6. Melodies

▶ Open in Aratu to hear and change the examples

Notes are written in lower case, with the octave: c4 is middle C. Sharps and flats follow the letter: f#4, eb4. Solfège works too: dó4 ré4 mi4 or do4 re4 mi4. Upper case accents a note: C4. An apostrophe makes it short, staccato: c4'.

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

melody = | c4 e4 g4 _ | a4 g4 e4 c4 |

The octave carries over until it changes, so | c4 e g c5 | is C4, E4, G4, C5. A note written before any octave is taken as octave 4, and Aratu says so.

Two or more notes in one beat go in square brackets: [d e] is two eighths, [b b] two B eighths, [eb g] E-flat then G, [c4 _ _ d] a dotted eighth and a sixteenth. Rests and holds can sit next to a note without brackets (-e4 is a rest, then an eighth), but two notes cannot: eb reads as E-flat, so for two notes Aratu asks for the brackets.

Notes sounding together are joined with +: c4+e4+g4 is a C major chord on one beat.

Long lines. A line that starts with | goes on with the line of music above it, so a long melody can take several lines:

Try it▶ Hear it in Aratu

melody = | c4 d e f | g a b c5 |
         | b4 a g f | e d c _ |