Abracadabra Beginning Theory

ABRACADABRA BEGINNING THEORY Understanding the Basics of Music

by David Harrison

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Published 2016 by A&C Black Publishers Ltd an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is an registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ISBN 978-1-4729-2359-2 Copyright © 2016 A&C Black Publishers Ltd Text © 2016 David Harrison All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage or retrieval systems – without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

Internal design and layout by shedwork.com Cover Design by Becky Chilcott Edited by Milly Paine and Rachel Lindley Print and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable.

The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

To view more of our titles please visit www.bloomsbury.com/music

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Contents

Page

The stave

4

Time values

10

Time signatures

14

Rests

16

Ties

18

Rhythm recap

19

Tones and semitones

20

The major scale

24

Key signatures

27

Intervals of the major scale

28

Triads

30

Useful terms and symbols

32

Glossary

38

Wordsearch

40

About the author David Harrison is a London-based guitarist and saxophonist. A jazz graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he teaches guitar at London’s renowned City Lit and is the author of several best-selling music tutorial publications.

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The stave Music is written on five lines called a stave (or staff).

5 4 3 2 1

!

The lines are numbered 1–5, starting with the bottom line.

So if we talk about the second line, for example, it will always be the second line from the bottom.

Writing basic notes Basic notes are oval symbols that either sit on the lines or between them, like this:

Try writing a few notes like this on the staff below. Make sure that it’s easy to tell whether the notes are on the lines or between them.

You can either draw your own or trace the examples until you get the hang of it.

w

w

w

w

w

w

w

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Navigation symbols To repeat large sections of music we use special symbols that can save a lot of space. To return to the start of a piece of

music, we use da capo, an Italian phrase that means ‘from the beginning’. This is often abbreviated to D.C.

go back and play from the beginning

To return to a different place in the music, we use a special symbol called a segno (Italian for ‘sign’).

The instruction to go to it is dal segno, which is usually shortened to D.S. This means ‘from the sign’.

segno

go back and play from the sign

We can also tell the performer to finish at a different place. We use fine, which means ‘end’.

In this example, the performer plays all the way through, returns to the beginning and then ends after four bars.

finish here

play from the beginning to ‘fine’

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