Ear Training for the Contemporary Musician Flashcards
by Keith Wyatt, Carl Schroeder and Joe Elliott
Octaves are how far apart in frequency?
Half or double the frequency.
What is the fundamental tone, the “home” note called?
Tonic
The musical term for moving a melody to a new key
Transposing
Identifying and writing down music
Transcribing
The distance between any two notes is called the
interval
What is a second?
an interval of 2 steps
What is a third?
an interval of 3 steps
What is meter?
A pattern of accented (strong) and unaccented (weak) beats in a repetitive pattern.
What is the two-beat meter based on and what types of music use it?
Based on the left/right foot pattern of the march, common to folk music styles of European countries (polka, Irish/Scottish, Italian, etc) and their American descendants, including traditional country music and rockabilly.
What is the more common name for the three-beat meter, where did it originate and what are its variations?
Waltz, a dance style originating in Europe. Variations include Viennese waltz, country waltz and jazz waltz.
What type of music uses a four-beat meter?
Nearly every contemporary popular music style including rock, funk, R&B, hip-hop, blues and jazz.
How is the meter of a piece indicated?
By the time signature. The upper number indicates how many beats are in the pattern and the lower number indicates what kind of note receives one beat.
What is common time?
4/4 time
What is the pattern called in popular music when the drummer defines the four-beat meter by hitting the snare drum on the second and fourth beats?
backbeat
What is the normal designation for concert pitch?
A=440 cycles per second
What are concert instruments?
Instruments designed around the same pitch, such as pianos, also called “C” instruments.
What is an instrument called that is designed so that a player reading middle C will produce a different pitch from Concert C?
Transposing Instruments
Are guitar and bass concert instruments?
No, when they read middle C they play an octave lower than a piano middle C. Therefore they are transposing instruments.
What is sightsinging?
The skill of singing music directly from the printed page.
What is sofeggio?
The “do-re-mi” system of singing musical pitches.
What is the difference between an interval’s quality and quantity?
Both C to D and E to F are second intervals. However C to D is a major second because they are a whole step apart and E to F is a minor second because they are a half step apart. Although they are both seconds they do not sound the same.
Any major interval lowered by half a step becomes
minor
Any minor or perfect interval lowered by half a step becomes
diminished
Any major or perfect interval raised by half a step becomes
augmented
What qualities do thirds come in? What are their abbreviations? What is the distance?
Major (ma3) = two whole steps
minor (mi3) = one and a half steps
What common tune can you use to “hear” a ma3?
Frere Jacques - between the third and fourth notes drops from the 3 to 1
What common tune can you use to “hear” a mi3?
Brahms Lullaby (“Lullaby and goodnight”) - tonic, tonic, mi3, tonic, tonic, mi3
What common tune can you use to hear mi3 & ma3?
The Star Spangled Banner starts with mi3 - ma3 in the first three notes. From the first to second note it goes down mi3 and then goes down ma3 for the third note.
What are the fourth and fifth degrees of the major scale called? Why?
Perfect, as in “perfect fourth” and “perfect fifth.” The term was chosen to reflect the feelings of the intervals which unlike the happiness and sadness evoked by major and minor thirds, perfect intervals are considered emotionally neutral, like a blank white canvas.
What are sixth interval qualities (not raised or lowered)? What tunes highlight these?
Major - first two notes of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”
Minor - Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”
What is a definition of harmony? What is its simplest form? What are the most common versions?
The sound of two or more notes occurring at the same time. The simplest form is the interval. Harmonic intervals have the same notes and names as melodic intervals but are played at the same time rather than separately/consecutively). The most common harmonic intervals are thirds, fourths, fifths and sixths.
If two notes are played with the equal force, say on the piano, which will tend to sound more prominent?
The higher tone will sound louder, clearer and more prominent because the ear perceives higher pitches more clearly than lower pitches.
What is a power chord?
Perfect fourths and fifths are combined to make power chords. They consist of a root, the note a perfect fifth above and often the octave which is a perfect fourth above that. The name reflects the strong, clear quality of these perfect intervals. It may be noted by the letter name followed by “5”, e.g. C5, E5, Bb5
What is an inversion?
Any pair of intervals that combine to form an octave. For instance a major third followed by a minor sixth, e.g. C-E, followed by E-C (the C above the first). These pairs include
Major Third - Minor Sixth
Minor Third - Major Sixth
Perfect Fifth - Perfect Fourth
What is a chord?
Two or more notes played simultaneously.
What a triads?
Triads are chords that contain three different notes, or chord tones, played at once in intervals of a third:
Root - the fundamental note of the triad
Third - a major or minor third interval above the root
Fifth - a perfect, diminished or augmented fifth interval above the root
What is a major triad?
Root, major third, perfect fifth. They may be arranged in various orders and repeated in different octaves but triads by definition must contain three different chord tones. Example: C-E-G. May be noted by C above the chord on the staff (for a C major triad)
What is a minor triad?
Root, minor third, perfect fifth. Eg.C-Eflat-G. May be noted by Cmi above the chord on the staff.
What is diatonic harmony?
Progression made up of major and minor triads built from the notes of a single major scale.
What is the harmonized major C scale?
C - Dmi - Emi - F - G - Ami - B°- C
How are chords numbered? What is the harmonized Major Scale numbered this way?
Chords are numbered with Roman Numerals.
I IImi IIImi IV V VImi VII° VIII=I
Other systems use upper case Roman numerals for major chords and lower case for minor
I ii iii IV V vi VII° VIII
What is a diminished triad?
Root, minor third, diminished fifth. E.g. C - Eflat - Gflat
What are consonance and dissonance?
Consonance and dissonance are subjective judgments. Consonant sounds may be considered restful, pleasant and stable and include major and minor triads as well as third, fourth, fifths, sixths and octaves. Dissonant sounds are the opposite and may be considered tense, unpleasant and unstable. These sounds include diminished triads and second and seventh harmonic intervals. In popular music dissonant sounds tend to gravitate or resolve toward consonant sounds but these rules are often broken.
What kind of notation is used that does not indicate pitch?
Rhythmic or Slash Notation. Diamonds replace whole and half notes (diamond and diamond with a stem) and slashes with stems and flags replace quarter, eighth, etc. In a chord chart, slash notation will be used on a staff with the chord above it (e.g. C, Ami, etc).
What are pickup notes?
Notes that precede the downbeat of a phrase.
