- Bonus question to think about: If all relative intervals are the same, why do keys matter? Why not just write everything in C major?
- "Vulfpeck" by Cory Wong raises assumptions about do we always need a melody that's in the higher range
- Nathan felt like he didn't know much about music despite having a degree in clarinet. What's the structure that binds notes together? What makes them interesting?
- Recent research paper models key changes and melodic changes within them; reveals constraints composer were implicitly/explicitly working with
- Time and pitch multiplication/augmentation
- Started building own flutes during pandemic
Scales
Intervals
- Seth Monahan video, Lesson 4: Intervals
-
How intervals unfold in time
- Melodic (linear): two notes sounded in succession
- Harmonic (vertical): two notes sounded together
- Simple: octave or smaller
- Compound: larger than an octave; can think of as simple plus 1/+ octaves
-
Generic and specific size
- Generic: number of slots on staff that the interval spans (unison, second, third, ..., seventh, octave)
- Generic not affected by change of clef or any accidentals, however wacky
- Specific: diminished, minor, perfect, major, augmented
- No generic size takes all five names
-
Two broad families
- Unisons, 4ths, 5ths, octaves: dim, perf, aug
- 2nds, 3rds, 6ths, 7ths: dim, min, maj, aug
-
Determining sizes
-
Inverting intervals: put bottom note on top or vice versa
- Inverting again brings us back to where we started
-
Specific size rules
- Augmented <> diminished
- Major <> minor
- Perfect <> perfect
-
Generic sizes: add to 9
- Unison <> octave
- 2nd <> 7th
- 3rd <> 6th
- 4th <> 5th
- We've only dealt with 2 notes at once, but real music often has 3 or more notes at once, aka chords. We'll start with the most common chord in Western music: the triad
Sightsinging Lab 2/26/21