#  | ### The Sound of Music

Before continuing with the program we'll add a bit of music theory here. Although music is something very personal and everyone experiences it differently, there are some general rules and things one can say. First of all there are only 12 distinct notes. These notes however can be played on different octaves which make them sound higher or lower. An octave starts with the C note and the following 11 notes are called: C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B. The notes with the # attached are called half-notes. On the keys of a piano it seems obvious why they are called so. If you look at how the black keys (the half-notes) are placed you would think that the distance between 2 adjacent white notes is always twice as big as the distance between a white and an adjacent black note. But no… The distance between C and C# is just as big as between C# and D and as big as between F and G…so the term 'half-notes' is a bit misplaced. If one would design a keyboard with all the keys next to eachother, black and white alike, it would be more logical, but since pianists nowadays don't have hands big enough to span an octave they choose this layout. Adjusting the statement about equal spacing between notes a little bit we have to admit that the exact relation between notes isn't exactly linear it's exponential. Every 12 notes the frequency is doubled. So if you play the C in the fith octave and you want to play it in the sixth you double the frequency. The note will sound the same, since it is the same note, but it is an octave higher. The notation Jaytrax uses to specify which note and octave will be played is as follows: C in octave 4 would be written down as: C-4 and F# in octave 6 would be written down as: F#6. An octave begins with the C and ends with the B, the note right to the B is the C again but one octave higher.

A musical piece is subdivided in measures and a measure is subdivided into beats. Beats can be thought of the rhytm to which you tap your foot when you hear a tune. A measure is 3, 4 or more beats, depending on the rhytm. A typical rhytm is the 4/4 rythm which stands for 4 beats per measure. This means that usually there are repetitions every measure. In Jaytrax the equivalent of the measure is a pattern. If you have a 4/4 measure you use the full length of the pattern, if you have a ¾ measure you only use three quarters of it.

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