Article: Music Notation Basics Part I

[Guni]

Discussion thread regarding the article "Music Notation Basics Part I - Notes and the Musical Staff" by Kirk Fleming (aka BongoBoy) - http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/148

Guni

[EricV]

Kirk,
that´s one great article. Really well structured, easy to understand, great for beginners. Great job !
Eric

[Bongo Boy]

Thanks to all for both the kind reviews and for all the help with the article. I don't even know all of those who may have reviewed it and helped, but certainly Guni and Clive had much to do with the content and everything to do with bringing to you. Their patience with me is also noteworthy!

As far as the octave shift thing, my book* shows the treble clef symbol (shown below, with the numeral '8' under the clef itself) as being a so-called 'hybrid clef' that explicity designates that the written notes are one octave higher than played (an octave higher than they actually sound).

I'm not an experienced musician and have never seen this notation before. It also has that problem that many such 'shift' or 'scaling' notations do--the numeral under the clef sign could mean 'the written notes are shifted down'. I see it as a continuous source of confusion.

It reminds me of discussions engineers have had for aeons about the 'key' written on a car tachometer: "RPM x 1000". To an engineer, the 'correct' interpretation is "the numeric readout on this instrument represents actual RPM multiplied by 1000". Of course that's NOT what the tach readout is--the readout is "actual RPM divided by 1000". So, I've actually seen tachometers marked "RPM/1000".

This is all why I made such a big deal about Middle C, where it is on the staff, where it is on the keyboard and fretboard. It makes a convenient, hard reference point that helps you get back to the Truth, should you ever lose your way.

*Music Notation by Mark McGrain, Berklee Press

[Bongo Boy]

I wanted to make a Big Point about comments on the articles. As Guni has pointed out, they can always be edited--and they can always be improved. I'd especially like to make sure that I don't make mistakes regarding differences between Real English and Other English (i.e., British English). I'M JUST JOKING!!!

Seriously, I might get it wrong when it comes to common British English usage--words such as staff vs stave, measure vs bar, etc. Since many of our members are outside the USA and may have learned English having a more British usage, help me out. I don't expect the burden of understanding to be with the reader when doing pieces intended for beginners.

[GuitarLausing]

the bristish vs "real" english thing: I don't think it is that important, and it's good to learn both names for a thing; for example measure/bar

anyway, GREAT article!
I always wanted to learn music notation instead of just tab. And this gave me a good kick in the arse/***!

[Carvinite]

Great Article man!

[Koala]

Bongo, got a chance tor ead the article this morning at the studio. Glad to see you put your talent into writing such a clear article. Definitely a great contribution to the site.

[szulc]

Bongo,
You have really come a long way in the last several years!

That I can even get my stiff, uncoordinated fingers to find and hold a C chord this week is a major accomplishment--last week when I tried for the first time I thought I'd never be able to do it, even with all the time in the world. Bongo 05-31-02

[Rented]

Great article Bongo! Nothing new for me in this particular article, but I can't wait for the next installment

Regarding British vs. American terms, here is a good resource:
http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~gilbertn/British.html
(fancy a hemidemisemiquaver run? )

Another interesting regional source of confusion is the whole german H vs. B thing. I started a nw thread about that here: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/...0303#post40303

[Zatz]

Bongo Boy!

Great! Writing an article is such a huge work! You did it good - I like it!
People always lack for the very beginning when they just start learning music.

Congratulations on publishing your 1st article at IBreathe!

Zatz.

[phantom]

great article mr. bongo!
it's good to take a look at the basics from time to time even or just because you left them behind a few years ago.

Congratulations on publishing your 1st article at IBreathe!

it's not his first article - he wrote one about brewing beer as well:

look here

hmmm...?

[Zatz]

Originally Posted by phantom

it's not his first article - he wrote one about brewing beer as well:

Moreover,

"He frequently writes for other brewing and information technology magazines"

Information technology is also in focus
Revealing secrets y'know

Zatz.

[Bongo Boy]

Originally Posted by phantom

great article mr. bongo!

Ah...now it's Mr. Bongo! You guys crack me up!!

...he wrote one about brewing beer as well

Yeah, from about '95 through '98 I was a fairly regular feature writer for Brew Your Own magazine, which I believe is still published (here in the States, at least). I was quite serious about the whole brewing thing for many years, and tried to do articles to make the basics simple, but not "for dummies". This interest led eventually to having 20-50L of fresh ale on tap around the house at all times, and the formerly 'quinto' conguero became 'tumbadora' sized.

Anyway, I appreciate your reading the article--especially those who knew going in that it would cover material you've known for decades. Anything you can do to ensure visitors and members aren't subjected to poor or misleading information really helps the credibility of the site, and your comments on this Series of 'beginner' articles will do that and more.

[forgottenking2]

Sweet stuff. great to get students across the "staff fright" they seem to have at first (specially the ones that come from a "tab environment"). Some good ideas on approaches to teach that kind of stuff as well. I specially like it 'cause it's not so guitar-geared, I've heard some people complain about that, it'd be nice if we start getting articles on Sax technique or keyboard or stuff like that... maybe I'll work on something of the sort... we'll see what I can come up with.

[rmuscat]

nice bongu boy ... i knew some of the stuff BUT most of the staff was VERY informative....

I need a hint .... i learned sight reading, am out of practice but with some practice I know I can handle it at least on the lower frets because that's what I was trained with only.

Anyway I decided to get back to work on this, allow 20m or so a day of sight reading, got myself a couple of books with sight reading exercises.

My greatest PHOBIA is the fact that on the guitar there are a lot of repeated notes (say A can be play open 5th string, 5th fret 6th string etc....) and I panic thinking that to figure out a song I have to dig through all these combinations...

Can anyone suggest how I can go about it?