Introduction

Listen to the following example:

In any musical composition, you will hear a variety of sounds...some high, some low, some in-between.  In addition, every sound you hear has a specific duration:  a starting point and an ending point in time.

It would be nice if anyone could reproduce music simply by listening to it.  Some people can.  But while the oral tradition has its place, it also has its limitations.  The music may be too complex to pick up by ear, a recording of the piece may not exist or be readily available, and/or there might not be someone available who can teach you how to play it.

A system exists to communicate in writing the information contained in a musical composition.  This is called music notation.

The two most fundamental pieces of information conveyed by written music are pitch and rhythm.

• Pitch refers to the physical frequency of the note, which is perceived by the ear as a relatively high or low sound.
• Rhythm refers to the relative duration of a note, and its placement in time within the composition.

We will explore these two concepts in the following pages.

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