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Music terminology
Musical Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accelerando | Gradually growing faster |
| Adagio | At a slow speed |
| Allegro | At a brisk speed |
| Arrangement | A reworking of a piece of music so that it can be played by a different instrument or combination of instruments from the original. |
| Bars | A segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats. |
| Beat/Pulse | A basic unit of time marking out the speed at which the music is played. |
| Call and response | Two distinct phrases, where the second phrase is heard as a direct response to the first. |
| A cappella | Solo or group singing performed without instruments accompanying. |
| Chant | Text spoken rhythmically, not sung. |
| Chord | Two or more notes played together to achieve harmony. |
| Clef | A symbol found at the beginning of a line of music to show how high or low the notes are. |
| Compound time | Music that is written in a metre of 2 but where each beat is subdivided into 3 quavers, providing a bouncy, skipping, jig-like rhythm, for example in Row, Row, Row your Boat. (e.g. 6/8) |
| Crescendo | Gradually getting louder. |
| Decrescendo | Gradually getting quieter. |
| Downbeat | The accented first beat of a group of notes in any metre, e.g. in 1 2 3 | 1 2 3. |
| Drone | A sustained sound, which could be a single note or a chord. |
| Duet | A piece played or sung by two performers |
| Dynamics | Volume: very soft (pianissimo) soft (piano) moderately soft (mezzo-piano) moderately loud (mezzo-forte) loud (forte) very loud (fortissimo) |
| Ensemble | i) A group of players of any size and instrumental mix. ii) ‘A sense of ensemble’ describes a musical performance in which players keep together rhythmically and maintain a balance between parts. |
| Diatonic scale | A scale which is traditional in European classical music (e.g. C-D-E-F-G-AB). |
| Genre | Music that shares a certain style or particular tradition is said to belong to a genre, e.g. ‘Avant-garde’ or ‘Gospel Blues’. |
| Harmony | A musical effect created by combining two or more notes played or sung simultaneously. |
| Improvisation | Creating and inventing music in real time, i.e. ‘on the spot’. |
| Interval | The pitch difference between two notes. |
| Legato | Smooth |
| Major and Minor | An example major chord is C-E-G, and minor A-C-E. Often music in major keys or using major scales is referred to as happy with minor meaning sad. |
| Note Values | A semibreve is worth 4 beats A minim is worth 2 beats A crotchet is worth 1 beat A quaver is worth half a beat A semiquaver is worth a quarter of a beat |
| Octave | The musical alphabet is A-B-C-D-E-F-G, which then repeats. For example, A to the next A is a distance of 8 notes (Oct = 8) therefore an octave is the range between an A and the next A. |
| Orchestra | An ensemble of instruments, usually combining string, woodwind, brass and percussion. |
| Ostinato | A musical phrase or rhythm which is repeated. |
| Pentatonic scale | A scale with five notes, e.g. C D E (F) G A (B), very common in folk music. |
| Phrasing | Connecting or grouping several notes or rhythms to create a sequence of sounds that make sense musically and satisfy both performer and listener. Phrasing in a song indicates where the singer should breathe. |
| Pitch | How high or low a note is. |
| Pizzicato | Plucking the string on a violin, viola, cello or double bass. |
| Question and answer | Two distinct phrases usually written in different parts of the music, but which operate like a conversation, with the second phrase answering the first. |
| Rallentando | Gradually growing slower. |
| Rests | A moment of silence in music. Rests can last for different lengths of time; 4 beat (semibreve) rest 2 beat (minim) rest 1 beat (crotchet) rest half a beat (quaver) rest |
| Rhythm | Variable sound patterns that fit over a steady pulse or beat: in songs, rhythms are dictated by the arrangement of syllables. |
| Rondo form | Music composed in a set pattern of sections. The main initial musical theme alternates with contrasting musical sections and is often represented as AB-A-C-A-D-A. |
| Round | A song in which singers perform the same melody but at staggered starting points, producing overlapping harmony. Rounds are most commonly performed in 2, 3 or 4 parts. |
| Scale | A sequence of eight adjacent notes which together span an octave. |
| Score | A written document of a piece of music using notation. |
| Solo | A section of music, of any length, played or sung by one performer alone. |
| Staccato | Short and spiky, the opposite of Legato. |
| Stave | A set of five horizontal lines and four spaces. |
| Structure | How a piece is organised. |
| Syncopation | Playing on the off-beat. |
| Tempo | The speed or pace of music (fast/slow, faster/slower). |
| Ternary form | Music composed in three sections, often referred to as ’sandwich’ music, illustrating that the outer sections are the same with a contrasting middle section: e.g. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Ternary form is often represented as ABA. |
| Texture | The overall effect of how melody, harmony and rhythm are combined in a piece of music. |
| Time signature | Two numbers sit on top of each other next to the clef (see below) and specify how many beats are contained in each musical bar, and which note value is equivalent to a musical beat. |
| Treble clef | This sign is placed on the stave at the start of a piece of music. It lets the performer know that the note values on the lines. |
| Tremolo | On string instruments, rapidly moving the bow back and forth; a roll on a percussion instrument; or two notes or chords played rapidly on a piano or marimba. |
| Triad | A three-note chord, often built on the tonic, or ‘home’ note – the lowest of the three in pitch – and played together with the third and fifth note above it. A C major triad would contain the notes C, E and G. |
| Tuned instruments | Percussion and orchestral instruments that can produce different notes e.g. xylophone, chime bars, glockenspiel, hand bells; violin, trumpet, flute, cello, piano, etc. |
| 2/3/4 part song | A song written for two, three or four soloists or groups of singers, with melodies that complement each other harmonically. Part songs are often notated with multiple staves. |
| Unison | Playing or singing the same notes together, at the same pitch. |
| Untuned instruments | Percussion that makes a unpitched sound when hit, shaken or scraped, e.g. woodblock, maracas, guiro, cymbal, drum. |
| Verse and chorus | Music composed in a set pattern of sections, often Verse-Chorus-Verse Chorus-Bridge- Chorus or similar. Used in most Pop songs. |
| Vocal balance | Maintaining appropriately even dynamics and accurate pitching between groups of singers when performing. |
Created by:
MissRosie
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