There’s a common assumption about music that major is happy and minor is sad. In today’s lesson we look at what this statement really means and perhaps more importantly, we examine how much of it is true and where it goes wrong. To help us along the way we have some great song examples – …
Cadences are where the harmony, rhythm, melody and other musical aspects come together to produce a sense of arrival in the music. The arrival can be a dramatic moment, a simple end of phrase and anything in between. Whether big or small, the cadence is a sense that the music reached its destination.
The riff is a short and catchy melodic idea and it recurs so often that it gives character and structure to a song. The hook is any part of a song that is meant to grab the listener’s attention. The hook is also catchy but it doesn’t recur as often so that it makes a greater impact when it turns up.
There are 15 different key signatures in music so how do we figure out which ones have sharps and which ones have flats? How do we know how many sharps and flats they have? And where do the minor keys fit in? We’ll answer all these questions and others like them thanks to a few …