JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education The four components

Mike Dunbar Posted:
There are four components to music.

1. Pitch. The note, high, low, or indefineable. Is it an A, a Bb, A G#? Is it a drum hit or a turntable scratch?
2. Volume. Is it loud or soft?
3. Duration. Is it long or short? What is the rhythm?
4. Tone. This is also called "timbre." Does it sound like a muted trumpet or a saxaphone? Is it a Fender or a Gibson? Is the voice nasal or throaty?
End Copy and Paste.

I guess that is what someone before wrote down and I assume teaches. If so, then they represent some form of fact and maybe opinion. ???

Anyway, for me, music was first emotions. Emotions as a tiny todler, first feeling happiness as I laughed at hearing the bells over my crib. I can actually remember looking up, hearing sounds and then hearing my laugh. (I have that weird memory thing, just not in the 100% way a few have, thank my lack of that pure ability!

So, 1. Emotion (For Me)

Next for me would be Math. When talking accordion lessons at 7, I was first taught how to count and tape my foot, counting 4 beats per measure, (WITH NO music being played yet), I thought, is this music yet? As I found out, math played a BIG part, as the sheet music made sense in Math. No matter what kind of notes or rest signs were in a measure, if in 4/4, they ALWAYS added up t FOUR! I then thought,,,,,This is EASY! 1,2,3 and 4! I got this! Then, after some time I was having to deal with 1/16 notes and more rest signs. ALL kinds of rest lengths! BUT, a measure always added up to match the time signature! So, again, after getting that, I thought again, EASY, It's About Math as well as feeling the music, as my teacher always to "Play By Heart". (lessons from 7 through being 10). He would remove the sheet music and say, Now play the first line. I didn't stop there, for I somehow knew the song in full. Math then was not needed.

So, 2. Math (For Me)

Next I understood Pitch, Tone, Volume as if one entity. As if they were so tied together as not to separate them. I later became a piano tuner, and it all was the same there too. Even the volume of Harmonic Overtones.

So, 3. Pitch, Tone and Volume. All married and stuck with each other! Ha!

Next for me would be Triggers. BUT, this is tied into Emotions. The thing is, unlike the color of the notes, (tone color, which is tied into #3), Music can bring on memories of an event, or an image of seeing something at the time of an earlier listen. It can then trigger Emotions or just a fact of where we were, or what we were doing. Triggering a memory, much as aromas do.

So, 4. Triggers

Next would be the Almighties: LOVE and FUN! Obvious to all, right?

So, 5. Love and Fun, which are another marriage of sorts.

That's just my thoughts as they are for me.