Every musical term used in this course
Hit a word you don't know while reading? Look it up here. Each entry has a short explanation and a link back to the chapter that teaches it.
94 terms
Digital pianoweighted keyboardAn instrument with weighted keys built to feel like an acoustic piano, usually with a full 88 keys.Electric keyboardarranger · portable keyboardAn instrument with lighter keys but a large library of instrument sounds and backing rhythms.VelocityHow hard a key was pressed. Instruments that sense it play louder or softer to match.Sustain pedaldamper pedalA pedal that keeps notes ringing after you lift your fingers off the keys.OctaveThe distance from a note to the next note of the same name — twelve semitones.Middle CC4The C nearest the centre of the keyboard, used as the reference point for everything else.Semitonehalf stepThe smallest distance between two neighbouring keys, black or white.Whole tonewhole stepTwo semitones — in other words, skip one key.Sharp♯A sign raising a note by one semitone.Flat♭A sign lowering a note by one semitone.EnharmonicOne key with two names — C♯ and D♭ are the same key.BeatpulseThe basic unit of musical time — what your foot taps without being asked.TempoHow fast the beat goes, measured in beats per minute.BPMbeats per minuteBeats per minute. A higher number means a faster piece.MetronomeA device that clicks a perfectly even beat, used to train steady timing.Note valuedurationHow long a note lasts — a quarter note is one beat, a half note two.RestA sign telling you to be silent, with exactly the same set of lengths as notes.Time signaturemetreTwo numbers at the start of a piece giving the beats per bar and which note counts as one beat.BarmeasureA section marked off by barlines, each holding the same number of beats.StaffstaveThe five parallel lines music is written on. Height on the staff means pitch.Treble clefG clefThe clef whose curl wraps the second line, declaring it G. Usually read by the right hand.Bass clefF clefThe clef whose two dots straddle the fourth line, declaring it F. Usually read by the left hand.Grand staffgrand staveA treble and a bass staff joined together — right hand on top, left hand below.Ledger lineleger lineA short extra line added to write notes above or below the staff.Dotted noteA dot after a note makes it half as long again.TieA curved line joining two of the same note: play once, hold for the combined length.SyncopationAccenting the off-beats instead of the main beats, which is what makes music feel alive.ScaleA set of notes running low to high according to a fixed pattern of distances.Major scaleIonianThe scale built on whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. Bright and open sounding.Key signatureThe sharps or flats written at the start of a staff, telling you which key the piece is in.IntervalThe distance between two notes, counted in semitones or named — a perfect 5th, say.ChordThree or more notes sounding at once.TriadA three-note chord built by stacking two thirds.InversionMoving the lowest note of a chord up an octave, giving the same chord a different bass note.Arpeggiobroken chordPlaying the notes of a chord one after another instead of together.DynamicsControl of loudness, written with symbols such as p for soft and f for loud.LegatoPlaying so that notes flow into one another with no gap.StaccatoPlaying notes short and detached, marked with a dot above or below the notehead.FingeringThe numbers 1 to 5 telling you which finger plays which note. The thumb is always 1.Black-key groupThe black keys cluster in twos and threes all the way along, giving you a map for finding notes.Ottava (8va)8va · 8vb · 15maA marking telling you to play an octave higher or lower than written, standing in for a pile of ledger lines.Slurphrase markA curve joining notes of different pitches, asking for a smooth unbroken line. Unlike a tie, every note is played.BeambeamingThe thick line joining the stems of short notes into beat groups. One beamed group is usually one beat.Sight-readingreading at sightPlaying music you have never seen, straight off the page. Practised with new material daily and without ever stopping.Tonicfirst degree · key noteThe first note of a scale, and the one the ear treats as home. Music ending on the tonic sounds finished.Scale degreedegreeA note's position in a scale, counting the tonic as one. It lets you describe a note's job without naming a key.Leading toneseventh degree · leading noteThe seventh degree, sitting a half step below the tonic. Its pull toward home is what makes music sound resolved.Minor scalenatural minorA scale built whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. It differs from major at degrees three, six and seven.Harmonic minorMinor with the seventh raised a half step to create a leading tone, leaving a three-half-step gap between degrees six and seven.Melodic minorMinor with the sixth and seventh raised on the way up, reverting to natural minor on the way down, so melodies climb smoothly.Relative keyrelative minor · relative majorA major and minor key sharing one set of notes and one key signature. Count three half steps down from the major tonic.Parallel keyparallel minor · parallel majorKeys sharing a tonic but not a mood, such as C major and C minor. Their key signatures differ.Circle of fifthsA diagram arranging all keys by fifths. Clockwise adds sharps, anticlockwise adds flats, and neighbours share six of seven notes.Pentatonic scalefive-note scaleA five-note scale with no two notes a half step apart, so everything fits with everything. The five black keys are one.Blues scaleblue noteThe minor pentatonic plus one blue note between degrees four and five, used as a passing sound rather than a resting point.Accidentalnatural signA sharp, flat or natural written beside a notehead mid-piece. It holds for that staff position until the bar line.Tritoneaugmented fourth · diminished fifthAn interval of six half steps, splitting the octave in half. The least stable interval there is, and the engine of harmony.DiminisheddimA chord of two stacked minor thirds, containing a tritone. Used for instability that hands off to the next chord.AugmentedaugA chord of two stacked major thirds. Its gaps are equal, so the ear cannot find a root; used as a passing chord.Voice leadingChoosing chord positions by treating each note as its own line: keep common tones still, move everything else as little as possible.Chord progressionchangesThe sequence of chords forming a song's skeleton, such as I V vi IV, which underlies thousands of pop songs.Diatonic chordchords of the keyA chord built only from notes of the key's scale. A major key gives major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished.Roman numeralroman numeral analysisWriting chords as scale degrees rather than names — uppercase major, lowercase minor — so a progression transposes instantly.CadenceThe chord pair closing a phrase, working like punctuation. V to I is a full stop; V to vi withholds the ending.Seventh chordfour-note chordA four-note chord: a triad with one more third stacked on top. The four main types are maj7, 7, m7 and m7♭5.Dominant seventhV7A major triad plus a minor seventh, written as a bare 7. Its internal tritone gives the strongest pull back to the tonic chord.Suspended chordsus2 · sus4 · susA chord with the third replaced by the second or fourth degree, so it is neither major nor minor.Slash chordchord over bassA symbol naming a chord over a bass note, such as C/E. The bass may or may not belong to the chord.Lead sheetchord chartA single page carrying melody and chord names but no accompaniment. Voicings and rhythm are the player's choice.Accompaniment patternleft-hand patternA way of spreading a chord's notes through time so it carries rhythm instead of simply being held.VoicingThe choice of which octave each chord note sits in and how they are ordered. The same notes voiced differently feel very different.Broken chordPlaying a chord's notes one at a time rather than together, making the sound flow and cover more register.Alberti bassA left-hand pattern playing a chord as low, high, middle, high. The signature texture of Classical-era piano writing.PhraseA self-contained unit of melody, comparable to a sentence or a single breath. Usually two to four bars.CompingaccompanyingPlaying chords rhythmically to support a melody or singer without competing with them for attention.Crescendodiminuendo · decrescendoA gradual change of volume — crescendo grows, diminuendo fades — written as a widening or narrowing wedge.ArticulationHow individual notes are joined or separated — legato, staccato, tenuto. It is governed by the release, not the attack.TransposetranspositionMoving a whole piece to another key while keeping every relationship between notes intact. Most often done to suit a singer.ImprovisationimprovInventing melody in the moment, framed by a scale and a chord progression. Its quality is decided by rhythm and space.Rubatotempo rubatoStretching and compressing time within a phrase for expressive reasons, repaying whatever time was borrowed.Tempo markingallegro · andante · ritardandoItalian words giving both speed and character — Andante, Allegro — along with change instructions like ritardando.Secondary dominantV of VThe dominant seventh belonging to a chord other than the tonic, placed in front of it so the target briefly sounds like home.Borrowed chordmodal interchangeA chord taken from the parallel key, adding darker colour without moving the tonic. The minor iv is the most common.Rootless voicingguide tonesPlaying a chord without its root — third, fifth, seventh and ninth — used when a bass player already covers the root.Tensionextension · ninth · thirteenthA note stacked beyond the seventh — the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth — adding colour without changing the chord's function.Tritone substitutiontritone subReplacing a dominant chord with the one whose root is six half steps away, since both contain the same tritone.ReharmonisationreharmGiving an existing melody a new set of chords, provided the melody notes on strong beats still fit.Walking bassA bass line of continuous quarter notes: the root on beat one and an approach note on beat four leading to the next chord.Twelve-bar blues12-bar bluesA twelve-bar form using I, IV and V, all as dominant sevenths. The root of pop, rock, soul and jazz.SwingshufflePlaying pairs of eighths unequally, the first taking about two thirds of the beat. The same idea as writing in 12/8.Compound metre6/8 · 12/8Metre in which each large beat divides into three rather than two: 6/8 has two large beats, 12/8 has four.Polyrhythmthree against twoTwo unequal subdivisions sounding at once. Three against two is the most common.Deliberate practicePractice with a narrow target, at a difficulty where you sometimes fail, with immediate feedback and full attention.ArrangementarrangingDeciding what a piece will actually be: its intensity curve, registers, density and accompaniment pattern in each section.