What is music theory and why do you need to know about it?
Music theory is the way we understand and write down music. In the same way that we have rules of grammar and spelling in a language, we have rules for writing down and transcribing music onto paper.
In this short section, we will look at some of the basics of writing down and reading music.
Staves
Music is written on staves, each of which has 5 lines.
Each stave has a clef at the start and the music is divided into bars by bar lines.
A double bar line indicates the end of a piece.
Note values:
Time signatures:
The time signature tells you whether the music is in duple, triple or quadruple time (ie. 2 time, 3 time or 4 time)
There are two basic types of time signature – simple and compound.
Simple time signatures:
The main ones are:
2/4 which means 2 crotchet beats per bar
3/4 which means 3 crotchet beats per bar
4/4 which means 4 crotchet beats per bar
Compound time signatures:
The main ones are:
6/8 which means 2 dotted crotchet beats per bar (in other words 6 quavers per bar)
9/8 which means 3 dotted crotchet beats per bar (in other words 9 quavers per bar)
12/8 which means 4 dotted crotchet beats per bar (in other words 12 quavers per bar)