Music Theory/Introduction

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[edit] What is music theory?

Music theory is a foundation for understanding music, a collection of principles and observations that make sense of what we hear in song. It describes, and names, the aspects of music: harmony, for example, the way notes work together when they are played at once.

[edit] What is music?

Music can be many things, and the subject of what constitutes music has been long debated and argued, we will not be spending considerable time on its definition. Like all art, music is highly subjective and traditional. It is hard to make sense of music from an alien culture or tradition. This book only deals with a subset of music; a very large subset though. We look at the Western Tradition of music as it has evolved from the ancient European civilizations with influences from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We will also look primarily at written music, rather than music which is only ever performed, but we realize that music notation can almost never capture everything that makes a piece. Sheet music is a limitation that we live with. You will notice the words "sometimes", "usually", "probably", and other similar terms used frequently as music is highly subjective and many "rules" are broken.

Music usually has four basic aspects: rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre.

Rhythm 

Concerns note length, speed and stress — the "time" aspect.

Melody 

Concerns a series of notes — the "horizontal" aspect.

Harmony 

Concerns notes played at once — the "vertical" aspect.

Timbre 

Concerns the physical sound of notes — "the texture" aspect.