In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that mediate the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope. Timbre is also known in psychoacoustics as tone quality or tone color.
For example, timbre is what, with a little practice, people use to distinguish the saxophone from the trumpet in a jazz group, even if both instruments are playing notes at the same pitch and loudness. Timbre has been called a "wastebasket" attribute or category, or "the psychoacoustician's multidimensional wastebasket category for everything that cannot be qualified as pitch or loudness"; i.e., the 'shape' of the sound.
Provided by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Minor scale
Minor scale
any of the twelve diatonic scales distinguished from the major scale with the same keynote by a semitone after the second and seventh tones or after the second, fifth, and seventh tones
Provided by: http://www.yourdictionary.com/minor-scale
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A minor scale in music theory is generally any scale that includes at least three essential scale degrees: one being the tonic, another at an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and another at an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, together composing the tonic minor triad. While this definition encompasses many scales and modes such as Dorian mode and the Phrygian mode, the term in its stricter sense is usually limited to the natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales, described below, which are in most common use in Western classical music (see major and minor).
Natural Minor
The natural minor scale is the same as the 6th mode (or Aeolian mode) of the major scale. For example, the white notes of a keyboard if played from any C continuing up an octave to the next C produce a C major scale. If the white notes are played beginning from the sixth step of that C scale, from any A to an A an octave above, then an A natural minor scale (the "relative minor" of C)
The above considerations of chordal harmony led to the harmonic minor scale, the same as the natural minor but with a chromatically raised seventh degree.
Harmonic Minor Scale: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 7 8
For example, in the key of A minor, the harmonic minor scale is:
A B C D E F G♯ A'
Play (help·info)
An important characteristic of the harmonic minor scale—in contrast to the natural minor—is its inclusion of two sets of chords whose inversions are structurally identical, and hence have ambiguous tonality. These are the Diminished seventh chord (found on the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 7th degrees) and the Augmented chord (found on the 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees).
The harmonic minor is also occasionally referred to as the Mohammedan scale[1] as its upper tetrachord corresponds to the Hijaz jins, commonly found in Middle Eastern music. The harmonic minor scale as a whole is described as Nahawand-Hijaz[2] in Arabic nomenclature, or as Bûselik Hicaz [3] in Turkish nomenclature.
The interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of this scale (in this case F and G♯) is an augmented second. While some composers, notably Mozart, have used this interval to advantage in melodic composition, other composers, having felt it to be an awkward leap, particularly in vocal music, considered a whole step between these two scale degrees more conducive to smooth melody writing, so either the subtonic seventh was used or the sixth scale degree raised. Traditionally, music theorists have called these two options the ascending melodic minor scale (also known as heptatonia seconda) and descending melodic minor scale, the ascending being identical in its upper tetrachord to the major scale, and the descending being simply the natural minor:
A B C D E F♯ G♯ A' and then
A' G F E D C B A respectively.
Play (help·info)
Play (help·info)
Composers have not been consistent in using these in ascending and descending melodies. Just as often, composers choose one form or the other based on whether one of the two notes is part of the most recent chord (the prevailing harmony). Particularly, to use the triad of the relative major—which is very common—since this is based on the third degree of the minor scale, the raised seventh degree would cause an augmented triad. Composers thus frequently require the lowered seventh degree found in the natural minor. In jazz, the descending aeolian is usually disregarded altogether.
Provided by : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_scale
any of the twelve diatonic scales distinguished from the major scale with the same keynote by a semitone after the second and seventh tones or after the second, fifth, and seventh tones
Provided by: http://www.yourdictionary.com/minor-scale
---------------------------------
A minor scale in music theory is generally any scale that includes at least three essential scale degrees: one being the tonic, another at an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and another at an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, together composing the tonic minor triad. While this definition encompasses many scales and modes such as Dorian mode and the Phrygian mode, the term in its stricter sense is usually limited to the natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales, described below, which are in most common use in Western classical music (see major and minor).
Natural Minor
The natural minor scale is the same as the 6th mode (or Aeolian mode) of the major scale. For example, the white notes of a keyboard if played from any C continuing up an octave to the next C produce a C major scale. If the white notes are played beginning from the sixth step of that C scale, from any A to an A an octave above, then an A natural minor scale (the "relative minor" of C)
The above considerations of chordal harmony led to the harmonic minor scale, the same as the natural minor but with a chromatically raised seventh degree.
Harmonic Minor Scale: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 7 8
For example, in the key of A minor, the harmonic minor scale is:
A B C D E F G♯ A'
Play (help·info)
An important characteristic of the harmonic minor scale—in contrast to the natural minor—is its inclusion of two sets of chords whose inversions are structurally identical, and hence have ambiguous tonality. These are the Diminished seventh chord (found on the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 7th degrees) and the Augmented chord (found on the 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees).
The harmonic minor is also occasionally referred to as the Mohammedan scale[1] as its upper tetrachord corresponds to the Hijaz jins, commonly found in Middle Eastern music. The harmonic minor scale as a whole is described as Nahawand-Hijaz[2] in Arabic nomenclature, or as Bûselik Hicaz [3] in Turkish nomenclature.
The interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of this scale (in this case F and G♯) is an augmented second. While some composers, notably Mozart, have used this interval to advantage in melodic composition, other composers, having felt it to be an awkward leap, particularly in vocal music, considered a whole step between these two scale degrees more conducive to smooth melody writing, so either the subtonic seventh was used or the sixth scale degree raised. Traditionally, music theorists have called these two options the ascending melodic minor scale (also known as heptatonia seconda) and descending melodic minor scale, the ascending being identical in its upper tetrachord to the major scale, and the descending being simply the natural minor:
A B C D E F♯ G♯ A' and then
A' G F E D C B A respectively.
Play (help·info)
Play (help·info)
Composers have not been consistent in using these in ascending and descending melodies. Just as often, composers choose one form or the other based on whether one of the two notes is part of the most recent chord (the prevailing harmony). Particularly, to use the triad of the relative major—which is very common—since this is based on the third degree of the minor scale, the raised seventh degree would cause an augmented triad. Composers thus frequently require the lowered seventh degree found in the natural minor. In jazz, the descending aeolian is usually disregarded altogether.
Provided by : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_scale
Monday, April 19, 2010
Major Scale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si（Do)". The simplest major scale to write or play on the piano is C major, the only major scale not to require sharps or flats, using only the white keys on the piano keyboard:
Provided by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si（Do)". The simplest major scale to write or play on the piano is C major, the only major scale not to require sharps or flats, using only the white keys on the piano keyboard:
Provided by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_scale
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