Music Studies 1

Week 3

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of today’s session, students will be able to:

• Identify five different types of accidentals and understand their function

• Understand enharmonic equivalents• Complete a simple transposition exercise

Accidentals

• Looking at a keyboard you will notice there are notes between most of the white keys

• These pitches are half steps between the white keys

Sharps ♯• Sharps are used to show the pitch a half step

higher

Flats ♭• Flats are used to indicate the pitch is a half

step lower

Naturals ♮• Once a sharp or flat has occurred in a bar, it

can be cancelled (neutralized) so it reverts to it’s unaltered condition

• The symbol for this is a natural

• ♮

• A natural can raise or lower a sharpened or flattened pitch depending on the context

• Sharps, Flats and Naturals are all called accidentals

Accidentals on the Keyboard

• See p.5 of your text• Most sharps or flats will be black keys• Some may be another white key directly

beneath or above• This applies to the two pairs of white keys that

don’t have black keys in between them

• While keeping notes in alphabetical order, any pitch can be raised a half step higher by using a sharp

• Any pitch can be lowered a half step by using a flat

Chromatic Scale

• Ascend use sharps• Descend using flats

NOTE

• Within an octave (eight consecutive letter names) there are twelve half steps

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12

ACTIVITY

• Complete the Dulcie Holland Lesson seven handout about Semitones, tones and accidentals

• Remember: – Semitone= half-step– Tone= whole step

Enharmonics

• When there are two or more possible notes for the same pitch on the keyboard, they are called enharmonics

• See p.7 of your text

Double Sharps and Double Flats

• Sometimes it’s necessary to raise or lower a pitch by two half steps

• See p.8 of your text

Accidental Considerations

• A natural cancels a sharp or flat• A single sharp or flat will cancel a double

sharp or double flat respectively• One natural alone will cancel both double

sharps and double flats

• An accidental remains in effect for the duration of the measure or for the duration of tied pitches within a measure or across the bar line

• To raise a note which has already been sharpened, use a double sharp

• To lower a note which has already been flattened, use a double flat

• An accidental only affects a specific note, in that cleff. All other notes of the same name are not affected

• Ascending (going up) – use sharps or naturals• Descending (going down) – use flats or

naturals

ACTIVITY

• Begin Worksheet 2, and Worksheet 2b

Transposition

“Transposition is the shifting of a melody, harmonic (chord) progression or an entire musical piece to another key, while maintaining the same tone structure, i.e. the same succession of whole tones and semitones and remaining melodic intervals”

- Henrich Christoph Koch

ACTIVITY

• See ‘Transposing by Octave’ after Worksheet 2b in your White Harmony books

• Begin Worksheet 3a – use a keyboard if you wish