Anyone with a little knowledge of physics will know that sound is produced by the vibration of objects. Music is the art of hearing, and its most basic composition is sound. But not all the sounds we hear in nature can be used as the constituent materials of music. The sound used in the music system is selected by countless people through long-term practice and can reflect people's feelings. These voices have formed a fixed music system, and through the hands of dozens of musicians, they have created countless beautiful, moving and inspiring masterpieces. Left us with a rich cultural heritage.

From the perspective of hearing, sound mainly consists of four attributes-height, length, intensity and color (that is, timbre). These include:

The sound level is determined by the vibration times (frequency) of the pronunciation source in a certain period of time. The more vibrations, the higher the frequency and the higher the sound. On the contrary, it is low;

The length of sound is determined by the duration of sound source vibration. The longer the duration, the longer the sound, and vice versa;

The strength of sound depends on the vibration amplitude (amplitude) of the pronunciation source. The larger the amplitude, the stronger the sound, and the weaker the small amplitude sound. The material, shape and overtone number of the sound source determine the timbre.

The above four attributes of sound are very important in the performance of music, among which "high" and "long" are the most important. For example, a song was originally sung by human voice, but if we adapt it to instrumental music and reduce the volume, although the length and timbre of the voice have changed, its melody can still be easily distinguished. However, if we change the length of each note in this piece of music at will, its original melody will be seriously damaged immediately-beyond recognition! It can be seen that when creating, playing and singing, we should pay special attention to the level (pitch) and length of the sound (that is, the "duration" and "rhythm" to be discussed later).

Because the vibration of objects is not always regular, sound can be divided into "music" and "noise". Regular vibration produces music, and vice versa. In music, the most commonly used is musical sound, but this does not mean that noise is not a part of music. The sound produced by most rhythm percussion instruments in the band belongs to noise, but it also has very rich musical expression and even becomes an indispensable part of modern pop music.

Finally, one thing needs to be mentioned-every sound we usually hear is not just a single pure tone, but a combination of multiple sounds, which we call "polyphony". This is because when an object vibrates, not only the whole body vibrates, but also all parts vibrate. Take the guitar as an example. When we pluck a string, all parts of the string 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 ... are vibrating separately. This kind of sound produced by the whole vibration of the strings (pronunciation source) is called "pitch", which is the easiest for human ears to hear. The sound produced by the vibration of other parts, called "overtones", is not easy to be heard when it is produced at the same time as the pitch, unless we deliberately suppress the pitch and highlight the overtones. Such as natural overtones and artificial overtones in guitar.

In order to explain and understand this theory more intuitively, friends with guitars can do an experiment near the 12 fret of each string. -First, lightly press the left little finger on the 12 grade of any string (the string should not touch the product), then pluck the string with the right hand and immediately lift the left little finger. At this time, you will hear a very special sound, which is different from playing the empty string of this string or 12. This is overtone. Now let's take a look at the approximate position of 12 guitar with respect to the strings. How's it going? By the way, it is 1/2! This sound is also found in1/3 (No.7) and1/4 (No.4).

System, scale, order and grouping of sounds

A concept that is not very important (simple understanding)-In a music system, the sum of all the musical sounds with fixed pitch is called a musical sound system. In the music system, sounds are arranged in ascending order (xíng), that is, from low to high or from high to low (descending order), which is called phonetic sequence. We can clearly see the notes and sequences used in the music system on the piano. The standard piano has 88 keys, which means that the piano music consists of 88 tones with different pitches. Other sounds are rarely used in music.

Let me talk about a more important concept-tone level.

Every sound in a music system is called a scale. There are two kinds of sound levels: basic sound level and changing sound level.

1. Basic sound level:

In the musical system, seven tones with independent names are called basic tones. These seven scales are the sounds made by the white keys on the piano now.

There are two ways to label the names of basic tones: sound names and singing methods, and the sound names of each tone are labeled with letters. Roll call is expressed by pronunciation. (About the relationship between the sound name and the volume name, we will explain it in detail in the later mode and tonality section. Take C major as an example: from low to high, the pitch marks in C major are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and the corresponding volume names are seven pronunciations: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la and si.

In the music system, the marks of seven basic levels (sound name and volume name) are recycled. That is, after C, D, E, F, G, A, B, it goes back to C, D, E, F, G, A, B or do, re, mi, fa, so l, la, si and so on.

But the tone in each cycle is different in pitch, that is to say, although the sound name (or volume name) is the same, the pitch is different. When labeling phonetic names, use uppercase and lowercase letters, or subscript after uppercase letters, and mark after lowercase letters to show the difference. Such as: c, a, a 1 (the following number "1" should be in superscript form), B3 (the number "3" should be in subscript form). The relationship between two adjacent sounds with the same name is called "octave".

2. Change the volume:

Among the seven basic levels, except for E and F(C is named mi and fa), B and C(C is named si and do), a sound can be obtained between the other two adjacent levels, which can be clearly distinguished by human ears.

For example-you can also get a tone with a pitch different from that of C and D between C and D, that is to say, this tone is higher than C but lower than D. We can think that this tone is obtained by raising C or lowering D. This tone obtained by raising or lowering the basic tone is called tone sandhi. The change of the volume on the piano is the sound made by black keys. The marking method of changing the sound level is to add # (semitone) or b (semitone) before the basic sound level. For example, the sound between the C sound and the D sound, we can say that the C sound is raised, so it is marked as #C (pronounced "C"). At the same time, we can also think of it as a D-flat sound, so it can also be marked as bD (pronounced "D-flat").

It can be seen that #C and bD are actually the same sound, but they are marked in different ways. This marking method is different, and sounds with the same actual pitch are called "equal tones"

3. Combination of sounds

As we said before, the names of the seven basic sounds are used repeatedly in the music system. So there will be many sounds with the same name but different pitches. In order to distinguish them, we divide the sound series into many "groups"

The center group is called "small print 1 group", which is represented by lowercase letters and the number 1 at the upper right, such as c 1, d 1, e 1, F 1 ... (The numbers after the letters should be in superscript form. Analogous to other groups' marking methods.

Phonetic groups below group 1 are named group, large group, large group 1 and large group 2 in turn.

The sounds of small groups are marked with lowercase letters without numbers, such as C, D, E, F, G, A and B;

Large groups of sounds are marked with capital letters without numerical subscripts, such as C, D, E, F, G, A and B;

The sounds of "Da Zi 1 Group" and "Da Zi 2 Group" are represented by capital letters, and there are numerical subscripts at the lower right, such as F 1, G 1, B2, A2…… ... ...

The marking method of the sound level with the same name changes only needs to add # (rising semitone) or b (rising semitone) before the bAsic sound level, such as #A 1, #e, #f2, ba, bg3…… ... ...

Taking the piano as an example, this paper introduces the grouping of children's notes (only referring to the grouping of basic sounds)-on the piano, the grouping of basic sounds (white keys) from left to right (from low to high) is as follows:

Big characters 2 groups: A2, B2

1 group: C 1, D 1, E 1, F 1, G 1, A 1, B 1.

Big characters: c, d, e, f, g, a, b.

Small groups: c, d, e, f, g, a, b.

Small print 1 group: c 1, d 1, e 1, f 1, g 1, a 1, b 1.

Small print 2 groups: c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, a2, b2.

Small print 3 groups: c3, d3, e3, f3, g3, a3, b3.

Small print 4 groups: c4, d4, e4, f4, g4, a4, b4.

Small print 5 groups: c5,

The staff uses many parallel horizontal lines, notes and rests to record music. Different shapes of notes and rests indicate the duration of each note (the duration of sound), and the position of these notes on the staff determines the level of sound.

1. Spectral surface composition

The basic spectrum plane of the staff has five parallel horizontal lines, and the redundant part between adjacent two lines is called "space", which is used by the staff to record music. On the staff, these five lines and four lines are calculated from the bottom up, that is to say, the bottom line is called the first line, and the top line is called the second line ... and so on until the fifth line; The room drawn by the first line and the second line is called the first room, and the rooms above it are called the second, third and fourth rooms.

Obviously, if only five lines and four intervals are used in the basic spectral plane, only nine basic levels can be recorded at most, and the variable level is only 14, which is far from enough in many music works. So in order to record the sound level whose pitch is higher than the first line or lower than the fifth line, many short lines are added above or below the fifth line, which is called "adding lines". The additional line above the basic spectral plane is called the upper additional line, and the lower additional line is called the lower additional line, thus creating an upper additional chamber and a lower additional chamber.

The calculation method of adding lines and spaces is: the calculation method of adding lines and spaces is the same as that of the basic spectral surface, and it is also calculated from bottom to top. That is, the lines added in the fifth line are: one line, two lines and three lines. The space formed by the five elements and the upper plus line is called the upper plus one, and so on; The lower adding line and chamber are calculated from top to bottom. That is, add the following lines below the first line: the next line, the next two lines, and the next three lines. The room formed by the first line and the next line is called next plus one, followed by next two, next three and next four.

2. Notes and rests:

Notes are symbols that record the duration of sound on the staff.

A rest is a symbol that records the length of a sound interruption. The rest also record sound, but the sound it records is silent. It can be said that the rest is "silent notes", which is also of great significance to the performance of music.

Notes are marked by "Fu Tou" (hollow or solid oval mark), "stem" (short line vertically upward or downward) and "tail" (thin flag mark attached to the end of stem). ) consists of three parts. According to the different duration, it is divided into:

Two notes (rarely used): hollow Fu Tou with vertical dashes on the left and right. No stem and no tail;

All notes: hollow Fu Tou, no stem and no tail;

Dichotomy notes: hollow Fu Tou operator;

Quarter note: solid Fu Tou and valve stem;

Octave note: a solid Fu Tou with a stem and a tail;

Sixteenth note: a solid Fu Tou with a stem and two suffixes;

Thirty-two notes: a solid Fu Tou with a stem and three suffixes;

Sixty-four notes: solid Fu Tou with a stem and four endings;

The 128th note (rarely used): solid Fu Tou with a stem and five suffixes;

The time relationship between them is:

A two-note =2× a whole note;

A whole note =2× half a note;

Half note =2× quarter note;

Quarter note =2× eighth note;

An eighth note =2× sixteenth note;

One sixteenth note =2× 32 notes;

A 32-minute note = 2×64-minute note;

A sixty-four note =2× 128 note;

Rest is divided into:

(2) rest (rarely used);

Have a good rest;

Dichotomy rest;

Rest at four o'clock;

Eight-point break;

Sixteen-point rest;

Rest at 32 o'clock;

Rest at sixty-four;

/kloc-rest at 0/28 (rarely used);

When we record music with staff, we don't pile all the notes and marks on the spectrum, but follow some marking rules. Grasping these rules correctly can make the spectrogram clear, thus accurately reflecting the musical ideas and helping to communicate with each other.

As we said before, a note can be composed of three parts at most-Fu Tou, Fugan and Fu Wei, and the Fu Tou of one note can be recorded on any line or any space of the staff. The higher the position of Fu Tou on the staff, the higher the voice he represents. On the contrary, the lower.

When recording single-part music, because the note duration of single-part music in the same position is the same, that is, the notes in this position can be dried with one symbol. So we use single operator symbols.

When recording music with a single stem, when Fu Tou is above the third line, the stem is down and written on the left side of Fu Tou; When Fu Tou is below the third line, the stem is facing up and written on the right side of Fu Tou; When the Fu Tou is in the third line, the stem can be up or down, depending on the stem direction of the adjacent notes. The tail is always written on the right side of the stem, bending towards Fu Tou. If more than one note sounds at the same time, all the notes will be recorded in vertical alignment, and this series of notes * * * will take a symbol as the stem, and the direction of the symbol will be subject to Fu Tou, which is farthest from the third line. If several consecutive notes (columns) at different times have endings, they can be connected with the same endings (bars) at this time. If there are more than two rods, they should be parallel to each other.

Single-part music is always recorded with a single symbol, and multi-part music can only be recorded with a single symbol if the rhythm is the same (the notes of each part are the same at the same time). When the rhythm is different, use double operators or multiple operators to record music. When recording a two-part music score with multiple stems, the note stems in the high part are up and the stems in the low part are down. When the voices are interlaced (that is, the lowest pitch in the treble sometimes falls below the bass). ), its principle remains unchanged.

The height of the stem generally keeps an octave distance. If the stem is connected with many Fu Tou, the length of the stem should be the distance between Fu Tou and the distance of octave. If Fu Tou is above the third line, the stem must extend to the third or fourth line of the staff. If the Fu Tou is lower than the third line, the stem must extend to the third or second line of the staff. If a note has a suffix, the shape of the suffix remains unchanged.

When many notes are connected by the suffix * * * *, there will be different stems. This is to keep the distance between the fu column (ending with fu * * * *) and the nearest Fu Tou at about eight degrees. The angle of the stop should be basically parallel to the direction of the notes on the spectral plane. The symbol point (to be introduced later) should be written in the room to the right of the note Fu Tou or rest, not on the line.

The rest should be written on the third line or as close to the third line as possible when recording scores with a single symbol. The binary remainder is written above the third line and the total remainder is written below the fourth line. When using the two-character notation, if all the voices are at the same time, the rest of the writing is the same as the single-character notation. When individual voices stop, the rest should be written on the edge of the staff or outside the staff. At this time, you need to add up the full rest and the binary rest. The full rest is written below the added line, and the binary rest is written above the added line.

Earlier, I talked about some notes with basic sound length. However, when we use staff to record music, it is not enough to rely solely on these notes. For example, when we want to record a note, however, its duration is equivalent to one and a half notes. In other words, the duration of this note is longer than the half note and shorter than the whole note. Obviously, if you use basic notes to express it, there is nothing you can do. At this time, some supplementary marks are needed to increase the duration of basic notes. This is mainly composed of three types:

1. Symbol point:

The dot is a small dot to the right of the note Fu Tou to increase the duration of the note. If there is a symbol point on the right side of a note, it means that the duration of this note will increase by1/2 on the original basis; If it is a note with two dots, it means that the duration of this note will increase by 3/4 on the original basis. For example:

A dotted semitone is the length of a semitone plus a quarter note.

An eighth note with dots is equal to the length of an eighth note plus a sixteenth note.

A whole note with two dots is equal to the length of a whole note plus one and a half notes.

A quarter note with two dots is equal to the length of a quarter note plus an eighth note. ...

Similarly, the symbol point also applies to the rest, which means the same as the meaning used after the note.

2. Sustain line:

Sustain line is an upward or downward curved arc, which is used to connect two or more notes with the same pitch. When singing or playing, it is regarded as a note, and its length is equal to the sum of all these notes.

In one-part music, the connecting line is always written in the opposite direction to the stem. If it is two-part music, the connecting line of the high-pitched part bends upward and the connecting line of the low-pitched part bends downward. If there are more than two voices, the connecting lines are recorded on both sides.

3. Extension number:

The shape of the extension sign is to add a point in the middle of the semicircle. In a piece of music, writing on a note or rest means that the duration of the note or rest can be freely increased according to the style of the work and the intention of the performer. In multi-part music, sustain can also be written under notes or rests. In addition, the extension can also be recorded on the bar line, indicating a moment's pause between bars. When the extension number is recorded on the double vertical line, it represents the end or end of the music.

Section 6 phonetic symbols

Tone sandhi marks are used to indicate the increase or decrease of the basic tone level. There are five kinds of * * *:

1. sharp sign (#): indicates that the pitch of the basic level is raised by a semitone;

2.Deck (b): refers to lowering the pitch of the basic level by half a note;

3. Re-rising sign (※): it means to raise the pitch of the basic level by two semitones (one whole tone);

4. Re-scaling (bb): It means that the pitch of the basic level is reduced by two semitones (one whole tone);

5. Recovery symbol: refers to the recovery of sounds that have been raised or lowered.

From the vertical position, tone sandhi marks can be recorded on the lines or spaces of the staff to correspond to the notes to be sandhi. Starting from the horizontal position, diacritical marks can be recorded in front of notes or behind clefs.

The diacritical mark recorded directly in front of the notes is called the temporary diacritical mark, which is only valid for all the notes with the same pitch in a bar-for example, a bar, and a temporary rising mark is recorded on the F in the fifth line, which means that the F in the fifth line of this bar will rise by a semitone when playing. However, if the first room in this section also has an F note (with the same name but different heights), and you want this note to rise by a semitone when playing, you need to add a temporary rising sign # before this note.

Note: The temporary inflection symbol is only valid for the notes in its bar. All changed comments in the following sections are automatically restored.

When a tone change mark is written after the clef (the first cursive symbol in the first bar of a piece of music), it is called "key signature" to mark the mode of a piece of music. Unless the key signature is changed in the middle of the music, it will take effect for all the notes with the same sound name in the staff. For example, key signature in G major is a semitone, which is recorded in the fifth line. It means that all the notes called f on the spectrum (including those with the same name and different heights) should be raised by a semitone, not just the f in the fifth line.

If you need to change the key signature during music, you need to follow the following rules:

1. Increase the ascending or descending order of the original number. At this time, you only need to write a new key signature directly at the beginning of the section to change key signature;

2. Reduce the original ascending or descending number. At this time, we should first restore the redundant phonetic symbols at the end of the previous section, and then write a new key signature directly at the beginning of the section where key signature is to be changed;

3. Up key signature, down key signature or down key signature, up key signature. At this point, the original phonetic symbols should be restored at the end of the previous section, and then a new key signature should be written at the beginning of the section where key signature is to be changed.