Music
Music portals
Styles
Blues
Flamenco
Rock
Jazz
Latin
Basics
Styles
- Danzon - Wikipedia - the official musical genre and dance of Cuba
- evolved from the Cuban contradanza, or habanera ('Havana-dance')
- instrumental in the development of mambo and cha-cha-chá
- Chachacha - Wikipedia - think La engañadora based on the rhythm of danzón-mambo but with a different structural
- Changui - Wikipedia - think
- combines the structure and elements of Spain's canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu origin
- Changui example on YouTube
- Son - Wikipedia - think Trío Matamoros and Buena Vista Social Club
- Blends elements of Spanish and African origin
- Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres
- Of Bantu origin are its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section (bongo, maracas, etc.)
- Broadcasts of son became popular in West Africa and the Congos, leading to the development of hybrid genres such as Congolese rumba
- Son is considered to be the foundation on which salsa and timba were created
- Salsa - Wikipedia - think
- Timba - Wikipedia - think 'Me Sube La Fiebre'
- based on Cuban son with salsa, American funk/R&B and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music
- The word timba is part of a large family of mb and ng words that made their way into Spanish from African languages
- main precursors of timba are Los Van Van, Irakere (both in the 1970s) and NG La Banda (1988)
- Samba - Wikipedia - think 'The girl from Ipanema'
- Bossa Nova - Wikipedia
- Rumba - Wikipedia
- The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles
- Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba
- Later giving rise to re-Africanized Cuban-based styles such as Congolese rumba
- Cuban Rumba - Wikipedia - clave and rumba clave
- Yambú is considered the oldest style of rumba, originating in colonial times, slowest style
- Guaguancó is the most popular and influential rumba style. Faster than Yambú - think 'los Munequitos de Matanzas
- Columbia is a fast and energetic rumba
- Congolese Rumba - Wikipedia - think 'Passi ya boloko' by Franco (Luambo Makiadi), O.K. Jazz (c. mid-1950s), Fally Ipupa
- Calypso - Wikipedia - think 'Rum and Coca-cola'
- originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela
- Soca ('soul of Calypso')- Wikipedia - builds on Calypso - think 'Soca Dance' (1990)
- originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s
- Reggae - Wikipedia - think Marley, LKJ, Tosh, Sly and Robbie, ...
- originated in Jamaica in the late 1960
- Reggaeton - Wikipedia - think Daddy Yankee (Despacito)
- originated as Reggae en Español in Panama during the late 1980s, later popularised in Puerto Rico
- Soukous - Wikipedia - derived from rumba, think Pépé Kallé, Papa Wemba, Tabu Ley
- From the French 'secousse' (shock, jolt, jerk)
- Derived from African rumba, Kinshasa/Brazzaville, usually higher tempo than rumba
Indian
Information on music
Rhythm
For counting refer to music counting (Wikipedia). Musicians count using numbers, “ands” and vowel sounds. Downbeats within a measure are called 1, 2, 3… Upbeats are represented with a plus sign and are called “and” (i.e. 1 + 2 +), and further subdivisions receive the sounds “ee” and “uh” (i.e. 1 e + a 2 e + a). Musicians do not agree on what to call triplets.
- Rhythm - Wikipedia
- Generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions"
- Rhythm may be defined as the way in which one or more unaccented beats are grouped in relation to an accented one. Otherwise said: a rhythmic group can be apprehended only when its elements are distinguished from one another, rhythm...always involves an interrelationship between a single, accented (strong) beat and either one or two unaccented (weak) beats.
- Beat - Wikipedia - downbeat (1st), upbeat (last)
- The beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the mensural level (or beat level).
- The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a piece of music, or the numbers a musician counts while performing, though in practice this may be technically incorrect (often the first multiple level).
- In popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts, including pulse, tempo, meter, specific rhythms, and groove.
- The pulse is a series of uniformly spaced beats—either audible or implied that sets the tempo and is the scaffolding for the rhythm.
- The tempo (Italian for "time") is the speed or pace of a given piece, adagio or bpm
- The metre (Commonwealth spelling) or meter (US spelling) refers to the regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats. Think 2:4, 4:4, 6:8, ...
- Arabic rhythm - Wikipedia
- Arabic rhythm - Iqa' - Maqamworld
- e.g. Iqa‘ Zaffa, think Alf Leila w Leila, Umm Kulthum
- Clave - Wikipedia
- Is a rhythmic pattern used in Afro-Cuban music
- Originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions
- The two main clave patterns used in Afro-Cuban music are known in North America as son clave and rumba clave
- Son and rumba clave can be played in either a triple-pulse (12/8 or 6/8) or duple-pulse (4/4, 2/4 or 2/2) structure
- Representation: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
- Son clave has strokes on 1, 1a, 2&, 3&, 4.
- Rumba clave has strokes on 1, 1a, 2a, 3&, 4.
- Guajeo - Wikipedia
- a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns
- emerged in Cuba during the 19th century, in the genres known as changüí and son
- was first played as accompaniment on the tres in the Afro-Cuban son and related music
- piano guajeos are one of the most recognizable elements of modern-day salsa
- Tresillo rhythm - Wikipedia
- is the most fundamental duple-pulse rhythmic cell in Cuban and other Latin American music
- is a more basic form of the habanera
- Habanera also contradanza, contradanza criolla, danza, danza criolla
- think 'Carmen'
- the progenitor of danzón, mambo and cha-cha-cha
- Clave rhythm - Wikipedia
- the 2 main clave patterns used in Afro-Cuban music are known in North America as son clave and rumba clave
- son and rumba clave can be played in either a triple-pulse (12 8 or 6 8) or duple-pulse (4 4, 2 4 or 2 2) structure
- Afro-cuban jazz - Wikipedia
Scales
Basics
Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. The term scale is related to mode.
Scale types by number of notes contained
- Scales - Wikipedia
- Scales may be described according to the number of different pitch classes they contain:
- Chromatic, or dodecatonic (12 notes per octave)
- Nonatonic (9 notes per octave): a chromatic variation of the heptatonic blues scale
- Octatonic (8 notes per octave): used in jazz and modern classical music
- Heptatonic (7 notes per octave): the most common modern Western scale
- Examples include the major scale and minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the melodic minor scale, A B C D E F♯G♯A ascending, A G F E D C B A descending; the harmonic minor scale, A B C D E F G♯A; and many others.
- Hexatonic (6 notes per octave): common in Western folk music
- Pentatonic (5 notes per octave): the anhemitonic form (lacking semitones) is common in folk music, especially in Asian music; also known as the "black note" scale
- Tetratonic (4 notes), tritonic (3 notes), and ditonic (2 notes): generally limited to prehistoric ("primitive") music
- Scales may also be described by their constituent intervals, such as being hemitonic, cohemitonic, or having imperfections. Many music theorists concur that the constituent intervals of a scale have a large role in the cognitive perception of its sonority, or tonal character.
- "The number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound quality."
- "The pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of the music than does the mere number of tones."
There are many ways to describe scales. An important notion is whether a scale is diatonic. A diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale (7 notes per octave) that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps, depending on their position in the scale. Any sequence of seven successive natural notes, such as C–D–E–F–G–A–B, and any transposition thereof, is a diatonic scale.
Modes, how whole and half tones are distributed
In music theory, the meaning of the term mode depends on context.
Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to major and minor keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic.
Modern modes include (W = whole tone, H = half tone):
- Ionian (I) - W–W–H–W–W–W–H C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C - also called the major scale.
- Dorian (II) - W–H–W–W–W–H–W D–E–F–G–A–B–C–D
- Phrygian (III) - H–W–W–W–H–W–W E–F–G–A–B–C–D–E
- Lydian (IV) - W–W–W–H–W–W–H F–G–A–B–C–D–E–F
- Mixolydian (V) - W–W–H–W–W–H–W G–A–B–C–D–E–F–G
- Aeolian (VI) - W–H–W–W–H–W–W A–B–C–D–E–F–G–A - also called the natural minor scale
- Locrian (VII) - H–W–W–H–W–W–W B–C–D–E–F–G–A–B
Modern Western modes use the same set of notes as the major scale, in the same order, but starting from one of its seven degrees in turn as a tonic, and so present a different sequence of whole and half steps.
Ionian mode = Ionic scale = the major scale
Is the cornerstone of western music. It is diatonic, i.e. made up of seven notes (eight if you include the octave). It is the first of the seven musical modes. E.g. C major consists of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B (all the white keys on a piano keyboard).
Minor scale patterns
There are three minor scale patterns:
- Natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), built by starting on the sixth degree of its relative major scale. For instance, the A natural minor scale can be built by starting on the 6th degree of the C major scale.
- Harmonic minor scale (or Aeolian ♯7 scale). Has the same notes as the natural minor scale except that the seventh degree is raised by one semitone, creating an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees. It does not figure in the list of 'modern modes'.
- Melodic minor scale
- Ascending: 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
- The jazz minor scale is a derivative of the melodic minor scale that uses only the ascending form: 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
- Descending: 1, 2, ♭3, 4, 5, ♭6, ♭7, 8
Pentatonic scale (with 5 notes)
Pentatonic majors and minor
The standard tuning of a guitar uses the notes of an E minor pentatonic scale: E–A–D–G–B–E, contributing to its frequency in popular music.
Blues scale
The blues scale is similar to the minor pentatonic scale, but with an additional lowered fifth. The lowered fifth, also known as the "blue note", is essential in blues music. E.g. C blues scale consists of C, Eb, F, Gb, G and Bb.
Scales on guitar
Chords
Guitar chords
Chord progressions
A cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of resolution.
In jazz, a cadence is often referred to as a turnaround, chord progressions that lead back and resolve to the tonic (for example, the ii-V-I turnaround).
Blues
Chords played over a 12-bar scheme:
| I |
I or IV |
I |
I7 |
| IV |
IV |
I |
I7 |
| V |
V or IV |
I |
I or V |
Chords played over C:
Technology
Audacity
In 2022-01, DebbyBuster had Audacity 2.2.2 installed. Audacity allows to create and edit tracks:
- Music tracks (mono or stereo)
- can be imported in audio format
- can be imported in sample format (ASCII values, 32 bit floating point PCM)
- can be generated
- Time tracks, which allow to increase or decrease playback speed (and pitch) over the length of an audio track
- Label tracks, whose labels can be used to reference points or regions in the project's audio tracks but the label track itself does not contain audio
- Note tracks, created by importing Midi files
Local info
Other info
- Audacity - Wikipedia
- Audacity - in 2022-01, DebbyBuster had Audacity 2.2.2 installed, Bullseye had Audacity 2.4.2 (64 bit version)
- Audacity forum
- Audacity manual - top entry
- Audacity manual - tutorials entry
- Useful topics:
- Generation
- Rhythm generation
- Tempo (bpm) - total number of beats, (clicks) per minute, default is 120, e.g. Santana's Smooth is 58 bpm or 116 bpm (probably a matter of counting))
- Beats per bar - the first beat of each bar is always louder than the remaining beats in the bar. So for example, three beats per bar will sound like a waltz in 3/4 time signature, and four beats per bar (the default) will sound like the 4/4 of a march or like most pop songs.
- Swing amount - when set to zero, each beat has the exact length specified by the Tempo (beats per minute). When set to a non-zero amount, alternate beats are delayed or advanced to give a swing feel. At maximum / minimum settings the rhythm plays with triplet timing.
- Playing, recording, overdubbing
- Multitrack overdubbing url 1
- Multitrack overdubbing url 2
- Selecting audio to edit
- Working with tracks and clips - e.g. select a clip and cntl-L to silence the selection
- Changing pitch -remember pitch is (perceived) frequency, changing speed affects pitch and tempo, but you can change tempo without changing pitch
- Audio alignment
- Mixing
- Mixing refers to the process of combining multiple Audacity tracks which play simultaneously into a single track.
- There is a manual 'mixer board' via 'View/Mixerboard'.
- Audacity mixes automatically when playing or exporting, but it can also physically mix selected multiple tracks together into one within the project. All selected tracks are mixed, regardless if the Mute or Solo buttons on any tracks are set to silence their playback.
- By default, multiple stereo tracks are mixed down to a single stereo file on Export.
- Two ways:
- Mix and Render: replaces the original track(s) with the mixed track
- Mix and Render to New Track: adds the mixed track to the project, preserving the original tracks.
- Using an USB microphone on Linux
- S/PDIF a type of digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over relatively short distances, based on the AES3 standard
- AES3 - professional version: IEC 60958, consumer version: S/PDIF
- Samson G-Track Pro microphone product page
- Samson G-Track Pro microphone support
- Mixing refers to the process of combining multiple Audacity tracks which play simultaneously into a single track.
- Overdubbing with a SAMSON G Track USB
- Microphone
- Audio interface, i.e. it has an instrument input for line-level devices
- Mixer, i.e. the microphone and instrument inputs are mixed into the headphone output, the G-Track Pro lets you monitor the internal microphone and line inputs directly on the headphones without making the round-trip in and out of the computer (no latency)
- You need to connect the microphone before starting Audacity (green light on the microphone must be on)
- If the USB device does not appear in Device Toolbar, check that the USB device is connected correctly and try applying Transport > Rescan Audio Devices
- On Debbybuster the microphone appears twice:
- Samson G track Pro USB Audio - Headset
- Samson G track Pro USB Audio - Internal
- Audacity displays the selected hardware in Edit - Preferences, here you'll see the recording device (e.g. SAMSON), and '2 channels (stereo)'
- You can also display info using alsamixer
- And you get a detailed list of all PCM's and their configuration via arecord --list-pcms
- Audacity - improving recording quality
- Audacity VST plug-ins - remark: Audacity does not support instrument plug-ins
- On Linux plug-ins may require e.g. Wine + VST bridge
Other info
- WAV format
- Midi describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music
- Bpm tool
- VST audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations.
- Steinberg released the VST interface specification and SDK in 1996, at the same time as Steinberg Cubase 3.02, which included the first VST format plugins: Espacial (a reverb), Choirus (a chorus effect), Stereo Echo, and Auto-Panner.
- There are three types of VST plugins:
- VST instruments generate audio. They are generally either Virtual Synthesizers or Virtual samplers. Many recreate the look and sound of famous hardware synthesizers. Better known VST instruments include Discovery, Nexus, Sylenth1, Massive, Omnisphere, FM8, Absynth, Reaktor, Gladiator, Serum and Vanguard.
- VST effects process rather than generate audio—and perform the same functions as hardware audio processors such as reverbs and phasers. Other monitoring effects provide visual feedback of the input signal without processing the audio. Most hosts allow multiple effects to be chained. Audio monitoring devices such as spectrum analyzers and meters represent audio characteristics (frequency distribution, amplitude, etc.) visually.
- VST MIDI effects process MIDI messages (for example, transpose or arpeggiate) and route the MIDI data to other VST instruments or to hardware devices.
Sounds
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Sheet music
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Greece
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