Q. Basically you can play the same music piece in any key and it will relatively play the same except higher or lower on pitches. How were different key signatures created and discovered? Why do were choose to play in some key signatures more and not others?
thanks, Matt
I meant transposing from whatever key signature the composition is already in to another key signature. Doesn't matter if it's already in a major or minor key.
A. Hi Matt,
I am trying to answer your question thoroughly but precisely. But it may be long! Sorry!
Since, each instrument has its nature range, for example, violin cannot play lower than the G below middle C, Viola is not cannot play an octave lower than the middle C, Cello cannot play two octave lower than the middle C, etc... Because of the physical limitation and the convenience to the player, each instrument has its own native keys. I don't know what instrument you play, if you are a violin player, G, D, or A scale will not be strange to you, or if you are a piano player, I believe you like to play flat keys music more than the sharp keys music. Including vocal voices, they do have their ranges. Soprano sings from A3 (A3 is a minor 3rd below middle C) up to C6
Alto sings from G3 to F5, Tenor usually sings from C3 to C5, and Bass usually sings from E2 to E4. Then the music needs to be written with different keys to accommodate the main soloist physical limitation.
The key signatures are discovered by the nature of major key structure. From C to C', separates these eight notes into two groups: C, D, E, F, and G, A, B, C'. Each group of four consecutive notes is called a tetra-chord. They are with the same Whole Whole Semi structure (C-D is a whole tone, D-E a whole tone, E-F a semitone, G-A a whole tone, A-B a whole tone, and B-C a semitone)
Then musician started to build the next major scale above C from the second tetra-chord which means starting from G to build the second major key. G A' B' C' already have the Whole Whole Semi structure, in order to make the D' E' F' G' to have the same structure, musician created the sharp symbol to raise the seventh notes F to be semitone below G'. Look at the following table:
C D EF | G A BC
G A BC | D E F#G
D E F#G | A B C#D
A B C#D | E F# G#A
E F# G#A | B C# D#E
B C# D#E | F# G# A#B
F# G# A#B | C# D# E#F#
C# D# E#F# | G# A# B#C#
If starting by the descending major scale:
CB A G | FE D C
FE D C | BbA G F
BbA G F | Eb D C Bb
Eb D C Bb | AbG F Eb
AbG F Eb | DbC Bb Ab
DbC Bb Ab | GbF Eb Db
GbF Eb Db | CbBb Ab Gb
CbBb Ab Gb | FbEb Db Cb
These two tables show how/why the notes need to have the accidental sharps and or flats to build the scale, and group all of the accidental signs to form the key signatures.
how can i read sheet music?
Q. how can i read sheet music for guitar?
i started learning guitar, i know about 10-15 chords now, i learned 2 scales(major scale,blues sale)
how can i read sheet music?i already know how to read tabs, but tabs are useless
A. You're about tabs - they're useless. Try playing a song you never heard from tabs...you can't do it cause there's no rhythm in tabs - you can do it with sheet music of course...to answer the above post...that's why their useless, plus, most of the tabs on the net are wrong, full of errors.
About reading music, this site explains it well:
http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htm
Sections 1-4 of part one deal with it. Section 5 then goes through scales, you don't need it for now.
The most important thing to learn is:
1, the way pitch is written (by the position in the staff)
2, the way length (rhythm) is written - the thing tabs lack
These two tell you how long and how high/low to play.
What you need to know is how loud as well (this won't be important mostly in rock songs though). It's indicated by symbols under (rarely above) the staff (from softest to loudest):
ppp - piano-pianissimo
pp - pianissimo
p - piano
mp - mezzopiano
fp - fortepiano
mf - mezzoforte
f - forte
ff - fortissimo
fff - forte-fortissimo
Other symbols include (s)forzatto - sfz (suddenly the loudest possible), crescendo (gradually louder: <), decrescendo/diminuendo (grad. softer: >).
Dynamics (these symbols...loudness) are provided here just so that you know what it is if you accidentally (improbable) run into it in rock.
Then you need to understand tempo (speed). It is indicated in the beginning of the song above the staff (sometimes inmiddle the song if the tempo changes throughout the song...a good example of such change is Megadeth' Holy Wars...after Marty's clean arabic-like solo it slows down). Tempo can be indicated by the BPM (beats per minute) or by special expression (Italian in classical, English in modern).
Here are they:
Prestissimo â extremely fast (200 - 208 bpm)
Vivacissimamente â adverb of vivacissimo, "very quickly and lively"
Vivacissimo â very fast and lively
Presto â very fast (168 - 200 bpm)
Allegrissimo â very fast
Vivo â lively and fast
Vivace â lively and fast (~140 bpm)
Allegro â fast and bright or "march tempo" (120 - 168 bpm)
Allegro moderato â moderately quick (112 - 124 bpm)
Allegretto â moderately fast (but less so than allegro)
Allegretto grazioso â moderately fast and with grace
Moderato â moderately (108 - 120 bpm)
Moderato espressivo â moderately with expression
Andantino â alternatively faster or slower than andante
Andante â at a walking pace (76 - 108 bpm)
Tranquillamente â adverb of tranquillo, "tranquilly"
Tranquillo â tranquil
Adagietto â rather slow (70 - 80 bpm)
Adagio â slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66 - 76 bpm)
Grave â slow and solemn
Larghetto â rather broadly (60 - 66 bpm)
Largo â Very slow (40 - 60 bpm), like lento
Lento â very slow (40 - 60 bpm)
Largamente/Largo â "broadly", very slow (40 bpm and below)
Larghissimo â very very slow (20 bpm and below)
Don't learn them!! It's redundant...I think you will mostly see the BPM indication.
The last important thing is meter. It indicates the overall rhythm feel (waltz, rock etc. use their typical meters).
Check the website I provided for the symbols and explanations...you need to know this only:
1, meter
2, rhythm
3, pitch
And now one thing that the site won't tell you, a thing applied specifically to guitar. Guitar belongs to the instruments that are written an octave higher that they actually sound (ex. when you strum the low E, E2 sounds, but E3 is written).
I think that's all you need to know. Try to read every day so that you become at least mediocre at it. Two weeks should be enough to become trained enough...15 minutes to understand the principle of notes.
One more thing!! Get the Guitar Pro 5 software for guitar! I've free download links for you here:
http://worldwide-forum.be/forum/index.php?showtopic=20546
Download the software and RSE packs. It'll help you become trained in reading and also it is the most wide-spread format for sharing notation. You can find tons of notes for countless songs for GP5.
Good luck.
Have all melodies possible been created? Mathematically is there an absolute number of possible of melodies?
Q.
A. Let's say there are 88 possible notes (from the piano),
and say that a melody consists of a sequence of those notes (no chords).
And for good measure (no pun intended), let's add an 89th note: silence
see John Page, 4' 33'' ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3
Then the critical question ...
Is there a maximum length to a melody ?
If the answer is no, then there is no limit, obviously,
because you can take any previous melody and extend it 89 ways,
and then extend that 89 ways, and so on.
So let's set a limit: a melody is N or fewer notes, in sequence.
What would like to pick for N ?
20 ?
100 ?
1000 ?
In any case you get a very large number.
For just 20 notes, and 89 possibilities, you have 89^20 = 9.72299658 Ã 10^38
which is about 972 * a million * a million * a million * a million * a million * a million
Even if we cut that down by a lot
and only admit 25 possible notes (3 octaves, no sharps or flats, + silence)
and limit it to a sequence 20 notes,
we have 25^20 which just 1/100-billionth of the above number,
it's still 9.095 Ã 10^27
Of course the great majority of those "melodies" are complete rubbish
that no one would ever write - or listen to for that matter -
but that's the sort of numbers that come up.
Let's take the "smaller" number above: 10^27.
If a new melody were created at the rate of 1000 every second of every day,
it would take
10^24 seconds or 3.17 Ã 10^16 years
or 31 million billion years (at 1000 per second).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So the answer to your question is ...
Yes, there is a theoretical limit mathematically,
but in practical terms there is not.
And no, they have not all been created.
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