Overview
Welcome to OnMusic Jazz!
Although this course does not expect you to learn to read or play music, or require previous music experience, basic familiarity with music fundamentals and essential jazz concepts will most likely give you a good head start and enhance your learning experience.
With that in mind, this section presents a broad overview of basic music elements such as the keyboard, scales, pitch, rhythm, meter, and form, on which to some of essential features and the sounds of jazz, including improvisation and swing feeling. We will also cover the defining characteristics of blues music, how the unique sounds of blues originated, how these sounds were absorbed into jazz, and some of the differences between blues and jazz.
These lessons will be especially beneficial if you don’t have basic musical or jazz knowledge, but they can also be valuable even if you already have both. The goal is to offer you the information and tools that will let you become familiar.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to do the following:
- Distinguish sharp notes from flat notes
- Identify keys on a keyboard that are a half-step or whole step apart
- Define an octave
- Describe some basic scales
- Recognize on the musical staff the clef, time signature, notes, and measures
- Define beat, tempo, note, rhythm, and meter
- Distinguish among simple meters such as duple, triple, and quadruple
- Define pickup
- Define syncopation
Keyboard
The piano has a total of 88 keys, with a recurring pattern of 12 white and black keys. The keys are identified by the notes they represent using the first seven letters of the alphabet, from A to G. Counting usually begins with the letter C. The black keys are referred to as either sharpA tone that is a half-step above a given tone. (#) or flatA tone that is a half-step below a given tone. (♭), depending on whether they are a half step The smallest pitch difference between two sounds in most Western music systems; also known as a semitone. above (#) or below (♭) the letter name note.
Adjacent Keys: Half steps
Keys that are right next to each other on the keyboard are adjacent. The difference in pitch between adjacent keys is the smallest pitch difference between two sounds in most Western music systems. That pitch difference is called a half stepThe smallest pitch difference between two sounds in most Western music systems; also known as a semitone. or semitone.
Adjacent keys come in three possible combinations:
Half Step from White to Black
Half Step from White to Black
Half-Step: Black to White
Half Step from Black to White
Half Step From White to White (with no black key in between)
Half Step From White to White
(with no black key in between)
Two black keys are never adjacent keys. There will always be either one or two white keys in between two black keys.
The following interactive exercise shows the three possible key combinations that produce half steps on the keyboard. Try playing the semitones after viewing the presentation.
Half Step
Non-adjacent Keys: Whole Steps
Two semitones make up a whole tone, also called a whole stepThe combination of two semitones; also known as a tone or whole tone.. This is the smallest pitch difference between non-adjacent keys. It is also known as a tone.
Differentiating between half and whole steps is one of the most important aural skills one may acquire. Listen carefully and compare ascending and descending half and whole steps.
Half Step
Half Step - Ascending
ascending
Half Step - Descending
descending
Whole Step
Whole Step - Ascending
ascending
Whole Step - Descending
descending
Try playing half steps and whole steps, both ascending and descending, on the keyboard.
Enharmonic Accidentals
The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the basic miracle of music, the use of which is common in most musical systems.
