How to read music - Tim Hansen

提姆‧漢森教你如何讀譜

譯者: Lucy Fan 審譯者: Ya Hui Hung

電影中或舞台劇的

演員應該

都有熟讀劇本

因為劇本會告訴演員

劇中的台詞

還有講台詞的時機

When we watch a film or a play,

we know that the actors

一首曲子的樂譜

類似劇本

probably learned their lines from a script,

簡單來說

which essentially tells them what to say and when to say it.

樂譜告訴音樂家要彈奏什麼

還有彈奏的時間點

A piece of written music operates on exactly the same principle.

雖然每個音樂家的風格不同

In a very basic sense,

比如說，貝多芬

it tells a performer what to play and when to play it.

和小賈斯汀

但兩位音樂家

都用了同樣的基本單位創造音樂:

Aesthetically speaking, there's a world of difference

音符

between, say, Beethoven and Justin Bieber,

雖然最後的曲子

聽起來很複雜

但音符的基礎邏輯

but both artists have used

the same building blocks to create their music:

其實是簡單易懂的

讓我們一起了解

notes.

樂譜最基本的要素

And although the end result can sound quite complicated,

還有如何做曲

the logic behind musical notes is actually pretty straightforward.

曲子是寫在五條平行線上的

Let's take a look

at the foundational elements to music notation

五條線橫跨整個頁面

and how they interact to create a work of art.

也就是五線譜

五線譜分兩個軸向

Music is written on five parallel lines that go across the page.

上跟下

左跟右

These five lines are called a staff,

上下軸告訴音樂家

and a staff operates on two axes:

樂譜的音調

或是音符

左右軸告訴音樂家

up and down

and left to right.

音樂的節奏韻律

The up-and-down axis tells the performer

還有彈奏的時間點

the pitch of the note or what note to play,

首先來看音調

用鋼琴來做解釋吧

and the left-to-right axis

不過鋼琴樂譜的原理

tells the performer the rhythm of the note

也可以類推到別的樂器上

or when to play it.

傳統西方音樂裡的

Let's start with pitch.

To help us out, we're going to use a piano,

音調

是用七個英文字母命名

but this system works for pretty much any instrument you can think of.

A

B

C

D

E

F

In the Western music tradition,

還有G

pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet,

同樣模式不斷重複

A

B

C

D

E

A, B, C,

F

G

A

B

D, E, F, and G.

C

D

E

F

G

以此類推

但音調的名字是怎麼來的?

After that, the cycle repeats itself:

舉例來說，如果你彈F

A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

再彈另一個F

and so on.

只是高低音不同

But how do these pitches get their names?

其實聽起來差不多

跟B相比就不同了

Well, for example, if you played an F

再回到五線譜

and then played another F

每條線，還有線與線間的空格

higher or lower on the piano,

you'd notice that they sound pretty similar

都代表一個音調

compared to, say, a B.

如果在線上畫上一個音符

Going back to the staff,

或在線與線之間譜上音符

every line and every space between two lines

演奏者就知道要彈什麼音調

represents a separate pitch.

五線譜上音符越高

表示音調越高

If we put a note on one of these lines or one of these spaces,

但音樂有數之不盡的音調

we're telling a performer to play that pitch.

不只限於九條線與間的音調

The higher up on the staff a note is placed,

以演奏式鋼琴為例

the higher the pitch.

可以彈奏８８個音調

But there are obviously many, many more pitches

怎麼把８８個音調塞進五線譜呢?

than the nine that these lines and spaces gives us.

這就要用譜號來表示

A grand piano, for example,

can play 88 separate notes.

譜號是個怪異的圖形

寫在五線譜的前端

So how do we condense 88 notes onto a single staff?

譜號標示某特定音調

告訴你線與間的音符

We use something called a clef,

代表的是鍵盤上哪個音

a weird-looking figure placed at the beginning of the staff,

要彈奏五線譜上沒有的音符

which acts like a reference point,

可以偷偷在譜上多加短線

telling you that a particular line or space

也就是加線

corresponds to a specific note on your instrument.

然後再譜上音符

If we want to play notes that aren't on the staff,

但如果要畫很多加線

we kind of cheat and draw extra little lines

樂譜會讓人眼花撩亂

這時就要變換譜號

called ledger lines

and place the notes on them.

演奏者要知道彈奏的時間點

If we have to draw so many ledger lines that it gets confusing,

會看兩個地方

then we need to change to a different clef.

拍子

還有節奏

一首曲子的拍子

As for telling a performer when to play the notes,

有點單調無聊

two main elements control this:

聽起來像這樣

the beat and the rhythm.

The beat of a piece of music is,

並沒有什麼變化

就這麼周而復始的下去

by itself, kind of boring.

可以放慢

It sounds like this.

(Ticking)

也可以加快

Notice that it doesn't change,

隨便你怎麼變化

it just plugs along quite happily.

拍子就像時鐘的秒針

It can go slow

將一分鐘分為６０秒

or fast

每一秒長度都一樣

or whatever you like, really.

The point is that just like the second hand on a clock

拍子將一首曲子

分成很多個小段落

divides one minute into sixty seconds,

每一段長度相同

with each second just as long as every other second,

就是拍子

拍子抓準後

the beat divides a piece of music

接下來是節奏

into little fragments of time that are all the same length:

音樂是從節奏開始的

beats.

這是四分音符

With a steady beat as a foundation,

節奏最基本單位

we can add rhythm to our pitches,

等於一拍

and that's when music really starts to happen.

二分音符是兩拍

This is a quarter note.

全音符是四拍

It's the most basic unit of rhythm,

這幾個小蝌蚪是八分音符

and it's worth one beat.

每個音符是半拍

This is a half note, and it's worth two beats.

太棒了！但他們代表什麼啊？

This whole note here is worth four beats,

你應該有注意到

五線譜上有幾條小線

and these little guys are eighth notes,

將樂譜分成幾個小段落

worth half a beat each.

"Great," you say, "what does that mean?"

這是小節線

每個段落是一個小節

You might have noticed that across the length of a staff,

樂譜一開始

there are little lines dividing it into small sections.

在譜號後

會有個拍號

These are bar lines

and we refer to each section as a bar.

告訴演奏者一小節有幾拍

At the beginning of a piece of music,

這個拍號表示一小節有兩拍

just after the clef,

is something called the time signature,

這是三拍

四拍

which tells a performer how many beats are in each bar.

以此類推

下面的數字告訴我們

This says there are two beats in each bar,

要用什麼音符當作一拍

this says there are three,

一是全音符

this one four, and so on.

二是二分音符

The bottom number tells us what kind of note

四是四分音符

is to be used as the basic unit for the beat.

八是八分音符

以此類推

樂譜上的拍號

One corresponds to a whole note,

告訴演奏者一小節有四拍

two to a half note,

four to a quarter note,

一

二

and eight to an eighth note, and so on.

三

四

一

二

三

So this time signature here

四

以此類推

但就像之前說的

tells us that there are four quarter notes in each bar,

如果只注意拍子

會很無趣

one, two, three, four;

可以把幾個四分音符

one, two, three, four,

換成別的節奏

and so on.

注意，雖然音符的數目變了

But like I said before,

if we just stick to the beat,

每個小節不一樣

it gets kind of boring,

但總拍數維持不變

so we'll replace some quarter notes with different rhythms.

這首曲子聽起來如何

Notice that even though the number of notes

in each bar has changed,

the total number of beats in each bar hasn't.

還可以，但有些單調

So, what does our musical creation sound like?

加入另一個樂器呢

配上不同音調與節奏

(Music)

聽起來更像音樂了

Eh, sounds okay, but maybe a bit thin, right?

讀譜是須要練習的

Let's add another instrument with its own pitch and rhythm.

才能一邊讀譜

一邊彈奏音樂

Now it's sounding like music.

但只要花點時間跟耐心

你有可能是下一個貝多芬

Sure, it takes some practice to get used to reading it quickly

或者

小賈斯汀

and playing what we see on our instrument,

but, with a bit of time and patience,

you could be the next Beethoven

or Justin Bieber.