Music Theory

Music Exam:

1. What is Rhythm?

The pattern of long and short notes in a piece of music.

2. What is Pulse?

Pulse is the steady, continuous beat throughout the piece. Another way to describe this is a heartbeat.

3. What is Tempo?

Tempo is the speed of the pulse in music.

4. What are the note values of the following:

Crochet - 1

Minim - 2

Semibreve - 4

Quavers - ½ (pair of quavers is equal to a crotchet)

5. What are the notes on the Treble Clef?

LINES: E,G,B,D,F

SPACES: FACE

6. What are the notes on the Bass Clef?

LINES: G,B,D,F,A

SPACES: A,C,E,G

7. What is the space that we write the musical notes on?

Stave

8. What is Notation?

Notation in music is visually representing music through symbols and words.

9. What is Ornamentation?

Ornamentation is the decoration of the melody by adding extra notes.

10. Talk about the reel.

The reel is one of the most common types of Irish dance tunes. It has a 4/4 time signature. The tempo is always fast.

11. Talk about the hornpipe:

The hornpipe is a very popular type of Irish traditional dance song. It is characterised by its dotted and jerky rhythm, 4/4 time signature and slow, steady tempo.

12.  What is a found sound?

A found sound is a sound that is not made by a conventional instrument. It is known to be a very exciting way of creating music.

13.  Name two examples of musicians that used found sounds.

Pierre Bastien and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

14. Name two instruments used in the creation of found sound music.

A glass harmonica is a musical instrument that is made up of a series of glass bowls, placed one inside the other.

A glass harp is a musical instrument made up of upright wine glasses.

15.  What is Pitch?

Pitch in music is how we describe how high or low a note is.

16.  Why is music important in films and tv shows?

Music is very important in films and tv shows as it can create moods, set scenes and depict the emotions of characters?

17.  Remember:

Action Movies often have fast- paced music to set the scene and create the mood.

Romantic Movies use softer music to do the same.

18. What is a theme tune?

A theme tune is the music played during the opening and closing credits of a movie or  TV show.

19. What is a soundtrack?

A soundtrack is a collection of music that appears on a film or TV show.

20. What is a film score?

A film score is the music that is composed specifically for the film.

21. What is diegetic music?

Diegetic music is music within a film that the characters can hear.

22. What is illustrative music?

Illustrative music is music that tries to illustrate something- a scene, character, mood or image.

23. What is Leitmotif?

Leitmotif is a recurring theme or melody in a piece of music, which is specifically associated with a person or situation.

24.  How do composers set the scene and portray characters?

Creating a suitable atmosphere for a scene is important. They also need to portray the mood or emotion of the characters in the scene. They do this by using expressive elements of music.

25. What are expressive elements of music?

Instrumentation refers to which instruments are playing and what they are playing.

Texturing music which could include monophonic (One Melody) , homophonic (One Melody and One Accompaniment) and Polyphonic (Two or more melodies playing at the same time.)

Tempo adds to the mood in the scene.

Dynamics refers to the relative volume of music.

Mood is a combination of all the other elements.

26. Name an example of a composer who has created music for a movie.

John Williams.

27. Name an example of a composer who has created music for a TV show.

Danny Elfman.

28. What is a jingle?

A jingle is a short catchy piece of music that usually contains a slogan. A slogan is a short phrase that is easily remembered and is used to advertise something. They are used to make the advertisement and the product memorable.

29. Name examples of famous advertisements in companies.

McDonalds, John Lewis and GoCompare.

30. What is Music Technology?

Music technology is any technology that can make, perform, play, record or edit music.

31. What is Inputting?

Inputting refers to creating sounds, uploading existing sounds or recording sounds on an app or computer program.

32. What is a loop?

A loop is a short melody or rhythmic pattern that repeats continually.

33.  What are processing effects?

Processing effects are mechanical or technological effects that can be added to sounds to modify them.

34. What is reverb?

Reverb is an echo effect added to sounds to recreate the natural effect of room reverberation.

35. What is distortion?

Distortion is an effect where the volume of a track is increased, which produces fuzzy or distorted sounds.

36. What is compression?

Compression is an effect used to control dynamics in a track.

37. What is delay?

Delay is an effect used to postpone the playback of a sound.

38. What is an orchestra?

An orchestra is essentially a big group of musicians playing lots of different instruments.

39. What are the four instrument families?

String, Brass, Woodwind and Percussion.

40. What are the instruments in the string family?

There are five instruments in the string family including:

The Violin, The Viola, The Cello, The Double Bass and The Harp.

41. What are the instruments in the brass family?

There are four different instruments in the brass family which are:

Trumpet, The French Horn, The Trombone and The Tuba.

42.  What are the instruments in the woodwind family?

Flute, Clarinet, Oboe and the Bassoon.

43. What are the instruments in the percussion family?

The Timpani, xylophone,triangle and the cymbal.

44. Who is the Conductor?

The conductor is the person who stands at the front of the orchestra and directs the performance using a thin stick called a baton to emphasise their gestures.

45. What are some traditional Irish Instruments?

The Fiddle, Uilleann Pipes, Wooden Flute, Tin Whistle, Button Accordion, Harp, Banjo and the Bodhrán.