Musescore Project | music theory

MUSE SCORE PROJECT

When we listen to a piece of music for the first time, we embark on a musical journey. We start our journey from home (the "Home Key" which is the first tone of our scale, also called the tonic) make one or more interim stops on the fifth tone of our scale (dominant) and finally arrive back at home (tonic).

Composing is like writing a travel report, but before we start writing, we must first learn to write and read. Musically speaking, this means that we first must learn to read musical notes, play them on your instrument, recognize them when we hear them and ultimately write them down. (Fundamentals)

We first travel within our home country before exploring other countries. We call our home country the “key signature” C major, and we only use the notes of the C major scale as tone material for our composition. The C major scale has no accidentals (Sharps or flats). Our home key, the tonic in C major, is tone C.

We can continue to compare our language with the language of music. Before we start writing our report, we need an idea (musically speaking the motive). (Usually 1-2 bars long)

This idea must then be developed further (motive development) into a sentence. We also call this a or phrase in music too.

We complete our sentence after 4 or 8 bars with a half closure (half cadence), a stopover on our journey. For this stopover, we use the fifth key of our C major scale, the G (dominant). The trip can then take us on further stops until we finally get back home. (A whole note on tonic C).