1º ESO - U.1 - Qualities of Sound and Elements of Music

When we listen to a musical piece, we can distinguish two aspects: the qualities of sound and the elements of music.

These help us differentiate among the wide variety of musical genres — classical, popular, traditional, etc. — and classify them accordingly.

QUALITIES OF SOUND
 

The qualities of sound are: timbre, dynamics (intensity), duration, and pitch.

 

TIMBRE: 

  

This is the quality of sound that lets us know what is making the sound. 

 

In other words, timbre lets us know whether it’s Rihanna or Miley Cyrus singing — even if it's the same song — or whether the mathematics teacher or the music teacher is speaking.

 

VÍDEO Tito "El Bambino" y Nicky Jam- Adicto a tus redes

 

 

Dynamics (Intensity)

 

This is the quality of sound that lets us perceive whether a sound is played loud or soft. In music, we often use the Italian terms forte (loud) and piano (soft). 

 

For example, turning the radio volume up high is like forte; turning it down low is like piano.

 

It’s NOT ONLY about EXTREMES like forte or piano—there are also crescendos and diminuendos, which gradually transition from one dynamic level to another.

 

 

 Podemos ver estos ejemplos en el siguiente vídeo de Pablo Alborán. Fijaros al inicio con la frase "Haces que mi cielo vuelva a tener ese azul...", hace un crescendo para pasar de un "Piano" a un "Forte".

 

VÍDEO - Pablo Alborán Solamente Tú

 

 

“Italian terms, abbreviation, and meaning”

 

 

 

Duration:

This is the quality of sound that lets us perceive whether a sound lasts longer or shorter. 

 

For example, a long sound might sound like a yawn, while a short sound could be like a cough.

 

 

 

Pitch:

This is the quality of sound that lets us perceive whether a sound is low (bass) or high (treble).

 

Higher-pitched sounds are written higher on the staff. 

 

For instance, the difference between a puppy’s bark (higher pitch) and a full-grown dog’s bark (lower pitch).

The range (tessitura) of an instrument is the span (intervalo) between the lowest and highest pitches it can play. For example, your recorder spans from low "C" in the treble clef up to "B" two octaves higher.

 

En el siguiente vídeo vamos a ver 2 sustos. Uno será más agudo y otro más grave. ¿Sabéis distinguir cuál es cuál?

 

VÍDEO Evanescence - Bring Me To Life

 

ACTIVITY:

Watch the next video and answer the questions:

• Right at the beginning of the video, a piano plays with violins in the background. Can you tell which instrument plays the short notes and which the long notes?

• First, a boy sings:

  • Does he start singing loud (forte) or soft (piano)?

  • Does he sing low (grave) or high (acute) notes?

• At 0:57 in the video:

  • Does he sing soft (piano) or loud (forte)?

  • Are the notes he sings low (bass) or high (treble)?

 

VÍDEO - Labrinth - Beneath Your Beautiful ft.

 

 VÍDEO - Taller de ondas, sonido y música 

 Si disponéis de tiempo podéis ver este vídeo de 18 minutos donde veremos conceptos de la próxima unidad didáctica y entenderemos mejor conceptos de ésta unidad didáctica. 

VÍDEO - Taller de ondas, sonido y música

 

 

 

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
 

 

Music is an art that involves combining sound and rhythm to communicate a message. Whether we’re creating true works of art or simply music to share and enjoy with friends, we rely on the following elements: melody, rhythm, and harmony (or texture).

 

 

big sean blessing

 

 

Melody:

 

 A melody is a sequence of sounds that we perceive as a coherent phrase — like the musical “sentence” we hum, sing, or play on an instrument.

Melodies are usually divided into phrases or half-phrases, similar to how our speech uses punctuation to structure meaning.

 

 

 En el vídeo anterior, la melodía sería la letra cantada con el estilo musical "Rap".

 

 

  

Rhythm:
 

Rhythm is the way sounds and silences are distributed in time.

We understand rhythm in two ways:

• By the note values themselves—such as eighth notes, quarter notes, sixteenth notes, syncopations, etc.—regardless of pitch (we don’t care if it’s a C, D, E, or G).
  
  
• By the pulse (or beat) of the piece as a whole; for example, clapping along to a song reflects the underlying pulse. If someone is off the beat, we say they are “not in time.”

 

 

Harmony (Texture):

Harmony refers to the sounds that accompany the melody and sound simultaneously with it—these are combined in a balanced way to support and embellish the melody.

Texture is how the different voices or parts in a piece of music are combined and related.

Depending on how voices are arranged, we get different musical textures:

 

 

 

 

 

1. Monody or Monophony – A single line of music without accompaniment and played or sung by one or more voices or instruments.

2. Polyphony – Several melodies sounding at the same time, each independent.

• Homophony – A main melody supported by chords or notes that move together.

• Counterpoint – Several melodies combined in a way that sounds good together following rules.

• Accompanied melody – A main melody with a simple accompaniment, 

 

Diferencia entre las texturas musicales

 

 

 

ACTIVITY:

 

1. Ask your students to choose a song by a singer or group they like. Then try to analyze:

   • What is the melody?

   • What is the rhythm?

   • What is the harmony?

2. In the video, listen to voices performing a rhythm that will be interwoven with the melody—these voices act as the accompaniment, along with the guitar.

   • The texture here is melody with accompaniment, because the melody stands out over the supporting voices.

   • The melody is sung by Bruno Mars.

   • The rhythm is marked by clapping and the rhythmic values of the accompaniment voices or guitar.

 Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars

 

 

ACTIVITY:

 
Examine the following score and identify:

1. Which part carries the melody?

2. Which part plays the accompaniment?

3. What is the texture?

4. Which part provides the rhythm?

Hay otra actividad de ampliación en el subapartado "Actividades finales". (Actividad de ampliación 1)





Atribución de la autoría de los materiales utilizados:
Fotos:
Music (link), by Hernán Piñera (link), CC BY-SA (link)