Video published by Daniel’s Music Foundation here on YouTube (link is external)
Talkin’ Music with Gerry: Episode 1 (Tuesday, December 15, 2020)
[Upbeat Music/Guitar Strumming – Talkin’ Music with Gerry Theme Song]
[Image – Animation of show’s logo on a white background: A large treble clef in black color is on the left side of the screen. Dark pink, turquoise and gold music staff peppered with colorful music notes wraps around the circular bottom half of treble clef. The treble clef lights up in different colors from the bottom to the top and then the center. The show’s title “Talkin’ Music with Gerry” appears one letter at a time on the right side of the screen. “Talkin’” and “with” are in black letters; the letters “MUSIC” and “GERRY” alternate between turquoise, dark pink and gold colors.]
[Image – The host, Gerry, is seated on an armchair in his “Studio” with an acoustic guitar propped up against the wall on the left side of the screen]
[Gerry:] Hello, everybody! Welcome to our first episode of Talkin’ Music with Gerry.
[Music – Guitar strumming an excerpt of the theme song]
[Gerry:] My name is Gerry Powers and I'm the Artistic Director of Daniel's Music Foundation.
[Image – Super on the screen in white letters reads: Gerry Powers; Artistic Director; Daniel’s Music Foundation]
[Gerry:] The purpose of this music series is to become more familiar with musical terms.
This will allow you to communicate with other musicians much easier if you're a beginner, someone who doesn't play an instrument, someone who is learning how to play an instrument, or someone who already plays, there will be some useful information in this series for you.
[Gerry:] We are going to explore the wonderful language of music together. In this series of Talkin’ Music with Gerry, we’ll talk about pitch, frequency, range, rhythm, the musical alphabet, notes and scales, keys and chords, chord progressions, and all the other interesting things that come together to create music and songs.
[Gerry:] In today's episode, we're going to learn to describe sounds in our world, as well as musical sounds. And we're going to be using some words in this episode you may have already heard; but, if you haven't heard these words before, don't worry, because I'm going to give you the meaning of each word and how they explain sounds in our world of music.
[Gerry:] Today's new words will be: pitch, frequency, and range.
[Image – Words on the left side of the screen in green text read: Pitch; Frequency; Range]
[Soft sounds of guitar strumming]
[Image – View of New York City skyline: East River in the front, with many tall buildings all lit up, and the evening sky during sunset in the background. Words slide in at the bottom of the screen, from right to left: “Sounds” (in orange text) and “In Our World” (in white text)]
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] We are going to listen to examples of sounds in our world first. After which, we will listen to different kinds of music using the new words.
[Soft jazzy music plays while Gerry speaks]
[Gerry:] Music is all around us. We hear different musical sounds every day. Some sounds are almost like musical notes. Some don't sound like music at all. Many of the sounds that we hear are very loud and noisy, and some are much quieter. Some are really high, and some are (speaking in a very low tone) very low. Let's listen to some sounds in our world, and let's see if we can hear the difference between sounds that have musical notes, and other sounds that don't have any musical notes in them.
[Images with accompanying sound effects:
- Alarm clock blaring
- Showerhead with water flowing out
- Open refrigerator door beeping softly
- Gas range clicking as it lights up
- Cell phone vibrating
- Doorbell ringing when someone presses the button
- Elevator door beeping as it opens, to reveal a woman, dressed in business-casual attire, holding a large folder in her arms standing inside
- Subway train rumbling as it pulls into station, passengers inside train car
- Clock ticking
- Radiator hissing
- Helicopter hovering over two tall buildings
- Can of soda being opened (tab being pulled off)
- Pigeons flapping their wings as they fly off the ground
- Church bell ringing
- Sirens from NYPD police car and FDNY ambulance
- Car driving by at night
- Multi-story building construction noise
- Two windchimes tinkling in the wind
- Two Air Force fighter jets flying by overhead
- Large crowd at stadium cheering enthusiastically]
[Image and sound effect – Alarm clock ringing]
[Gerry:] So the alarm clock…
[Image and sound effect – Open refrigerator door]
[Gerry:] …the bell on the refrigerator…
[Image and sound effect – Cell phone vibrating]
[Gerry:] …the cell phone…
[Image and sound effect – Doorbell ringing]
[Gerry:] …the doorbell…
[Image and sound effect – Elevator door beeping as it opens]
[Gerry:] …and the elevator bell…
[Image and sound effect – Radiator hissing]
[Gerry:] …the radiator whistling…
[Image and sound effect – Church bell ringing]
[Gerry:] …the bell in the tower…
[Image and sound effect – NYPD police car and FDNY ambulance sirens]
[Gerry:] …the police and ambulance sirens…
[Image and sound effect – Windchimes tinkling]
[Gerry:] …the chimes…
[Image – One side of a white earbud with several white musical notes on a wooden background]
[Gerry:] All of those were musical sounds that have different frequencies.
[Image – Dark background on the screen with bright but fuzzy horizontal lines in the middle]
[Gerry:] The other sounds had mixtures of frequencies…
[Image – Colorful chart on graph paper with numerous vertical bars on the bottom and lines across the center of the page]
[Gerry:] …that did not sound like musical notes.
[Image – Long black cord on the left side of the screen that is attached to a set of black headphones on the right side of a white screen. The cord is arranged like ridges, with peaks and valleys.]
[Image and sound effect – Sound of water coming out of a showerhead]
[Gerry:] Like the shower…
[Image and sound effect – Gas burner on stovetop clicking on]
[Gerry:] …the gas ignition…
[Image and sound effect – Clock ticking]
[Gerry:] …the clock on the wall…
[Image and sound effect – Helicopter hovering]
[Gerry:] …the helicopters…
[Image and sound effect – Soda can opening]
[Gerry:] …soda can…
[Image and sound effect – Pigeon wings flapping]
[Gerry:] …and the pigeon wings flapping…
[Image and sound effect – Construction noises]
[Gerry:] …the construction site…
[Image and sound effect – Crowd cheering]
[Gerry:] …and the crowd. All had unmusical sounds, but were full of frequencies.
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] So we're going to continue this listening exercise by hearing three short examples of different musical groups. The first one will be an orchestra, the second one will be a marching band, and the third one will be a drum corps in a parade.
[Image – Camera zooms in to Gerry]
[Gerry:] First, we will listen to a brief excerpt of an orchestra, playing the first part of the overture of the opera “Carmen” written by the French composer, Georges Bizet.
[Image – An assortment of some musical instruments typically found in an orchestra: Drums, trombone, tuba, cello, violin, double bass, clarinets, flute, harp, trumpet, timpani.]
[Super on screen throughout the excerpt of “Carmen” – Words in white letters on the bottom left of the screen read: “Excerpt of “Carmen” overture by Georges Bizet 1875”]
[Images – Photo montage and short videos of musicians in an orchestra performing “Carmen” with a variety of musical instruments: double bass; violins; flute; trombones; clarinets; tuba; trumpets; cymbals.]
[Image – Orchestra on stage in a grand theater]
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] Well, that is some very energetic music, isn't it? There’re about 60 people in that orchestra playing together to bring that music to life. Lots of players, lots of instruments, lots of sound, lots of notes, lots of frequency. Strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
[Gerry:] Now, let's listen to another short clip of a marching band playing a famous song.
[Super on screen throughout the excerpt of the bands’ performances – Words in white letters on the bottom left of the screen read: “Excerpt of “Hail To The Chief” by James Sanderson 1812”]
[Images and music – Photo montage of multiple bands in smart-looking uniforms performing “Hail To The Chief” with different types of drums and musical instruments such as clarinets, flutes, tubas, trumpets, trombones, saxophones]
[Image – A marching band in the middle of the field at a game in a football stadium at a university]
[Image – U.S. flag on a flagpole flapping in the wind]
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] The marching band has woodwinds, brass, and percussion. There are some of the same instruments in the marching band that are in the orchestra, but there are no strings.
[Gerry:] Now, finally, let's hear a drum corps. If you have ever been to a parade you may have heard a sound like this:
[Images and drumming sound effects – Photo montage and sounds of multiple drum corps members in various parades, using different types and sizes of drums; parade goers holding up rainbow flags; close-up of drumsticks and mallets; close-up of pinwheels with U.S. flag’s red, white and blue stripes and stars; parade floats and spectators holding small U.S. flag; band members at a parade.]
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] Well, I'll bet you noticed that the drum corps did not really play any musical sounds, did they? That's really different compared to the orchestra or the marching band. Now, the marching band and the orchestra play a lot of notes, and the drum corps plays a lot of sounds. The thing that they have in common is that all of those sounds and notes are made up of…
[Image – The word “Frequency” in green letters appears on the top left of the screen]
[Gerry:] …frequency.
[Image – Woman sitting on a couch in a living room at home, listening to music on her headphones]
[Gerry:] Well, we heard high notes, middle notes and low notes.
[Image – Close-up of piano keys]
[Gerry:] So, here is the first new word for you.
[Images – White musical notes on a wooden background on the top half of the screen, and a person’s left and right hands on piano keys on the bottom half of the screen. The words “A note is a pitch” in white letters appear between the music notes and the piano keys.]
[Gerry:] Another name for a note is a “pitch.”
[Image – A brown-colored treble cleft on the left side of the screen is connected to 2 musical notes on the right side of the screen by lines/waves that look like an ECG (electrocardiogram) chart on a heart monitor. A small piece of yellow graph paper slide into the top right corner of the screen with the following handwritten words in blue ink: “Pitch means how high”]
[Gerry:] The word “pitch” means…
[Image – The words “or how low a sound is” written in blue ink on a postcard slides up at the bottom right corner of the screen]
[Gerry:] …how high or how low a sound is.
[Gerry:] In our world of sound…
[Image – The yellow paper and postcard slide out of the screen]
[Gerry:] …we hear high-pitched sounds…
[Image and sound effect – Video of a red convertible car spins in a circle on an open lot with its tires screeching loudly]
[Gerry:] …like a car tire screeching…
[Image and sound effect – Video of a chirping brown bird on a tree branch]
[Gerry:] …or a bird chirping.
[Gerry:] What about a child screaming?
[Image and sound effect – A young girl screams loudly in a high-pitch voice when a boy sprays her with water from a garden hose. The words “High-pitched sounds” in white letters appear on the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] All of these sounds are high pitched sounds.
[Image – Table with a bright orange, yellow and red tablecloth with a variety of small instruments on it, such as a handbell, finger cymbals (zils), egg-shaped shaker (maraca), guitar pick, mallet, and 5 different-sized tuning forks (two-pronged forks shaped like the letter U, with a handle at the base of the U shape, that vibrate in a high-pitched tone when struck). The words “High-pitched sounds” and “High frequency sounds” in white letters appear in the middle of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Also known as high frequency sounds.
[Image – Black background with images of sounds waves (thin lines in various shades of blue spreading out in different directions from left to right sides of the screen: some lines are straighter and closer to each other, whereas some lines are more squiggly and farther apart from others). The words “High-pitched sounds” and “High frequency sounds” in white letters are in the middle of the screen then slide off either side of the screen. The words “Low pitch” and “Low frequency” in white letters appear on the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] What about the low frequency sounds we hear? What about…
[Image and sound effect – Picture of a couple small houses during a thunderstorm, with dark clouds in the sky. The sound of thunder can be heard as lightning strikes one of the small buildings. The words “Low frequency sound” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] … thunder?
[Gerry:] Did you ever hear a foghorn?
[Image and sound effect – Photo of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge partially hidden by dense fog. The words “Low frequency sound” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen, then they are replaced by “Low frequency sounds are low-pitched sounds” in white letters.]
[Gerry:] These are low frequency sounds.
[Image – Photo of an old AM/FM stereo tuner with dials and buttons. The word “Bass” in white letters slide in from the left of the screen, and the word “Treble” in white letters slide in from the right side.]
[Gerry:] Maybe you are already familiar with the words “bass” and “treble.”
[Images – Close-up of the keys on a piano, and a musician’s right foot resting on the top of the body of a bass guitar. The words “Bass means the low frequencies” in white letters appear in the middle of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Bass means the low frequencies…
[Images – Close-up of the front of a stereo tuner with a person’s left hand adjusting one of the round dials. The words “Treble means the high frequencies” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …and treble means the high frequencies.
[Sound effect – Foghorn]
[Super – The words “Bass are the low frequencies” in white letters appear on the screen]
[Gerry:] Bass are the low frequencies, and treble…
[Sound effect – Girl screaming]
[Super – The word “Treble are the high frequencies” in white letters appear on the screen]
[Gerry:] … are the high frequencies.
[Image – Close-up photo of the front of an equalizer with lots of buttons. The words “Bass and treble” in white letters appear in the middle of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Many home music systems…
[Image – Photo of the front panel of a car’s audio system. The words “Low and high” in white letters appear at the top left of the screen.]
[Gerry: …and music systems in cars…
[Image – Photo of a person’s right index finger touching the digital screen of the audio system inside a car. The words “Bass and treble (low and high)” in white letters appear at the top left of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …have bass and treble controls.
[Image – Photo of old AM/FM stereo tuner with dials and buttons. The words “Bass,” “Midrange” and “Treble” in white letters appear and disappear one at a time in the middle of the screen.]
[Gerry:] The old stereos we used to have had bass, midrange, and treble controls.
[Super – The words “Bass frequencies are the low ones” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen]
[Gerry:] Bass frequencies are the low ones.
[Image – Photo of a person’s fingers on the right hand plucking 2 strings on an upright bass]
[Image – Photo of a young man smiling and playing a white-colored grand piano in a piano store. The words “Midrange frequencies are the middle ones” appear in white letters at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Midrange frequencies are the middle ones.
[Jazzy music playing]
[Image and cymbals sound effect – Photo of a jazz musician sitting in front of a drum kit striking the cymbals with drumsticks. The words “Treble frequencies are the high ones” appear in white letters at the top left corner of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Treble frequencies, like the symbol that you hear, are the high ones.
[Gerry:] If you put the bass, midrange and high frequencies together…
[Image – Photo of a jazz musician seated in front of a grand piano with a piece of sheet music on the stand.]
[Gerry:] …it sounds like this.
[Jazzy music]
[Image – Photo of a stage in a loft with the word “Jazz” on the wall between two large windows in the background; A baby grand piano, drum kit with 2 cymbals, trumpet and upright bass are placed on the stage.]
[Gerry:] Like music!
[Image and sound effect – Photo of piano keys. The words “Low frequency sound” and “Low (bass) notes on a piano” appear one line at a time, then dissolve off the screen.]
[Gerry:] A good example of low frequency would be the low notes on the piano played on the far-left side of the piano…
[Image and sound effect – Close-up photo of the bridge of a double bass and a bow across the strings. The words “Double bass” in white letters appear on the left side of the screen, and the words “Low frequency notes” in white letters appear on the bottom right corner.]
[Gerry:] …or a double bass in the orchestra.
[Image – Overhead shot of a man playing the piano. The words “Midrange sound” appears at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] A midrange sound…
[Image and sound effect – Photo of a man playing an upright piano. The words “Notes in the middle of the piano” in black letters appear in the middle of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …would be the notes in the middle of the piano…
[Images and sound effects – Photo montage: Acoustic guitar; Young girl playing the flute; Close-up of a musician’s fingers plucking the strings on a guitar; Musician playing the flute in a quartet. The words “Guitar and flute notes” and “midrange sounds” in white letters appear in two rows at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …and most of the notes that a guitar or flute can play.
[Image – Musical instrument frequency range chart, a colorful horizontal bar chart with frequency numbers and piano keys on top, and a list of the corresponding types of musical instruments on the right). The words “Every note has a number” in white letters appear on the screen.]
[Gerry:] Every note has a number that is different from every other note.
[Image – Chart of piano keys with frequency numbers printed on each key. The words “Low frequency notes (bass notes) have low numbers” appear in white letters at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Low frequency notes have low numbers.
[Image – Photos: A musician holding a guitar, and two bass guitars propped upright on stands with the words “Bass guitar” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] To give you an example of that, the lowest note on a bass guitar, which is the low E string, sounds like this:
[Image and sound effect – Close-up photo of a musician’s right hand plucking the top string of a bass guitar. The words “Low E string” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] The number for the low E string…
[Image and sound effect – Photo of a shiny bass guitar. The words “Low E String” and “41” appear in white letters on the screen.]
[Gerry:] …is 41, because the low E string…
[Image – Close-up photo of the four strings on a bass guitar. The words “Low E vibrates around 41 times a second” appear in white letters on the right side of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …vibrates around 41 times a second.
[Image – Close-up photo of a musician’s right hand plucking the top string of a bass guitar. The words “Low E frequency number is 41” in white letters appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] So, its frequency number is 41.
[Image – Black background with many blue semi-circular lines radiating towards the right side of the screen. The words “A short way of saying the frequency number is..” appears in white letters at the bottom of the screen and slowly fade off. The word and symbol “Hertz (hz)” appear in white letters at the bottom right corner of the screen.]
[Gerry:] A short way of saying the frequency number is Hertz.
[Image and sound effect – Close-up photo of a musician’s right hand plucking the top string of a bass guitar. The words “41 hz” in white letters appear on the screen.]
[Gerry:] 41 Hertz is the low E string’s number.
[Image – Photo of grand piano.]
[Gerry:] So, let's do another one. Middle C on a piano is this note:
[Image and sound effect – Overhead shot of a man’s left hand pressing the C note on a grand piano. The words “Middle C” appears in white letters on the screen.]
[Image – Close-up photo of piano keys with a musician’s left pointer finger pressing the middle C note. The words “Middle C vibrates about” in white letters appear at the top of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Middle C vibrates about…
[Image – Photo of a young girl seated at a grand piano, taking a music lesson with her piano teacher. The words “261 times a second” in white letters appear on the screen then fade off, replaced by “261 hz” in white letters.]
[Gerry:] …261 times a second, or 261 Hertz.
[Image – Photos of a sound engineer’s hands adjusting some knobs on a mixer.]
[Gerry:] It's not important to remember that number, but…
[Image – Photo of a female sound engineer seated at a mixer adjusting a knob with her right hand, while a man stands beside her holding a headphone up to his left ear and adjusts a different knob on the mixer with his right hand.]
[Gerry:] …later on, as we learn more about music, it helps.
[Jazzy music playing]
[Image – Photo of a musician sitting on a stool with his back against a grand piano in a dark, smoky room.]
[Image – Musical instruments frequency range chart. The word “Range” appears in white letters on the screen.]
[Gerry:] The last word that we will talk about today is “range.”
[Image and sound effects – Photo of a bright multi-color xylophone on a light blue background. The words “Range” and “The number of notes an instrument can play” appear in black letters at the top of the screen then disappears, and the words “..from the lowest to the highest” appear at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Range means the number of notes an instrument can play, from the lowest to the highest.
[Image and sound effects – Photo of a xylophone on a light green background. The words “Toy xylophone has a range of 8 notes” appear in black letters on the top of the screen.]
[Gerry:] This cute little toy xylophone has a range of eight notes, so its range is…
[Image and sound effects – Photo of a colorful wooden xylophone on a white background with a pair of mallets sitting on top of it. The word “Octave” appears in black letters above the xylophone, and the following letters appear and disappear, one by one, underneath each note: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.]
[Gerry:] …8 notes. We call that an octave in music. But we'll talk about that next time.
[Image – Photo montage: Several orchestra musicians playing the violin and double bass; A violin; Photo pf a young boy playing a grand piano. The words “Stringed instruments..” appear in white letters at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] Stringed instruments like violins, pianos and…
[Image – Photo of a girl playing the harp. The words “….have the largest ranges” appear in white letters at the bottom of the screen.]
[Gerry:] …harps have the largest ranges of all musical instruments.
[Image – Gerry in the Studio]
[Gerry:] Well, I hope that you've enjoyed this first episode of Talkin’ Music with Gerry.
[Gerry:] In our next episode we will listen to all the instruments in the orchestra, and we'll learn how to describe them. And we will continue on our journey learning more about our wonderful world of music.
[Gerry:] Thank you for watching. There's so much more to talk about, so I'll talk to you later. (Winking)
[Image and upbeat music – A kaleidoscope of gold music notes and treble clefs with rows of bright yellow and blue lights on a dark background emanate continuously from the middle of the screen to the front of the screen. Some of the music notes/clefs sparkle and glow intermittently.]
[Song lyrics]
There's so much more to talk about, so I'll talk to you later.
Arrivederci, sayonara, see you later alligator.
I have to say it’s been great and it’s gonna be greater.
There's so much more to talk about, so I'll talk to you later.
[Words in turquoise letters appear on the screen one row at a time and then fade during the song:
Thanks for watching!
To learn more please visit danielsmusic.org
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel]
[Image – End slate is a black screen.]