AP Music Theory Vocabulary; Everything You Need To Know Musically

Tonic

‘1’ Harmonic home base, usually the first chord in a scale; can transition to any chord.

Super tonic

‘2’ Above the tonic, resolves down to "do”, commonly transitions to “V or V7”

Mediant

‘3’ a third above the tonic, first clue towards major or minor of the tonality, can be stable or tense, most commonly moves to “vi, IV, I”, and serves as a week predominant

Subdominant

‘4’ Fourth above the tonic, the “lower dominant”, stable and predominant, usually moves to “V” or “I” if a plagal cadence omiD

Dominant

‘5’ A fifth above the tonic, stable on its own but has tension as a root, usually move to “I, vi, or i“

Submediant

‘6’, root of the minor scale, median between subdominant and tonic pitches, commonly moves to “ii (ii°), IV (iv), or V”

Subtonic/ Leading tone

‘7’, resolves upwards to “Do”

Enharmonic equivalent

two notes with the same pitch but different letter names, possible via accidentals (eg. E# and F, G# and Ab)

Half step (semitone)

Smallest possible distance between two pitches in Western music

Interval

Distance between two notes or pitches

Whole step (whole tone)

a distance of two half steps

Adagio

Slow, approx. 60-72bpm

Allegro, allegretto

Fast, approx. 108-156bpm

Andante

moderately slow, approx. 72-84bpm

Andantino

moderately slow, approx. 66-78bpm

Grave

very slow, 40-60bpm

Largo, larghetto

very slow, approx. 40-60bpm

Lento

slow, approx. 40-60bpm

Moderato

moderate, approx. 84-96bpm

Presto, prestissimo

very fast, approx. 140bpm and above

Vivace

very fast, approx. 140 and above

Accelerando

increasing in speed

Ritardando

gradually decreasing in speed

Ritenuto

abruptly decreasing in speed

Rubato

with freedom respect to tempo (intuitively speeding up and slowing down)

Legato

smooth and connected

Marcato

“Marked”, accented, with emphasis

Slur

a curved line over/under two or more notes indicating they are to be connected

Staccato

short and detached, marked with a dot directly over or under notepad

Tenuto

“Held”, hold note for its whole rhythmic value or slightly longer, marked with a dash directly over or under a notehead aka “leaning into a note”

Crescendo

increasing in loudness

Diminuendo

decreasing in loudness

Dynamic accent (an accent)

perform note louder and with emphasis, marked with “>”

Terraced dynamics

abruptly changing in loudness, creating a balcony/terrace between loud and quiet moments

Piannissimo

Very quiet, marked “pp”

Piano

Quiet, marked “p”

Mezzo Piano

Somewhat quiet, marked “mp”

Mezzo forte

Moderate, marked “mf”

Forte

Loud, marked “f”

Fortissimo

Very loud, marked “ff”

Sforzando

Loud attack, quick withdrawal to quiet, crescendo back to loud, marked “sfz”

Accidental

Modifies a note by a half step, # sharp to raise, b flat to lower, natural sign to undo previous accidental

Chromatic

Series of half steps, movement by half step

Chromaticism

Using notes that are outside of the diatonic scale or key

Diatonic

Notes naturally occurring within the key signature (no accidentals)

Enharmonic

Matching in pitch

Key signature

Uses accidentals (or the lack thereof) on the staff to show what series of notes a piece will generally use, informs “do”

C major/a minor

G major/e minor

D major/b minor

A major/f# minor

E major/c# minor

B major/g# minor

F# major/d# minor

C# major/a# minor

F major/d minor

Bb major/g minor

Eb major/c minor

Ab minor/f minor

Db major/bb minor

Gb major/eb minor

Cb major/ab minor

Scale degrees

The names for notes in a scale, tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic/leading tone

Tonal

Using notes from a designated key/scale and functional harmony

Tonality

Informs the harmonic home base of a piece, major or minor

Tonic “do”

The note/chord a piece uses as its harmonic home base

Accent

Indicates loud attack and emphasis, rhythmically strong positions in a bar of music

Anacrusis

pickup; upbeat, one or more unstressed notes before the first full bar

Meter

the recurring, organized pattern of strong and weak beats that structure music, typically grouped into measures

Meter (duple)

two beats per bar

Meter (triple)

three beats per bar

Meter (quadruple)

four beats per bar

Asymmetrical meter

aka irregular meter, containing beats of different lengths (eg. 5/8 or 7/8)

Bar line

the division between measures of music, organizing notes into equal sections

Beat

the steady, underlying pulse that keeps time in a song

Beat unit

the note that gets the beat

Beat division

how the beat is divided ex. compound or simple

Compound

beat subdivides into three

Simple

beat subdivides into two

Dot vs. double dot

A single dot increases a note’s rhythmic value by half, whereas a double dot decreases a note’s rhythmic value by 0.75

Dotted rhythm

a rhythmic pattern where one or more notes are being held for 1.5x their original length

Downbeat

The first beat of a measure, usually rhythmically strong

Duplet

a musical rhythm where two notes are played in the time normally occupied by three notes of the same value. Primarily used in compound time signatures (e.g., 6/8, 9/8, 12/8), it acts as a "two-in-the-time-of-three" pattern, dividing a dotted note into two equal parts instead of the usual

Duration

the length of time a sound or silence occurs

Note value

The length of time that a note is held relative to a piece’s tempo and time signature

Offbeat

a rhythmically weak or unaccented beat

Pulse

the main felt unit of sound or silence in a piece of music, sets tempo and helps organize rhythm

Rhythm

patterns of sounds (notes) and silence (rests) within a pulse

Swing rhythm

rhythmic pattern where the beat unevenly emphasized (LONG-short)

Tempo

the speed of a beat

Tie

A curved line that connects two notes to make one longer note

Time signature (meter signature)

In simple meter, it indicates how many beats per bar (top number) and what kind of note makes a beat (bottom number); in a compound meter, it indicates how many divisions per bar (top number) and what kind of note makes the division of the beat (bottom number)

Triplet

indicates that beat should be subdivided in three, marked with a little 3 over notes beamed or bracketed together

Improvisation

The practice of composing music while performing it based on intuition and common musical patterns/techniques

Tremolo

The process of rapidly changing the loudness or pitch a note performed at to create a wavering effect

Chromatic scale

a scale made up of all half steps, written with sharps when ascending and flats when descending

Major scale

a scale made up of WWHWWWH, Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Minor Scale (natural Minor)

a scale made up of WHWWHWW, Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Te Do

Harmonic Minor Scale

a scale using Do Re Me Fa Sol Le Ti Do

Melodic Minor Scale

Do Re Me Fa Sol La Ti Do ascending and Do Te Le Sol Fa Me Re Do descending