A polyrhythm is a rhythm in which two sounds are played concurrently without being direct manifestations of the same meter. Polyrhythms tend to involve tuplets, which are rhythms that don't match the subdivisions of the time signature used in a song. Polyrhythms are everywhere and many musicians use polyrhythms in ...
There are 12 different musical notes in western music. Although musical instruments such as the piano have more than 12 keys, these only represent 12 unique pitches. The vast majority of pop-rock music is based on these 12 fundamental pitches; however, it's possible to play many other musical notes. The 12 musical ...
A chorus is a section of a song usually preceded and succeeded by a verse and repeated multiple times throughout the composition. A hook is a short musical phrase that's heavily featured in the composition but that doesn't constitute a section of a song per se. Song sections are very important for arranging a ...
A melody is a succession of pitches ordered according to a specific rhythm. Melody is different from harmony because it works as the main hook of a song, while harmony provides the background information of the arrangement. Melody is described as the horizontal movement of a musical piece because it's what drives ...
A 4/4 time signature has four quarter-note beats per measure, whereas a 3/4 time signature has three quarter-note beats per measure. Even though 4/4 is by far the most common time signature there is, 3/4 is used extensively in genres such as classical music (especially waltzes), country, or R&B. Both time ...
Modulation in music is the process of changing the key. In most cases, it also changes the sharps or flats used, the tonal center, and the primary chords and progressions. Musically speaking, a transition from one key to another and how it's done is known as modulation. People who listen to music are always ...
Music theory is one of the most essential parts of music education and there is no point at which you say “ok, I’m done with music theory, I know everything now”. Music theory involves the most basic aspects such as learning notes, rhythms, musical signs, scales, keys, solfege, and harmony.Learning these basics helps ...
An overtone is a sound that has a higher frequency than fundamental frequency of a certain sound. For example, when you pluck a guitar string, the lowest pitched sound generated from the vibration of the strings is the fundamental frequency, all sounds pitched above that are overtones. An overtone is essentially ...
Rondo Form is one of the most popular and most composed forms of the Classical era. In the 17th century, many famous composers used this form as the last movement. This is how the “rondo” emerged from the “rondeau”. The rondo form has a refrain section that is repeated through the movement like the medieval and ...
Strophic type musical forms involve taking a single section of music and repeating it one or more times. When listening to the strophic type forms, we hear the same section rearranged in many ways. There are two types of strophic forms: strophic and variation. The basic strophic form is also known as the AAA form ...
The binary form is one of the most used musical forms in musical compositions. The word binary can be defined as anything involving two things or divided into two. The word itself already gives an idea about what this musical form can be. Does the binary form have two movements? Or, is it divided into two in some ...
Modal music is a type of tonal music that makes use of modes, which are scales different from the basic major and minor keys, whereas tonal music is the name that describes all forms of music organized around a tonal center, also known as a root note. The concepts of tonality and modality cannot be separated, ...
