Music theory focuses on looking for patterns in musical compositions and examining the structures composers use in their work. Music theorists look within genres and across different styles of music and time periods. Notes, pitch, chords, and rhythm are some elements of music. Learning these basic ideas and concepts will help people understand how music works.
When someone is writing a song, he or she will write notes down to represent the pitch being played and the amount of time it is played for. Pitch is the highness or lowness of a sound. In traditional music, notes are named with the first seven letters of the alphabet (A-G). Special symbols called accidentals are used when a note needs to be modified. A sharp symbol tells the person reading a piece of music to raise the pitch of a key by a half-step. A flat symbol means that the note should be played a half-step lower. To better understand this concept, think about the keyboard of a piano. The white keys are “naturals” or notes that represent the A-G scale. The black keys represent accidentals that can be used to modify a note.
Pitch is also important to singers and musicians. Some people have absolute pitch. They don’t need anyone to play a note for them to be able to sing or reproduce it. Some can name the pitch of common noises, like the sound of a car horn. Others are able to name each of the three or more notes in a chord when it is played.
Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in a piece of music. It is measured in time. Time is grouped by measures or “bars.” Thick, vertical bar lines are used to separate measures. The time signature appears at the beginning of a piece of music. It is used to show how many beats should be in each measure. These are also called meter signatures. It may help to remember that meter is used to determine the rhythm used in a poem.

Based on this passage, the reader can tell that people with absolute pitch

A. must be able to harmonize perfectly.

B. can name a note when it is played.

C. will eventually become a music theorist.

D. have studied music for many years.