All music includes basic elements, or parts. The main elements of music are rhythm, melody, harmony, and form.
Rhythm describes the length of musical sounds. The most important part of rhythm is the pulse, or beat. When you tap your foot to a song you like, you are tapping out the beat. The speed of the beats is called the tempo. The pattern of the beats is called the meter. Drums help other instruments and voices keep the rhythm in many songs.
Melody is a series of different tones, or sounds, in a piece of music. The notes are played or sung one after another to make up a song. The tones in a melody may be low or high. The highness or lowness of a tone is called its pitch. Musicians describe different tones with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
Harmony takes place when people play or sing more than one tone at the same time. Groups of tones played together are called chords. Harmony also describes the way chords go along with a melody.
Form is the way that people put rhythm, melody, and harmony together. There are many different types of musical forms. Repeating a short melody is one of the simplest forms. For example, in the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” each verse repeats the same melody. A symphony is a more complex form. In a symphony, different groups of instruments may play different melodies at the same time or a series of harmonies. The rhythm may also change—for example, the tempo may be fast or slow at different points in the symphony.
