Do spoken words have musical pitch? - Quora Quora Music Do spoken words have musical pitch? If someone speaks the word "bee" in a sentence, can one go and ascribe a musical pitch to it, such as a B-flat or a C-sharp? If they say the word "beanie," does each vowel have its own musical pitch? Is it possible to speak a word in such a way that it does not have a musical pitch? Written Sep 17, 2015 Any sound may or may not correspond to a musical pitch, but outside of tonal languages, it's not consistent. When I say my name, there's a standard rhythm and relative tone that I use, but it just means that the second syllable is always about a semitone lower than the first, not that it's always an E and an F. It also doesn't mean that it's always on a recognized pitch. Some musical notation includes quarter tones, but not many, so the smallest gap you can have is a semitone, and most people's spoken language is more nuanced than that.

You can't actively prevent your language from corresponding with tones and pitches unless you pull some really weird shit, like picking a quarter tone and speaking on that tone forever (without wavering). flat - accidental symbol used in music notation, or lower in pitch [Joe Monzo] 1. accidental symbol in music notation A symbol, placed before a notehead on staff-notation, or placed after a nominal in text, which indicates a change in pitch of one chromatic semitone lower than that of the plain nominal. The flat is a specific type of accidental. A note with a flat is also one diatonic semitone higher than the plain nominal just below it, i.e., A:Bb is a diatonic semitone. The flat sign evolved out of the "round-b" notation which was used to indicate the lower version of the note "B" which appears in the synemmenon tetrachord of the lesser perfect system. . . . . . . . . . 2. general meaning: lower in pitch In a general sense, "flat" simply means lower in pitch by some amount (which may be defined or undefined); often used in this (undefined) sense when one instrument is out-of-tune with another. . .

. . . . . . . The tonalsoft.com website is almost entirely the work of one person: me, Joe Monzo . Please reward me for my knowledge and effort by choosing your preferred level of financial support. Thank you. support level Music Notation Symbols Music Notation Symbols Clefs - Notes and Rests - Accidentals - Relationships - Dynamics - Accents - Repeats Music Notation consists of a collection of music symbols that are used to better define the structure of a musical composition. These musical symbols will tell us the pitch that a song is played in, (clefs), the key that it is played using a key signature composed of sharps and flats, a pitch change in the composition, (sharps and flats), and where the silences between the notes are to be played, (rests). Some of theses music symbols also tell us where,and when to emphasize, or de-emphasize a particular segment of the music , ( accents , dynamics), or when to play a passage more than once, (repeats).

There are different types of clefs, rests, dynamics, accents, accidentals and repeat symbols used in music notation, each one having a unique characteristic, and their use depends on what the composer wishes to accomplish in his musical score. CLEFS A Clef (from the French for "key") is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined. The two clefs that we most commonly use today are the G clef or treble clef, and the F clef or bass clef.

G clef (Treble Clef) - The center of the spiral defines the line or space upon which it rests as the pitch range of the composition C clef (Alto Clef) - This clef points to the line (or space, rarely) representing middle C F clef (Bass Clef) - The line or space between the dots in this clef denotes the pitch range Octave Clef - Treble and bass clefs can also be modified by octave numbers Neutral Clef - Used for pitch-less instruments, such as some of those used for percussion NOTES AND RESTS A Rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause.

Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value Multi-Measure Rest - Indicates the number of measures in a resting part depending upon the number over the rest Double Bar Line - Used at changes in key signature, major changes in style or tempo, or to separate 2 phrases of music Dotted Bar Line - Divides long measures into shorter segments for ease of reading Beamed Notes -Beams connect and emphasize quavers, (1/8 notes), and shorter note values Ledger Lines - Used to extend the staff to pitches that fall above or below it Breath Mark - In a score, this symbol tells the performer to make a slight pause ACCIDENTALS An accidental is a note whose pitch is not a member of a scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the symbols used to mark such notes, sharps, flats, and natural, may also be called accidentals. An accidental sign raises or lowers the following note from its normal pitch, usually by a semitone, although microtonal music may use "fractional" accidental signs, and one occasionally sees double sharps or flats, which raise or lower the indicated note by a whole tone.

Accidentals apply within the measure and octave in which they appear and modify the pitch of the notes that follow them on the same staff unless cancelled by an another accidental.

Demiflat - Lowers the pitch of a note by one quarter tone Flat - Lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone, or one half step Flat-and-a-Half - Lowers the pitch of a note by three quarter tones Double Flat - Lowers the pitch of a note by two chromatic semitones, or one whole step Natural - Cancels a previous accidental, or modifies the pitch of a sharp or flat as defined by the prevailing key signature Demisharp - Raises the pitch of a note by one quarter tone Sharp - Raises the pitch of a note by one semitone Sharp-and-a-Half - Raises the pitch of a note by three quarter tones Double Sharp - Raises the pitch of a note by two chromatic semitones Common Time - The equivalent of 4/4 time Cut Time - Indicates 2/2 time Metronome Mark - Defines the tempo of the music by assigning the durations of the note values within the score NOTE RELATIONSHIPS Triplet - Condenses three notes into the normal duration of two notes Ligature - Also known as a phrase mark. A group of notes intended to be played or sung as one phrase.

Tie - Indicates that the two notes joined together are to be played as one note. A tie joins two notes of the same pitch Legato - Notes covered by this sign are to be played with no gaps. Sometimes indistinguishable from a slur Glissando (Portamento) - A continuous, unbroken glide from one note to the next that includes the pitches in between Slur - Used in musical notation to indicate a group of notes that must be played smoothly. A slur may join any number of notes of varying pitches Chord (Triad) - Three or more notes played simultaneously. If only two notes are played, it is called an interval Arpeggio or Rolled chord - Like a chord, except the notes are played in rapid sequence DYNAMICS In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a note or the relative intensity of a note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity). In short they indicate the relative intensity or volume of a musical line Piano - Soft Mezzo-piano - Half as soft as piano Pianissimo - Very soft.

Usually the softest indication in a piece of music Forte - Loud Mezzo-Forte - Half as loud as forte Fortissimo - Very loud. Usually the loudest indication in a piece Sforzando - Denotes an abrupt, fierce accent on a single sound or chord Decrescendo - A gradual decrease in volume, usually extends for several notes Crescendo - A gradual increase in volume, usually extends for several notes ACCENTS or ARTICULATIONS Accents and Articulations specify how individual notes are to be performed within a passage. In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. A tonic accent is an emphasis on a note by virtue of being higher in pitch than surrounding notes. An agogic accent is an emphasis by virtue of being longer in duration than surrounding notes, in a way that shifts their time of onset. Dynamic accents are created when one note is louder than another.

Accent - The note is played louder or with a harder attack than any surrounding notes Staccato - This indicates that the note is to be played shorter than notated, usually half the value Staccatissimo - Indicates a longer silence after the note (as described above), making the note very short Fermata - An indefinitely-sustained note or chord Natural Harmonic or Open note - On a stringed instrument, denotes that a natural harmonic is to be played Marcato - The note is played much louder or with a much harder attack than any surrounding notes Trill - A rapid alternation between the specified note and the next higher tone or semitone within its duration Tremolo - A rapidly-repeated note. If the tremolo is between two notes, then they are played in rapid alternation Grace Note - The first half of the principal note's duration has the pitch of the grace note REPEATS Repeats give specific directions for navigating passages. In music, a repeat sign is the sign which indicates a section should be repeated. If the piece has one repeat sign alone, then that means to repeat from the beginning, and then continue on (or stop, if the sign appears at the end of the piece).

A corresponding sign facing the other way indicates where the repeat is to begin. These are similar to the instructions da capo and dal segno. Where the composer wants a different ending for the second time a repeat is played, they will place number brackets above the bars which are to be played the first time (1), and those which are to be played the second time (2). These are referred to as "first-time bar" and "second-time bar," or "first and second endings." Numbers higher than two can be given as well, which implies that the passage is repeated as many times as the highest ending number given. Da Capo - Tells the performer to repeat playing of the song from its beginning. This is followed by al fine or al coda Dal Segno - Tells the performer to repeat playing of the song starting at the nearest segno. This is followed by al fine or al coda Segno - Sign that marks the beginning or end of a musical repeat, used with dal segno Coda - Indicates a forward jump in the song to its ending passage, marked with the same sign. Only used after playing through a D.S. al coda or D.C.

al coda Volta Brackets (1st and 2nd endings) - Denote that a repeated passage is to be played in different ways on different playings Repeat Signs - Enclose a passage that is to be played more than once Simile Marks - Denote that preceding groups of beats or measures are to be repeated, more than once flat - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com Random Word flat A flat is an apartment. If a girl invites you up to her flat, she's not trying to squash you, she's inviting you over. And she's probably from England, because flat is much more common in British than American English. Geometrically, something flat is an even, level plane, like Kansas relative to the Rocky Mountains, or the cargo area of a flatbed truck. As an adjective, flat means "less than lively." A flat soda has no bubbles. If your speech falls flat, no one was excited. If you get mugged you might choose to lie flat on the ground. A flat note is just below the right pitch. And if you're cooking is flat, it's boring. What does flat mean?

"sail flat against the wind" directly, flat, straight(adverb) in a forthright manner; candidly or frankly "he didn't answer directly"; "told me straight out"; "came out flat for less work and more pay" GCIDE(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Flat(n.) (Arch.) A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself; an apartment taking up a whole floor. In this latter sense, the usage is more common in British English. Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Flat having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane Flat lying at full length, or spread out, upon the ground; level with the ground or earth; prostrate; as, to lie flat on the ground; hence, fallen; laid low; ruined; destroyed Flat to fall form the pitch Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Flat In music, flat, or Bemolle, means "lower in pitch"; the flat symbol lowers a note by a half step.

Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously. More specifically, in music notation, flat means, "lower in pitch by a semitone," and has an associated symbol, which is a stylised lowercase "b" that may be found in key signatures or as an accidental, as may sharps. The Unicode character ♭ is the flat sign. Its HTML entity is ♭. Under twelve tone equal temperament, C flat for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B natural, and G flat is the same as F sharp. In any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. Double flats also exist, which look like and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats. The Unicode character ' Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Flat flat, adj.

smooth: level: wanting points of prominence and interest: monotonous: vapid, insipid: dejected: unqualified, positive: (mus.) opposite of sharp.—n. a level plain: a tract covered by shallow water: something broad: a story or floor of a house, esp. when fitted up as a separate residence for a family: a simpleton, a gull: (mus.) a character (♭) which lowers a note a semitone.—ns. Flat′boat, a large flat-bottomed boat for floating goods down the Mississippi, &c.; Flat′-fish, a name applied to marine bony fishes that have a flat body, such as the flounder, turbot, &c.—adj. Flat′-foot′ed, having flat feet: resolute.—adj. and n. Flat′-head, having an artificially flattened head, as some American Indians of the Chinooks—the name is officially but incorrectly applied to the Selish Indians in particular.—n. Flat′-ī′ron, an iron for smoothing cloth.—advs. Flat′ling, Flat′long (Spens., Shak.), with the flat side down: not edgewise; Flat′ly.—ns.

Flat′ness; Flat′-race, a race over open or clear ground.—v.t. Flat′ten, to make flat.—v.i. to become flat.—n. Flat′ting, a mode of house-painting in which the paint is left without gloss.—adj. Flat′tish, somewhat flat.—adj. or adv. Flat′wise, flatways, or with the flat side downward.—n. Flat′-worm, a tapeworm. [From a Teut. root found in Ice. flatr, flat, Sw. flat, Dan. flad, Old High Ger. flaz.] The New Hacker's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: flat 1. [common] Lacking any complex internal structure. “That bitty box has only a flat filesystem, not a hierarchical one.” The verb form is flatten. 2.

Said of a memory architecture (like that of the VAX or 680x0) that is one big linear address space (typically with each possible value of a processor register corresponding to a unique core address), as opposed to a segmented architecture (like that of the 80x86) in which addresses are composed from a base-register/offset pair (segmented designs are generally considered cretinous).Note that sense 1 (at least with respect to filesystems) is usually used pejoratively, while sense 2 is a Good Thing. The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: FLAT A series of padded cells, commonly found in cities, in which are confined harmless monomaniacs who imagine Home to be a Sardine Box.

British National Corpus Rank popularity for the word 'flat' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2329 Written Corpus Frequency Rank popularity for the word 'flat' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1460 Nouns Frequency Rank popularity for the word 'flat' in Nouns Frequency: #715 Adjectives Frequency The numerical value of flat in Chaldean Numerology is: 7 Pythagorean Numerology notation - of musical pitches notation [Joe Monzo] European musical notation started with neumes, which were squiggly lines above the words, and which were intended to sort of sketch out the shape of the melody on single syllables (which might have a lot of notes if sustained a long time). The neumes apparently developed from accent symbols that would be written over Greek/Byzantine text. They spread into Europe during the 800s-900s -- the Carolingian era when the Franks were the greatest European power. But the ancient Greeks also had a musical notation, two different ones in fact, one called "vocal" and one called "instrumental". The "vocal" notation used letters of the Greek alphabet to indicate notes.

The "instrumental" notation used rotations of symbols, some of which are Greek letters but the others of which seem to me to be derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, which is where the Greeks got the idea for their alphabet anyway. (The Greek name for those people, "Phonike", refers to the sounds of speech -- cf. the modern English word "phonics". The Akkadian/Babylonian name for these people was "Kaininu", which is a Semitic word related to the Hebrew word which means "Canaanites". So they were apparently the people who invented the modern type of alphabet where each letter symbol represents approximately one phoneme.

Older "alphabets" were really syllabaries, where one sound represented an entire syllable -- a more modern example is the Indian languages derived from Sanskrit, or the scripts of the Dravidian languages of southern India.) The treatise musica enchiriadis, which has been dated variously from c 860 - 950 AD, but which Monzo believes is an earlier work, has examples of "diastematic" notation, that is, a system of parallel horizontal lines which represent specific pitches, with T (for "tone") and S ("semitone") written in the margins next to the lines, and with the text written in the spaces. The musica enchiriadis also presents, as its first main topic, the so-called "daesian" notation, which was an adaptation of Greek letters which would be rotated for different tetrachords. But Monzo believes that the daesian notation means something different from what all other commentators have written. (His unpublished paper A New Look at the musica enchiriadis examines his interpretation of this fascinating treatise.) The gamut of pitches was basically simply a holdover from the ancient Greek theory.

the Greek version had an ascending interval structure which we'd represent today by A, B ... a, b-flat, b ... a', and which was tone-semitone-tone. Because of the nature of the chant, and the fact that D was viewed as the most important starting pitch, the Franks realigned the tetrachords and added a new note ("gamma" γ) at the bottom, so that the whole system was shifted a "tone" downward, G ... g', so that the intervallic structure between degreees of the tetrachords was different from the Greek: tone-tone-semitone. this additional lower note "gamma" γ is where the word "gamut" originated. Hucbald (840-930 AD) was the theorist primarily responsible for this reorientation of the tetrachords. The neumes up to this time are called "campo aperto", which means "open field", because the squiggly lines were written on otherwise blank paper (i.e., with no lines), and showed a relative movement of melody but without any reference pitch. One simply had to learn a chant by rote, and the neumes were just there to help.

The type of vertical graphic thinking in the musica enchiriadis eventually resulted in a reference line being drawn across the "campo aperto" to represent a reference pitch. it could be any note, but was generally C, F, or G. Eventually this practice proved very useful, and scribes began to use a line for all three notes, with letters at the beginning to indicate which was which. This is the origin of our modern clefs: G became the treble clef, C became the C-clefs which are still moveable today (alto and tenor clefs), and F became the bass clef. These lines were also often given different colors.

So a score would have three lines on it with a lot of space in between each line, since the intervals are: treble G "5th" < middle C "5th" < bass F It was Guido d'Arezzo, around 1050 or so, who hit on the idea of using the diastematic notation of the musica enchiriadis for notating all the chants he needed to teach to his students, and he also developed the solfege syllables "ut - re - mi - fa - so - la" to represent the pitches in each hexachord, which was his new system of pitch organization. Guido used a 4-line staff, which became the standard (and still is) for notating Greogorian chant. Composers began adding other lines (up to 12), but eventually settled on the 5-line staff as a standard. Even tho musicians thought in terms of hexachords (as explained here), the basic gamut of pitches used at that time was 2 octaves of the heptatonic (7-tone) diatonic scale plus the Bb below middle-C.

The hexachord system was based on those 3 reference pitches (which is exactly why they became reference pitches), and thus hexachords came in 3 versions which all had the same symmetrical intervallic structure: hard G - A - B - C - D - E natural C - D - E - F - G - A soft F - G - A - Bb - C - D "steps" 1 1 1/2 1 1 t t s t t The process of moving between different types of hexachords by employing common-tones was called "mutation". There came to be two written symbols for the two different types of "B": round-b (or "soft-b") and square-b (or "hard-b"). The German words "mol/molle" (soft) and "dur" (hard) are still used today in many European languages to describe the difference between "major" and "minor". Musicians began to modulate more widely and thus employed the idea of mutation to travel to different tonal centers in addition to these 3. Essentially, mutation employed the "soft-b" to indicate in a relative way a modulation into the "soft" hexachord, whatever its actual pitch might be.

So the "soft-b" at this time always indicated a relative and not an absolute pitch. The "soft-b" gradually evolved into our modern "flat" symbol , and the "hard-b" evolved into both the "sharp" and, later, the "natural . During the 1300s -- the "manneristic" era when music was composed with a rhythmic complexity that would not be seen again until the 1900s -- modulation became very popular, and by the end of the century the full chromatic scale had evolved, as the flat and sharp symbols were used more and more often to indicate absolute pitches. Around 1400, there was a sharp decline in chromaticism, and over the next couple of centuries the notation pretty much settled down into the system in general use today. We have only addressed the notation of pitch here. Of course, there's a whole other aspect of musical notation which is an entire study in itself: the notation of rhythm. . . . . . . . . . The tonalsoft.com website is almost entirely the work of one person: me, Joe Monzo . Please reward me for my knowledge and effort by choosing your preferred level of financial support. Thank you.

support level Music Dictionary - Музыка для детей в Бостоне / Music for kids in Boston area Музыка для детей в Бостоне / Music for kids in Boston area Welcome! ‎ > ‎ Music Dictionary Bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. The word bar derives from the vertical lines which separate one measure from another, and not the bar-like (i.e., rectangular) dimensions of a typical measure of music. Time signature (also known as "measure sign") is used to specify how many beats are in each measure and what note value constitutes one beat. Time signatures indicate meter, but do not necessarily determine it; the composer is free to write in a different meter than that indicated by the signature, so long as the measures contain the indicated number of beats. Most time signatures comprise two numbers, one above the other. In text time signatures are written in the manner of a fraction: the example shown at right would be written 3/4 meaning that there are 3 quarter notes in each measure. Note that no line appears between the numbers when written in the music.

In a musical score, the time signature appears at the beginning of the piece, immediately following the key signature (or immediately following the clef ). A mid-score time signature, usually immediately following a bar, indicates a change of meter. Note value or tone length is indicated by notes of various shapes, there being rests of corresponding value to indicate rhythmic silences. The various parts of the note are referred to as head, stem, and flag (or tail). Leger (ledger) line – a short line placed above or below the staff to accommodate notes representing pitches above or below the staff. Natural (cancel) annuls the effect of previous sharps, flats within the measure in which it occurs. Rest is a character which indicates a rhythmic silence of a certain relative length. Bar line is a vertical line across the staff, dividing it into measures and marking the principal accents. Double-bar consists of two vertical lines across the staff, at least one of the two usually being a very heavy line. The double-bar marks the end of a division, movement, or entire composition. Sharp - (in music) means higher in pitch.

More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means "higher in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol (♯), which is often confused with the number (hash) sign (#). Double sharps also exist; these raise a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Flat - (in music) means "lower in pitch." In music notation, flat means "lower in pitch by a semitone (half step)," and has an associated symbol (♭). Double flats also exist, which lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Clef - a symbol at the beginning of a line of printed music (or staff) showing the pitch of the notes on it: the treble/bass clef. Piano - (also pianoforte) - a large musical instrument played by pressing the black or white keys of a keyboard, thus causing small hammers to strike metal strings to produce different notes. Although there were earlier attempts to make stringed keyboard instruments with struck strings, the invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments.

It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700. Cristofori's new instrument remained relatively unknown until an Italian writer, Scipione Maffei, wrote an enthusiastic article about it (1711), including a diagram of the mechanism. This article was widely distributed, and most of the next generation of piano builders started their work because of reading it. One of these builders was Gottfried Silbermann, better known as an organ builder. Silbermann's pianos were virtually direct copies of Cristofori's, with one important addition: Silbermann invented the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, which lifts all the dampers from the strings at once. In the period lasting from about 1790 to 1860, the Mozart-era piano underwent tremendous changes that led to the modern form of the instrument.

This revolution was in response to a consistent preference by composers and pianists for a more powerful, sustained piano sound, and made possible by the ongoing Industrial Revolution with technological resources such as high-quality steel, called piano wire, for strings, and precision casting for the production of iron frames. Over time, the tonal range of the piano was also increased from the five octaves of Mozart's day to the 7⅓ or more octaves found on modern pianos. Modern pianos come in two basic configurations (with subcategories): the grand piano and the upright piano. Grand piano - a form of piano in which the strings are arranged horizontally. Grand pianos exist in three sizes (baby grand , boudoir grand , concert grand). Staff - 1. the system of horizontal lines grouped into sets of five (four in the case of plainsong) upon which music is written. The spaces between them are also used, being employed in conjunction with a clef in order to give a graphic indication of pitch; 2. any set of five lines in this system together with its clef. Sol-fa - a method of representing musical notes by short words, i.e. do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti.

In music the word "Solfege" derives from the French solfège or the Italian solfeggio, both ultimately derived from the names of two of the syllables used: Sol and Fa. The English equivalent of this expression, "sol-fa" is also used, especially as a verb ("to sol-fa" a passage is to sing it in solfege). Musical Notation Musical Notation Mankind’s earliest attempts at music inevitably required improvisation, which was no doubt assisted by suitable intoxicants. Melodic works created this way are sometimes sublime but are more frequently ridiculous. A form of notation solves this problem, allowing musicians to produce a consistent performance for each piece of music. Music is a form of language . Conveying the spoken word is difficult enough: the Western world employs letters , loosely related to sounds, which are then assembled to create words . In Asian languages, however, pictographs of material items are commonly used, requiring the actual sounds to be memorised and passed on over the generations. Depending on the language, such words and pictographs can be ‘scanned’ in various ways, such as left-to-right, right-to-left or top-to bottom.

Unlike speech, where noises are effectively monophonic , producing one sound at a time, music is frequently polyphonic , meaning that any number of sounds can occur at once. This makes musical notation far more difficult than any normal language, precluding the use of words or pictographs. Instead, a highly sophisticated system of graphical representation has evolved, allowing musicians to read incredibly complex works with relative ease. Notation Basics The system of notation used in the Western world involves the use of staves , in the form of lines across each page of the score . The music itself is recorded as a sequence of ‘dots’, each representing a note and positioned on the staves so as to specify its pitch and timing in the performance. As with other Western languages, the score is ‘scanned’ from left-to-right, moving down a line at a time. Each staff consists of five lines, as shown here:- When writing music, each note is positioned vertically to indicate its pitch (a high note is placed higher up the staff than a low note) and horizontally to indicate its timing, as shown here:- Although a single staff can be used, real music often requires the use of two sets of staves, one above the other, thereby accommodating a wider range of notes.

The upper staff is usually employed for main ‘melody’, whilst the lower staff is sometimes used for a ‘bass accompaniment’. Staff Lines The ‘dots’ that represent notes can be placed on the staff lines or between them. This gives a range of eight intervals (see below) at the beginning of the score . Here’s a treble clef G clef , as normally used on the upper staff:- From this, you can see that the ‘curl’ of the ornate G character of the clef symbol winds around the line for the note of G. The notes of the octave occupy the staff lines and spaces in an ascending order, as shown here:- The notes on the staves are in the order EGBDF, which is sometimes memorised by means of the phrase Eat Good Bread Dear Father or as Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, whilst those on the spaces are in the order FACE. The F clef and normally used on a lower staff, looks like this:- This character is actually a modified form of the letter F, in which the two horizontal bars have been transformed into a pair of dots, centred around the F line.

The lines and spaces are assigned to notes as follows:- In this case, the two note sequences can be memorised as Good Boys Do Fine Always and All Cows Eat Grass. Less common, although used in some styles of music, is the tenor clef , which is shown below:- This is centred on the C line, and can, if preferred, be read as if it were a treble clef, but with the notes shifted, or transposed , down by a note, or, in other words, by an interval . The note sequences can be remembered as D FACE and by the phrase Every Girl Buys Dresses, although the latter may be considered incorrect for the modern world. Finally, there’s the alto clef , which is shown here:- As with the tenor clef, this is based on the C line, and can also be read as a treble clef, this time with the notes transposed up by an interval. The sequences can be memorised using FACE G and the phrase Good Boys Do Fine.

The Complete Score The treble and bass clefs usually appear as upper and lower staves on a score, as shown here:- Contrary to appearances, the two staves are separated by only three notes, the D below the bottom line of the upper staff, middle C and the B above the upper line of the bottom staff, as shown here:- In this diagram an extra red line has been introduced to show the position of middle C. The alto clef (see above) spans this centre region between the clefs and can be used for instruments that normally work over this range. The following diagram shows the positions of ‘important’ notes, as well as their identification code, using Helmholtz notation on a standard keyboard. It also illustrates ledger lines , as used for notes that are outside the range of a staff. Accidentals and Key Signatures The notation so far described only accommodates whole notes. In practice, staff lines must also be able to convey information about notes that are sharp or flat .

The treble clef, for example, must accommodate all the notes across an octave from E to E', including F#, G#, A#, C#, D#, and F#, shown here as they appear on a standard keyboard:- Fortunately, modern musical notation includes accidental characters , which are placed before an individual note or in the key signature (see below). The symbols for these are as follows:- the meanings of which are given in this table:- Symbol Raises note by tone Move 2 keys right An accidental in front of a note also acts on other notes on the same line in the same bar. And in some instances such an accidental may also apply to notes of the same name in another octave. You may be wondering why some of these are required. For example, on an instrument set for equal-tempered tuning , the note Db gives the same result as C#. In other words, a flattened note gives the same result as sharpening the next tone down. In fact, with some instruments the results aren’t the same, and different fingering may be needed to get the required note. The double-flat and double-sharp accidentals may also seem odd.

However, with instruments that involve complex fingering it’s often easier to sharpen an existing sharp note or flatten an adjacent flat note. Key Signatures A key signature consists of a groups of # or b symbols. These can be placed just after the clef, prior to the first bar, or prior to the section of music to be played in the required key. The following example is for a signature of C# major or A# minor:- The # signs shown here are aligned with those notes that are normally sharpened within the scale. So, looking at the C# major scale, which is played as:- C# D# F F# G# A# B C# you can see that all five of the # signs are shown in the signature. The extra two in the signature exist only for the purposes of musical ‘grammar’, representing E#, which is the same as F, and B#, the equivalent of C. The sharps and flats in a signature are always placed on the staff in a particular order. For a sharp key, as shown above, this is FCGDAEB, sometimes memorised as Fat Cats Go Down After Eating Breakfast.

In a flat key, however, the flats appear in the order BEADGCF, remembered as BEAD, Greatest Common Factor. Each time a sharp is added to the signature in the prescribed order the key goes up by a 5th: the key of C has no sharps or flats and the key of G has one. Similarly, adding a flat lowers the key by a 5th: the key of F has one flat. A key signature can’t contain both sharps and flats. Given a key, you can work out the actual signature. For example, For a flat key, you must name the flats in the BEADGCF order as far as the key itself, plus one more. Hence a key of Ab has a signature containing Bb, Eb, Ab and Db. For a sharp key, however, you only go as far as the name of the key. So a key of F# has a signature containing F#, C#, G#, D#, A# and E#. The name of the key signature for a piece of music can be discovered by counting the number of # or b signs in the signature, as indicated by the following table:- No Sharps .

These divide the work into equal parts and define the rhythm of the music. Each bar is usually split into two, three or four subdivisions, each of which is called a beat . The beats in a bar aren’t always treated equally: for example, with four beats in a bar, the first and third beats are usually the strongest. Also, the strength of a beat can be modified by an accent (see below). Each beat can be divided into smaller parts, the first part being strong, the remainder weak. Time Signatures The overall rate at which the tune should be played is set by its time signature, which can be located to the right of the key signature, as shown here:- In this instance the signature is 4:4, also known as common time . The upper (or first) number indicates the number of beats in a bar, whilst the lower (or second) number shows that the length of the beats as fractions of a whole note. In this case there are 4 beats per bar and each beat lasts for a quarter note, meaning that the entire bar occupies a whole note or two minims.

The simplest kind of bar, known as a simple bar , employs simple time , where each beat exactly matches the length of any of the standard notes described above. Although the upper number can be anything, such as 2, 3 or 4, this means that the lower number must be 1, 2, 4 or 8. Anything other than simple time uses a compound bar and compound time . Typically, the number of beats is divisible by three, usually with an upper number of 3, 6, 9 or 12, whilst the lower number is 2, 4, 8 or 16. The length of each beat is then equal to a dotted note (see above). The following table gives usual time signatures and examples of the music that uses them:- Signature Any little notes placed before or after a note will ‘steal’ time from the main note. Those preceding it are appoggiatura , whilst those positioned after the note are called acciaccatura .

Several appoggiaturas or acciaccaturas linked to a note are known as grace notes , whilst a group of three or four little notes, known as a gruppetto , can be placed before or after a note to take part of its time. Tuplets A tuplet accommodates fractional notes. For example, a tuplet of 5:2 indicates that five of the specified notes should be played in the time normally taken for two. Such a tuplet could be indicated on the score by a number 5 above the note, the lower value being determined from the number of beats in the bar. A triplet is a special tuplet with a value of 3:2, in which any three notes have the same length as a pair of notes outside of the triplet. Accents The performance of a work can be heavily influenced by the phrasing of the music. This can be shown on a score by means of accents. For example, a curved line linking notes indicates a slur , where the pitch changes continuously across the given notes.

A similar line, linking a longer to shorter note indicates that the second note is a muted syllable Normal notation doesn’t tell you how to play a fretted instrument , in which different fingering gives the same note, although often with subtle differences in character. To get around this, a special form of notation known as tablature is used alongside normal music, as in this example for a guitar :- The tablature shows the instrument’s neck with the first (lowest) string at the bottom. The numbers indicate the fret positions, such as 1 for the first fret or 0 for an empty string. Alternative tablature formats can be created for other position-based instruments, including devices such as harmonicas. References American Concise Encyclopedia, Zane Publishing Inc, 1996 Dolmetsch website at Music Theory Reminder Lexicon, author unknown, 1999 ©Ray White 2004. The Use of Cents for Expressing Musical Intervals Go Back Advantages of Cents Notation Examining the semitone A to B-flat at different points in the range of the piano will illustrate the fact that if expressed in cents, every equal tempered semitone is the same.

Expressed in Hz difference, every semitone is different. The interval value in cents expresses the ratio of the frequencies, which is the same for every equal tempered semitone. Included with the semitone intervals above is an evaluation of the deviation in Hz needed to equal 5�, the nominal just-noticeable difference for these pitches. Note that the range represented by 5� increases from less than a tenth of a Hz at the low end of the piano to about 10 Hz at the top end of the piano. If f1 = Go Back Pitch Details Related to Cents Evaluating the just noticeable difference in pitch by the "nickel's worth" rule is convenient, but as you might expect it is an oversimplification. Rossing describes measurements of pitch discrimination with pure tones at about 80 dB for frequencies between 1 and 4 kHz. The jnd is found to be about 0.5% of the pure tone frequency, which corresponds to about 8� . He also states that the jnd has been found to depend upon the frequency, the sound level, the duration of the tone, the suddenness of the frequency change, the musical training of the listener, and the method of measurement.

The real world can rarely be accurately characterized by simple rules. Rossing also reports that the critical bandwidth (related to loudness perception) is about 30 times the jnd for pitch, suggesting that both are related to the regions of excitation along the basilar membrane of the inner ear .

Question: In musical notation, what word means "lower in pitch by a semitone"?
Answer: Flat