Don’t worry we’re not going to get technical here! In order to make sure we’re on the same level, it’s important that you are familiar with some of the terms that might be used throughout this site.
Pitch
Pitch is the sound that a note makes. Not all musical instruments make notes with a clear pitch; percussion instruments are often distinguished by whether they do or do not have a particular pitch. A sound or note of definite pitch is one of which it is possible or relatively easy to discern the pitch. Sounds with definite pitch have harmonic frequency spectra or close to harmonic spectra.
A sound or note of indefinite pitch is one in which it is impossible or relatively difficult to discern a pitch. Sounds with indefinite pitch do not have harmonic spectra or have altered harmonic spectra. It is still possible for two sounds of indefinite pitch to clearly be higher or lower than one another, for instance, a snare drum invariably sounds higher in pitch than a bass drum, though both have indefinite pitch, because its sound contains higher frequencies.
In other words, it is possible and often easy to roughly discern the relative pitches of two sounds of indefinite pitch, but any given sound of indefinite pitch does not neatly correspond to a given definite pitch. A special type of pitch often occurs in free nature when
the sound of a sound source reaches the ear of an observer directly and also after being reflected against a sound-reflecting surface. This phenomenon is called repetition pitch because the addition of a true repetition of the original sound to itself is the basic prerequisite.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the duration of time that the note is sounded or a variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events. Standard music notation contains rhythmic information and is adapted specifically for drums and percussion instruments. The drums are generally used to keep other instruments in ‘time’. They do this by supplying beats/strikes in time at a certain pace, i.e. 70 beats per minute (bpm). In Rock music, a drum beat is used to keep a bass/guitar line in time. In Western music, rhythms are usually arranged with respect to a time signature, partially signifying a meter. The speed of the underlying pulse is sometimes called the beat. The tempo is a measure of how quickly the pulse repeats.
The tempo is usually measured in ‘beats per minute’ (bpm); 60 bpm means a speed of one beat per second. The length of the meter, or metric unit (usually corresponding with measure length), is usually grouped into either two or three beats, being called duple meter and triple meter, respectively. If each beat is divided by two or four, it is simple meter, if by three (or six) compound meter. According to Pierre Boulez, beat structures beyond four are “simply not natural”. His reference
is to western European music.
Syncopated rhythms are rhythms that accent parts of the beat not already stressed by counting. Playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature is called polymeter or polyrhythm.
Polymeter/Polyrhythm
Although sometimes used synonymously, polymeter is the use of two metric frameworks (time signatures) simultaneously, while polyrhythms refers to the simultaneous use of two or more different patterns, which may be in the same time-signature.
Research into the perception of polymeter shows that listeners often either extract a composite pattern that is fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as “noise”. This is consistent with the Gestalt psychology tenet that “the figure-ground dichotomy is fundamental to all perception”.
In “Toads Of The Short Forest” (from the album Weasels Ripped My Flesh), composer Frank Zappa explains: “At this very moment on stage we have drummer A playing in 7/8, drummer B playing in 3/4, the bass playing in 3/4, the organ playing in 5/8, the tambourine playing in 3/4, and the alto sax blowing his notes” (Mothers of Invention 1970). “Touch And Go”, a hit single by The Cars, has polymetric verses, with the drums and bass playing in 5/4, while the guitar, synthesizer, and vocals are in 4/4 (the choruses are entirely in 4/4) (The Cars 1981, 15).
Measures
When writing music down on paper for other musicians to play the music is divided into what is called measures. The measures are divided with vertical lines. The lines that musical notes are placed on are called staffs.
Can you see the vertical lines in the music staff below?
Same thing here in this tablature staff:
Note: The funny-looking symbol at the far left is a treble clef. This is just signifying that the music staff is for a treble clef instrument (which the guitar is), but it is of no concern to us at this point. We’ll talk about the two 4s stacked on top of each other right next to the treble clef next.
Standard Time
Each measure must be assigned a set number of beats. The number of beats that a measure gets is called the time signature. There are all sorts of time signatures. At this point, we’re only going to concentrate on learning about standard time. It is often called 4/4 time. That’s what the two 4’s stacked on top of each other in the music staff represent. Take a look again:
4/4 time means that each measure will get 4 beats. This is the most commonly used time signature in music. 4/4 time is also called common time or standard time.
Sometimes it is represented with a “C” (C for common) the symbol on a music staff instead of two 4s stacked on top of each other:
Most musicians will just say “standard time”.
Tempo
The tempo is how fast or slow the song is. It is measured by beats per minute (bpm). 60 bpm is a slow tempo. 130 bpm is moderately fast. 160 bpm is fast.
Action
The strings’ playability along the neck. Action is affected by the strings’ distance from the neck, the neck straightness, and the string gauge.