Musical Elements & Concepts — Aural Skills

Pitch

Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is perceived. It is the foundational element from which melody, harmony, and tonality are derived.

1. Melody

Melody is a coherent and organised succession of pitches perceived as a single phrase.

• Melodic Movement

  • Steps – motion to adjacent scale degrees.

  • Leaps – intervals larger than a 2nd.
    

• Melodic Arrangement / Texture

  • Counter-Melody – a secondary tune designed to complement the primary melody.

  • One After Another (Imitation / Canon) – voices enter successively with similar material.
    

• Range & Register

  • Range – span between lowest & highest notes (narrow vs. wide).

  • Register – specific height: low, medium, or high.
    

• Melodic Features

  • Contour Types: ascending, descending, arch, wave, angular, stagnant, or combinations.

  • Devices: sequence, repetition, ornamentation (trills, turns), melisma (many notes per syllable).
    

• Definite vs. Indefinite Pitch

  • Definite – sounds with a clear, assignable frequency (e.g.
    piano, flute).

  • Indefinite – sounds whose frequencies are hard to assign a single note name (e.g.
    snare drum, cymbals).

  • Significance: Knowing whether an instrument produces definite or indefinite pitch determines its role (melodic vs. purely timbral/rhythmic) in an ensemble.

2. Harmony

Harmony is the vertical aspect of music—simultaneous sounding pitches combined like chords or arpeggios are the basis of harmony and always linked to the bass notes or bass parts.

• Dissonant vs. Consonant

  • Consonance – stable, restful sonorities.

  • Dissonance – tension-creating intervals that often resolve to consonance.

• Chord Structures

  • Simple – triads, basic seventh chords.

  • Complex – extended tertian chords (9ths, 11ths, 13ths) or clusters.

  • Voicing Styles: block chords, parallel motion, broken chords (arpeggiation).

• Harmonic Rhythm

  • The rate of chord changes (slow vs. fast progression).

  • Cadences mark phrase conclusions: authentic, plagal, half, deceptive.

• Harmonic Pedals & Drones

  • Drone – continuous sustained note (common in folk, scottish bagpipes, aboriginal australian didgeridu & Indian music for example).

  • Pedal Point – sustained or repeated pitch in bass while harmonies change above

• Ostinati & Riffs

  • Harmonic Ostinato – repeating harmonic pattern (e.g. Pachelbel’s Canon).

  • Riff – short, catchy repeating figure in jazz/rock
    

    Form & Accompaniment Patterns

    • Twelve-Bar Blues

      • Harmonic template (I–IV–V basis):
        I \quad I \quad I \quad I \ IV \quad IV \quad I \quad I \ V \quad IV \quad I \quad V

      • Provides structure for countless jazz, rock, and R&B songs.
        

    • Stylistic Accompaniments

      • Walking Bass – stepwise quarter-note bass line outlining changes (jazz/blues).

      • Alberti Bass – broken-chord pattern \text{low–high–middle–high}, common in Classical piano.

      • Block Chords – all chord tones sounding simultaneously.

      • Broken Chords & Arpeggios – tones spread sequentially.
        

    • Texture Devices

      • Ostinato – short repeated pattern (rhythmic or melodic).

      • Sequence – repeating a motive at different pitch levels.

      • Motif – smallest recognizable musical idea.
        

    Modulation

    Moving from one key to another.

    • Higher / Lower Key – can occur via pivot chords, direct (phrase) modulation, or chromatic sequence.

    • Creates contrast, prolongs form, or intensifies emotion.
      

3. Tonality / Scale Systems (Flavour)

Tonality organizes melodies & harmonies around a central pitch (tonic).

Quick Reference Equations & Figures

• Pentatonic degrees: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

• Blues scale: 1, \flat3, 4, \sharp4/\flat5, 5, \flat7

• Whole-tone: six equally-spaced semitones.

• Twelve-bar blues harmonic grid given above.
  

Scales and Tonalities:

• Diatonic – major/minor system.

• Modal – church modes (Dorian, Phrygian, etc.).

• Blues Scale – hybrid with “blue notes”: 1, \flat3, 4, \sharp4/\flat5, 5, \flat7.

• Chromatic – all 12 semitones used melodically/harmonically.

  
  World-Music‐Derived Pitch Collections

  • Pentatonic – five-note scale common in folk, blues, and East Asian traditions (degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, 6).

  • Gypsy (Hungarian Minor) – typically: 1, 2, \flat3, \sharp4, 5, \flat6, 7.

  • Indian Raga – melodic frameworks; each raga has fixed ascending/descending forms and characteristic motives.

  • Gamelan (Sléndro / Pélog) – Indonesian scale systems; sléndro ≈ five roughly equidistant pitches per octave, pélog ≈ seven unevenly spaced tones.
    

• 20th-Century / Contemporary Pitch Practices

  • Whole-Tone Scale – six equally spaced tones (C, D, E, F\sharp, G\sharp, A\sharp).

  • Atonality & the Twelve-Tone Row – avoidance of a tonal center; twelve-tone technique orders all 12 pitch classes into a row used melodically & harmonically.

  • Microtonality – usage of intervals smaller than a semitone (e.g. quarter-tones).