Evolution of Music
Audience and Purpose: This paper is geared towards people who are interested in the evolution/history of different areas in music, anyone studying music, and people who want to learn about scales. This paper might be placed in a magazine, on a website or a segment on the history channel about music.
When I was a little girl learning how to play the piano, I didn’t like it very much. One reason was that I was being forced by my parents to take piano lessons in the first place. Secondly, I had to practice the same things everyday, over and over again. The thing that made this repetition the most annoying was that before I was able to start playing real songs I had to play about 100 scales perfectly. But as I advanced in my musical abilities and started studying advanced placement music theory, I realized that learning those scales was like laying down the foundation before building a house. From my experiences with advanced courses in high school on music theory and private studies of piano, I have become somewhat of an expert on music theory and scales. Music is a very complex topic. There are general concepts like harmony, melody, rhythm, texture, and tone, different definitions such as composition, vocal, or instrumental, and numerous terms like notes, chords, and scales. Within each of those segments of that one word, there is even more information. Scales in particular have a vast pool of information about them. The writer of Music Theory on Think Quest says that scales are “the backbone of music” (Music Theory). In the musical world, there are millions of different pitches. The organization of them is a part of the process of making melodic music. According to the writer of the music theory-scales article posted on Digital-Daydreams website, “Most systems use the octave as the basis for ordering pitches” (Music Theory-Scales). An octave is the distance from one pitch to another, or seven white keys on a piano away from the starting note, that sounds
When I was a little girl learning how to play the piano, I didn’t like it very much. One reason was that I was being forced by my parents to take piano lessons in the first place. Secondly, I had to practice the same things everyday, over and over again. The thing that made this repetition the most annoying was that before I was able to start playing real songs I had to play about 100 scales perfectly. But as I advanced in my musical abilities and started studying advanced placement music theory, I realized that learning those scales was like laying down the foundation before building a house. From my experiences with advanced courses in high school on music theory and private studies of piano, I have become somewhat of an expert on music theory and scales. Music is a very complex topic. There are general concepts like harmony, melody, rhythm, texture, and tone, different definitions such as composition, vocal, or instrumental, and numerous terms like notes, chords, and scales. Within each of those segments of that one word, there is even more information. Scales in particular have a vast pool of information about them. The writer of Music Theory on Think Quest says that scales are “the backbone of music” (Music Theory). In the musical world, there are millions of different pitches. The organization of them is a part of the process of making melodic music. According to the writer of the music theory-scales article posted on Digital-Daydreams website, “Most systems use the octave as the basis for ordering pitches” (Music Theory-Scales). An octave is the distance from one pitch to another, or seven white keys on a piano away from the starting note, that sounds
Cited: Barker, Andrew. The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. Print. Christensen, Thomas Street. The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print. Gries, Dr. Peter. "Music Theory Solfege System." Cwu.edu. Central Washington University, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Hightower, Thomas V. "The Creation of the Musical Scale." The Creation of the Musical Scale. N.p., 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. "MusicArrangers.com." Music Theory / Tones and Semitones. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. "Music Theory." ThinkQuest "Music Theory-Scales." Digital Daydreams Music Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.