# Your aid is kindly needed



## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

So, I'm taking a music course, which is called, Fundamentals of music. I enrolled in this course because, I love classical music and I really want to be able to appreciate it even more than I do now. So, taking this course seemed like a really good idea.

The objective of this course is as follows:


> Students who successfully complete this course will be comfortable with the fundamentals of
> tonal music as both an oral and written practice. The class will be focused on exercises
> involving singing from notation. Topics of study will include modern Western staff notation,
> pitch, rhythm, melody, and harmony. Special topics will be included where appropriate.


Going into this program I was a bit ambivalent and probably somewhat frightened by the material that we were going to cover over the course of 3 months.

In-so: this is our third meeting of the term; we meet twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

*So far we've learned quite a few things*:

1- *Clefs* : Treble and Base.

I'm not readily able to identify the notes on either the treble or base clef with precise accuracy, but I feel that I will get there with more practice. (This is actually a lot harder than it looks)
-Contour, which I believe is the shape of the melody

2- *Intervals* : whole step and half step? I'm not really too sure on this yet.

I just know that between C and D there is a whole step, same with D and E, and between E and F there's a half step interval. I still don't understand this bit, yet. :{
- C major scale { C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C} this one I like! :]

3- *Solfege system :* This one assigns numbers to the notes, I think.

I know C=0, D=2, E=4, F=5, G=7, A=9, B=11 and then C=0 again. The other numbers I don't know what they represent yet. maybe flats and sharps?

4- *Minor and Major seconds :?*
This one was really confusing, especially about the inversion thingy. My notes say that a Minor 6th is an inversion of a major third.? I don't know how that works. There are a lot of minor and major intervals?( Not sure if that's what they're called) to remember and understand how they come to be.

So, this is a bit much, but I'd like help with remembering/memoriziing the notes on the staff. Treble and base clef.

-If there are any tricks that you think will help me memorize/remember the notes, please suggest them I'd really appreciate it. So far I've mad Flash cards to help me memorize the notes.
-Or if there are any online resources that I can utilize to aid my cause, I'd also appreciate it.

Thanks in advance everyone.

TPS
:tiphat:


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## Guest (Feb 5, 2014)

Treble Clef Lines:
*E*very *G*ood *B*oy *D*oes *F*ine

Treble Clef Spaces:
*F A C E*

Bass Clef Lines:
*G*ood *B*oys *D*o *F*ine *A*lways

Bass Clef Spaces:
*A*ll *C*ows *E*at *G*rass

For intervals, it's nice to know generally a few keys on the keyboard, as the lack of a black key between B & C and between E & F will help you remember the half step vs. whole step thing until it becomes second nature.

Yes, the other numbers in that 0-11 system would represent all the sharps or flats in between the natural pitches. So if you're ever wondering what "1" is, just remember that it's in between C and D, so it must be C# or Db.

For major and minor seconds, or major/minor intervals in general: 
I come from a non-music reading guitarist background, so I remember intervals easiest right now by just remembering half steps. Unless we're talking all white keys, it's generally easier for me to remember "0 2 4 5 7 9 11" than the actual note names, because the former is something I've done on guitar years before ever being able to read music in the slightest.

So basically when I can count 4 half steps from the tonic, I know it's a major 3rd, vs a minor 3rd, which would be 3. This is because the basic structure of a major key pretty much goes like "0 2 4 5 7 9 11" while minor goes "0 2 3 5 7 8 10". Which still sounds complicated, but it helps that I don't think of it that way. I just kinda imagine piano keys or guitar frets in my mind and can identify at least the seconds or thirds or sevenths in half a second (the sixths may take me a whole 2-5 seconds still...).

PS: I'm taking fundamentals of music this semester too  teacher has determined that, along with 2 others, I'm a little more advanced than the other basic students, but perhaps not quite ready for the theory classes that music majors take (I am not a music major). This is mostly because I can "figure out" most stuff, but it's still like a 3rd language or something to me, as my mind is always buzzing around trying to translate the music from a fluent background in guitar tab. Also because I never bothered to learn a few tiny things like rest values, lol.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Thank you kindly, Arcaneholocaust. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of this information down. I hope you don't mind that I saved/made it into a personal document for future reference. I believe this will require lots of practice, which I'm prepared to endeavor in. Thanks again. ^^;


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Intervals: The start of the Star Wars theme is a perfect fifth. The start of Oh Canada is a minor third. The start of My Bonnie lies over the ocean is a major sixth. A perfect fourth is the first two notes of Vivaldi Spring Concerto. A vocal coach can tell you much more. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_training#Interval_recognition
C to Ab is a minor sixth, but Ab to C is a major third. C to A is a major sixth, but A to C is a minor third. 
Knowing your scales will help.


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

The British version is Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

List of alternatives
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Every+Good+Boy+Deserves+Favour


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

One trick for intervals is to look at a piano. There's a half step between *every *key - black or white - so C - C# is a half step, C# - D is a half step - adding up C to D is two half steps - or a whole step. Thing is not every key has a black key next to it but the principle applies - B and C are adjacent keys so - half step, E and F are adjacent keys so - half step. Don't ask why, just yet but think about it as a way to set notes out easily.

Have a look at http://www.talkclassical.com/30448-question-about-functional-harmony.html#post602060 where I posted some links to the Dolmetsch site.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

arcaneholocaust said:


> Treble Clef Lines:
> *E*very *G*ood *B*oy *D*oes *F*ine
> 
> Treble Clef Spaces:
> ...


I would have had these very nice "hints" when I studied music in my youth.
Just wondering if there is something similar for us, "latin" people, beside the Guido D'Arezzo hymn.

_*Ut* queant laxis
*Re*sonare fibris
*Mi*ra gestorum
*Fa*muli tuorum
*Sol*ve polluti
*La*bii reatum,
*S*ancte *I*ohannes_


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## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

I can relate that I've never used any kind of acronym to remember this kind of thing. I learned what the notes were on the staff by having classical guitar lessons when I was a kid and learning which space or line corresponded with which note on the guitar one note at a time. After a couple of months I practically had treble clef burned into my retinas. The other clefs came with a bit of practice after that.

So from experience the best way to learn is alongside playing an instrument. Most graded instrument exams have some general musicianship component to them and all instrument lessons should involve some component of learning how to read the clef/s your instrument works from and other basic musicianship skills.

Since that probably doesn't help you right now, this site has customisable exercises that you can use to practice reading clefs and hearing intervals.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

senza sordino said:


> Intervals: The start of the Star Wars theme is a perfect fifth. The start of Oh Canada is a minor third. The start of My Bonnie lies over the ocean is a major sixth. A perfect fourth is the first two notes of Vivaldi Spring Concerto. A vocal coach can tell you much more.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_training#Interval_recognition
> C to Ab is a minor sixth, but Ab to C is a major third. C to A is a major sixth, but A to C is a minor third.
> Knowing your scales will help.


Actually the start is a perfect 4th, the second interval is the fifth. 
And that applies to the order it should be watched (ep IV first, ep V second  )


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Sixths, thirds, fifths and fourths etc.

This is sometimes called the rule of 9. A fifth means that you have five notes between the start and end e.g. C to G covers C D E F G - five notes. If you go the other way - invert it - you get a fourth - or four notes - G to C - G A B C. Same thing applies to a sixth - six notes - C to A - C D E F G A - or 6 notes. If you go the other way - invert it - you get a third - three notes - A to C - A B C. So an interval plus its inversion adds up to 9 - a seventh becomes a second, a sixth - a third, and a fifth a fourth.

I've fudged things here because I'm assuming that you're happy with the scale of C. 

In a major scale, the first three notes are separated by two full steps - a major third - a minor scale has them separated by a full step and a half step - a minor (or smaller) third. Notice that the three notes from A to C cover a full step - A to B and a half step B to C - that makes it a minor third. The six notes from C to A cover four and a half steps - a major sixth - so when you invert it you get a minor third. It's partly a matter of simply counting notes and steps and also what you actually hear.

If you're in C minor - which includes A flat then the six notes from C to A flat only cover four steps - a minor (or smaller) sixth whereas the three notes from A flat to C cover two full steps or a major third.

One of the best tools for this sort of thing is a piano keyboard.


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## Guest (Feb 5, 2014)

senza sordino said:


> Intervals: The start of the Star Wars theme is a perfect fifth. The start of Oh Canada is a minor third. The start of My Bonnie lies over the ocean is a major sixth. A perfect fourth is the first two notes of Vivaldi Spring Concerto.


This is actually a good suggestion right here.

Only recently have I stopped reciting "Smoke On The Water" in my head to double check my minor thirds and perfect fourths.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Those things are "The Fundamentals of Music"? Boy, do I have a Wrong Attitude toward music.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

Thank you all very much. I do greatly appreciate all of your support. The suggestions that have been made will help me immensely. Thank you again. ^^;


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

As I try to play what I wrote this morning, I think the first two notes of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Spring Concerto is a major third, not a perfect fourth. And I still think the first two notes of the main melody of Star Wars is a perfect fifth, the first notes of the opening few bars introductory fanfare is probably a perfect fourth, but the melody everyone can sing is a perfect fifth. C G F E D C G F E D C G F E F C.

I don't know why seconds, thirds and sixths are only major intervals, but fourths and fifths are perfect. Something to do with frequency ratios.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

senza sordino said:


> I don't know why seconds, thirds and sixths are only major intervals, but fourths and fifths are perfect. Something to do with frequency ratios.


Yup. Sevenths can be major or minor as well. Perfect intervals are those that have the musical ratios of 1:1 unison, 2:1 octave, 3:2 fifth or 4:3 fourth. The other cute thing about perfect intervals is that they don't change type when inverted - a major second becomes a minor seventh, a minor third becomes a major sixth and so forth; a perfect fourth becomes a perfect fifth and vice versa; octaves and unison don't change when inverted. Great fun.


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