Musical Notes: representation and sound characteristics

There are seven Musical Notes: OF – RE – MI – FAN – SUN – THERE – SI. Represented by monosyllables, they are used in the composition of music.

As a musical alphabet, they allow the addition of sound frequencies, enabling the musical composition or, in other words, a combination that generates melody.

This classification, which is called “musical notation”, was invented by the Italian monk and conductor GuidoD'Arezzo (992-1050). The notation was inspired by the “Hymn to São João Batista”, whose initial of each verse corresponds to a musical note.

In English and German, instead of monosyllables, the first 7 letters of the alphabet are used, which have the following correspondence:

A = A, B = SI, C = DO, D = RE, E = MI, F = FA, G = SOL or H = SOL, in German.

Musical Notes on Guitar

Music Notes on Keyboard

Musical Symbols

Besides the notes, there are also very important musical symbols. Called clefs, there are three types:

Musical notes Treble clefdow clefbass clef

music writing

Musical notes are represented in the sheet music, which is a set of five lines (staves or pentagrams).

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image of a score Example of a score

But this is not the only way to represent them. There are also:

Cipher, which is a combination of signs.

Tablature, which is the image that represents the fingers on musical instruments.

After the invention of musical notes as we know them, in the 11th century, a way of measuring their duration was created, which was named measurementism. From this technique, created in the 12th century, it was possible to represent music graphically.

Sound Characteristics

Height

The height of sound allows you to classify the frequency of sound waves. In this way, bass sounds are considered to be of low frequency, while high-pitched sounds are those of high frequency.

Intensity

Sound intensity is closely related to the volume of sound waves. In other words, sound intensity is a sound characteristic relative to the level of pressure and energy present in the vibrations of sound waves.

Duration

The duration of the music is based on the amount of time a musical phenomenon occurs. Thus, duration is a time interval of a musical note or the time between two notes (pause).

Letterhead

Timbre is a musical feature that allows us to classify the source of a musical note. Just listen to the same musical note on different instruments, such as the violin and piano, and the result will be different timbres.

Scale

The musical scale is the ordered frequency of sound, that is, the set of seven musical notes, with the repetition of the first. (Do-Re-Mi-Fá-Sol-La-Si-Do). Also, the musical scale can be ascending and descending depending on the vibratory frequency of the sounds.

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