This is the first crit for my project. My idea is to generate music using the MFM. I might be using Virtual Keyboard to demonstrate some of the ideas in this presentation. As the topic progress further down the page, that signals that they are more complicated and I will only try to implement them as the previous things start to work in my project.

If you go to the Wikipedia page on Music Theory, it sums all of this up very nicely, so I am just going to cut and paste some of the main points of the first few topics.

Pitch is the “high-ness” or “low-ness” of a tone. For example, the difference between a middle C and a higher C.

An Interval is the distance between two tones. The basic intervals are the unison, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and octave. Each interval can be varied to be either major or minor (along with a couple of other things). Major usually sounds upbeat and happy while minor usually sounds sad or angry.

A Scale is any set of music notes ordered by their fundamental pitch. A Mode is a type of scale that has a certain set of melodic behaviors. Different modes give your music a different feeling. For example, the Ionian mode (or Major scale) gives a song a happy sound. The Aeolian mode (or natural minor scale) gives a song a sad sound. There are lots of other modes that can give music a different feel.

Consonance and Dissonance are subjective qualities that vary in different cultures and over time. Consonance is the quality of an interval or chord that makes it seem stable or complete. Dissonance is the opposite. Dissonant intervals and chords feel incomplete, like they want to “resolve” to a consonant interval or chord. A key thing to note is that context is very important. For example, in a Debussy prelude, a major second may sound consonant, while the same interval may sound dissonant in a Bach fugue. Dissonance is an essential element of music and is used not only for effect, but as a structural element to create motion and tension.

A Chord is a group of tones sounding simultaneously. Chords are often made with three pitches, but can be made with other numbers of pitches. Like intervals, chords can be classified as major or minor. Chords are important because of their significance in harmony, tension, and release.

Rhythm is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature specifies how many beats are in a grouping or measure and what the value of a single beat in that grouping is. This is a topic that I will not be focusing on at first with this project because of how complicated this will be to implement in the MFM.

A Melody is a series of tones sounding in succession that typically move toward a climax or tension and then resolve to a state of rest. The melody is usually the most prominent part of a piece of music and it's what you remember and get stuck in your head. Again, this is a topic that is really far out there right now that I can only hope to get to creating by the end of the semester.