Musical Elements (Visual & Performing Arts Essay)

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Musical Elements
There are various instruments, with each having its style of play. However, instruments in the same family have similar characteristics, and they tend to be played similarly. In this module, the various styles that are used in music are discussed. Further, various instruments are discussed. Some of the instruments include the piano keyboard, lute, acoustic guitar, violin, and viola. The instruments produce various music elements such as beat and meter, dynamics, harmony, melody, pitch, rhythm, tempo, texture, and timbre.
Musical Elements in the Module
Beat and Meter; a beat helps in giving the music the rhythmic pattern it produces. A beat can be either regular or irregular. In music, grouping of beats is done in a measure, with the rests and notes corresponding to a specific number of beats (Schirmer et al. 21). On the other hand, meter is the rhythm pattern that is produced when strong and weak beats are grouped together. A meter can have two beats (duple), three beats (triple), four beats (quadruple), and so on.
Dynamics
Dynamics is the volume during a performance. In writing, dynamics are usually represented using symbols and abbreviations to show their intensity at which the passage or not should be sung or played in a performance (Santhosh et al. 39). They are like punctuation in a sentence to show the precise moments and emphasis, and such dynamics are usually derived from Italian. For instance, pianissimo indicates a very soft passage while fortissimo indicates a very loud section.
Harmony 
Harmony is what is heard when at least two chords or notes are played simultaneously. Harmony is used for supporting the melody as well as giving it texture. Harmonic chords are also described as minor, major, diminished, or augmented. Each chord depends on the notes that are being played at the same time (Huang and Yang 58). For instance, in a barbershop quartet, the melody is sung by one person, while three others provide the harmony; a baritone, a bass, and a tenor. All the three providing the harmony sing complimentary note combinations in a pitch that is perfect with each other. 
Melody 
Melody refers to the overarching tune which is created when a series or succession of notes is played, and it is influenced by rhythm and pitch. A composition can be made of one melody running through once, or several melodies that are arranges in the form of verse-chorus, as found in rock ‘n’ roll (Wall et al. 8). In the case of classical music, repetition of the melody is d...