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Valencia, thank you for your replies and your questions. This kind of reply helps the thread, because it points the way to what needs more explanation. I appreciate your willingness to ask questions and say "I don't know."

I'm going to take the questions one at a time per post, and take the occasion to add some information that you may already know, but that may be helpful to those just starting out.



Time signature. Yes, the top number "3" tells us there are 3 of something in a measure. The bottom number "4" tells us that quarter notes are being counted. So, 3 quarter notes (or the equivalent, e.g. 1 dotted half note) per measure.

In Happy Birthday 1, each quarter note gets a beat. The downbeat (the first beat of each measure) is typically the strongest beat in 3/4 time. Sing Happy Birthday and feel how the strong downbeats match up with the words.

There is something interesting about the beats in Happy Birthday, at least the way I hear it, which is that "to" on beat 3 sounds about as emphasized as "you" on beat 1. So basic 3/4 time would sound like this:

hap-py BIRTH-day to YOU.
hap-py BIRTH-day to YOU.
hap-py BIRTH-day dear BACH.
hap-py BIRTH-day to YOU.

But I hear it more like this:

hap-py BIRTH-day TO YOU.
hap-py BIRTH-day TO YOU.
hap-py BIRTH-day dear BACH.
hap-py BIRTH-day TO YOU.

Note names. You asked about crotchets and quavers. The translation between American and English note names is:

double whole note = breve
whole note = semibreve
half note = minim
quarter note = crotchet
eighth note = quaver
sixteenth note = semiquaver

Wikipedia on Note value shows further subdivisions, and also shows what each type of note looks like. We shall see which language people here on this thread speak .

When a piece has lyrics, they affect the musical interpretation: we shape the musical interpretation to serve the lyrics. For example, although in the normal verse of Happy Birthday I hear the climax in line 3, when singing the alternate verse I hear the climax in line 4:

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
you look like a monkey
AND YOU SMELL LIKE ONE TOO.

Think about how you might play this differently if you're accompanying the normal verse or the other verse. Which notes might you make louder? Where might you play the notes in an emphasized "marcato" way, and where might you play them legato (or might you choose staccato)? Not, you know, that children singing this verse are in the setting of a piano player carefully matching their playing to the children's teasing, but just in case you find yourself in that situation...

(OK, raise your hand if you're fortunate enough never to have heard this verse .)

I alluded to this in my post immediately prior to yours. It's the melodic climax bringing out the cadence.

A closer look at time signature - particular hangups that occur

When teaching time signature and also helping troubleshoot problems, we became aware of sources of confusion with some concepts. I'd like to take a closer look at some of the things I teach. My fascination is usually with what lies underneath, which includes the rudiments. Call me the microscope zoom-in person.

As everyone has said, time signature consists of two numbers one on top of the other. Top number: how many beats in a measure - Bottom number: which note value (quarter, eighth = crotchet etc.) "gets the beat". Let's zoom in on each of these concepts (for those who are interested).

beat in a measure (top number):
This is our "meter" and gives a rhythm to the music. Richard has mentioned the waltz rhythm that we often have in 3/4 time, and of course in beer fest type waltzes there is a very strong /OOM Pah Pah /OOM Pah Pah/ = /1-2-3-/1-2-3-/ Each OOM (1) is the start of a measure, and there is a steady pulse from one OOM to the next OOM. The "beat" itself is each of these numbers. It's what musicians call out as "1-2-3-1-2-3" before starting to play. This gives all of them a common heartbeat to play along. The numbers themselves tell us what to count, while the OOM bit gives an underlying rhythm.

Other meters have other typical rhythms. 4/4 time generally goes: STRONG weak Middle weak. In advanced music, composers play with the rhythms we expect to hear by doing things with note values that throw it somewhere else, which gives some powerful overall effects. Closer to home - a lot of music is closely related to dances, and will emphasize a particular beat. If you get a piece like a Gavotte, do have fun and google period dancers to get a feel for what lies underneath this music originally.

The note getting the beat (bottom number) - and note value:
Unfortunately often beginner music sticks with 4 always being on the bottom. You see 4/4, 3/4, and maybe 2/4. So people associate "quarter note" with "beat". Then when they see 3/8 or 2/2 later on, it throws them for a loop. So from the onset, realize that the note that is counted for the "beat" can be any note value - whatever is on the bottom. If it's 4 as in 3/4 time, then each quarter note is one beat. If it's 8, then each eighth note is one beat. Etc. Do not allow yourself to create an association where the quarter note is the beat.

A related concept is "note value" which seems to get tangled up with beats. So here is a way of looking at note values. They are relative to each other in proportions like this:
1 quarter note = 2 eighth notes, so 1 eighth note = half the length of a quarter note. So in the time of 1 quarter note, you could play 2 eighth notes.
1 half note = 2 quarter notes, so in the time of a half note you could play 2 quarter notes, which also means 4 eighth notes would fit in.
You can find many note value trees showing you these relationships.

google results - note value tree

You can use this information to help you work out your music. If you have eighth notes and half notes and quarter notes in a measure in LH and RH, you can work out relationships by maybe using the smallest unit or whatever. This is separate from "beat". It is purely how one note value relates to the other note values.

We then go back to beat. You have your 3/4 time, you know that the quarter note gets the beat. Since two eighth notes fit in the time of one quarter note, you know that "hap-py" in the pickup bar fits into one beat. Just know how these relate separate from beat, so that you can use them at will when music gets more complicated.

A note about practising / preparing music

Our musicians stand on stage, one person says a cool, "ONE two three ONE two three". They've all got the beat, the pulse, and they play together as if they share a heartbeat. If they are professionals and have played this kind of music for a long time, they might even do their first rehearsals that way, and before that, get the music up to speed quickly in private practising. What we see on stage is the finished product, the "final illusion" as one teacher puts it.

When we practice and prepare a piece, we're taking it apart and putting it together. If you have some complicated notes coming together, you may see how one note value fits together with the other and not concern yourself with rhythm or beat. Then when you've worked that one out in your body and mind, you can add the beat at a slow tempo, and then speed it up over time. If you can hear a ONE two three waltz, but your body is not yet ready to produce that ONE, then build what you can build - just the timing - later the rest will come. Musicians learning pieces take the music apart and put it together again. The final illusion comes in rehearsal to some degree, and on stage.

This is an important point, and a few years ago I almost got caught out by this. Letter name chords have only been adopted recently for classical music since the traditional Roman Numerals are limited in what they can do.

I was trying to stay very simple. When we have a "first inversion" C major chord in the key of C, we can say "first inversion C major chord, "C major chord with E on the bottom" (which is expressed as "C/E"), or I6 or we can just stick a 6 underneath. But for people just starting out in theory, what I want to bring across is that a C chord is a C chord is a C chord regardless of how the notes belonging to that chord are arranged. 2. One of the notes of that chord sit on the bottom. The easiest way to express this is as C/E because that tells us "This is a C chord - E is on the bottom." The note on the bottom becomes important when we look at the movement of the bass line later on (if we do).

In actual fact, the note on the bottom of a "slash chord" tells us what note is on the bottom. Sometimes that note doesn't belong to the chord at all, or the note is part of a more complicated chord than our simple triads. Any chord Y/n tells us that "n is on the bottom". Should we go that far now, or just mention it in passing?

This is the nugget of information I wanted to point to, briefly at this point, by including that non-snowman chord at the start of measure 7 in Happy Birthday 1.

One might ask, why put the notes in a different order? In measure 7, I did it so that both chords (C chord for a half note, then G chord for a quarter note) would have the same note at the bottom: G.

The "root" of the chord is the note that gives the chord its basic name. In a snowman chord, the root is at the bottom of the chord. But the notes can be arranged in different orders as keystring has illustrated, and then the root might not be at the bottom. For example in the C chord in Happy Birthday 1 at the start of measure 7, the note at the bottom is G but the root is C. Eventually we'll talk about how to find the root in non-snowman chords, but we don't need to know that for Happy Birthday 1.

Expanding on a couple of things that were mentioned.

Key signature - As Richard stated. No flats or sharps will give us either C major or its relative minor, A minor. Music will have lots of V and I chords, one often leading to the other. The V of C major is G, while the V of A minor is E. So if you see lots of C, F (IV of C major), G then it's probably in C major. The final chord will probably be C. If you see lots of Am, Dm, E (with G# accidentals) (iv and V of A minor), then you know it's in A minor.

You may also hear that the music seems to center around C and G, or A and Em. The minor music may also have a different, sad or blue sound to it.

Harmony - defining concepts/words that were mentioned
There are 7 triads formed from the bottom note of the key, if you use only the notes of that key. Each has a name and often has a function with a function name (per Richard's post).

In C major, going up the scale C,D,E,F,G,A,B

I (Tonic) = CEG = C (major)
The tonic note is the main note that the music settles on
ii (Supertonic) = DFA = Dm, not important for now.
iii (Mediant) = EGB = Em, not important for now.
IV (Subdominant) = FAC = F (major) - it matters
V GBD (Dominant) = GBD = G (major) mega important
vi ACE (Submediant) = Am, not important for now
viio BDF (leading note chord) = B diminished. not for now.

The chords that are mentioned the most often are I, IV, V. The names aren't important, but if they're mentioned, it's handy to know what that's about.

There is one more chord: G7 = V7. GBDF This is a very important chord, because the movement of V7 to I (G7=>C) is a very strong movement. Play it where it occurs on the music and hear it. Our G7 - GBDF also contains BDF (viio) which also gives a weaker version of that movement toward the Tonic.

The reason G7 is so strong is as follows:
F => E
D => C or E
B => C
G => G

F is only a semitone away from E so it wants very strongly to slide down to that E. B is a semitone from C, and is the "leading note" so it wants to reach to C. Our ear strains for that resolution and then it comes.

G7 also contains the "tritone". Play BF. It is an uneasy sound, and was actually banned at one time as being too unsettling. When it resolves, the music feels "settled".

Last element: non-chord notes in Happy Birthday (melody).

At the most basic level of writing music, the notes you use for the melody will be the notes contained in the chord. So if you have a C chord, you use C,E or G. But those aren't the only notes you see.

One simple kind of non-chord note is the "passing tone". Say I have a C chord and I want my melody to rise C,E,G. I might want to have eighth notes and create a scale C,D,E,F,G. The D "passes" from C to E, and the F "passes from E to G. They're not on the beat so we barely even notice them. Our ear is fixed on the C,E,G. I did this in my illustration of stems for two voices.

Another device is used a lot in Happy Birthday. The first note of the first beat often is not part of the chord. It slides into the chord note on the second beat. You hear a tension which makes this beat stronger. I've heard it described as a "sigh". We have this in measures 2, 4, 6 beat 1 going into beat 2 each time. Richard has given us the name appoggiatura, which comes from an Italian word meaning "to lean".

Thanks for this info, the voicing was what my question was referring to specifically. My teacher just mentioned it in passing and this clarifies it. Any differences in how you play those notes on the piano?

(I wonder how this page can get resized).

Yes. I should add that while I know things that can be done at the piano, I am just getting the skills to do them. At the elementary level, you learn to play the melody more strongly than the accompaniment. I found it a coordination task just to do that in the beginning, in crude exaggerated manner. As you get better, you will bring out dynamics in the melody, and as the music gets more complicated, you'll be bringing out certain notes for emphasis. The melody might drift into the bass, or a middle line.

For my "stems" version, I might try to play the upper voice more strongly than the bottom, if I was capable of it. I'm actually hearing two singers (literally), and maybe there's a guitar or something doing nifty things with the chords.

Mark, your inbox is full.

Key, and key signature:

Good for you for remembering about C major. The key signature is the set of sharps or flats that appear between the clef and the time signature; or in the case of C major and A minor, no sharps and flats at all. For each key signature, there is one major key and one minor key it might be. How do you tell which one? There are various things you can look at:

• the final note of the melody
• the final bass note (lowest note)
• the name of the final chord
• the pattern of which chords are used overall
• the pattern of whether there's a consistent accidental or accidentals (that is, sharps or flats or natural signs used within the piece, apart from the key signature).
• major or minor: whether the piece sounds "happy" or "sad" (some people can hear this easily, and other people don't hear it so much)
• the note that the piece seems to hover around and/or return to (I can't hear this at all, but some people can)

All of these can have exceptions, but I mention them as general areas to think about. We'll look in more detail at each of them as we look at more pieces. For Happy Birthday 1, no sharps or flats in the key signature tells me C major or A minor. The last note of the melody is C, so that suggests C major for the key. Also the last chord is C major, so that suggests C major for the key. Also the chords used in the arrangment are C and G (both used a lot), and F (once), and that's a pattern that suggests C major for the key, for reasons that others have touched on and I'll also say something about when I talk about chords.

In the interests of full disclosure: it is also possible for the key of a piece to be different than what the key signature shows, by using accidentals. It is also possible for the piece to be in something called a "mode" instead of in a major or minor key. But we won't see any of these for a while, and I'll flag them up when we meet these situations.

A warmup exercise: look at any books of music you have. See if you can figure out the key of various pieces. In particular, check the key signature, the final melody note, and the final bass (lowest) note. Also the final chord, if you know enough about chords already to name it.

This is a warmup exercise to self-evaluate what you know already, or what you can find out with a little review from whatever resources you have if you want to do a little self-study. Your results may be "gee, I don't know any keys beyond C major yet!" and that's perfectly fine.

Later on in the thread we'll come back to this in more depth, after we start meeting more pieces in different keys. Then I'll talk more about keys, and what all the key signatures are, and how to remember the key signatures, and major and minor keys and their relationships, and so on, and we'll practice on more pieces.

I wasn't able to figure out phrase marks in MuseScore (those long arcs over groups of notes) which would have been helpful for this question. (JohnSprung, I am definitely going to look up the MuseScore discussion forums; thank you for that suggesion.) I was thinking that people would answer it using the knowledge of the lyrics to help: every two measures, after the half note.

But given that I couldn't find how to insert phrase marks, I think it's serendipitous because you raise an excellent question: how do you find phrases?

For this piece, your idea of using the longer notes as a suggestion of where to phrase is certainly a reasonable idea to try (and does indeed match up with the lyrics). I don't have a conscious set of principles that I can articulate for this (apart from "phrase at the cadences", and we'll find out more about cadences later), but as we return to this question in future pieces I hope we will as a group be able to come up with ideas for how to determine phrasing.

What an instructive thread! I missed 2 says and I'm catching up (especially with chord theory).

Back to the climax of the melody: not always there are lyrics, but if you sing the melody instead of playing it you can figure it out better. My teacher gave me such advice, unfortunately I'm not able to sing well but it's enough to have an idea.

Oh Lord, I hate time zones! There is so much to read now, and it's time for me to go to bed! Sigh

FYI, my vote goes to a thread for each piece of music.

Might be a good idea to have a template of how to attack each piece like:

Title
Time Signature
Key
Dynamics
Chords
etc

Are you using the Urtext? My copy has 'you were born in a zoo' for the second line.

Let's make sure the word "analysis" doesn't start at the 19th letter of any new threads. It's a bit awkward on the overview page

Also, major vs minor:

a sad birthday to you
a sad birthday to you
a sad birthday you ba-ach
a sad birthday to you

To whit:

This uses exactly the same chord progressions (I, IV, V) except that in a minor key we have a choice of Em or E. Measure 3 uses G#BD which is the vii chord, and it is also the top of EG#BD (the V7 chord of A minor). The music is the same but different simply by being put into a minor key.

If you leave out the sharps everywhere, you will get a more Medieaval sound.


The ending would be better like this, so that the bass ends on A for a strong finish, saying "this is in A minor".

P.S., would anyone like to analyze this for what is the same and different, in the same way as the original Happy Birthday?

(I made a recording but am leaving it out on second thought, to give people a chance to try it on their own).

wow so much helpful information in this thread! thanks to everyone for all these contributions! I've read through today but will definitely need to spend more time on the posts tomorrow as there is a lot here to learn. I *will* have questions.