Classes Of Musical Elements

By Kelvin Sholar

For many years, different western music teachers have commonly divided the artistic elements of music into three classes: harmony, rhythm and melody. Harmony refers to the construction of intervals, chords and scales and how the relate to each other. Rhythm refers to the construction of time-values, meters and rhythmic patterns and how they relate to each other. Melody refers to the linear combination of tones in time as they compose a definite whole.

Tones are the most basic elements of harmony. For example, when we listen to the children’s song Mary Had A Little Lamb we can follow the rise and fall of pitches and count exactly four tones.

Beats are the elements of rhythm which fall on uniform pulses. Again, when we listen to Mary Had A Little Lamb, we will notice that tones fall on the beat. But, not every beat corresponds with a tone, because silences (or rests) also occur.

Notes are the written elements of melody. They describe how tones change with respect to time in staff notation. When we have learned to read Mary Had A Little Lamb, we will notice that each tone is designated by a symbol (i.e. note) on a line or space of the staff.