Why Music is Like Learning a Language (and Why Patterns are the Key!

Why Music is Like Learning a Language (and Why Patterns are the Key!)

Language is made up of sounds. Different countries have different sounds and words, but all countries use symbols to represent those sounds.

In English we use the Roman letters and Arabic numbers. Different languages like Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese to name a few, there are many more, use different styles of alphabets.

In England we combine these letters in different ways The first of these combined sounds are digraphs, that is two letters that make you sound These are CH, CK, NG, PH, QU, SH, TH and WH etc..

You also have two notes that blend together like FL, CR, ST, TW, MP, STR, LK, NCH etc .. There are also three letter blends and single sounds, and four letter combinations that you will use in your daily English.

Just like spoken languages, music has its own alphabet and patterns

In Western music there is a very recognisable style of writing music on five lines and four spaces where we write the musical notes using the names A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The individual notes are like learning the individual letters of an alphabet.

These individual notes are combined, just like letters are in English, to make musical diagraphs, we call them harmonic intervals, or blends, that we call melodic intervals. Each one has a different character or sound. The interval of a minor third could be used to say, 'The weather is a little rainy today' or a perfect fifth could be used to say ' We won at football' . You could use the sound of an augmented fourth (also known as a tri-tone) in a spooky story.

At Stalybridge Music Academy we combine these sounds into three and four note patterns which start from different pitches. These patterns are combined to make musical sentences, phrases and statements. If it is a melodic pattern, it is like a tiny little part of a melody. The first three notes of 'Hot Cross Buns' are Triquetrae Pattern 2. If it is an harmonic pattern it is called a triad for three notes, or a chord for four notes.

You can blend intervals to make melodies and chords. When used together they make every piece of music you know where you hear phrases, paragraphs, nouns, verbs and adjectives - all in sound. This music affects your emotions the same as a favourite mystery in the driving rhythm and dissonant harmonies of Mars create a sense of urgency and aggression (Gustav Holst - The Planets - Mars, the Bringer of War), the feelings of love can be heard in the of overflowing emotions of a Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini (Rachmaninov: Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Op.43, Variation 18 (piano solo) or the feeling of jubilation and victory in Sousa's Liberty Bell March.

A favourite mystery in the driving rhythm and dissonant harmonies of Mars create a sense of urgency and aggression.

Feelings of love can be heard in the of overflowing emotions of a Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini.

The feeling of jubilation and victory in Sousa's Liberty Bell March.

When a student understands the patterns they understand how the music is put together. It makes a piece easier to learn, easier to read and easier to remember, musically (not by rote) and to write your own music.

Patterns create unity and cohesion in music. Recognizing them helps you appreciate the composer's intentions and the emotional impact of the music. Think of it like recognizing the rhyme scheme in a poem - it adds another layer of depth.

When you can identify patterns, you're not just reading note-by-note. You're seeing larger chunks of music at once, which greatly improves your sight-reading ability and allows you to play more fluently.

Recognizing patterns helps you understand how melody, rhythm, and harmony work together. This deeper understanding makes you a more musical performer, allowing you to play with more expression and feeling.

When you are learning music you are learning a new language. You start with individual letters, then words, then sentences, and eventually, you're reading whole paragraphs and understanding the story. Music is similar - patterns are like the words and sentences that give meaning to the individual notes.

Understanding patterns in music is critical to understanding how to play the music.

if you're learning an instrument, look for recurring note combinations in your music. The first twelve patterns we teach are included below and a link to a musical detective book available on the link below.