Level One - Stage 0 - "Groundwork"

Hello, intrepid friends! Welcome to the first installment of what I shall be dubbing "Level One!"

This will be a repeating series where I shall go over some of the basics of Music theory while discussing some of my favorite Japanese Role-Playing Game soundtracks.

I'm going to aim for at least one of these to come out monthly, but a couple shorter ones per month won't be out of the ordinary -- like this month! 

Image Credit: Distant Worlds

Now, before we get too deep into the fun stuff, we have to make sure we have a relatively firm grasp on the fundamentals of basic musical analysis. This will ensure we can communicate on the same level.

I'm sure most of you can use a refresher on this stuff. For many of us, it has been a while since we played "Hot Cross Buns" on the little plastic recorders they give us in grade school. 

Ready? Let's dive in!

Basic Labeling 

While having some knowledge of how to read sheet music is good, it isn't necessarily mandatory for talking about music. Most club and studio musicians communicate entirely without sheet music in hand, but still need to talk about what they're playing.

How do we talk about melodies, harmonies, chords, and the like without a bunch of dots on lines? Well, turns out most musical ideas can be labeled with letters and numbers!

 

Image Credit: Massively Overpowered

All notes, regardless of what they are and where they are placed, are some letter between A and G. You probably already know this part. In contemporary music, A is equivalent to 440 vibrations per minute.

You can take that "A" and make it the "key" of a song, and you can now notate that A as "1." That's your starting point. The Main Theme from Chrono Trigger on the Super Nintendo is in the Key of A, for reference.

Now, a lot of music is a mixture of math and "vibes." Human beings have an innate sense of melody and rhythm. Thus, when you make a note "1," it "feels" like where the song wants to return to. 1 is home base! And home can be any note, A through G (with sharps and flats, more on that later.)

Michael Hahn has a blog that further examines the basics of Music Theory, if you are intrigued by the rudiments so far.

Image credit: Simplifying Theory

 Now, number up the notes on the scale of the key you chose, starting with the key note, and you get numbers 1-7. Now, which notes? you may ask. Fear not, you likely already know of them. It's the do-re-mi scale! This is called "solfège" though that isn't important right now.

Image Credit:: Hybrid Pedagogy

 

In a given piece of music, most people cannot discern what individual notes are by sound alone (only about .001% of the population have this "perfect pitch") but people can tell what "1" is. That's the home base, the key of the song.

Now chords, stacks of notes that are played simultaneously, are labeled much the same way as the notes in a scale. However, we use roman numerals to differentiate them from the scale degrees.

Image Credit: Piano Music Theory

 

You may notice some of these are lower-case, and one has a funky circle. That's the quality of the chord. Upper-case denote Major, and lower-case are Minor. You can think of Major as "happy" sounding and Minor as "sad" sounding, for the most part. That suits our needs for now.

The circle denotes a Diminished chord, which is one of many other qualities that don't necessarily need to be explained right now. Any given chord can be any sort of quality (diminished, sharp, flat, etc). This just happens to be how this scale - the Major scale in the key of C - is built. C major always has a diminished 7 (viio). Just like it always has a Major 1 (I).

Now, I encourage you to whistle along to the do-re-mi song linked above and note how you internalize the notes. An ounce of personal practice is worth a thousand words in this case. 

Image Credit: Destructoid

Now, is that a lot of information to take in? Certainly! That's why I encourage you to go out and listen to some of your favorite music and keep these ideas in mind. What note feels like home? Is it somber, or upbeat? If you find the key, can you hum the rest of the notes in the scale? Ask questions in the comments if you get stuck.

Join me here next time for another edition of Level One! We are moving on to the first stage!