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- AB Form
- A musical form that has an A section, a complete unit,
and a contrasting B section, also a complete unit.
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- ABA Form
- A musical form that has an A section, a complete unit,
and a contrasting B section, also a complete unit; it returns
to repeat the A section at the end making the overall form of
the composition ABA.
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- ABA Phrases
- Phrases can also be grouped in ABA phrases. The first
phrase is an A phrase, the next a contrasting B phrase; an A
phrase is repeated making an overall phrase group of ABA.
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- Beat
- The rhythmic pulse heard and felt throughout a song or
composition.
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- Coda
- An ending that is added to a song or composition.
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- Chant
- A repeated phrase spoken rhythmically.
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- Duple meter
- Music that moves with a rhythmic swing of pulses in sets
of 2’s; most commonly, 2/4, 4/4, also 2/2, 2/8, 4/8 etc.
The first beat gets more emphasis; STRONG weak, STRONG weak.
6/8 is compound duple meter, 2 sets of 3’s.
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- Dotted half note
- A note with an open head and stem plus a dot following
it. The duration is three times as long as a quarter note.
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- Dynamics
- Loudness and softness in a song or composition.
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- Form
- Form is the organizational scheme of the composition,
the design of sections of the song or composition; the design
contrast of musical ideas using restatement, variation and contrast.
Some forms students might find easiest to use are rondo, theme
and variation, AB, ABA.
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- Half note
- A note with an open head. The duration is two times as
long as a quarter note.
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- Harmony
- Two or more tones played or sung at the same time.
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- Improvisation
- A musical performance created spontaneously.
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- Interval
- The distance from one pitch to another.
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- 1K
- 1K is a computer file of 1 kilobyte or 1,024 bytes. 1K
is a small unit and can be downloaded quickly.
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- Key
- The tonality, or the relationship of the tones to each
other. Songs that have a tonal center or that gravitate to C
are in the key of C. The key signature is shown at the beginning
of a staff identifying the sharps or flats in that key.
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- Key signature
- The arrangement of sharps or flats placed at the beginning
of each line of music, which denotes the tonality or key. The
key signature indicates which tones are to be sharp or flat in
the scale system a piece is based on.
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- Major
- The word major can refer to a scale, key, chord or interval.
A major scale is arranged in an order that moves to the next
letter name scale step with a half-step occurring between the
3rd and 4th scale step and the 7th and 8th for the major. The
other tones in a major scale are whole steps.
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- Measure
- The division of rhythms of a composition into a specified
number of beats, separated by a vertical line called a bar line.
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- Meter
- The grouping of beats in song or composition. Basic meter
groupings of many songs are in two, three, four or six beats.
The time signature tells you about the meter. For example; in
3/4 time, the top number of time signature indicates that there
are three beats in the measure, the bottom four indicates a quarter
note gets the pulse or the beat. In this case, each third beat
get an accent, the three beats are STRONG weak weak STRONG weak
weak. The meter grouping is divided by a bar line.
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- MIDI file
- A computer file that stores instructions for a musical
instrument using Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standardized
way in which micro-processor-based musical instruments can communicate
with one another and other computers. MIDI files are usually
not large and can be downloaded quickly.
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- Minor
- Minor can refer to a scale, key, chord or interval. When
referring to interval it is lesser or smaller interval than major.
The third scale step of the minor scale, chord or interval is
a half-step lower than the third in the major chord. An explanation
of minor scales is not given here. There are natural, harmonic
and melodic minor scales.
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- Pentatonic scale
- A five-tone scale. The most common five-tone scale to
folk music is the scale that uses steps 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of
the major scale. Using the black keys of the piano gives the
pentatonic scale.
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- Phrase
- A musical thought or idea that can be compared to a sentence
in language. It is a short musical passage complete in itself.
The length can vary.
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- Pulse
- A term used to mean the rhythmic beat in the music.
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- Quarter note
- A note with a filled-in head and a stem. It often represents
the basic pulse or beat of a song or composition. For example
in 3/4, each quarter note would get one pulse or beat.
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- Question-answer phrase
- A phrase is a musical thought or idea that can be compared
to a sentence in language. It is a short musical passage, complete
in itself. The length can vary. A musical question phrase leaves
the listener feeling that the music must go on. An answer phrase
leaves the listener feeling that the music could end there. This
is accomplished by returning at the end of the musical answer
phrase to the tonal center of the composition, to the tonic or
the first scale step of the composition.
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- Rhythm
- The organization of sounds, no sound (rests) and patterns
into different groupings.
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- Rondo
- A musical form with a recurring A theme that is alternated
between contrasting sections. For example; A, B, A, C, A. The
A, B, or C represent a musical section, each different from the
other.
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- Scale
- A series of tones in a pattern of whole-steps or half-steps.
The pattern determines whether the scale is major, minor, chromatic
etc. Compositions or songs are based on the tonal material of
a scale.
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- Sequence
- Successive repetitions of a melodic pattern at different
pitch levels. It is referred to as a “sequential repetition.”
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- Step
- Refers to the interval or distance of one note to the
one immediately beside it.
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- Tempo
- The speed of a song or composition when it is performed.
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- Theme & Variation
- A musical form that states a main theme, a complete musical
idea. Variations are created using the thematic material of the
main theme for the basis of the variations.
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- Time signature
- The time signature tells you about the meter or the rhythmic
grouping of the song or composition. It is placed on a musical
staff at the beginning of each piece or section. The top number
indicates what kind of note receives one beat. Bar lines divide
the staff into measures. For example; in a 4/4 time signature,
the top 4 indicates there will be 4 beats in each measure and
the bottom 4 means that a quarter note receives one beat or pulse.
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- Tonic
- A term representing the tonal center of a song or composition;
the first scale step. It can refer to a scale step or a triad
or a chord. A tonic chord is the triad whose root is the first
scale step of the key of the composition.
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- Tonality
- The key of a composition or song gives the tonality of
a song.
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- Triple meter
- Music that moves in groupings of rhythmic pulses or beats
in sets of 3’s. For example, 3/4, 3/8 or 3/2.
- 9/8 is compound triple meter; 3 sets of 3’s.
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- Wave file
- A computer file containing audio information.
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