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Understanding musical scores
Understanding musical scores

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1.2 Introducing pitch and rhythm

Figure 7 A visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies in a sound as it varies over time

The two primary elements of all music are pitch and duration/rhythm:

  1. Pitch is the term that musicians use for describing how high or how low a note is. Physicists would describe this element as frequency and measure it in cycles per second, or hertz.
  2. Rhythm refers to music’s temporal structure, how long or short notes are and how they are stressed.