Are You Anxious to Learn Music?
We have all experienced some form of music, whether at the movie-theater, with the rumbling music score enhancing the drama on screen; or in fifth grade music class, as unskilled children trying desperately to learn and play beautiful sounds through our recorders.
Many of us desire to take that “next step” and actually learn to play music for ourselves. But the question is, How? Learn music from a professional teacher? Or learn our music on our own at home through trial and error? For many, especially us adults, taking formal music lessons might seem a bit grueling – and even a bit demeaning.
This article is meant to give you a solid intro-lesson to music, with an interesting twist on learning the basics. Beyond notes and theory, I have often used the senses to help my own students learn to play music.
Here’s How: Learn Music Through “Pitch Recognition.”
Do you remember the movie, “The Sound of Music”? Maria ignited a desire in the Von Trapp children to learn how to sing music by ear. She used the technique of solfege, or rather “Do, Re, Mi” to help them learn to hear the music patterns, scales, and intervals. From this simple song, you can train your ear to hear the elementary components that make up all different kinds of music – from the Beatles to Nirvana.
“When you know the notes to sing, You can sing most anything!” – Fraulein Maria
Get your hands on a copy of “Do Re Mi” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Let’s use this song as your launching point for learning. Simply hum each note of Maria’s basic musical progression; continue to hum even though the melody dances around the note. Think of each note as a number, rather than “Do Re Me” (for simplicity sake). “One…Two…Three…Four…” Do you feel the notes rise, step by step, as if walking up a set of stairs? This is called a “scale.” A scale consists of eight notes (with the first being the same as the last, essentially.)
Notice that you can hear two similar phrases: 1,2,3,4 and 5,6,7,8. These phrases are similar in pattern, mirroring one another.
Now, here’s a challenge. Sing through the scale again. In each of the two phrases, try to hear which two notes are closer together compared to the others. Here’s the answer: the last two notes of each phrase are closer. In musical terms, this is called a “half-step” compared to the other “whole-steps.” In other words, 3-4 and 7-8 are separated by a smaller “half-step.”
Sing the scale again slowly, stressing these half-steps. Do you hear how they are different than the others? This is the “Major scale” pattern, with half-steps between 3-4, and 7-8. (There are other types of scales, but we’ll stick to just one for now, as it’s the most common.)
Now, let’s take this to an instrument. Imagine a piano keyboard. Start with any note. As you play “whole-steps,” you will be skipping a key in-between (either a black or white key). But when you play the “half-steps” (between 3-4 and 7-8), you will not skip a note. Rather, the keys will be side-by-side.
If you simply memorize the sound of this scale pattern, you can skip hours of scale practice and theory lessons. More specifically, you will now automatically know if and when to play sharps or flats (which are the black keys on a piano).
To practice this ear-training, simply play an eight-note scale beginning with a new note each time. You will find your note-patterns will change when you start on a new note, but your ear will recognize the underlying “Major scale” pattern underneath it all. Just remember Mi-Fa (3-4) and Ti-Do (7-8), and you’re good to go.
Learn Music through Color Coordination
Here is where we will add on to your ear training. Beyond the half-step numbers we just listened to, now we must “see” the function of each note as a spectrum of color. Here is our color key:
Red – 1
Orange – 2
Yellow – 3
Green – 4
Blue – 5
Indigo – 6
Violet – 7
Red – 8
(To remember the colors of the rainbow, just remember the name “Roy G. Biv,” with each letter representing a color.)
Notice that red is listed twice. This is because the eighth note of a scale is indeed the first note of the next higher scale. Let’s talk about Red for a moment. Red, in this context, is the “root note” of the scale. It is the foundation to the structure, and determines the function of all the other notes. Now, the Red note doesn’t refer to one note exactly. Red can refer to any note. It simply stands for the “first” note of the scale, or the most important note to a song.
Imagine sticking this rainbow spectrum – like a giant sticker – against a piano keyboard, with the note “C” being the Red note. In this context, the melody will be defined by “C” as the foundation. In many cases, the song might start or end on “C.” Musicians will call this series of notes and patterns “the key of C.”
Now, peel off the rainbow spectrum and reapply it to a new series of keys. How about the key of “D.” You will now have a new Red note, “D.” And while the other notes may have been used in the previous series, these same notes now have new meaning because they are redefined according to their new relation to D as the Red root note.
From here, let’s talk of the other colors in the rainbow. Each color has a role and function to a melody. Music itself requires a combination of many notes – just like using individual letters to form the words we read.
I like how Leonard Bernstein (an American conductor, composer, and author) describes this concept:
One simple note by itself is not music – not even a molecule of music, not even an atom. A single note is more like a single proton or an electron, which, as you know, are meaningless all by themselves. You need at least one of each – at least two atomic particles – in order to create an atom….once you have two notes, you suddenly feel a relationship between them, like an electrical tension. There is already the beginning of musical meaning, (“Young People’s Concert Series”).
So each note receives its “value” according to its “relationship” to the Red root note. (In musical terms, the distance between the Red note and another note is called an “interval.”) Therefore, the Orange note is considered the “second.” Yellow is the “third.” Green is the “fourth,” and so on. Each is numbered according to its distance from the Red root note.
But each note is not equal in rank. If you remember from art class, the “color wheel” contains three primary colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue. These are true, pure colors which can stand alone. They also come across more vibrant than others.
Then you have the secondary colors: Green, Orange, and Purples. These colors are created by mixing the primary colors together. They are dependent on Red, Yellow, and Blue. And they are a bit more muted and subtle in comparison to the primary colors.
The same is true for our musical color spectrum. Our primary colors – Red, Yellow, and Blue – refer to the first, third, and fifth notes. These are dominant notes. Songs will dance around, but – as if by a magnetic force – there is an unexplainable draw pulling the melody back to these primary notes.
The secondary colors (Green, Orange, and Purples) are important too. They create the “drama” to our music. These notes pull us from the comfortable, secure primary colors, and suggest struggle, intrigue, and complex emotion.
If a song ends on a secondary color, you will be left with a feeling that something is amiss, undone. Your ear will desire the melody to “resolve” to the comfort of your primary triad notes, Red, Yellow, and Blue. Imagine Maria’s song left unfinished. She sings, “…Tea, a drink with jam and bread; That will bring us back to.” And she stops there, suddenly. Not only do the words leave you hanging, but the melody feels unfinished, incomplete. It wants desperately to resolve back to “Do,” which is the Red root of the scale.
Thus we see through the colors that music has a magnetic force: A force that adds complexity, dimension, and depth. Yet this same force also draws you back to simplicity.
Where to Go From Here?
We have explored the sound of a Major scale. By memorizing the sounds of the half-steps (between 3-4 and 7-8), you will always know which notes fit into a scale. Songs are built from this pattern, and by training your ear, you won’t have to question which notes to play, because the pattern will “sound” right. (Keep in mind, there are other scale patterns to learn, but the Major scale is most common.)
Next, we discovered the “functions” of the notes within a scale by seeing the notes in a spectrum of color. We saw the dominant notes were the primary colors (Red, Yellow, Blue), and the enhancing notes were the secondary colors (Orange, Green, and Purples).
So, where shall we go from here?
I’ll be honest. There is still much more to learn as you pursue an understanding of music. These tools simply give you an overview, or foundation upon which all music is built upon.
With these skills, you can create your own music. Sit down at your instrument, explore the notes, and you will hear the half-steps and see the dominant tones.
The next step is note-learning. You will need to pick up some simple music books to get started. Practice, practice, practice. Use flash-cards. Use memory games. But, my caution to you is this: Don’t drown yourself in sheet music. Notes are simply a means to translate and replicate another person’s created melody. While it is essential to learn the notes, rhythms, and key signatures, remember how it all fits together.
There is a mysterious musical energy when melodies dance between the hues of the scale. Hold on to the foundational, sensory perceptions of music. And someday you will be able to create your own melody, complete with all the emotional turmoil and energy you’d like.
Hear it. See it. And feel it.
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Additional References:
Chriss, Jacob. Music Theory. Victoria, Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2003.
Nickol, Peter. Learning to Read Music: How to Make Sense of Those Mysterious Symbols. Oxford, United Kingdom: How To Books Ltd, 1999.
Bernstein, Leonard. Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. New Jersey: The Leonard Berstein Office, Inc., 2005.