Two Directions

Music · Page 1 of 2

Name Date
DIRECTIONS: Compare the two pictures. What changed?
1Compare the two pictures
→
2Read why they differ
→
3Turn over: 5 questions

What you can already read

Three quarter notes and a half note, all at one height, like a drum part.

The same four notes, moved up and down

Same four lengths, same order. Now it is a tune.
A note's position tells you two things.
How far across it is — that is when it happens.
How far up it is — that is how high it sounds.
So written music is a graph: time along the bottom, pitch up the side.

Two Directions — Reading It Back

Music · Page 2 of 2

DIRECTIONS: Look at the two pictures on page 1.
  1. What is the same about the two pictures, and what is different? Say it in one sentence each.
  2. On the second picture, which note is the highest? Is it also the longest?
  3. A graph in math has two axes. Say what each axis is on a piece of written music.
  4. Why does a drum part get written on one line instead of five? Answer with what a drum cannot do.
  5. A note is moved further to the right but stays at the same height. What changed about the sound, and what did not?