GCSE Music Revision notes

Pavan and Galliard - 8 Key Facts

1. Court Dance – Danced only by the nobility – not us commoners – danced at big formal parties

2. Renaissance Period - time of Queen Elizabeth I (Shakespeare in Love)

3. Couples – danced in group of couples

4. Pair or Dances – Pavan is a different dance and type of music to the Galliard. Used played as a pair.

– (Pavan then the Galliard)

5. Pavan a. Two beats in a bar – duple time

b. Slow – slow dance stepts (walking pace)

c. Grand + Stately - movements – like a procession

d. Ostinato rhythm - (long, short short)

6. The Galliard

a. Three Beats – triple time

b. Fast - high jumps, skips, kicks in the air

c. Liviely

d. Dotted rhythm

e. Syncopation rhythm 7. Concort – the group of players

a. Whole Concort - Like band but with the same type of instrument e.g. recorder concert made

up of different sized recorders

b. Brocken Consort - - A Band with instruments from different families

c. Type and Size – depending on the how many people coming to the dance

8. Main Instruments

a. Lute + Theorbo (big lute – played bass line) –String instruments that was plucked – a little

like the guitar

b. Viol – upright violin – different sizes. Could have a viol concort

c. Recorder - different sizes Could have a recorder concort. (descant, treble, tenor, bass)

d. Crumhorn - like an early oboe (double reed) Could have a recorder concort

Viennnese Waltz

1. Vienna – people first started dancing waltzes in the Austrian city of Vienna

2. Ballroom - the Viennese Waltz was played in a ballroom

3. Romantic Period – Time of queen Victoria

4. Saucy – first time people held each other closely

5. Triple Time – 3 beats in a bar or ¾ time signature

6. Fast – under a second per bar

7. Clear Tune - a waltz has a clear, dominante, strong tune backed up by accompanying chords.

8. Homophonic Texture – this clear, dominant tune with backed up by accompanying chords is called

a homophonic texture

9. Oom Cha Cha, Oom Cha Cha – rhythmic feel. Oom is strong and the Cha(s) are weaker.

10. Oom Cha Cha, Oom Cha is played in the accompanying chords

11. Simple chords – I IV V (primary chords)

12. At least one bar per chord - the same chords is played for at least one bar, and sometimes 2 or 4

bars.

13. Harmonic Rhythm – the speed of chord change is called the harmonic rate

14. Slow harmonic rhythm – therefore, the Viennese Waltz has a slow harmonic rate

15. Appoggiaturas and chromatic notes – As the chords can get a bit borring the tune is sometimes

embellished or decorated to spice it up

16. Johann Strauss the Younger – this guy is a famous composer of Waltz

17. Big Romantic Orchestras – Viennese Waltzes were played by large orchestras. – lots of different

instruments – larger percussion section

18. Spread beyond the Ballroom – the Waltz was so popular that it spead into other styles of music.

E.g. Piano solos, musicals, Operas, Orchestral Symphonies

Disco - 23 Key facts

1. Dance music of the 1970s – started in USA, music roots were soul, jazz and funk

2. Night Clubs – Amplifiers and loud speakers meant for the first time meant that many people could

dance in a night club with a DJ leading instead of the big band leader

3. Danced on Own – people danced on their own so the could show others their moves

4. Strong beat – 4 beats in a bar at 120 beats per minute.

5. Simple Beat – This made it easy to dance to.

6. Catchy Tune – or Hook – this is a short tune (phrase) that people will easily stick in the minds.

7. Verse –Chorus Structure - A posh name for this sort of structure is called a Strophic Structure. -

Intro verse, chorus verse chorus …..

8. 8 bars long – in many disco song the verse and chorus are 8 bars long

9. Middle 8 or Bridge – the verse chorus structure can get a bit boring. So they put a new and different

section in to add some difference. This section was normally 8 bars long. (hence the middle 8) and

yes it came roughly in the middle of the song. It had new chords, new lyrics and a new feel.

10. Fade out – this is so the DJ can mix it with the beginning of another record.

11. Lead Guitar – played the solo tunes

12. Rhythm Guitar – strums to a rhythm the chords. Often the guitar player would use the side of their

hands to mute the guitar sound. This is called “palm muting”

13. Bass Guitar – Disco music has a short rhythmic heavy sounding bass line

14. Riff – the bass guitar and other instruments often play riffs

15. Brass Stabs – added for the occasional “parp” “parp” sound They are call brass Stabs

16. Syncopation - chords and tune are heavily syncopated against a very simple and steady drum

backing beat (pattern)

17. Sweeping Strings (violins) – used to fill gaps between other sounds.

18. Drum Kit, Drum Machine – many disco tracks use live drum kit and electric drum machines at the

same time. A drum machine is a box where you programme in you drum patterns and the box plays

them.

19. Bass drum - plays on every beat

20. Snare and Claps – play on beat 2 and 4. (clap sound wouldhave been from the drum machine)

21. hi-hat – this would play on the off beat. (normally open sound not closed)

22. Drum Pattern – disco drum patterns play all the way through and hardly ever change.

23. Beegees, The Jackson Five, Donna Summer – These are famous Disco artists

Salsa - 6 Key Facts

1. Latin America - From Latin America

2. Son - Develop from the dance style called Son (combination music from Spanish colonised Cuba

and African Slaves)

a. Clave rhythm – repeating rhythm from using two stick from African slaves

b. Maracas + Bongos – repeated rhythms

c. Syncopated Rhythms– used syncopated rhythms

d. Cross Rhythms – different rhythms played at the same time

e. Call and response -

3. Big Band Jazz – 1930s American Big band jazz style was combined with Son

a. Big band instruments – trumpets, saxophones

b. Jazz chords – chords with added notes

c. Riffs – short repeated tunes

d. Imitation – one section of the band repeats what another section has done

e. Comping – chords on the piano or guitar that accompany the tune.

4. Main sections a. Front Line (Horns) – 1 or 2 - Trumpets or Saxophones – (play tune)

b. Vocals

i. soneros = (1 or 2 – lead vocalists)

ii. choro = the chorus singers

5. Rhythm section a. Piano

b. Guitar

c. Bass

d. Traditional Latin American percussion instruments

i. Congas (drums)

ii. Timbales (tom tom like drums but smaller)

iii. Clave (two sticks hit to gether)

iv. Cow Bell

v. Bongos (drum)

vi. Maracas (shaker)

vii. Guire (scrape)

viii. Drum kit

6. Three Main sections – can appear in any order

a. Verse = sung by sonero or played by instrumentists

b. Montuno – kind of chorus where the sonero /lead instrumentalist and choro / other

instrumentalist answer

c. Mambo - kind of bridge between choruses. New music material – chords/tune.

Also

d. Introduction

e. Ending f. Breaks - main tune butts out and just hear the rhythmic section

Bhangra - 8 key facts

1. folk dance - Originally a type of folk dance

2. Punjab - From the Punjab (Northern India and Pakistan)

3. Dhol – double headed Indian drum (two different drum pitches)

4. Chaal - rhythm – played on the Dhol

5. Bhangra started in UK in 1980s

6. Mix Style - Asian musicians mix the Chaal rhythm with western music – hip hop, disco, rap, reggae,

drum and bass

7. Western Instruments - Used western instruments bass guitar, electric, synthesizers

8. Music technology, - multi tracking and Sequences (not computers) – Sampling, Drum machines, Reverb,

DJ scratching techniques

Minimalism - 11 Key facts

1. Western music 1960s,1970s

2. Can be very long and hypnotic

3. Rhythm more important than tune

4. Polyrhythm or cross rhythms - different rhythms playing at the same time that go against each other

5. Layering

6. harmonies slowly change

7. Loops

a. constantly repeated idea or cell

b. Cell is - short and simple

c. Repeated in different ways

d. No tune

e. Harmonies made by layering patterns on top of the other.

f. There layere patterns take a long time to change

8. Changing the loops

a. Additive melody - one note is added on each repetition of the melody

b. Metamorphosis – tiny changes to a note’s pitch or rhythm are made on each repetition of the

pattern

c. Phase shifting - this is where the same pattern is repeated by two different performers. On

each repetition a note is added or taken away from on of the parts. This makes the parts go

out of sync slightly and if you played them long enough they would go back in sync again.

d. Layering

i. Play different lenghth loops against each other. E.g. a 4 bar loop and a 5 bar loop. (similar

effect to phase shifting

ii. Cross rhythms – different rhythms playing at the same time that go against each other

10. Music technology

a. sequencers and tape machine

b. multi tracking

c. sampling d. backing track – recorded backing tracks playing along with live recordings

11. Origins - Minimalism uses music ideas from all over the world

a. Africa – master drum leads changes in patterns

b. West Africa – complicated cross rhythms

c. Gamelan( from Indonesia)– layered parts all playing versions of the same tune

d. Non western based on repeating patterns - looping

e. Gamelan – Indian music – little use of harmony

The Blues

1. African Slaves – Blues started of in the salve plantations in the Southern States of America

2. Lyrics – the lyrics were often about hardship and misery – This is where the term you are sad if

you’ve got the blues comes from

3. Blending – the blues is a mixture of European music and African slave musical styles

4. Call and Response - from Africa – main singer does a musical call – other performs respond

5. Chords – from Europe – Chords I, IV V

6. Traditional Blues – used:- Harmonica - Guitar - Banjo - Piano - Double bass

7. Spread – over the whole of America 1920s , 1940 spread to Europe – (war years)

8. Blues Scale – this is similar to a major scale but certain notes have been flattened. (made lower) – 3rd

+ 7th

9. Blues Notes – these flattened notes are called blues notes

10. 12 Bar Blues – This is a chord pattern 12 bars long. I - I – I - I – IV - IV – I - I - V - IV - I - I

11. Bass Riff – used a short repeating pattern of notes in the bass line

12. Swing Rhythm – long short feel giving the music a swinging feel

13. Syncopation – rhythms mostly play between the gaps in the beats (off beat)

14. Influenced nearly all other Pop Styles - 50s rock and roll – hard rock – rap

The Elements of Music - 42 Key Facts

1. Music Ingredients – the elements are the ingredients that go into making a piece of music. If

you use the ingredients in different ways at the end you will come out with different styles of

music. Pop music uses the ingredients in different ways to classical music. How you use the

musical ingredients will determine how your piece will sound.

3. Polly Rode The Donkey In The Supermarket – To remember all seven simple remember -

Polly Rode The Donkey In The Supermarket

4. Pitch - Polly - P for Pitch - Rhythm - Rode – R for Rhythm - Tempo - The – T for Tempo -

Dynamics - Donkey – D for Dynamics - Instruments and Sounds – In - for Instruments and

Sounds - Texture - The – T for Texture - Structure – Supermarket for Structure

11. High Low – Pitch is about how high or low the notes are

12. Length of note – Rhythm is about how long the notes last. Notes are measured in beats

13. Speed – Tempo is about the speed of the music. We normal say the music has a fast or slow beat.

14. Loudness – Dynamics is about the loudness or volume of the music

15. Type of Sound – This is about the different types of sound the instruments make. Another posh

word that some people use for this is timbre or tone quality

16. Combining tunes and rhythms - Texture is about the different ways we can mix our tunes and

rhythms. If we make up a tune we could just play it on its own or we could combine it with

another different tune or another different rhythm say played on a drum. Better still we could

combine our tune with chords played on the guitar.

17. Order – Structure is about what comes next in your music. It is about what order you put your

tunes and rhythms in. If you have 3 different tunes, lets could them tune A, tune B, Tune C, they

could be ordered in many different ways. E.g. A B C or A A B B C C or A B A C A or A A B A.

The different ways you can order you ideas are endless.

18. Chords – notes played at the same time –

19. Harmony – this means the same as chords

20. Melody/Tune – this are notes played one after another (separately)

21. Phrase – this is a bit (part) of a melody. Different phrases are put together to make longer

complete sounding melodies.

22. Scale – There are only 12 different named notes in music. These are the 12 different black and

white notes on the keyboard. Melodies and do not use all of these 12 notes. Some are left out and

not used. A scale tell us which notes we are allowed to use. The are many different types of

scales and each has a different and distinct sound. Two of the most common types of scales are

major scales and minor scales. Some people say minor scales sound sad and major scales sound

happy. Major and Minor scales are not the only type of scale there are many other different types.

23. Interval – this is the gap between two different notes. If the notes are close together the interval

(gap) is small. If the notes are far apart then the interval (gap) is large.

24. Major Scale – this is the most common type of scale. Major scales only have 7 notes. There are

many different major scales in music - one for each letter name in music. (A) - (A# or Bb) – (B) –

(C) – (C# or Db) – (D) – (D# or Eb) – (E) – (F) – (F# or Gb) – (G) – (G# or Ab).

25. Minor Scale – This is another common type of scale. Some people say minor scales sound sad.

Like major scales it also only uses 7 notes.

26. Pentatonic Scale – this is a very old type of scale that is used in folk music. All pentatonic scales

have five notes.

27. Modal Music – this is very old music that uses a type of scale called a mode. Modal music and

modal scales were used in old church music - called Plainsong (this is a scale the monks used

when sing in monasteries and churches). Also rock lead guitarist like to solo using a modal scale.

28. Off beat - This is the gap between the beats. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. The “and” is the off beat.

In reggae music the chords always play on the off beat. This gives reggae its light feel.

29. Syncopation – This is a rhythm where the main notes are played in between the beats.

Syncopated rhythms are used a lot in Pop, Salsa and Jazz.

30. Dotted rhythm – this is another common type of rhythm. It is a long note followed by a short

note. (Long short, long short …..)

31. rit - this is where the music slows down. It is often used at the end of pieces.

32. rubato – this is when the speed of the music is changes very often to make the music sound more

expressive and dramatic. It was used a lot in the Romantic period.

33. accelerando - this is when the music gradually gets faster. Like a rit. it is also used at the end of

pieces.

34. monophony (texture)– this is where only one melody is heard. It is sung or played by only one

person.

35. Unison (texture)– this is again where only one melody is heard like it is sung or played by many

people.

36. polyphony (texture)– this is where many different melodies are played at the same time. This is

used a lot in very old music.

37. Layered texture – this is where different sounds are layered on top of each other.

38. homophony – this is the where you hear a main tune accompany by backing music which plays

the chords. This is used a lot in pop songs

39. riff – this a short phrase that is repeated over and over again. If it is played low in the bass it is

called a bass riff. But it can be played higher up as well. Rock, jazz, soul, blues, pop, disco all use

riffs.

40. ostinato – this is where a rhythm is repeated over and over. Yes it is very similar to a riff. Riff

and ostinato can mean the same thing.

41. binary – this is a piece that has two main sections, Section A then Section B = AB

42. ternary this is where a piece has three sections – Section A then Section B then Section A again

= ABA