Understanding Basic Music Theory - Catherine Schmidt-Jones [7]
Figure 1.40.
Enharmonic Spellings and Equal Temperament
All of the above discussion assumes that all notes are tuned in equal temperament. Equal temperament has become the "official" tuning system for Western music. It is easy to use in pianos and other instruments that are difficult to retune (organ, harp, and xylophone, to name just a few), precisely because enharmonic notes sound exactly the same. But voices and instruments that can fine-tune quickly (for example violins, clarinets, and trombones) often move away from equal temperament. They sometimes drift, consciously or unconsciously, towards just intonation, which is more closely based on the harmonic series. When this happens, enharmonically spelled notes, scales, intervals, and chords, may not only be theoretically different. They may also actually be slightly different pitches. The differences between, say, a D sharp and an E flat, when this happens, are very small, but may be large enough to be noticeable. Many Non-western music traditions also do not use equal temperament. Sharps and flats used to notate music in these traditions should not be assumed to mean a change in pitch equal to an equal-temperament half-step. For definitions and discussions of equal temperament, just intonation, and other tuning systems, please see Tuning Systems.
Solutions to Exercises
Solution to Exercise 1.5.1. (Return to Exercise)
C sharp and D flat
F sharp and G flat
G sharp and A flat
A sharp and B flat
Figure 1.41.
Solution to Exercise 1.5.2. (Return to Exercise)
F flat; D double sharp
C flat; A double sharp
B sharp; D double flat
F double sharp; A double flat
G double sharp; B double flat
Solution to Exercise 1.5.3. (Return to Exercise)
Figure 1.42.
1.2. Time
Duration: Note Lengths in Written Music*
The Shape of a Note
In standard notation, a single musical sound is written as a note. The two most important things a written piece of music needs to tell you about a note are its pitch - how high or low it is - and its duration - how long it lasts.
To find out the pitch of a written note, you look at the clef and the key signature, then see what line or space the note is on. The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. To find out the duration of the written note, you look at the tempo and the time signature and then see what the note looks like.
Figure 1.43. The Parts of a Note
All of the parts of a written note affect how long it lasts.
The pitch of the note depends only on what line or space the head of the note is on. (Please see pitch , clef and key signature for more information.) If the note does not have a head (see Figure 1.44), that means that it does not have one definite pitch.
Figure 1.44. Notes Without Heads
If a note does not have head, it does not have one definite pitch. Such a note may be a pitchless sound, like a drum beat or a hand clap, or it may be an entire chord rather than a single note.
The head of the note may be filled in (black), or not. The note may also have (or not) a stem, one or more flags, beams connecting it to other notes, or one or more dots following the head of the note. All of these things affect how much time the note is given in the music.
Note
A dot that is someplace other than next to the head of the note does not affect the rhythm. Other dots are articulation marks. They may affect the actual length of the note (the amount of time it sounds), but do not affect the amount of time it must be given. (The extra time when the note could be sounding, but isn't, becomes an unwritten rest.) If this is confusing, please see the explanation in articulation.
The Length of a Note
Figure 1.45. Most Common Note Lengths
The simplest-looking note, with no stems or flags, is a whole note. All other note lengths