Melody

Interval

The gap in pitch between two notes.

Scale

A group of notes played in ascending or descending order.

Arpeggio

Playing the notes of a chord one by one

Conjunct melodies

Move mainly by step

Disjunct melodies

Use a lot of leaps (bigger intervals)

Triadic melodies

Use the notes from a triad

Scalic melodies

Melodies that follow the order of a particular scale

Chromatic scale

Scale made up of semitones (smallest interval e.g. C-C#)

Augmentation

Doubling the note values/lengths of the original tune

Diminution

Halving the note values/lengths of the original tune

Modes

Came before scales. White note scales used in early music, folk and jazz.

Passing notes

The notes in between the notes of the harmony

Blue notes

The flattened or black notes in a Blues scale.

Sequence

When a tune is repeated a step higher or a step lower

Glissando/portamento

A slide between two notes

Pitch bend

Bending the note on a guitar or any string instrument/voice or keyboard/synthesizer

Ornamentation

Decorating the melody. Trill, mordent, acciaccatura, appoggiatura

Ostinato/riff

a repeated pattern in Classical music

Riff

A repeated pattern in pop

Phrase

A musical sentence (where you’d naturally take a breath). Often 2, 4 or 8 bars long. Indicated by a curved line above the stave.

Articulation

How to play the notes

Staccato

Short

Legato

Smooth