The direct answer is “no”. If you’re a child of our computer and synthesizer age you might think the last thing you need to know is music theory. With machines, sequencers and beat boxes in almost every modern studio, all you need to do is appear and the backing track is created, or so it seems.

Now more than ever there is a need for real musicians to really PLAY their instrument. We instinctively respond to the emotion generated by people actually playing and interpreting their music.

A by-product of technology is that ‘90s musicians lacked the musical ability of the pop musicians of the '60's and ‘70s. While its good if we enjoy these tracks from people with little conventional musical skill, there is a much deeper path to follow. Remember knowledge is power. Use your music theory knowledge powerfully and watch the comprehension of your instrument’s sounds soar!

Introducing Pitch

Think of a simple song like “Yesterday” by the Beatles. If you play or sing the first line of this tune “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away” you will notice that it’s made up eight different notes. As you sing or play through this phrase, the sound of each note rises higher or lower than the last one. This variation is called pitch.

Playing notes to the right on a keyboard makes the pitch higher; the opposite direction makes it lower. On a stringed instrument like the guitar, by moving the hand along the fingerboard towards the bridge the pitch increases; moving towards the tuning pegs causes the pitch to decrease.

Every note you hear sung or played on a musical instrument has its own pitch. The pitch of a note can be defined scientifically in terms of the frequency of its sound waves. Similarly, in music, a pitch is a fixed sound which can be identified using a series of letters starting with A to G.

Doubling the frequency of a note increases its pitch by an octave. Within that octave, there are twelve equal divisions called half steps. By playing through each of these divisions you will move from the starting note to the octave in 12 steps.

Now, here’s some practice for you: Start to hum a note, holding its pitch steady for a few seconds. Now gradually increase pitch while you are humming. At some point – and you will notice when this happens – you will hit a note which naturally sounds very similar to the one you started with. Even though this new note is clearly higher in pitch than the first, both of them would be given the same name. These two notes which you have just sung are separated in pitch by a fixed interval called an octave.

Naming the Notes

The notes A through G are represented in written music using a grid of five horizontal lines known as a staff or stave. A variety of symbols are placed on or between the lines to indicate the pitch of a note and how long it is to be played. But what about sharps and flats? Since the “white” notes (on a keyboard) have already been allocated a sequence of letters between A and G, it seems reasonable that the black notes should take their names from the white notes they sit between. Depending on whether the black note (on the keyboard) is higher or lower in pitch than the white note it will be given the designation of either sharp or flat. Sharps go up half a step and flats go down a half step.