AQA GCSE Music Keywords

Subject Specific Vocabulary from the AQA Spec

Compositional devices

Music techniques & ideas used to manipulate music to give a certain feel or to sound like music from a specific period of time.

12 or 16 bar blues (& example genres)

3 or 4 four-bar phrases with chords are based on I, IV and V (eg jazz, rock, R&B etc).

A cappella

The performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. In DJing, this refers to vocal-only tracks.

Accompaniment

Pieces written with an instrumental or vocal part designed to support or complement the melody.

Anacrusis

A note or sequence of notes which precede the first strong beat of a musical phrase, particularly at the start of a piece.

Anthem

A vocal piece that has special importance for a particular group of people or a country; often performed on a special occasion (eg Coronation anthems).

Antiphony

A musical texture in which the musical ideas are passed between different groups of instruments or voices.

Annotation

Diagrams, screenshots and written notes showing how the piece was composed, including aspects such as the use of instruments, harmonies, key etc.

Arch-shape

A structure of contrasting sections in the form A-B-C-B-A.

Arco

An instruction given to string players to use the bow.

Areas of study

Specified genres, styles and traditions of music that must be studied.

Aria

A composition for solo voice, usually contained within a larger musical work and which may be accompanied by instruments or a full orchestra (eg oratorios, operas). An aria is usually sung after a recitative.

Arpeggio

A type of broken chord in which the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in an ascending or descending order (eg an ascending arpeggio of a C major chord is C, E and G).

Articulation

The effect on how the note is played (eg phrase mark, staccato, slur, accent and legato etc).

Atonal

Music composed without a key or tonal centre.

Augmentation

A compositional device where the time values of the notes of a melody can be lengthened, or the interval between two notes can be widened (eg augmented 4th).

Automated double tracking (ADT)

ADT imitates the effect of doubling voices or instruments using double tracking, without the need for a musician to overdub their part (they perform their part only once).

Balance

The relative volume levels between voices and/or instruments to achieve clarity of recording, as used in music production.

Backbeat

A strong rhythmic accent on the second and fourth beats of a bar of a piece in 4/4 time, used especially in jazz and popular music.

Baritone

A male voice with a range midway between tenor and bass.

Beat boxing

Using your voice to produce musical and rhythmic sounds (eg drum beats, hi-hat or cymbal noises, brass effects etc).

Binary

Word to describe the structure of a piece of music which is divided into two different sections. It is usually written as an AABB or AB form.

Blues scale (& example in C minor)

A minor pentatonic scale that has had the 4th flattened to create a six-note scale (e.g. in C minor: C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb)

Blues note

A flattened note, usually the third or seventh, used especially in blues music.

BPM

Beats per minute - used for measuring the tempo of a piece of music.

Break

A short instrumental solo, often improvised and used in pop and jazz.

Cadence

A pair of chords in which the harmony marks the end of a musical statement (eg perfect, plagal, interrupted and imperfect).

Cadenza

A passage usually towards end of a solo piece, where a soloist plays an elaborate flourish or showy solo passage in a skilled way.

Call and response

A feature of instrumental and vocal music where the leader plays or sings a melody and the rest of the group plays or sings in response.

Canon

A musical texture in which a melody is played and then imitated (one or more times) after a short delay in another part. It is a contrapuntal technique as the melodic lines move independently of one another (eg Pachelbel's Canon).

Ceilidh

A social gathering with music and dancing that is associated with Celtic folk music.

Choir

A musical ensemble of people who sing together.

Chord

The simultaneous sounding of two or more notes.

Chord symbols

Specific symbols used to represent chords on musical notation (eg C7).

Chorus

In Pop music, this is a repeated refrain in a verse-chorus structure. In Classical music, it refers to a large group of singers in a choral work or opera.

Chromatic

Chromatic notes do not belong to the key of the music (ie they are not in the key signature) and are usually evident in the melody and/or harmony parts.

Clave

A rhythm used in Cuban popular music consisting of a repeating two-bar pattern:

- the first bar has three accented beats

- the second bar has two accented beats.

Son clave

A name of an instrument used in Cuban popular music.

Compatible tracks

Tracks of music that work well together in DJing (eg harmony, key, tempo etc).

Compound time

A metre in which the main beat can be subdivided into three. The opposite is simple time.

Composing

Forming a piece of music by combining elements of music such as notation, instrumentation, orchestration, musical montage and sound production.

Composing log

Record of how a composition has been developed.

Composition to a brief

Composition produced in response to an AQA externally set brief.

Conjunct

A melody that moves by step.

Con sordino

Played with a mute on the instrument.

Contextual understanding

Making critical judgments about a piece of music by analysing, evaluating and comparing musical styles and genres in relation to the period in which it was written.

Contrapuntal

A musical style which involves intertwining two or more independent melodies, similar to polyphony.

Consonant

Notes that sound 'pleasing' when played together at the same time (eg 3rds and 6ths).

Continuo

Continuo, sometimes called 'basso continuo', is found in baroque music and is an accompanying part that includes a bassline and harmonies. The harmonies are typically played on a keyboard instrument (eg organ or harpsichord) and are supported by a bass instrument (eg cello, double bass, bassoon etc).

Conventions

Musical terms and concepts (eg melody, accompaniment, tonality).

Countermelody

A secondary melody that is sung or played in counterpoint with the original melody.

Cross rhythm

The effect produced when two or more conflicting rhythms are heard together (eg two eighth notes played against triplet eighth notes).

Cyclic

A type of structure in which a musical theme is heard, sometimes in a varied form, in more than one movement.

Delay

A time effect that postpones the sound from playing for a number of milliseconds.

Devices

A technique used for achieving a particular artistic effect. They can be wide ranging and include harmonic, rhythmic and melodic devices (eg ostinato, melisma, syncopation, pedal notes etc).

Diatonic

Refers to chords or notes which exist within a given key in Western music.

Diminution

A compositional device where the time values of the notes of a melody can be shortened, or the interval between two notes can be reduced (eg diminished 5th).

Direct Input (DI)

Recording or playing directly into a mixing desk or computer without the use of an amplifier.

Disjunct

A melody that moves in leaps using larger intervals than a 2nd.

Dissonant

Notes that sound harsh or unpleasant when played together at the same time (eg augmented 4th).

Distortion

Distortion and overdrive are sounds created to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments (eg electric guitars).

DJ

Using turntables to manipulate tracks and demonstrate an understanding and a range of techniques specific to DJing.

Dominant

A term used to describe the fifth note of any diatonic major or minor scale (eg G in C major) or the fifth triad, the chord built in thirds from the fifth note (eg G-B-D in C major).

Dominant 7th

A term used to describe a chord built on the fifth note of any major or minor diatonic scale and including the root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh (eg G-B-D-F in C major). In roman numerals it is written as V7.

Double tracking

The process of recording two different performances of the same material to thicken a musical line.

Double and triple stopping

Two or three notes played together at the same time on a string instrument.

Drone

A harmonic effect or accompaniment where two notes are continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece.

Dynamics

Used to describe the volume or changes in volume in a piece of music (eg such as loud (f) or soft (p), in a piece of music).

Echo

Echo is a type of reverb in which a sound is repeated.

Effects

Ways of changing the sound/length of notes (eg amplification, distortion, reverb, delay, echo and equalisation etc). Reverb and delay are the most common time-based effects in music production.

Enharmonic

Two notes which sound the same but are written differently (eg C# and Db).

Ensemble

A group performance of two or more musicians (including DJing).

Excerpt

Short extract from a piece of music.

Expression

Representing in music a feeling, idea or situation using, for example, dynamics, tonality, articulation.

EQ

EQ is short for equalisation. It is the lessening or boosting of different frequencies to add more bass or treble to a musical track.

Falsetto

Male singing in a high register, the same range as an alto or soprano voice.

Fusion

Music that combines two or more styles.

Free composition

Composition composed freely from a student's own idea.

Fugue

A contrapuntal composition in two or more voices. It is built on a theme that is introduced at the beginning and which is frequently used in imitation throughout the course of the composition.

Genre

A category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions (eg jazz, hip hop, folk, rock, etc).

Glissando

A pitch sliding from one note to another, including all the chromatic notes in between. In music notation, a line between the two notes will be added.

Ground Bass

A short theme played in the bass which constantly repeats with changing harmonies.

Grove

Refers to a rhythm that deviates from the straight beat of the music (eg funk, rock, swing, fusion etc).

Guide recording

A recognised recording submitted in place of a score.

Hammer-on

A technique guitarists use where the finger is 'hammered' on a fretboard, causing a note to sound.

Harmony

A combination of simultaneous sounds including chords, accompaniment and counterpoint that can support a melody.

Hemiola

A musical figure in which two groups of three beats are replaced by three groups of two beats, giving the effect of a shift between triple and duple metre.

Heterophonic/heterophony

A musical texture in which two identical melodies are played simultaneously, but one is a decoration of the other.

Hook

A short melodic phrase used to catch the listener's attention and make a song memorable (eg 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen).

Homophonic/homophony

A musical texture that is chordal.

Improvisation

The spontaneous and creative performance of musical ideas.

Imitation/imitative

A compositional device where a melody is played or sung and then repeated/copied in a different instrument/voice.

Instrumental

Music composed for or performed by instrumentalists.

Interpretation

The mood and style of music using musical elements and techniques eg phrasing, dynamics.

Interval

The distance between two notes sounded simultaneously together or one after another.

Intonation

The accuracy of pitch in playing or singing.

Intro

The introductory section before the main section, often used in pop music.

Inverted chord

A chord which has a note other than its root note in the bass note.