biowaste
/ˈbʌɪə(ʊ)weɪst/
noun
1. Waste material derived from living organisms or of organic origin (sewage, agricultural or forestry waste, etc.), especially as a potential source of energy.
2. Biomedical waste material consisting of or contaminated with body tissue or fluids, microorganisms, etc.
Most music we hear today is based on chords.
Chords are collections of notes played simultaneously (usually).
When we play these notes one by one instead, we may call them arpeggios.
These are collections of notes as opposed to pitches, meaning that it doesn’t matter how high or low the notes are, as long as they are those corresponding notes (octave equivalency). (e.g. C4 and C5 are different pitches but they are the same note or of the same pitch class.)
The most common chords we would probably learn in school or watching tutorial videos are: major, minor, augmented and diminished.
I would add to that list: suspended 4th.
To get accustomed to what these chords are, let’s use C major scale, a type of what is called a diatonic scale (for C major diatonic scale, think all white keys on piano):
Since a major chord is usually indicated by the root note of that chord (C major chord is written as C), depending on the context, it may be confusing whether an alphabet means a major chord or the individual notes (C major? or the “C” note?). In order to avoid this confusion, if it is an individual note, I will mark this by either: putting “” around the alphabet; or having an integer after the alphabet indicating its octave placement (e.g. C4 as the middle “C”). I will also use the “-” sign to indicate either a succession or a set (as in a scale or a phrase), and the “+” sign to indicate being simultaneously played (as in a chord).
C major diatonic scale:
“C”-“D”-“E”-“F”-“G”-“A”-“B”-“C”
Major chords in C major diatonic scale:
“C” + “E” + “G” = C major = C
“F” + “A” + “C” = F major = F
“G” + “B” + “D” = G major = G
Minor chords in C major diatonic scale:
“D” + “F” + “A” = D minor = Dm
“E” + “G” + “B” = E minor = Em
“A” + “C” + “E” = A minor = Am
Diminished chord in C major diatonic scale:
“B” + “D” + “F” = B diminished = Bdim
Sus4 chords in C major diatonic scale:
“C” + “F” + “G” = C suspended 4th = Csus4
“D” + “G” + “A” = D suspended 4th = Dsus4
“E” + “A” + “B” = E suspended 4th = Esus4
“G” + “C” + “D” = G suspended 4th = Gsus4
“A” + “D” + “E” = A suspended 4th = Asus4
There are no augmented chords in any diatonic scales, but that doesn’t mean that it’s rare. Just think of a major chords with a “sharped” 5th (see next blog post for what that means), which in the case of C major would be:
“C” + “E” + “G♯” = C augmented = Caug
Next blog post will be on scales, since it’s important to know things like what “4th” and “5th” means (mentioned earlier).
biowaste music theory 