6 concepts of Music

Question 1

Duration

Answer 1

Refers to rhythms, tempos, time signatures and everything else in between. Think polyrhythms, backsbeats, syncopation, quavers, minims, 7/8, 4/4 etc.

Question 2

Pitch

Answer 2

Pitch refers to the notes being played. Think octaves, key signatures, tonality, notes, triads, intervals etc.

Question 3

Dynamics

Answer 3

Louds and softs. Think of instruments that create these atmospheres - what type of playing creates the louds or the softs? This is a good concept to link with others.

Question 4

Tone Colour-Timbr

Answer 4

Tone colour is a bitch. It refers to the sounds created by performing media and encompasses how the sounds are made (i.e. expressive techniques) and where they come from (i.e. The instrument that it is played on).

Question 5

Texture.

Answer 5

Texture is the amount of instruments playing at once, pretty much. Polyphonic textures incorporate many instruments at once (I.e. a rock band) and homophonic textures are usually smaller, such as a piano and vocals or guitar and bass. These of course are not the only 2 types of texture.

Question 6

Structure.

Answer 6

Structure refers to the actual structure and placement of various parts of the song. Example: Intro/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Solo/Chorus/Chorus. There can be binary structures, as well as things like ABCABCD structures etc.

That’s my very vague interpretation of the concpets - I haven’t gotten around to studying for the half yearlies yet so they are fairly vague.