So far we’ve learnt about counting out the pulse, the heartbeat of the music. You know what a bar is and how to count through it. You might be expecting us to start learning to read the notes. I’m going to take a left turn here, though, and jump straight to navigating your way around the music. The next three sections are all about how to follow a song on the page.
When we write the lyrics of a song, usually we write out everything that happens in the order that it happens. Sometimes, if there’s a chorus that comes back using the same words every time, you might just get “Chorus” in the text, or the first couple of words with some dots (e.g. So hoist up the John B’s sails…)
When you have all the music for a song, especially one in four parts, it takes up a lot of space. Much of the music will be repeated. Each verse will have the same tune but different words. There might be a bridge or a refrain that comes back several times. In musical notation we use several systems to send you back to a previous location to recycle some music you have sung before.
The most straightforward is the repeat.
What to look for on the page:
Two dots in the five lines of the stave mark the beginning and the end of the section that is repeated. When you get to this sign you go back to the opening set of dots and sing that section again.
Help! I can’t find the opening dots.
If you get to an end-repeat sign and you can’t find the begin-repeat sign, that means repeat from the beginning.
If there are two or more lines of lyrics underneath the music, sing the second ones the second time through. And the third one the third time through…
The graphic above shows you how to navigate a repeated section in the middle of a piece – this is exactly what happens in “Accentuate the Positive”. Intro, sung once, middle section, sung twice (or more, that’s a performance decision), and finally the outro which just comes once.
Welcome to Don’t Fear the Theory, an introduction to music theory for everyone, particularly people who make music already. Each week’s section will take about five minutes to read, and will have ideas for you to explore further if you want to.
The first aspect of music we’re going to explore is PULSE.
You know what a pulse is, right? It’s a place where you can feel your heartbeat. If we can’t find your pulse, you are in serious trouble.
Your pulse keeps going the whole time. If you’ve just run upstairs you will be able to feel your pulse really strongly. If you’re asleep or eating your tea, you don’t even feel it, but it’s there all the time, keeping you alive.
The pulse in a piece of music is the heartbeat that keeps it going all the time. It’s a regular beat. Sometimes it’s really obvious, in a piece of music with a drumbeat. Sometimes it’s hard to hear when the music has long notes and no drums. But it’s there all the time.
When your foot taps to a piece of music or you feel like clapping along, that’s the pulse that you are feeling. People talk about clapping “to the beat” but I’m going to use the word beat very specifically, for ONE unit of the pulse. The pulse is made of a series of equal beats.
What you need to understand about the pulse is that it’s still going on when you have a long, long note, or a silence. Each note and silence has to be the right length so that the pulse keeps going.
If the pulse stops or is uneven, the music doesn’t feel right. As the graphic at the top of the page shows, a regular heart beat is healthy, and an uneven one is worrying. If you’re playing or singing, you have to keep that pulse going. It’s a bit like a video game where the background scrolls along and you have to keep up with it. You have to feel the pulse in your body, and communicate it to your audience.
The pulse can be any speed. We measure it in beats per minute, like a nurse measures your pulse. The speed of the pulse is called the Tempo. That just means “time” in Italian, the language that is used extensively for instructions in classical music.
Try tapping along to these different pieces of music and feeling the different speeds:
The slow movement of the Ravel piano concerto in G – about 72 bpm*
*You’ll find that different performers of classical pieces will choose slightly different tempi (that’s the plural of tempo).
Ever fallen in love with someone by the Buzzcocks – about 178 bpm
The Dies Irae from the Mozart Requiem – about 148 bpm
This is 84 beats per minute
We can use a gizmo called a metronome to give us a steady pulse at a certain tempo – here’s a real-life clockwork one, and two digital apps that do the same job.
Vintage wooden metronome music timer on the white background
I’ve used my phone app to work out the tempo of the tracks above. You tap along and it tells you the speed. It’s very hard to tap consistently. Trying to keep an absolutely regular pulse going is hard and gives you a lot of respect for drummers.
On recording software you get a click-track so that if you are singing and playing you stay in time.
If you sing in a choir or play in a band, the pulse is what your conductor is showing you with their hands. It’s the ESSENTIAL thing. Everybody needs to feel the same pulse for us to make music together.
Something to try:
Turn on the radio to a random music station. Can you tap along regularly to whatever is playing? Use a hand on your thigh – it generally feels less stupid than clapping.
Try a different station in a different style – Kerrang! or Jazz FM.
Try another station – maybe Classic FM or Radio 3.
Are different genres of music easier to tap along to?
I’m keeping comments open on these pages – let me know how you get on!
Vocab of the week:
PULSE – heartbeat of the music, a succession of regular beats.
BEAT – one unit of pulse.
TEMPO – speed of the pulse
METRONOME / CLICK TRACK – device for generating a pulse at a particular tempo
What to look for on the page:
The information about the tempo of the pulse is at the top left of the piece. There may be a metronome mark showing how many beats per minute, or just a descriptive word telling you whether it’s fast, slow, or moderate – or tell you about the mood: lively, melancholy, or jaunty.
