and multiples of 2’s as "normal." So to show triple subdivisons we need a

special sign: a triplet sign. If the notes are not grouped by a beam, then we also need a

bracket to indicate where the triplet begins and ends:

4

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Swing (or shuffle) time: One frequently hears a kind of subdivision that sounds duple, but

in which the subdivisions are uneven—the first subdivision is longer than the second.

These uneven subdivisions are called "swing" or "shuffle" subdivisions. The degree of

unevenness can vary, but often the first subdivision is twice as long as the second. If

this is the case, then the subdivision can be written as a kind of triplet:

5

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It is often difficult to distinguish between "straight" (even duple) and "swing" (uneven,

basically triple) subdivisions, but the effect on the groove—the general feel of the

rhythm—is very noticeable.

Tempo: Rhythmic relationships are all relative; the basic beat can be very fast or very slow.

Tempo is measured by means of a metronome marking, which shows how many beats

occur per minute (DJ’s and mixers refer to this as BPM—beats per minute).

Changes in tempo: Accelerando = gradual increase of tempo

Ritardando = gradual decrease of tempo

Rubato = the tempo fluctuates

Accent: Weight or stress on a note (or beat). An accented note is relatively louder than the

surrounding notes. The sign for an accent (>) can be placed above or below a note.

Syncopation: In older Western music (for example, a Sousa march or a Strauss waltz),

accents normally fall on the beginning of a rhythmic group—that is, the first beat of a

measure (called the downbeat) or the initial subdivision of a beat (for example, "ONE-

two ONE-two" or "ONE-two-THREE-four" or "ONE-two-three ONE-two-three").

Syncopation is a deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern of accents; that is, the

accents are shifted to weak beats. We will distinguish three types of syncopation:

6

• Backbeat is syncopation on the level of meter: in 4/4 time, the backbeat is accenting

beats 2 and 4 (the "back of the beat"). Backbeats are almost universal in rock and pop

music; often heard on the snare drum:

7

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• Displacement occurs when a note that one expects to come on a particular beat comes

one subdivision before that beat:

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This example introduces some new rhythmic symbols:

Tie: A curved line that connects two notes of the same pitch. When two notes are tied

together, the note is sounded on the first of the two notes, and that sound continues

for the combined duration of both notes. The tie is used to connect two notes

separated by a bar line or a beat.

Equivalent notation: The two measures above notate exactly the same rhythm in two

different ways: ties in the first measure make the location of the beats more clear;

the quarter notes in the second measure give a clearer idea of how long the notes

are, but these quarter notes occur on the off-beats. We prefer the kind of notation

shown in the first measure.

• Polyrhythm (or polymeter) A kind of syncopation in which the pattern of accents

creates a sense of beat that suggests a different grouping of pulses than the groupings

created by the meter. The effect is of two different meters being heard simultaneously. In

popular music, a common type of polyrhythm groups pulses by 3 where the meter

groups them by 2 or 4.

9

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Groove: The overall rhythmic feel of a piece of music. The groove is a total gestalt (a

whole that is greater than the sum of its parts). Sense of groove is created by:

1. the rhythm of each each instrument, the placement of accents and syncopations

2. the way the notes are articulated (for example, staccato—short notes separated by

silences—or legato—sustained notes, each connected to the next)

3. microscopic differences in timing: playing ahead of the beat, behind the beat, or

exactly on the beat, which musicians sometimes call playing "on top of the beat" or

"in the pocket"

4. the interaction of all these elements—both between the players (or singers) and

between the musicians and the audience

In short, groove is a matter of:

• how rhythms are played

• how rhythms fit together and interact

• the effect of all this on your body

In the following passage, two ethnomusicologists explore the connotations of "groove"

(which they use both as a noun and as a verb):

. . . It’s the music that grooves. To groove, to cycle, to draw you in and work on you, to

repeat with variation. . . . And to me,.that repetition and redundancy, which to most

people is a bore, is music’s glory. . . . When we say "it grooves," we’re also saying

there’s something that’s regular and somewhat sustainable, identifiable and repetitive. . . .

"Grooves" are a process . . . but part of the duality is that as music grooves, there is

always something new and something familiar . . . Amiri Baraka’s "changing same." . . .

10

Slight variations become magical, hypnotizing, mesmerizing. They give you deep

identification or participatory consciousness. You flow into repetition. Again, it’s a kind

of Western fetish that novelty is progess and newness is what it’s about, while repetition

and redundancy both have a bad connation.

Charles Keil and Steven Feld, Music Grooves, p. 23

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II. Melody and Harmony: The Organization of Pitch

Pitch: The basic frequency of a sound wave. By convention, we describe relations between

pitches by analogy with physical space: faster frequencies are"higher" pitches, slower

frequencies are "lower." Note: The words "note" and "pitch" are often used

synonymously.

We perceive a pitch whose frequency is twice that of another pitch as "the same pitch,

only higher," and we label such pitches with the same letter name (so 220 cycles per

second and 440 cycles per second are both called "A").

Scale: The space between two A’s can be filled up in an infinite number of ways,

theoretically, but in our musical system it is filled in by seven discrete steps, which

form a scale (so two A’s are an octave—8 notes—apart). This is a diatonic scale,

consisting of 7 different pitches, which are identified by the letters A through G.

Pitch notation: Works by situating notes on a musical staff, a grid that precisely locates the

pitch of each note. A sharp raises a note by a half-step; a flat lowers a note by a half-

step.

Key: Describes our sense of orientation in a scale. A particular note is heard as the tonic of

the scale: it acts as "home base." In the key of C, the note C is the tonic (the first degree

of the scale). The significance of other notes in the scale is based on their relation to this

tonic.

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Melody: The organization of successive pitches in time. But a melody is more than a mere

succession of pitches; it is a musical shape in time; we often speak of a melodic line,

which has a contour—a pattern of rising and falling.

Melodic organization is based on repetition and contrast. Some melodies are very

repetitive, some have very little repetition.

• A riff is a short melodic pattern that is repeated exactly over and over again.

• Many melodies are built from motives—short fragments of melody or rhythm

that are varied and transformed in various ways.

• We tend to think of a song as having only one melody—the tune, the part that

the voice sings, usually a simple, easily singable melody that is coherent and

complete. But in most music we can hear more than one melody at a time. (The

word for the simultaneous sounding of several melodies is polyphony.)

• In popular music the bass line is another important melody, and often other

instruments are adding additional melodies: for example, a lead guitar part, a

saxophone line, etc.

• In African American–based music, melody is often organized as call and

response—a musical dialogue between two voices or between a single voice

and a group of voices.

Harmony: The organization of pitches heard simultaneously.

13

Chord: A group of simultaneously sounding pitches constitutes the basis of harmony in

much music. A chord is identified by the name of the note that is its root, which in most

cases is the lowest note in the chord (usually played by the bass). The root is thus the

most important note in the chord.

Chords can be relatively more consonant (stable and free of tension) or dissonant

(tense and unstable.) The difference has to do with:

• the complexity of the ratios between the frequencies of the pitches in the chord. For

example, in a major triad the ratios are 2:3:4; in a minor triad the ratios are more

like 10:12:15.

• the number of pitches in a chord. A triad contains only three notes (for example, the

tonic, third, and fifth degrees); more dissonant chords add 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc.

Chord progression: A succession of chords. This implies that chords don’t simply occur

one after another; there is a sense of motion (progression) from one to the next.

Chord function: Determines the sense of a chord progression. Function specifies the

relationship between a chord and the key of a piece of music.

• The tonic (I) chord is a chord whose root is the tonic of the scale.

• Other important chords are the dominant (V) (five steps above the tonic) and the

subdominant (IV) (five steps below the tonic, which is the same as four steps

above the tonic).

• In the Key of C, I is C, IV is F, and V is G. In the Key of E, I is E, IV is A, and V

is B.

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III. Instrumentation and Voices

Instrumentation

Instrumentation involves the instruments used in a piece of music and the functions those

instruments fulfill.

Melody and Accompaniment: In visual perception we distinguish figure from ground.

Similarly, in music, we distinguish the principal (lead) melody (in the voice or in an

instrument) from accompaniment. In listening we often focus primarily on the melody;

expanded musical awareness takes in the accompaniment.

The rhythm section: the basic core of the accompaniment. There are three elements:

• Bass: fundamental to both harmony and rhythm, and thus the "keystone" of the

rhythm section. It usually supplies the roots of the chords in the harmony and

interacts in important ways with the drums.

• Drums: a set of percussion instruments that produces a basic rhythmic shape—they

"keep the beat." Essential elements in the drum set (or drum kit) are:

Bass drum—often(but not always) emphasizes beat 1 of the measure

Snare drum—often plays a back beat

Cymbals—often mark off smaller subdivisions of the beat

• Rhythm instrument: an instrument that can play chords; most frequently guitar or

keyboards. This fills in the harmonies. (In three-piece rock bands, the lead guitar or

15

bass often takes on the function of rhythm instrument as well by playing chords as

well as melodies.)

Additional instrumental elements may be added to the above:

Additional percussion—for example, Latin or African percussion instruments

Additional rhythm instruments—keyboards or guitars

Instruments from the jazz band, such as a horn section, which may include

saxophones, trumpets, or trombones

Instruments from the classical orchestra: a string section (violins, violas, celli); wind

instruments such as flute, oboe, clarinet, french horn; harp, timpani, etc.

Synthesizers or samples, which can mimic most of the above sounds or create new

sounds of their own

Electric/Acoustic/Sampled

Electric (guitar, bass, etc.): The sound comes from an electronic pickup, which is

sensitive to vibrations in the strings. This output is amplified and processed

electronically.

Acoustic instruments (guitar, bass, piano, horns, etc.): The instrument is designed

to be heard without the benefit of amplification. In actual performance and

recordings, the sound of "acoustic" instruments is transmitted by a microphone

to amplifiers; this sound is often processed electronically, so in a sense it is just

as "artificial" as electric instruments.

16

Synths and samplers: Most keyboards today play synthesized or sampled sounds.

A synthesizer generates sound through electronic or digital circuits; a sample is

a brief digital recording of a natural or electronic sound. You can often tell

whether you’re hearing a "live" or "sampled" instrument by seeing how exact

the repetitions are or listening for "unnatural" repetition effects.

Voices

The singer is the persona of the song, the "I" who communicates something. We tend to identify

with singers because we can connect with their emotions. A good singer is an actor, projecting

emotion. It’s important to realize that, like a good actor, a singer is not necessarily "really

feeling" the emotion being projected; the object is to get you to feel that emotion.

What is expressive about a voice is not only the words, but also the sound of the voice. The

sound tells us who is singing. Some aspects to keep in mind when describing a voice are:

• Timbre: The complexity of the sound of the voice, which can range from a very "pure"

sound (which is the ideal in some classical singing) to very raspy and growling. Other

questions to ask about vocal timbre: Is it nasal (sung through the nose)? breathy?

• Tension: The amount of strain in the vocal sound. Some singers have a very relaxed

sound; others consciously strain, often by singing in a very high part of their vocal range

or by shouting.

17

• Vibrato: A "vibrating" of the pitch up and down. It is required in classical singing; some

pop or rock singers use no vibrato at all; some can turn the vibrato on or off for

expressive purposes.

• Melodic style: Some vocal melodies center around just one or two notes; some are

complex, involving a wide range of notes.

• Ornamentation: Embroidering the basic melodic line with additional decorative notes

or melodic patterns.

• Syllabic (one note per syllable of text) or melismatic (several notes per syllable of text).

• Rhythm (sometimes called phrasing): Some singers synchronize their rhythm exactly

with the basic beat; others have very complex rhythmic interrelations with the beat; yet

others "float" above the beat in a very free, rubato fashion. Some vocal rhythms can be

very much like speech.

• Nonverbal interjections: Grunts, screams, shouts, spoken interjections ("c’mon!"), etc.

• Emotional expression: What is conveyed by the voice? Excitement? Anger? Sadness?

Agitation? Calm? . . .

18

Lyrics

Song lyrics are not always the key to the meaning of a song (something the censors such as

PMRC have not understood). Some lyrics are quite linear and orderly, telling a coherent story.

But some are intentionally ambiguous or nonsensical. Often the sound of the words is much

more important than their sense: song lyrics are oral poetry, meant to be heard, not read. The

meaning of the words is found in their interaction with the music. Often nonverbal sounds—

"ohh"—are the most meaningful thing that can be sung!

The sociologist and rock critic Simon Frith writes:

In songs, words are the sign of a voice. . . . The voice can also use nonverbal devices

to make its points—accents, sighs, emphases, hesistations, changes of tone. . . . [T]he

evaluation of pop singers depends not on words but on sounds—on the noises around

the words.

Simon Frith, Sound Effects, p. 35

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IV. Form

Form is the large-scale organization of music. It may also be thought of as rhythm on a higher

level, as suggested here:

Rhythm: Subdivision 2, 3, or 4 per beat

Beat (quarter notes)

Measure 2, 3, or 4 beats

Form: Phrase 2, 4, or 8 measures (usually)

Section 2, 3, or more phrases

Complete song A sequence of sections

(There can be reasonable differences of opinion about how long a phrase or a section is; both

phrases and sections can be subdivided into smaller units.)

Beginnings and endings of phrases and sections are distingished by means of articulations—

elements in the music or lyrics that define formal boundaries. Articulations include such things

are:

• beginning of a repetition, either of words or music

• beginning of a new line of text in the lyrics

• often the drummer (or another instrument) signals the end of a phrase or section and

the beginning of something new with a fill

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• introduction of new material (melody, harmony, lyrics)

• change in instrumentation—for example, introduction of new instruments.

Representing Form

We will represent form thus:

• Upper-case letters of the alphabet label the large sections

• Lower-case letters within parentheses.show internal construction of sections

• Subscripts indicate the number of measures in each section or subsection

• If two sections are basically the same but with a significant difference (for example,

they end differently), they are given the same letter, but a prime sign (′) is added to

the second section, indicating a varied repeat.

Some examples:

12-bar blues form: A12(a4a′4b4)

A 12-bar chorus of the blues is made up of three 4-bar phrases; the second of

these phrases is a variation of the first, the third is different from the other two

32-bar popular song form: A32(a8a8b8a8)

A 32-bar chorus in which an 8-bar phrase is heard three times (some of these A’s

may be variations); the "b" section is called the bridge—it is usually incomplete

in itself and leads back to the final reptition of the "a" section.

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Labels for Types of Sections

Although we could always distinguish sections in a song by assigning letters to each section,

often sections have a specific function, and we can show those functions more clearly by using

letters or abbreviations that refer to them:

• Verse: A section with lyrics; the lyrics are different when the section is repeated.

• Chorus: A section whose lyrics are (mostly) the same when it is repeated. Often the

culmination of a song; frequently the place where you hear the title of the song

repeated over and over.

Note 1: Sometimes a section whose words begin differently ends with one or two

lines that are the same each time. We will call this a refrain. By our definition, a

refrain is only part of a section; a chorus is a complete section.

Note 2: The word "chorus" is also used to refer to a complete 32-bar section of a

popular song. (Why? Around 1900 popular songs had verses as well as choruses;

as time went on (920s-1930s) , the verses became less and less important, serving

only as introductions or even being left entirely out.)

Once through a 12-bar blues form is also called a "chorus."

• Introduction: Music, usually instrumental, that is heard before the song proper

begins.

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• Instrumental: A section without the vocalist, often featuring a solo by a lead

instrument. Often the instrumental follows the melody or chord progression of either

the verse or the chorus.

• Transition: A brief passage that links two sections.

• Tag or fade music heard at the end of a song: A tag (or coda) is music that comes to

a full stop. A fade is usually a repeated phrase heard over and over as the volume

decreases.

There can be a lot of latitude in how one labels sections. There can be reasonable differences of

opinion about where phrases sections begin or end, or how much music to call a phrase or a

section, especially where articulations aren’t clear. Specifying how many measures each section

lasts is a good way of being sure your reader will understand what you mean.

23

Key Terms

I. Rhythm

Pulse Stem Flag Beam Rest Beat Rhythmic Levels Subdivisions Meter Measure Bar Time Signature Triple Rhythm Triple Meter Triple Subdivision Swing (Shuffle) Time Straight Time Tempo Accelerando Ritardando Rubato Accent Syncopation Backbeat Displacement Syncopation Polyrhythmic Syncopation Groove

II. Melody and Harmony Pitch Scale Staff Key Melody Contour Riff Motive Tune Polyphony Bass Line Call and Response Lead Instrument

Harmony Chord Root Consonant Dissonant Triad Chord Progression Chord Function Tonic Dominant Subdominant

III. Instrumentation and Voices Melody and Accompaniment Rhythm Section Drum Set Bass Rhythm Instrument Electric Instruments Acoustic Instruments Synthesizer Sampler Horn Section String Section Timbre Vibrato Ornamentation Syllabic Melismatic

IV. Form Pickup Phrase Section 12-Bar Blues 32-Bar Popular Song Verse Chorus Refrain Introduction Tag Fade

24