Music Theory 1 - Pitch and the clefs

Welcome to Aristia Music. Let's talk about pitch. Can you tell the difference between these two sounds? If something is far away, it looks smaller, like a plane in the sky. If something is close up, it looks big, like that same plane in front of you. Imagine sounds increasing or decreasing in height by moving up or down a ladder. The word pitch will describe the degree of highness or lowness of a sound. Here is an example. This is a high pitch and this is a low pitch. The easiest way to visualize a pitch going up or down is by using any keyboard instrument. On a keyboard, you will find high pitches on the right side and low pitches on the left side. Middle pitches are usually within the range of a human voice. This means a human voice, depending on anatomic structure and training, is able to reach these pitches and perhaps even beyond. In order to indicate which pitch range or side of the keyboard that you're in, we use these two symbols. This symbol is called the treble clef. The treble clef indicates mid to high pitch range sounds. This symbol is called the bass clef. The bass clef indicates mid to low pitch range sounds. This is the middle pitch, where treble and bass clef meet. As you move up and down from here, you will go into either one of the clefs. Let's test our ears. Let's begin with the middle pitch, which will be our bass pitch for this exercise. Remember, this pitch is between the treble and bass clefs, where one clef ends and the other begins. As I play a second pitch above or below the middle pitch, visualize how far away it is from our bass pitch and in which direction. Is it going up? Is it going down? Is it a little bit far away? Is it very much far away? Now that we know the clefs are high and low pitch ranges, placing them together, we have a perfect representation of how far up or down we can go. Approximately. This line between the pitches will represent the middle pitch, where both clefs meet. The black circle represents the pitch in the middle being played. The new pitch will be in red. Visualize how far away it is from our bass pitch and in which direction. Ready? Let's listen. Number 1 This pitch sounds like it's really close, just above the middle pitch. Number 2 This pitch sounds like it's very far away, below the middle pitch. Number 3 This pitch sounds really close, just below the middle pitch. Number 4 This pitch sounds very far away, above the middle pitch. Now that you know that, listen to the following melodies and notice how pitch moves. This melody moves up the treble clef by single steps, until it jumps up and closes in single steps. The pitches in this melody move down the bass clef by skips and then return to the middle pitch. It closes with an adjacent pitch. The pitch in this melody moved down the bass clef by skips and then jumped up to the treble clef to descend back to the middle pitch by moving in single steps. Next time you see a piece of sheet music, you will recognize the treble and bass clefs and understand why all the dots in it, which represent pitch, go up and down. In the next lesson, we're going to explore the pitch ladder through which pitch moves up and down and learn its name, so don't miss it and click in the link below. If you liked this video, make sure you like and subscribe to help me continue bringing you more free music lessons. In the meantime, have a musical day and I'll see you on the next one.