Table Of Contentu
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HELP YOUR KIDS WITH
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HELP YOUR KIDS WITH
M S
A unique step-by-step visuAl guide
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DK UK
Senior Editors Carron Brown, Chris Hawkes, Jenny Sich
Project Editor Lizzie Davey
Editor Kaiya Shang
US Editors Jill Hamilton, Margaret Parrish, Allison Singer
Senior Designer Sheila Collins
Designer Mabel Chan
Managing Editor Linda Esposito
Category Publisher Andrew Macintyre
Managing Art Editor Philip Letsu
Producer, Pre-production Gillian Reid
Producer Jude Crozier
Jackets Assistant Editor Emma Dawson
Jacket Design Development Manager Sophia MTT
Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler
Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf
Art Director Karen Self
DK DELHI
Project Editors Suefa Lee, Neha Pande
Project Art Editors Amit Malhotra, Parul Gambhir
Editor Sonia Yooshing
Art Editors Sanjay Chauhan, Vanya Mittal
Jacket Designer Suhita Dharamjit
Jacket Managing Editor Saloni Talwar
DTP Designers Harish Aggarwal, Sachin Gupta
Managing Editor Rohan Sinha
Managing Art Editor Sudakshina Basu
Pre-production Manager Balwant Singh
APP TEAM
App Producers Miguel Cunha, Anna Hall, Christine Stroyan
Musicians Brian Chui, Amy Donaldson, Freya Gillon, Rosanna
Goodall, Alec Harmon, Will Henderson, Bethan Irving, Oscar Ikeda,
Cameron Johnson, Christopher Karwacinski, Alanna Macfarlane,
Paul Rosenberg, Ian Sankey, Alex Valizadeh, Simon Williams
First American Edition, 2015
This revised edition, 2019
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
1450 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2015, 2019 Dorling Kindersley Limited
A Penguin Random House Company
19 20 21 22 23 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
001—314557—Jun/2019
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A catalog record for this book is available from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-4654-8548-9
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales
promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK
Publishing Special Markets, 1450 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 1001
[email protected]
Printed and bound in China
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
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CAROL VORDERMAN M.A. (Cantab), MBE is one of Britain’s best-loved TV hosts and is renowned for
her skills in mathematics, and her enthusiasm and encouragement for education. She hosts numerous shows
on the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, from light entertainment to scientific programs. From hosting Channel 4’s
Countdown for 26 years to becoming the second best-selling female nonfiction author of the noughties in
the UK, Carol demonstartes a passion for education in all she does. Carol was a founding trustee of NESTA,
is a patron of the Cambridge Science Festival, a member of the Royal Institution, a member of an advisory
education panel for engineering, and a holder of many honorary degrees from universities around Britain.
COAUTHORS
PETER NICKOL is a music book editor, music typesetter, and composer. He is a member of SfEP (Society
for Editors and Proofreaders) and teaches for them a one-day course on editing and proofreading music.
He has written Learning to Read Music and cowritten Pop Music: The Text Book. His composing has taken up
an increasing part of his time since the 1990s. Five of his compositions were shortlisted by the Society for
Promotion of New Music, and in 2014 “Commuter” won the composition competition for the Big Bend
Community Orchestra (Tallahassie, Florida, USA). For audio clips, visit: https://soundcloud.com/pnickol/tracks.
PETER QUANTRILL has written about music since graduating from the University of Cambridge in 1995.
His reviews, interviews, articles, and features have appeared in Gramophone, Opera Magazine, The Strad,
The Wagner Journal, and many other publications. For 10 years he commissioned and managed the
editorial content of releases by EMI Classics, Warner Classics, Sony Classical, and other labels. He has made
broadcasts for BBC Radio 3’s CD Review and written program notes for the Salzburg Festival and Sir Paul
McCartney, among others. He is a regular contributor to amati.com, Sinfini Classical, and The Arts Desk.
LAURA SANDFORD has several years’ experience in the classical music industry, commissioning and editing
CD and DVD booklets and notes for leading record labels such as Decca, Warner Classics, Sony Classical, and
Opus Arte. Laura has taught children piano and music theory, and regularly participates in music educational
outreach programs in London and southeast of England. In her spare time, Laura sings in two choirs and plays
clarinet in various bands and chamber ensembles.
ANN MARIE STANLEY, Ph.D., has been on the music education faculty of the Eastman School of Music at
the University of Rochester, in New York since 2007. Ann Marie is widely known for her in-depth qualitative
research, engaging writing, and interactive teacher workshops—all of which center around ways to make music
teaching and learning for elementary-school-aged children more musical, creative, and collaborative. She has
written numerous journal articles and book chapters, and has made international presentations on music
teaching. Before receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Marie taught general music,
gave instrumental lessons, and conducted a children’s choir for seven years in northern California.
SUE STURROCK is former Director of Communications at the Royal College of Music, London, England. She
has contributed to many books about music, broadcast on BBC Radio, and written for The Times, Classical Music,
Music Teacher, and other publications. Originally an orchestral oboist, Susan has taught, lectured, and coached
in schools, universities, and conservatories internationally.
CONSULTANT
CLAIRE LANGFORD, BA, LGSM, PGCE, has been teaching music in UK secondary schools for 20 years since
receiving her teaching degree from Homerton College, Cambridge, UK. She is currently a Lead Practitioner
(AST) and Head of Music at Fort Pitt Grammar School in Kent, UK. Claire is also the secondary school
representative for the “Dynamics” Music Hub, supporting teachers to raise standards and enjoyment of
music education in Medway.
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Foreword
Music is a powerful, memorable presence throughout our lives; it allows us to
access, express, or alter our deepest feelings—whether joyful, peaceful, energetic,
nostalgic, sorrowful, or angry. Music bonds us to others, and lets us intimately
experience our own unique, artistic creativity. Music is one of the most personal
ways we have of making sense of our world.
Music is invaluable in the lives of children. Students who learn and make music get
to practice all sorts of skills: choosing interpretations, making inventive decisions,
solving problems, breaking down difficult issues into manageable subsections,
practicing perseverance, and being creative. A musical education helps young
people see themselves as artistic beings.
Too often, musical learning is considered a special endeavor reserved for the
innately talented. In truth, musical knowledge is not a mysterious gift bestowed
upon a lucky few with high musical aptitude. Rather, learning music relies upon
understanding and successfully using the systems musicians have created through
the years to organize and notate sound. These musical conventions, both aural
and written, are best learned in a sequential, orderly way. Help Your Kids With
Music is just that: a thoughtful, systematic approach to understanding the
building blocks of music.
Parents and students with little prior knowledge will benefit from the logical way
elements of music are organized in this book. The book progresses methodically
explaining the key concepts of music—pitch, rhythm, intervals and keys, melody,
harmony, form, instruments, and styles—through clear, easy-to-grasp graphics and
text. Detailed annotations of musical examples illustrate how theoretical concepts
are used in the real-world practice of composers and performers. Precise definitions
of terminology enable readers to use the book as a handy reference guide.
The approach to musicianship presented in this book is organized in a thoughtful
way that will allow parents and children working together to “crack the code” of
music, and achieve a deeper understanding of this art that is so important to so
many of us.
Ann MARIe STAnley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music Education, Eastman School of Music
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Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585), Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
(1657–1743), Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725), Antonio
Lotti (1667–1740), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750),
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736), Domenico
Alberti (1710–1740), Johann Stamitz (1717–1757), Franz
Pokorny (1729–1794), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Heinrich Heine
(1797–1856), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), Frédéric
Chopin (1810–1849), Franz Liszt (1811–1886), Richard
Wagner (1813–1883), Johannes Brahms (1833–1897),
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), Edward Elgar
(1857–1934), Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Claude Debussy
(1862–1918), Scott Joplin (c.1868–1917), Ralph Vaughan
Williams (1872–1958), Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951),
Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), Dizzy Gillespie (1917–1993),
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), Miles Davis (1926–1991), Elvis
Presley (1935–1977), John Lennon (1940–1980), Paul Simon
(b.1941), Paul McCartney (b.1942), Eric Clapton (b.1945),
Michael Jackson (1958–2009), Mariah Carey (b.1970)
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Contents
FOREWORD by Ann Marie Stanley 6 The relative minor 68
WHAT IS MUSIC? 10 The circle of fifths 70
Accidentals 72
1 PITCH Modulation 74
Transposition 76
Other scales 80
High and low 14 Modes 86
The piano keyboard 16 Tonality and atonality 88
Notes on the staff 18
Clefs 20 4 MELODY
2 RHYTHM
What is a tune? 92
Phrasing and phrase marks 94
Beats and measures 24 Types of phrases 96
Note values 26 Sequences 98
Beams and dots 28 Ornaments 100
Time signatures 30 Dynamics 102
Compound time 32 Musical expression 104
Rests and ties 34 Musical markings 106
Grouping notes 36 Analyzing melodies 108
Triplets and tuplets 38 Two or more notes together 110
Syncopation and swing 40 Writing your own melody 112
Beginnings and endings 42 Learning by example 114
Tempo 44
5 CHORDS AND
3 INTERVALS, SCALES,
HARMONY
AND KEYS
Harmony 118
Sharps and flats 48 Consonance and dissonance 120
Half steps 52 Diatonic and chromatic harmony 122
Whole steps 54 Degrees of the scale 124
Intervals 56 Triads 126
Major scales 60 Inversions 128
Minor scales 62 Chord types 130
Keys 64 Other chords 132
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