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Chapter 2
Basics of Music
The basic elements of music are melody, rhythm, and harmony. In this chapter we will concern ourselves first with melody, then with rhythm. We cover harmony in Part II.
Do-Re-Mi: The Scale
The heart of singing is do-ray-mee, the scale. You probably sang it in elementary school, "doh, ray, mee, fah, sol, lah, tee, doh."
Sing it to yourself right now. The scale is the path on which the melody of walks. It is the basic list of notes that could be used in a song.
What "Key" Means
Key directly affects how well you sing. The "key" is the note on which a scale (Doh-ray-mee) begins. A scale can begin on any one of twelve different notes. In other words, you can start the doh-ray-mee on any one of twelve different "doh's." The "key" is the name of the particular note your scale starts on.
Why is this important? If your song is in a key that begins on a note that is too high, you will strain your voice on the highest notes. You will not be able to sing using the strongest part of your voice system. If the key is too low, that is, if the scale begins on too low a note, you will not be able to sing the lowest notes of the song clearly, or loud enough. The audience will know the difference.
What the "Right Key" Means
If the song's notes do not strain your voice, either at the high end, or the low end, then the song is said to be "in the right key" for you.
This is very important. Notes that do not strain your voice sound better, which means you will sing better. Too many karaoke singers sing in the wrong key. And the audience can tell something's wrong.
Key Exercise
Sing a scale (doh-ray-mee) up to the top "do," and back down again.
Next, start on a higher note. Sing the scale up and down. Now start another scale on yet a higher note. Now start it on a lower note. Try some more starting points. Experience how these are all in different keys.
Intervals
Try this.
1) Sing doh, then ray. Now, do and mee. Now, doh-fa, doh-sol, doh-la, doh-tee, doh-doh.
2) Now let's go downward. Sing high doh down to ti. Then doh-la, doh-sol, doh-fa, doh-mee, doh-ray, doh-doh.
3) Now sing them in any order. Mix them up randomly.
This exercise is good for your voice, and good for understanding the scale.
Rhythm Patterns
The rhythm is what you clap your hands to, or dance to. It is almost always a repeated pattern. Notice that when you clap or dance, it is not along with the melody or the words of the song, but rather to what is called the "beat." The beat is different from the melody. The beat is a simple counting "0ne, two, three, four," that repeats itself over and over in a song.
Counting Beats
The song "Happy Birthday" begins on the fourth beat of a four beat pattern. It does not begin on the first beat. Try this exercise. While tapping your foot to the beat, sing "one, two, three, Happy Birth―day to you," then stop. Notice how the count of three put you in the right place to start: on the fourth beat. The song does not begin on the first count. This is true for most songs.
Every song has its own start point. This is the number of counts after the track music has started. If you know how many counts (beats) there are from the beginning of the track music to the start of the song itself, you will always start singing at the right moment.
Another time you'll need to count is during sections of the song where you don't sing. Sometimes these are filled with instruments playing a solo, sometimes with silence. By counting the beats silently to yourself, you will always know when the spaces come to an end, and so to resume singing.
Practice finding the start points of songs. You can do this in your head, or you can listen to songs on the radio or tapes, etc. When you go out to sing, as you listen to other singers, figure out the start points of some songs you'd like to sing.
