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Glossary of Musical Terms Used
in Song Writing for Children
- Form.......................return
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- 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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- Harmony.......................return
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- Two or more tones played or sung at the same time.
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- Improvisation.......................return
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- A musical performance created spontaneously.
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- Meter.......................return
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- 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.......................return
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- 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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- Question-answer phrase...................return
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- 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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- Scale.......................return
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- 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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- Tonality.......................return
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- The key of a composition or song gives the tonality of
a song.
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