Once you can read music, every piece in the world is speaking to you. Every card can be clicked and heard.
⓪ The three elements of music: rhythm, melody, harmony
Music is three layers stacked — Rhythm is the skeleton, Melody is the soul,
Harmonyis colour. Click a card to toggle a layer, then press play and hear what happens when one is missing. The tune is one you know: "Frère Jacques".
All three layers are on by default — hear the full version first, then switch them off one by one
Hear the difference?rhythm alone＝you can still tap along but can't name the tune; melody alone ＝gets you the tune, but thin;
add harmony and the emotion appears. Jazz improvisation divides up exactly these three layers: the drummer takes rhythm, you take melody, piano and bass take harmony —
Know which layer is yours and you know what to listen for — and what to leave alone.
① Notes and rests: the length of sound, the length of silence
each card＝one note value. Click it: first you hear 4 clicks of the metronome, then the note sounds for exactly the right length — and a rest is silent for exactly the right length.♩=80。
There is only one rule: each step down halves the value. A whole note (4 beats)→half(2 beats)→quarter(1 beats)→eighth(half beat)→sixteenth(¼ beats)。
add one dotted＝the original value plus half again (a dotted half note ＝3 beats). Rests match notes one for one — Rests are music too，
Count Basie 's signature is playing less and leaving more.
② Four clefs: the same middle C, four positions
The clef's job＝tells you which line is which note. What the four cards show is the same middle C — click a card to hear it: all four cards sound exactly the same pitch.
Who uses it?Treble clef: violin, flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano right hand. Bass clef: cello, double bass, trombone, piano left hand.
Alto clef (C the clef sits on line 3 line): the viola's own clef。Tenor clef (C the clef sits on line 4 line): the upper register of cello, trombone and bassoon——
To avoid a forest of ledger lines, the clef moves up one line.C whichever line the clef points to is middle C。
③ note name × solfège table
Note names (C D E…) are a note's ID card and never move; solfège (Do Re Mi…) have two uses — click any cell to hear that note:
note name
Fixed-do
Jianpu (C in a major key)
German
frequency(A=440)
👆 Click a key: the white keys are Do Re Mi; black keys are the semitones between them
Fixed-do vs Movable-do: In fixed-do, Do always＝C(the mainstream in Taiwanese classical training);
In movable-do, Do＝the tonic of the current key (G in a major key Sol sung as Do) — the thinking behind jianpu and jazz scale degrees (1=the root) is movable-do logic.
All jianpu on this site uses movable-do：1 is always the current tonic, and it works in any key.
④ Time signature and rhythm:how music walks
time signature＝How many beats per bar, and which note gets the beat. Click a button to hear the three most common time signatures(the accent falls on beat 1 beats),then compare triplets with straight eighths:
This is where the jazz secret lives:Swing eighth＝think of the beat as a triplet,the first two tied, the third on its own —
a "long—short, long—short" groove. Hear straight eighths first, ,then hear the triplet,finally hear Swing,and your ears will understand.
🧪 Rhythm Lab: build a bar yourself
pick a time signature → click notes until the bar fills exactly → play. This is the practical exam in note values:
4/4 must total 4 beats — one note too many won't fit, one too few won't play. Click a note in the bar to delete it.
4/4: the quarter note gets the beat, and each bar has 4 beats — the most common in pop, rock and jazz.