Meaning of musical signs and their meaning (what they are, concept and definition)

What are musical signs and their meaning:

Musical symbols or music signs are a series of graphic signs that represent musical sounds and values ​​and are used to write music.

Each sign has a different function, so they can indicate elements such as sound height, duration, pulse, rhythm, tonality, dynamics, etc.

The documents in which the music is written are called “sheet music”. Let's see an example of a score:

Staff

A score is made up of several lines called "staves". Each staff is made up of 5 horizontal lines parallel to each other, on which the musical notes are written, indicating the height and duration of the sound.

The lines of the staff are numbered from bottom to top. Therefore, the bottom line corresponds to the first line and the top line corresponds to the fifth.

In a staff, each line and each space between the lines is named after a musical note from a reference determined by the clef. The names of the musical notes are seven: do, re, mi fa, sol, la and si.

Location of the notes on the staff according to the key.

Keys

At the beginning of each staff, a sign is added that tells the reader what the reference note will be to read the lines of the staff. That sign is called a key.

There are three main keys. According to their position, that is, according to the line in which they are located, they give their name to the line, establishing a reference to read the other notes both ascending and descending.

Treble clef

This key is used to represent the sounds from the middle octave upwards (mids and highs) and is usually the best known. The treble clef is located on the second line of the staff, that is, it is written "in second". Thus, the second line will be called the sun and the other notes will be established. For example, the next space will be the one and the previous one will be fa (to see the notes in the treble clef see the box "Location of the notes in the staff according to the clef").

Treble clef symbol

Bass clef

The F key represents the sounds from the middle octave down (mid and bass). It is normally used in fourth position although eventually it is used in third.

F key symbol in fourth

C key

This key is used to represent the sounds of certain types of instruments that have less common tunings, such as the bassoon, tenor trombone, trumpet, etc. It can be used in third or fourth position on the staff.

Key symbol and its third location

C key symbol and its location in fourth

See also Music.

Figures

On the lines and spaces of the pentagram are placed signs called "figures" that indicate the duration of the note, which are called round (represented by the number 1), white (2), black (4), Eighth (8), Sixteenth (16), Fuse (32) and Semi-Fuse (64).

The maximum unit of duration will be the round, which is divided into two white, this two black and so on. Let's look at the following image, which ranges from the round to the sixteenth note:

Silences

Just as there are these figures to represent the duration of sound, there are also signs that represent the duration of silence. Thus, we have silence of round, silence of white, silence of black, silence of eighth note, sixteenth note, half note and half note. The duration of the silences is equivalent to that of the corresponding figures.

Musical time

In music that obeys a specific rhythmic pulse, the staff is divided into bars, which are represented by a perpendicular "bar". When the piece reaches the end of a section, the double bar is used, and when the piece ends, a double bar is used in which the last line is thicker.

Each musical measure is made up of a specific number of time units, which are normally indicated at the beginning of the staff or each time the beat of the measure changes.

That number of time units is represented by a fraction at the beginning of the staff. The lower indicator will express the type of figure and the upper one will express the maximum number of this figure.

For example: if the measure is 3/4 this means that in each measure there will be three quarter notes or figures equivalent to the total value of three quarter notes. Black will be the basic unit of measurement.

It only needs to be repeated when there are pulse changes. Otherwise, the fraction will be used only once throughout the entire piece.

Left oval: compass separation bar. Right oval: double bar, indicating end of the score.

Alterations

Alterations are signs that are placed before a note to indicate that it should be altered half a tone or even a full tone.

The symbol # (sharp), indicates that the note rises half a tone. If the note is to go up one full pitch, double sustain is used (see box).

The symbol ♭ (flat) indicates that the note drops by half a pitch. If the note is to drop a full pitch, double flats are used (see chart).

The symbol ♮ (becuadro) removes a previous alteration.

The full symbols of alterations can be seen in the following table:

Key armor

The armor indicates the key in which a piece of music is. These are represented just after the key. The symbols of the alterations are used to represent them: the sharp and the flat.

When there is no alteration at the beginning of the measure, the piece can correspond to the key of C major or minor (wind).