Music

• Pitch - Refers to how high or how low a note is.
• Melody/Tune/Song - A succession of single pitches arranged to make musical sense or appeal.
• Harmony - two or more notes played simultaneously.
• Rhythm - Long and short durations of sound and silence arranged to make musical appeal.
• Tempo - Speed or rate in musical performances.
• Timbre - The characteristic sound of an instrument or ensemble.
• Dynamics - Various degrees of loudness and softness in a musical performance.
• Texture - The effect of how elements combine in a musical composition.
• Form/Structure - How sections are organized in a musical composition.
• Musical Note - A symbol that indicates a duration of sound.
• Rest - A duration of silence.
• Staff/Stave - A series of five lines and for spaces used to write music.
• Call and Response is a term which refers to the technique used extensively in early "lavway" calypso where a leader will sing a line and the chorus will echo a response.
• A rest in music means silence.
• A dot placed after a note/rest increases it by half the value.
• A staff/stave is a series of five lines and four spaces used to write music.
• Lines and spaces are counted starting from the lowest line or space. (i.e. the lowest line is the first, the top line is the fifth, similarly, the lowest space is the first and the top is the forth.)
• Instruments that play high notes us the treble staff. A treble staff has a treble clef on the staff.

  The treble or G clef assigns the second line the pitch G.
• Instruments that play low notes use the bass staff. A bass staff has a bass clef at the start. The bass or F clef assigns the fourth line the pitch F.
• Notes are placed on the staff to represent pitches. Notes can be placed either on a line or in a space. Where symbols are placed would indicate a specific tone.
• Notes & Rests

  (A flag can also be called a tail)

  Notes may consist of a note head alone. (If it is a head alone it MUST be unshaded.)

  A note may have a head (shaded or unshaded) and a stem.

  
• Stems go up on the right or down on the left of the note head.

  Above the third line of the staff stems of notes go down. Below the third line, stems go up. On the third line stems can go either way.
• A note may have a head, stem, and tail/flag. If the note has a tail the head must be shaded.
• Tails are always on the right of the notes. If the stem is up, the tail goes down. If the stem is down, the tail goes up.

  Tail/Flags may be beamed together.
• Rest - A note is a symbol that indicates a during of sound.

  A rest in music is a duration of silence. Important points to note when drawing rest:

  • The semibreve rest hangs on the fourth lines.
  • The minim rest sits on the third line.
• The Grand Staff consists of a treble staff above a bass staff joined by a bar and a brace.

  
• Notes on the Grand Staff

  
• Ledger Lines - There are many more notes in existence that can be represented on the five lines and four spaces of the staff.

  Ledger lines are short lines used to represent notes above and below the staff.

  
• History of Calypso - Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean in the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century.
• Calypso in the Caribbean has influenced a range of genres, including : the Benna (Antigua and Barbuda), Mento and Ska (Jamaica) Spouge (Barbados), Cadence-lypso (Dominica), Cadence (Haiti) and Soca music and chutney (Trinidad and Tobago).
• The origin of the word Calypso is not very clear. It is thought that the work came from the African word "kaiso" meaning well done. There is also a Trinidadian term " cariso" that means "old-time" calypsos. The use of the term "calypso" is recorded from the 1930s onwards. Some say that the word might be a corruption if the French carrouseaux and through the process of patois and Anglicization become caliso and then finally "calypso".
• In West Africa, the griot (pronounced gree-o) was a member of a class of travelling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintained a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa. The griot would travel to various communities to spread the news of the day, sometimes through the medium song.
• When the tradition came to the New World, the griot became known as chantuelle and eventually, calypsonian. Early Calypsos were sung in French-Creole. Over the years, because of the change in colonial occupation the language of the calypso eventually changed to English.
• In order to prepare for the period of lent before the invention of refrigeration, French colonials tried to consume all the meat so that it would not be wasted during the forty days of fasting. (The word carnival comes from carne vale which means farewell to flesh). Lavish feasts were organized so that the meat would be consumed. Talented slaves sang calypsos which provided entertainment to guests at these feasts.
• Even though slaves were not allowed to participate in carnival celebrations calypsos were sung during Canboulay festivities. During Canboulay (originally cannes brulees meaning burning of canes) slaves passed the time by singing calypsos, dancing the bongo and kalinda, stick fighting, and drumming. When slavery was abolished celebrations were taken to the streets.
• The Keyboard

  
  

  The term keyboard refers to a specific arrangement of notes that can be found on instruments such as piano, organ and harpsichord. The notes are arranged in alternating groups of two and three.

  
• The black notes act like landmarks so we could know where specific notes are. If all the notes where one colour, it would be difficult to locate specific notes.
• Notes on the Keyboard

  
  

  C is to the left of two black notes.

  D is in the middle of two black notes.

  E is to the right of two black notes.

  F is to the left of three black notes.

  G is to the right of the first black note in the group of three black notes.

  A is to the left of the third black note in the group of three black notes.

  B is to the right of three black notes.

  
• Intervals: Semitones and Tones

  • An interval is a distance in sound between two pitches. The smallest interval in Western Music is the semitone (or half step). On the keyboard, semitones occur between adjacent notes (whether the adjacent note is black or white.
• • Two semitones equal a tone (or a whole step).

  
  

  • Sharps, flats and naturals are collectively called accidentals. Accidentals affect notes in various ways.