elements of music flash

Accidentals

Notes that are not normally found in a given key.

Acoustics

The study of how sound behaves in physical spaces.

Acoustical Engineer

A person who works in the area of acoustic technology.

Acoustician

A person who studies the theory and science of acoustics.

Amplitude

Refers to how high the waveform appears to vibrate above zero when seen on an oscilloscope; louder sounds create higher oscilloscope amplitude readings.

Bar

See measure.

Beat

The basic unit of time in music.

Brass

Instruments traditionally made of brass or another metal, producing a bright or brassy tone, whose sound is generated by blowing into a mouthpiece attached to a coiled tube.

Chord

The simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches; chords can be consonant or dissonant.

Chord Progression

A series of chords.

Chromatic

Musical pitches which move up or down by successive half-steps.

Composition

The process whereby a musician notates musical ideas using a system of symbols or some other form of recording.

Conjunct

A melody that moves mostly by step, in a smooth manner.

Consonant

Term used to describe intervals and chords that tend to sound sweet and pleasing to our ears.

Cycles per Second (cps)

A definition of frequency of vibration; replaced by Hertz in 1960.

Disjunct

A melody with wide leaps and rapid changes in direction.

Dissonant

Intervals and chords that tend to sound harsh to our ears; often used to create tension and instability.

Dynamic

The variation in the volume of musical sound (the amplitude of the sound waves).

Equalization (EQ)

The process of raising or lowering different frequencies of sound, either in a recording or within a tone.

Form

The structure of the phrases and sections within a musical composition.

Frequency

How quickly or slowly a medium (solid, liquid, gas) vibrates and produces a sound.

Fundamental Pitch

The lowest pitch in the harmonic series.

Guido of Arezzo

A medieval music theorist who developed a system for notating specific notes in a melody.

Improvisation

The process whereby musicians create music spontaneously using the elements of music as building blocks.

Instrumentation

The instruments comprising a musical group (including the human voice).

Interval

The distance in pitch between any two notes.

Harmony

Any simultaneous combination of tones, and the rules governing those combinations.

Hertz (Hz)

The unit of frequency defined as one cycle per second.

Homophonic

Musical texture comprised of one melodic line accompanied by chords.

Key

The set of pitches on which a composition is based.

Keyboard

Instruments characterized by keyboards, such as the piano, organ, vibraphone, and accordion.

Measure

A unit of time that contains a specific number of beats defined by the meter/time signature.

Melody

A succession of single tones in musical compositions.

Meter

The way in which the beats are grouped together in a piece.

Monophonic

Musical texture comprised of one melodic line.

Motive

The smallest musical unit of a melody, generally a single rhythm of two or three pitches.

Music

Sound and silence organized in time.

Noise

A disorganized sound with no observable pitch.

Octave

The distance between two musical pitches where the higher pitch vibrates exactly twice as many times per second as the lower.

Oscilloscope

An electronic device that displays a visual representation of different types of sound waves.

Overtones

A musical tone heard above a fundamental pitch.

Partials

The sounds of different frequency that occur above a fundamental tone.

Percussion

Instruments that are typically hit or struck by the hand, sticks, or hammers.

Performing Forces

See instrumentation.

Phrase

Smaller sub-sections of a melody.

Pitch

A tone that is composed of an organized sound wave.

Polyphony

Musical texture that simultaneously features two or more relatively independent melodic lines.

Polyrhythm

Two or more different rhythms played at the same time.

Range

The number of pitches, expressed as an intervallic distance.

Register

The low, medium, and high sections of an instrument or vocal range.

Rhythm

The way the music is organized in respect to time.

Scale

A series of pitches, ordered by the interval between its notes.

Sequence

A repetition of a motive or phrase at a different pitch level.

Seventh Chord

A chord that has four pitches stacked in intervals of thirds.

Sine Wave

The simplest sound wave that occurs in nature.

Sound

The mechanical movement of an audible pressure wave through a solid, liquid, or gas.

Sound Waves

Longitudinal waves that travel through a medium.

Step

The distance between adjacent notes in a musical scale.

Strings

Instruments whose sound is produced by setting strings in motion.

Syncopation

The act of shifting the normal accent in music.

Synthesizers

Electronic instruments that create sounds using basic wave forms.

Tempo

The speed at which the beat is played.

Texture

The ways in which musical lines of a piece interact.

Timbre

The tone color or quality of a sound.

Time signature

Numeric notation indicating how many beats are in each measure.

Tonic

The most important pitch of a key.

Triad

A chord that has three pitches stacked in intervals of thirds.

Twelve-Bar Blues

A twelve-bar musical form commonly found in American music.

Vocal

Having to do with the human voice.

Woodwinds

Instruments traditionally made of wood whose sound is generated by forcing air through a tube.