Year 11 - Music
Tonality and intervals
Understanding melody and harmony
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
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Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe and identify the different types of tonality, and can identify intervals in context.
Key Notes
- Tonality determines the notes that are used in a piece of music.
- Lots of Western music is diatonic or chromatic, while many traditional styles around the world are modal.
- Atonal music has no key and microtonal music uses notes from in between the semitones.
- Identifying intervals allows musicians to work out musical ideas by ear.
- The simplest way to do this is by comparing intervals to reference songs.
Vocabulary To Learn
- Diatonic: music which uses only notes that are based in the key (e.g. C major or F minor)
- Atonal: music which has no key or tonic note
- Modal: music based on modes, which are a type of scale different from major/minor scales
- Chromatic: music that uses notes from outside of the keys
- Microtonal: music which includes notes between the 12 Western semitones; these small intervals are called microtones
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- If music has a key, it must be diatonic.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Tonality determines the notes that are used in a piece of music. Lots of Western music is diatonic or chromatic, while many traditional styles around the world are modal.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'Diatonic'
music which uses only notes that are based in the key (e.g. C major or F minor).
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: If music has a key, it must be diatonic. Correction: Not necessarily. A piece of music can have a key, but use notes from outside of it. This would be chromatic. It could also have a key, but use some microtones as well, meaning it is microtonal.
More Lessons In This Unit
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