What is 'lower octave' and 'octave of the unison'?

Question

''If we play the 6th string 5th fret OR the 4th string 7th fret then we are playing the Lower Octave OR the Octave OF the Unison. The 6th string 5th fret is the LOWER OCTAVE of the Unison and the 4th string 7th fret is the OCTAVE of the Unison. Read that a couple times. Got it? Good''.


I read those sentences about music theory. What is 'lower octave' and 'octave of the unison'? And why the 6th string 5th fret is the LOWER OCTAVE of the Unison and the 4th string 7th fret is the OCTAVE of the Unison? I don't get it.

Answer 1

It sounds like a lot of fancy jargon to explain a simple fact. Both notes are A. They are an OCTAVE apart and if you play them at the same time, it's called "in UNISON." It follows that the lower A would be called the "lower octave".



Do you understand what an octave is? My apologies if this is review. The prefix "octo" means "eight"...like in octopus. In music, we name the notes after the first 7 letters of the alphabet.....A through G. When you get to the eighth note, you repeat . The major scale in any key works the same way.....do re mi fa so la ti do....the scale repeats on the eighth note. The eighth note is called the octave.



The prefix "uni" means one....like in the single wheeled unicycle. When you play two notes together, you play them "as one" or in unison.



In your example, the 6th string 5th fret is an A (identical to the open A or 5th string) If you count up the A major scale, the 4th string fret 7 is the next A that you come to. That becomes the octave. The note you started on is the lower octave. If you play them together they are in unison.



Again, I apologize if I explained things you already know.

Answer 2

More simply put.

The two notes are the same, just an octave apart. The lowest pitched one is the Lower Octave.

If you play them both at the same time, you are playing them in "unison" or at the same time.



Did some book or web page provide that crappy bunch of sentences?



That is unnecessarily obtuse and confusing.



so basically all notes have the same notes an octave up. There are 7 notes. .So the 8th note is the octave.(not counting flats and sharps)

so every 12th piano keys or every 12th fret up on a guitar is an octave note. Low and high is self explanatory.

Answer 3

TommyMc is right. The way that is worded is unnecessarily complicated.



If you're learning music theory from someone wording it like that, you should find someone that can put it in ways that aren't chock full of redundancies.