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Octave - a doubling in the frequency. Generally speaking, in twelve tone equally tempered classical music, melodies and harmonies are drawn from a scale, a subs

by kian 7y ago

Octave - a doubling in the frequency. Generally speaking, in twelve tone equally tempered classical music, melodies and harmonies are drawn from a scale, a subset of these twelve notes. The most notable of those scales, the diatonic scale has 7 unique notes, and the eighth note wraps back around to the beginning of the scale. Thus, moving from a note to a note double the frequency took 8 notes - hence, the octave. Diatonic is both the name of the most used of the 7-note scales mentioned above, and also a term meaning 'within the scale', i.e., 'diatonic to a (given) scale', depending on context. Melody is the horizontal arrangement of notes for an individual voice or instrument over time. Harmony is the vertical arrangement of notes sounding at the same time, and how those transform horizontally over time as a group. Tempo is the speed in beats per minute of the background 'pulse' of the music. Now, asking for a music theorist to give you an algorithmic definition of how to make music with any of the above? Good luck ;)

irrational 7y ago
Unfortunately that is just pushing it out. frequency? Is this the same as a radio frequency? tone? twelve tone? equally tempered? scale? I honestly know nothing about music so this is all gibberish to me. But I'd be interested to learn if anyone has a book recommendation.
- kian 7y ago
  If you're looking for a book, Music: A Mathematical Offering https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Benson/dp/0521853877/ https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Bens... is pretty good. But you're nearly a the end of your recursion, though. Wikipedia ought to take you the rest of the way to answering those basic questions. More complex questions like why certain combinations sound good whe next to one another, on the other hand...
- rdlw 7y ago
  I found this video to be an extremely helpful and concise explanation of music theory basics: https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0 https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0 "Learn music theory in half an hour" is obviously an exaggeration, but it really comes astoundingly close to fulfilling that promise. It contains a lot of information and each part builds on the previous parts, so it requires focus and maybe a few repetitions to 'get it', but I think the approach is fantastic for showing how many ideas of music theory are deeply connected. Not a book as you requested, but hopefully you'll find the other reply useful. As for some of your specific questions: Frequency is the same concept as radio frequency, but in this case refers to something we can directly sense. Radios transmit electromagnetic waves, which are photons moving at a certain rate, measured in Hertz, or cycles per second. Sound frequency refers to movement of air waves, so a more accurate analogy than radio waves is waves in a pond when a rock is thrown in. Human ears are sensitive to frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz, so any sound you hear is a combination of frequencies. Natural language is helpful here, since higher frequencies sound 'higher' and lower frequencies sound 'lower'. A tone is a sound at a specific frequency, also known as a note. For example, 440 Hz is designated as the note A4 by the Geneva conventions, and this is what most instrument tunings are based off. Twelve tone equal temperament is the tuning system nearly all modern Western music uses. Certain ratios of frequencies sound pleasant, especially ratios with small numbers, such as 1:2, 2:3, and 3:4. So if we know 440 Hz is a note in the system, it would be nice to also have 587 Hz, 660 Hz, and 880 Hz. However, these frequencies will only really sound good when played with that original 440 Hz, not necessarily with each other. So instead of using them exactly, we approximate them in a useful way. The 1:2 ratio, the octave, is generally considered to be the most important, so that ratio is kept, but otherwise the notes are equally spaced (human hearing is logarithmic), or equally tempered. The most popular tuning system has twelve tones. There's no note at 660 Hz, but there's one at 659 Hz, which is pretty close, and there happens to be one at 587 Hz. Other ratios are also represented reasonably well. A key is a collection of notes that sound good together, based on the ratios of their frequencies. The alternative would be chromatic composition, where all 12 notes are used and none is obviously 'more important'. Most music is in a specific key, but uses some chromatic notes to make the melody more interesting.
  - irrational 7y ago
    Thank you for the very detailed response. I'll take a look at that video. Does it cover what a key is?
    - rdlw 7y ago
      Yes, the video goes into some depth about scales/keys. I actually had to look up what the difference between a key and a scale is, as I thought the terms were pretty much interchangeable. I've edited the last part of my other comment to reflect this: A scale is actually an ordered set of notes belonging to a key. A key is just an unordered collection of notes. I got this wrong earlier. So playing all the notes belonging to C major in ascending order is playing a scale, and playing the notes in any order is playing in the key of C.

by kian 7y ago

irrational 7y ago

Unfortunately that is just pushing it out. frequency? Is this the same as a radio frequency? tone? twelve tone? equally tempered? scale? I honestly know nothing about music so this is all gibberish to me. But I'd be interested to learn if anyone has a book recommendation.

kian 7y ago
If you're looking for a book, Music: A Mathematical Offering https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Benson/dp/0521853877/ https://www.amazon.com/Music-Mathematical-Offering-Dave-Bens... is pretty good. But you're nearly a the end of your recursion, though. Wikipedia ought to take you the rest of the way to answering those basic questions. More complex questions like why certain combinations sound good whe next to one another, on the other hand...
rdlw 7y ago
I found this video to be an extremely helpful and concise explanation of music theory basics: https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0 https://youtu.be/rgaTLrZGlk0 "Learn music theory in half an hour" is obviously an exaggeration, but it really comes astoundingly close to fulfilling that promise. It contains a lot of information and each part builds on the previous parts, so it requires focus and maybe a few repetitions to 'get it', but I think the approach is fantastic for showing how many ideas of music theory are deeply connected. Not a book as you requested, but hopefully you'll find the other reply useful. As for some of your specific questions: Frequency is the same concept as radio frequency, but in this case refers to something we can directly sense. Radios transmit electromagnetic waves, which are photons moving at a certain rate, measured in Hertz, or cycles per second. Sound frequency refers to movement of air waves, so a more accurate analogy than radio waves is waves in a pond when a rock is thrown in. Human ears are sensitive to frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz, so any sound you hear is a combination of frequencies. Natural language is helpful here, since higher frequencies sound 'higher' and lower frequencies sound 'lower'. A tone is a sound at a specific frequency, also known as a note. For example, 440 Hz is designated as the note A4 by the Geneva conventions, and this is what most instrument tunings are based off. Twelve tone equal temperament is the tuning system nearly all modern Western music uses. Certain ratios of frequencies sound pleasant, especially ratios with small numbers, such as 1:2, 2:3, and 3:4. So if we know 440 Hz is a note in the system, it would be nice to also have 587 Hz, 660 Hz, and 880 Hz. However, these frequencies will only really sound good when played with that original 440 Hz, not necessarily with each other. So instead of using them exactly, we approximate them in a useful way. The 1:2 ratio, the octave, is generally considered to be the most important, so that ratio is kept, but otherwise the notes are equally spaced (human hearing is logarithmic), or equally tempered. The most popular tuning system has twelve tones. There's no note at 660 Hz, but there's one at 659 Hz, which is pretty close, and there happens to be one at 587 Hz. Other ratios are also represented reasonably well. A key is a collection of notes that sound good together, based on the ratios of their frequencies. The alternative would be chromatic composition, where all 12 notes are used and none is obviously 'more important'. Most music is in a specific key, but uses some chromatic notes to make the melody more interesting.
- irrational 7y ago
  Thank you for the very detailed response. I'll take a look at that video. Does it cover what a key is?
  - rdlw 7y ago
    Yes, the video goes into some depth about scales/keys. I actually had to look up what the difference between a key and a scale is, as I thought the terms were pretty much interchangeable. I've edited the last part of my other comment to reflect this: A scale is actually an ordered set of notes belonging to a key. A key is just an unordered collection of notes. I got this wrong earlier. So playing all the notes belonging to C major in ascending order is playing a scale, and playing the notes in any order is playing in the key of C.