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Edley's Music Theory for Practical People TB Study Group

#21
Ok, the first page of Edley's chapter 1 introduces 9 terms.

Natural notes
Musical Alphabet
Sharp notes
Flat notes
Pitch
Half-step
Whole-step
Octave
Chromatic scale

Easy enough.

Didn't see it in the index, and he may mention it later, but after I read the definitions of half steps and whole steps I thought of semitone and whole tone. Those terms are interchangeable with half step and whole step. Also on our bass, the distance from one fret to the next higher or lower one is a half step/semitone and the distance two frets up or two frets down is a whole step/whole tone.

He also explains there are 7 notes in the natural Musical Alphabet. A B C D E F G, then returns to A. But that higher A following G isn't the 8th note of the ascending musical alphabet. It's the Octave. Oct means 8 as he explains, but A is still one of the 7 notes in the natural musical alphabet.

Same applies if it were decending.
A G F E D C B A , this repeat of the A note an octave down.

Ascending - A B C D E F G A
Decending- A G F E D C B A

He also explains that although Octave means 8, there are 12 half steps in the Octave. We can relate as bassists in that our 12th fret on any string repeats our open/non fretted note on that string. Distance between next closest fret is a half step. Easy enough.

So my takeaway is although there are only 7 notes in the musical alphabet, there are 8 pitches in an octave.
 
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#23
dreamadream99 said:
I checked out the sample pages. It seems like really good information, in a very approachable format. Of course, I can’t tell if everything is correct, but the four sample pages I saw were correct.

I’m not interested in joining a study group, because I already know music theory, but I have subscribed to the thread, so if I see any theory questions I would be more than happy to answer them. That’s “answer them,” not argue them.And I promise not to let the thread degenerate into a theory argument as mentioned above. I am merely volunteering my knowledge as a resource for people learning theory.
Click to expand...
That's very kind of you.
 
#24
lowplaces said:
Ok, the first page of Edley's chapter 1 introduces 9 terms.

Natural notes
Musical Alphabet
Sharp notes
Flat notes
Pitch
Half-step
Whole-step
Octave
Chromatic scale

Easy enough.

Didn't see it in the index, and he may mention it later, but after I read the definitions of half steps and whole steps I thought of semitone and whole tone. Those terms are interchangeable with half step and whole step. Also on our bass, the distance from one fret to the next higher or lower one is a half step/semitone and the distance two frets up or two frets down is a whole step/whole tone.

He also explains there are 7 notes in the natural Musical Alphabet. A B C D E F G, then returns to A. But that higher A following G isn't the 8th note of the ascending musical alphabet. It's the Octave. Oct means 8 as he explains, but A is still one of the 7 notes in the natural musical alphabet.

Same applies if it were decending.
A G F E D C B A , this repeat of the A note an octave down.

Ascending - A B C D E F G A
Decending- A G F E D C B A

He also explains that although Octave means 8, there are 12 half steps in the Octave. We can relate as bassists in that our 12th fret on any string repeats our open/non fretted note on that string. Distance between next closest fret is a half step. Easy enough.

So my takeaway is although there are only 7 notes in the musical alphabet, there are 8 pitches in an octave.
Click to expand...
Far better than my synopsis
 
#26
I'm pretty solid to page 42, then I'm hit or miss to the end. I'm ok with theory, understand stuff like parallel chords, inversions, but it makes sense to fill in the missing pieces. This site has some good stuff that is free, and covers fundamentals, heat maps and my favorite, which has become part of my vocabulary, the 5th approach.

www.studybass.com

Bass Lesson Study Guide | StudyBass

The StudyBass curricula. Lessons on bass fundamentals, technique, reading, harmony, rhythm, blues, chord tones, arpeggios, scales and hundreds of other bass topics.
www.studybass.com www.studybass.com
 
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#27
Willie5String said:
I'm pretty solid to page 42, then I'm hit or miss to the end. I'm ok with theory, understand stuff like parallel chords, inversions, but it makes sense to fill in the missing pieces. This site has some good stuff that is free, and covers fundamentals, heat maps and my favorite, which has become part of my vocabulary, the 5th approach.

www.studybass.com

Bass Lesson Study Guide | StudyBass

The StudyBass curricula. Lessons on bass fundamentals, technique, reading, harmony, rhythm, blues, chord tones, arpeggios, scales and hundreds of other bass topics.
www.studybass.com www.studybass.com
Click to expand...
Does chapter 10 start on page 42 on the E book version ?
 
#30
Flipping through my hard copy, I see I highlighted some of the text up to pg 23 but I'm going to have to review it and re-absorb it all.

I think I can move faster but my hard copy is 171 pages. I'm shooting for working on and actually understanding at least 2 pages per day.
 
#31
lowplaces said:
So my takeaway is although there are only 7 notes in the musical alphabet, there are 8 pitches in an octave.
Click to expand...
Very nearly accurate.
  1. There are seven notes in the musical alphabet, one for each letter.
  2. There are 12 pitches in an octave, one for each half step or semi tone, and ending with the starting note of an octave.
  3. There are eight scale degrees in an octave, (in a major or a minor scale, anyway. Other scales may have different numbers of components, like the chromatic scale, which has 12 half-steps, the blues scale, with seven notes, and the pentatonic scale with six notes.)
 
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#32
dreamadream99 said:
Very nearly accurate.
  1. There are seven notes in the musical alphabet, one for each letter.
  2. There are 12 pitches in an octave, one for each half step or semi tone, and ending with the starting note of an octave.
  3. There are eight scale degrees in an octave, (in a major or a minor scale, anyway. Other scales may have different numbers of components, like the chromatic scale, which has 12 half-steps, the blues scale, with seven notes, and the pentatonic scale with six notes.)
Click to expand...
Ok , thanks. I had my mind on the natural musical alphabet when I said 8 pitches.

I understand though and stand corrected. I suppose I was thinking of a major scale.
 
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#33
How's everyone else doing ?

Myself,
On page 19 of chapter 3, the section titled Key Signatures begins by giving us the option of skipping ahead to chapter 4 if we are nonreaders. So I did skip the rest.

For now I'm finished with chapter 4 Diatonic Intervals.

I'll return to chapter 3 now. I figure it can't hurt to learn the content even though sight reading isn't a priority yet.
 
#34
Whew, chapter 3 on Keys and Key Signatures was kind of a challenge. But I came away with knowing how to identify Key Signatures which was why I went back to it.

Signatures with sharps, the note a half step up from the last sharp on the right is the tonic.

Sigs with flats, second to last flat is the tonic.

Key of F only has 1 flat. Key of G has one sharp.

There's a couple of pages of stuff that didn't sink in yet but I'll go back and review it until it does.
 
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#36
The calculation of which sharps/flats go with which key is somewhat involved, and certainly makes more sense viewed on a piano.
In practice most musicians just memorize the 12 key signatures and don't worry about how or why.
Even if you don't plan on being a fluent sight reader, learning to decipher the sheet music in your own time is still of great value.
 
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#37
mambo4 said:
The calculation of which sharps/flats go with which key is somewhat involved
Click to expand...
To understand key signatures, you have to know two things:
  1. The order of flats and the order of sharps
  2. How to determine the key based on the key signature
The book approaches this in a roundabout way. He seems keen on making you discover it on your own, rather than just telling you. He does mention both of the above concepts though.
 
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#39
mambo4 said:
Even if you don't plan on being a fluent sight reader, learning to decipher the sheet music in your own time is still of great value.
Click to expand...

I have enough memorized to do decipher a piece. Staff, bar lines, names of the lines and spaces on the treble and bass clef staffs. Most common note symbols.

Not interested in sight reading at this point. Perhaps down the road.
 
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