Elementary Music Theory

by Reed W. Robins

PART 1
ACOUSTICS and PROPERTIES OF SOUND

Sound is Produced by Vibration

With a Guitar, for example:

THE VIBRATING STRING(vibrates) THE AIR(vibrates)THE EARDRUM

the vibration of the eardrum produces the sensation of sound

Noise is the result of irregular vibration patterns

Tones are the result of regular vibrations

Tones have 4 basic characteristics

Pitch: high or low

Duration: length of the sound

Intensity: volume or loudness

Timbre: "color" of the sound

Let's examine further the action of a plucked string (the principle is,
of course,

the same for a vibrating column of air, or a vibrating membrane, etc.):

When you pluck the string from it's resting point (a) it goes up to (b),
back past (a) to

(c), and then back to (a), it has completed one cycle.

Nodes are points of no pratical vibration (in this case, at each end of
the string).

The greater the distance between (b) and (c), the louder the tone-in
other words-

wide vibration = loud tone/narrow vibration = soft tone.

The Number of cycles per second (hertz-abbreviated Hz.) is the frequency

of the tone.

the A a 3rd below middle C is 440 Hz. (440 cycles per second)

OVERTONES:
One aspect we have yet to discuss about the properties of a tone is it's
overtones-just

as white light is made up many different colors of the "spectrum" (ever

seen sunlight

through a prism?) The "spectrum" of a tone is it's overtone series.

You see the string we just talked about also has vibrations other than
the fundamental

vibration we've already spoken of.

It also vibrates:

In Halfs

In Thirds
In Quarters

Etc.

Each of these produces a pitch called an overtone or partial which is

heard (although

less loudly) along with the fundamental pitch. These together produce a
composite

sound which give a particular instrument its characteristic sound.

So, for a low C on a typical soundmaking device the overtone series

would look like

this:
Some observations about the properties of overtones:

In general, the lower the partial the louder it is- the fundamental is
loudest-higher

overtones are fainter in volume

the overtone series continues on up in finitum

 The spacing of the overtone series is widest at the bottom, becoming
gradually

narrower as it goes higher in range

the mix of the particular overtones is the principle determiner of the

sound quality or

"color" of a musical instrument*

* (for instance, one might find in a sonic laboratory the human vocal
sound is highly

rich in overtones, or the oboe's sound tends to emphasize odd number

partials, or the

sound of a woodblock tends to be lacking in midrange overtones)

-Being fully aware of the scope of this topic can greatly enhance
writing and arranging

abilities-for example the same chord will have quite a different effect
if arranged for

4 vocalists instead of 4 trumpets.

A Word About Pythagoras:

For musicians Pythagoras's name should have a great deal more

significance than that painful

memory of 2nd semester high school geometry. Pythagoras made important

discoveries about pitch,

discoveries that brought about both the development of our system of

twelve tones and the

development of our understanding of the basic natural properties of

sound.

Get Ready, Here it is in a nutshell:

The pitches sounded by a musical instrument are related to the length of

the strings *

* (Keep in mind that while this doesn't sound like much now, this was
quite the discovery in

the 6th century B.C.)

* (Also note that this is again the same principle with a column of air,
streched membrane,
etc.-Pythagoraras, however; is said to have done the original
experimentation with a string.)

You See, Pythagoras stretched a string of a given length across a

sounding board-and

made the following discoveries:

When divided in half (ratio of 2:1)-An octave above the string's

original pitch was

produced

When divided in thirds (ratio of 3/2:1)-A fifth above the string's

original pitch was

produced

When divided in quarters (ratio of 5/4:1)-A third above the string's

original pitch was

produced
Continuing in this manner the entire overtone series was eventually
produced. and the

first 16 partials were used to devise a scale *

* (This produced the first system of tuning. Ancient music tended to

seldom modulate

and was in a small range. Common beliefs hold that the use of wider
ranges, contrupuntal

textures and modulation in music are fairly new devices in the total
history of music

(although the earliest music is scantily documented). If the piano in

your 20th century

living room was tuned this way, however; the lowest and highest C's
would sound out of

tune with one another (the highest sounding flat in relation to the
lowest). This phenomenon

is called the pythagorean comma, and occurs in the tuning system that is
derived in nature

through the aformentioned method. Twenty centuries of calculations have

produced a system

in the western world which solves this problem by dividing the octave
into twelve equal

parts. This system is called Equal Temperment Tuning. it's precursor

(Well Temperment

tuning) was in common use by the time of Bach. This system of tuning,
which allowed for
free chromaticism and modulation, was the inspiration of Bach's Well
Tempered Clavier,

which is a book of preludes and Fugues in all 24 Keys -major and minor.)
for a look at the

many types of tuning systems used throughout history (many of which can
be dialed up for

interesting effect on your synth), look up "Tuning systems" in the

Harvard Dictionary of Music.

As you will see in the course of this study, these notes are not only
the the first partials

of the overtone series of any given note, but also the notes which
comprise the most

basic of all chords, the major triad. This is profound evidence of the
effect of the

natural laws of sonics and thier relationship with the development of

harmony in music

in cultures all over the world.

Here's how they are arranged on the keyboard:

THE SOUND ENVELOPE:

The sound envelope is a visual representation of the contour of a

sound.:

There are 4 ingredients of the basic sound envelope:

1) attack

2) sustain

3) decay
4) release

A typical envelope might look like this:

Almost all synthesizers today have envelope generators which give the
musician

control over these parameters and allow shaping of a sound. Often they
also have

several other parameters added to the envelope for even greater control
over the

sound.
-being aware of the differing shapes of sound envelopes of different
instruments can

also add to writing and arranging skills-

For example:

A woodblock's envelope might look like this:

While a bowed violin might look like this:

or a guitar:

Keep in mind that the same instrument can have many different types of
envelopes

depending on how it is played at any given moment (soft/loud,

staccato/legato,
pizz./Arco, etc.)

(C)1995 Tactus Publishing. All rights reserved.

E-mail us with questions or comments. Updated 16-Jul-95.

http://changingtones.com/elemtext.html