Important music terms and their meanings
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| A cappella | One or more vocalists performing without an accompaniment.
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| Accelerando | gradually quicken tempo
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| Adagio | slow tempo
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| Allegro | lively and fast tempo
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| Cadence | A sequence of chords that brings an end to a phrase
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| Canon | The melody or tune is imitated by individual parts at regular intervals.
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| Chord | 3 or 4 notes played simultaneously in harmony
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| Chromatic scale | Includes all twelve notes of an octave, all half step intervals.
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| Clef | a symbol at the beginning of the staff defining the pitch of the notes found in that particular staff
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| Coda | Closing section of a movement
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| Consonance | Groups of tones that are harmonious when sounded together as in a chord
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| Dissonance | Harsh, discordant, and lack of harmony. Also a chord that sounds incomplete until it resolves itself on a harmonious chord.
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| Dynamics | Pertaining to the loudness or softness of a musical composition. Also the symbols in sheet music indicating volume.
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| Enharmonic | Two notes that differ in name only. The notes occupy the same position. For example: C sharp and D flat.
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| Falsetto | A style of male singing where by partial use of the vocal chords, the voice is able to reach the pitch of a female.
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| Fermata | To hold a tone or rest held beyond the written value at the discretion of the performer.
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| Flat | A symbol indicating that the note is to be diminished by one semitone.
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| Harmony | Pleasing combination of two or three tones played together in the background while a melody is being played. Harmony also refers to the study of chord progressions.
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| Instrumentation | Arrangement of music for a combined number of instruments.
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| Interval | The distance in pitch between two notes.
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| Key signature | The flats and sharps at the beginning of each staff line indicating the key of music the piece is to be played.
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| Legato | smoothly
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| Major | One of the two modes of the tonal system. Music written in major keys have a positive affirming character.
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| Measure | The unit of measure where the beats on the lines of the staff are divided up into two, three, four beats to a measure.
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| Medley | Often used in overtures, a composition that uses passages from other movements of the composition in its entirety.
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| Minor | One of the two modes of the tonal system. The minor mode can be identified by the dark, melancholic mood.
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| Natural | A symbol in sheet music that returns a note to its original pitch after it has been raised or lowered.
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| Phrase | A single line of music played or sung. A musical sentence.
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| Pitch | The frequency of a note determining how high or low it sounds.
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| Rhythm | The element of music pertaining to time, played as a grouping of notes into accented and unaccented beats.
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| Round | A canon where the melody is sung in two or more voices. After the first voice begins, the next voice starts singing after a couple of measures are played in the preceding voice. All parts repeat continuously.
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| Rubato | It is a style where the strict tempo is temporarily abandoned for a more emotional tone.
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| Scale | Successive notes of a key or mode either ascending or descending.
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| Sharp | A symbol indicating the note is to be raised by one semitone.
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| Staccato | Short detached notes, as opposed to legato.
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| Staff | Made up of five horizontal parallel lines and the spaces between them on which musical notation is written.
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| Tempo | Indicating speed.
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| Timbre | Tone color, quality of sound that distinguishes one verse or instrument to another. It is determined by the harmonies of sound.
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| Time Signature | A numeric symbol in sheet music determining the number of beats to a measure.
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| Tonality | The tonal characteristics determined by the relationship of the notes to the tone.
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| Tonic | The first tone of a scale also known as a home note.
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| Treble | The playing or singing the upper half of the vocal range. Also the highest voice in choral singing.
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| Triad | Three note chords consisting of a root, third, and fifth.
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