conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a description for a book titled Music Theory For Beginners about Beginners, Music, Theory with the genre: Arts & Photography, Music. Start with the sentence '" Music Theory for Beginners presents in spare, witty, condensed chapters the basics of music theory for the untutored in five chapters and 115 pages'.
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conversations.value: " Music Theory for Beginners presents in spare, witty, condensed chapters the basics of music theory for the untutored in five chapters and 115 pages. Richly illustrated with comic black and white drawings, Music Theory for Beginners is an ideal text manual for anyone wanting to become fluent in reading and understanding music notation, for purposes of composition or performance or enjoyment. Part of the For Beginners series, Music Theory for Beginners presents a step by step introduction to the complex components of music theory, using comic black and white illustrations to exemplify and enlighten with humor and charm. It is a great self educational manual for motivated and untrained music lover. Chapters unfold on rhythm (beat, tempo, meter), musical notation, scales and keys, intervals and harmony, and putting music theory into practice. The use of shaded sidebars presents exciting supplemental information, such as composer bio-profiles, (Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, more) and musical concepts or types of music (such as blues). A pair of comic caricatures of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Elvis and others peps up dialogue and narrative and helps lock down reader attention. An Epilogue, Glossary, and Further Reading resource list complete this succinct, elegant mini- music theory manual for beginners, compacting a large amount of useful information into a clear, user friendly reader format." -- Library Bookwatch : October 2015
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conversations.value: the first four paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Music Theory For Beginners
  In all tonal melodies in the Western modern common practice (at least the ones that are well-written), there is an intrinsic buildup of tension followed by a release; the same can be said for harmonic progressions. Through this pattern of tension and resolution, the harmonic hierarchy creates a sense of forward motion. The strongest combination of tension and release is the dominant-tonic relationship. Without a doubt, the most frequently used harmonic progression in Western music is the movement from the dominant (V) to the tonic (I). The relationship between these two harmonies is such that they alone can establish tonality—and therefore the key of a piece of music.
  Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern (collectively known as the "Second Viennese School") are also well known for their use of Sprechstimme in their vocal compositions. German for "spoken voice," Sprechstimme calls upon the performer to merely approximate pitches with the spoken voice; it can be likened to speaking in a singsongy manner. In case you're wondering, the "First Viennese School" was comprised of musical giants Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
  If you're questioning whether a piece of music can truly be written with only two chords, Figure 10.1 offers an example that should prove it to you! "Mary Had a Little Lamb" might seem a bit juvenile for this text, but it's perfect for illustrating this point. It's very common for folk songs and nursery rhymes to employ only a very few chords—in this case just two—as their simplicity makes them perfectly suited to the population at large (in the case of folk songs) and to children (in the case of nursery rhymes). Take a look at the music on your own. Notice how the melody itself uses scale degrees that correspond to the underlying harmonies. Sing through the melody in your head and stop halfway through. It feels incomplete, doesn't it? Now sing through the melody again, this time stopping on the penultimate word ("as"). That strong desire you have to finish the song is the gravitational pull of the dominant to the tonic. (OK, if you can't stand it any longer, go ahead and finish the song!)
  The melody in "Mary Had a Little Lamb" has its own forward motion. It begins with a downward contour and proceeds to an upward contour in the first measure. The melody keeps moving upward and upward, like a balloon, to the fifth scale degree at the end of the fourth measure. Then the balloon pops, and the melody starts again as it did at the beginning. Finally it finds its way home to the tonic in the last measure. The height of the pitch in the fourth measure really has a sense of downward pull—the melody feels as though it must return down; staying that high or continuing higher is not a comfortable option. The harmony, by this point, is pretty straightforward. Notice that those moments of tension in the melody coincide with use of the dominant harmony, which is the most active harmony. The rhythm supports these moments of tension and release through short and long rhythmic passages. Notice how the quarter notes move the melody along, while the longer note values (half note in the fourth measure and whole note in the final measure) serve as resting points. The resting point in the fourth measure says, "Okay, keep on going!" while the resting point in the last measure says, "Okay, we can stop here."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: five more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern (collectively known as the "Second Viennese School") are also well known for their use of Sprechstimme in their vocal compositions. German for "spoken voice," Sprechstimme calls upon the performer to merely approximate pitches with the spoken voice; it can be likened to speaking in a singsongy manner. In case you're wondering, the "First Viennese School" was comprised of musical giants Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
  If you're questioning whether a piece of music can truly be written with only two chords, Figure 10.1 offers an example that should prove it to you! "Mary Had a Little Lamb" might seem a bit juvenile for this text, but it's perfect for illustrating this point. It's very common for folk songs and nursery rhymes to employ only a very few chords—in this case just two—as their simplicity makes them perfectly suited to the population at large (in the case of folk songs) and to children (in the case of nursery rhymes). Take a look at the music on your own. Notice how the melody itself uses scale degrees that correspond to the underlying harmonies. Sing through the melody in your head and stop halfway through. It feels incomplete, doesn't it? Now sing through the melody again, this time stopping on the penultimate word ("as"). That strong desire you have to finish the song is the gravitational pull of the dominant to the tonic. (OK, if you can't stand it any longer, go ahead and finish the song!)
  The melody in "Mary Had a Little Lamb" has its own forward motion. It begins with a downward contour and proceeds to an upward contour in the first measure. The melody keeps moving upward and upward, like a balloon, to the fifth scale degree at the end of the fourth measure. Then the balloon pops, and the melody starts again as it did at the beginning. Finally it finds its way home to the tonic in the last measure. The height of the pitch in the fourth measure really has a sense of downward pull—the melody feels as though it must return down; staying that high or continuing higher is not a comfortable option. The harmony, by this point, is pretty straightforward. Notice that those moments of tension in the melody coincide with use of the dominant harmony, which is the most active harmony. The rhythm supports these moments of tension and release through short and long rhythmic passages. Notice how the quarter notes move the melody along, while the longer note values (half note in the fourth measure and whole note in the final measure) serve as resting points. The resting point in the fourth measure says, "Okay, keep on going!" while the resting point in the last measure says, "Okay, we can stop here."
  While you may be amazed at how deeply one can analyze a song as simple as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," you're probably ready to move beyond two-chord progressions. So let's add a third chord to the mix. In the vast majority of three-chord progressions, the third chord is the subdominant. The gravitational pull between IV and I is not nearly as strong as the pull between V and I. The subdominant is a perfect fourth away from the tonic, which does give it some level of activity. Remember that the interval of a perfect fourth is the inversion of a perfect fifth; this is why the IV chord has some degree of gravitational pull toward the tonic. In order of most restful to most active, we have the tonic, the subdominant, and then the dominant, which makes I–IV–V a suitable and common chord progression. The subdominant, in a way, acts as an intermediary that reduces the tension. You can think of the subdominant as the therapist in marriage counseling; the tension will always be there, but it's slightly lessened with the intervention of the therapist.
  There are two patterns of three-chord progressions in which the subdominant usually appears: I–IV–V–I and I–IV–I–V–I. In the first pattern, the subdominant raises the tension a notch; the dominant then raises the tension another notch before returning to the tonic, which releases the tension. In the second pattern, the tension is prolonged. The subdominant raises the level of tension but then yields to the tonic; the dominant then raises the tension to an even higher level before eventually yielding to the tonic.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last five paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: You might be wondering what to do with the other four chords that are built upon the scale degrees of the major and minor scales. One of the most important concepts to keep in mind is that chords like to move in intervals of a fifth. In a way, it's like the other chords want to enjoy the strong V–I relationship that the dominant and tonic enjoy (although no other harmonic relationship is as strong as that one). For example, it would be logical for the vi chord to move to the ii chord and then for the ii chord to move to V and then the V to resolve to I.
  In minor keys, note that there is an option of using the VII chord (which occurs in natural minor) or the viiº chord (which occurs in harmonic minor). Finally, it's important to understand that I can go to any chord it wants! These figures will prove invaluable as you analyze music or begin composing music of your own.
  He shortens it; he lengthens it. He writes it using the minor scale; then he reprises the motive using the major scale. When you're listening to any music—whether classical, jazz, or popular—see if you can latch onto the main musical motive and count how many times it reappears throughout the work.
  Now that we've covered pitches, rhythms, scales, harmony, and melody, it's time to see how music is put together with regard to form. In the vast majority of compositions, music does not flow freely from one idea to the next without direction or form. The form of music has structure, much as the design of a building does. Like an architectural plan, a musical structure can be divided into large sections, and then subdivided into smaller and smaller parts. Analogously, an architectural structure might be divided into wings, then wings into floors, floors into rooms, and so on. We can do the same thing with the structural components in music.
  During the Classical period, sonata would become the designated term for multimovement works for solo piano or solo instrument plus piano accompaniment. The sonata followed a prescribed multimovement form: a fast movement that employed a three-part form (now known as sonata form); a second, slow movement; and a third fast movement, often labeled Finale. Eventually this structure would be extended to symphonies and string quartets, which usually followed a four-movement structure: a fast movement in sonata form; a second, slow movement; a third movement in a lively dance form; and a finale in a faster tempo. Symphonies and string quartets did not always follow this structure, however, because great composers like Franz Joseph Haydn (known as the "father" of both the symphony and the string quartet) were always seeking to innovate in the use of classical structures!