Music Vocab

Unit 1

accelerando

The Italian musical term for speeding up the music.

Active listening

Listening with complete attention.

adagio

A slow and leisurely tempo in music.

adaptive function

Something that helps humans survive.

allegro

A fast and lively tempo in music.

aural skills

Skills that help us listen to music and analyze what we hear.

binary

Music with two different sections

brass family

Instruments whose sound is created by the player vibrating their lips on the mouthpiece.

choral octavo

A type of sheet music specifically designed for choir, typically formatted for four or more voice parts.

chord

A type of harmony heard when playing two or more intervals at the same time.

chord progression

The order in which we play chords

classical music

Music that comes out of the Western (or European) tradition and follows "common practice," or well-established rules of music.

Classical musicians

Musicians who work at a symphony or opera house performing the works of historical or modern classical composers for audiences.

clef

The symbol that defines which notes are which on the staff.

common time

A time signature abbreviated by "c" that means 4/4 time.

composer

Musicians who write new musical ideas that other classical musicians will perform, such as symphonies, sonatas, and pieces for smaller groups of instruments, solos, or movie scores.

conductor

The leader of a classical group.

contour

The shape of the melody line.

contrast

Different musical elements used at different times to make one statement of the motive stand out from another.

copyright

A law that protects the original (or unique) work of musicians and artists and gives them the sole permission to sell that work.

copyright infringement

When artists are accused of copying or stealing someone else’s work.

crescendo

The Italian musical term for gradually getting louder.

decresendo

The Italian musical term for gradually getting softer.

duration

The amount of time a note takes up.

dynamics

The volume of the music.

ensemble

A musical group.

flat (♭)

A note that has been lowered to the left one half-step.

form

The pattern of musical changes in a piece.

forte

The Italian musical term for loud.

frequency

The number of sound waves the sound produces in a second.

frets

Metal strips located on the neck of the guitar used to change the note(s) being played.

genre

A type of something.

grand staff

Two staves, where the top set of lines is the treble clef, and the bottom is the bass clef.

half step

The smallest interval on the piano, and it is the distance from one key to the next key of any color.

harmony

When we play more than one note at a time.

homophony

When there is only one melody and the other parts just create chords that support the melody.

improvisation

Music created on the spot and without planning

instrument families

The different classification of instruments into string, woodwind, brass, and percussion.

instrumentation

The kind of instruments or voice types will a piece is written for.

intellectual property laws

Laws that ensure that what an artist or musician creates remains their property, and that artists are paid fairly for the work they produce.

intensity

Whether a sound is loud or soft.

interval

The distance between two notes.

inversions

Arrangements of notes in a chord.

legato

Musical articulation that glides along smoothly.

major scale

A happy-sounding scale you hear when you play WWHWWWH, where W equals a whole step and H equals a half step.

mass

Catholic religious service.

measure

A small piece of the music.

melody

A sequence of single notes that sound pleasing to our ears.

moderato

Medium tempo

motive

A short melody or tune

movements

The parts of sonata-allegro form.

music

Organized sound through time.

music teacher

Someone who creates and teaches lessons that expose students to performing, creating, and responding to music of all varieties.

Music therapists

People who use music to improve the health of their patients.

musical repertoire

A collection of pieces of music that are played (or sung) by an individual or a group.

musical score

The written copy of the music.

musical staff

A five-line visual representation of sound, where note values are written.

musicianship

The practice and study of musical skills such as singing, reading music, or playing an instrument.

note

A specific pitch that lasts a specific amount of time.

percussion family

Instruments that create sound by striking or shaking the instrument.

octave

A grouping of the musical alphabet from A to G#.

performance anxiety

Nervousness about being the center of attention or performing on stage.

phrases

A long musical idea that includes a motive.

piano

The Italian musical term for soft.

Pitch

Whether a sound is low or high.

polyphony

When there are many melodies, or that each instrument has its own line that could stand alone as a melody.

protest songs

Songs that advocate for social change.

proto-languages

Noises made by very early human populations.

quality

Whether a chord is major or minor.

rests

Silences in the music.

rhythm

The pattern of sounds in time.

ritardando

The Italian musical term for slowing down the music.

rondo

Music with a recurring section.

root of the chord

The note that matches the name of the chord. So, in a C chord, the root is the note C.

root position

The root note of a chord is the bottom-most (lowest) note in the chord, and all the other notes in the chord are above it.

scale

A pattern of pitches that is repeated in each octave.

shadow rehearsing

Playing or singing without making any sound.

sharp (♯)

A note that has been raised up to the right one half-step.

sight reading

Singing or playing a piece of music that you see for the first time.

Solfege

Sight-reading technique that uses syllables to identify notes on a scale.

solo

song for one person

songwriters

Musicians who write new music that is performed by studio musicians.

sound technician

Someone who is responsible for editing, balancing the sound, and cleaning up background noise.

staccato

Musical articulation using shorter, quicker notes.

staff paper

Paper that has lines on it that represent our musical staff.

steady beat

The "heartbeat" of the music that doesn’t change unless the "rule" that defines it changes.

stepwise motion

Moving by either half- or whole-steps.

string family

Instruments that create sound through the vibration of their strings.

studio musician

A musician who records songs that are played on the radio or sold to the public.

syncopation

Irregular beats that happen anytime during a song.

synthesizer

An electronic musical instrument that can produce a wide range of musical sounds.

talent agent

Someone who discovers new artists, helps musicians get jobs, negotiates higher pay for musicians, and helps them create their personal "brand".

tempo

The speed of the music.

ternary

Music with three sections.

texture

The specific sound produced by the particular grouping of instruments, and how many of them are playing at once.

thinking error

The reason this thought is not helpful.

timbre

The characteristic sound of an instrument or voice.

time signature

An indicator that tells us how many steady beats go inside one measure.

tonic chord

The chord whose root note is the name of the key.

tonic note

The note whose name is the name of the key