AQA GCSE Music Year 10 Melody Set 1

Conjunct

Melodic movement by step

Disjunct

Refers to melodic movement by leap

Triadic

A type of melodic movement through the notes of a triad.

Broken chords

Spreading the notes of a chord.

Scalic

An adjective referring to a melodic contour in which adjacent notes move by step in a similar manner to notes in a scale.

Arpeggio

Playing the notes of a chord by spreading them out (usually from the bottom), a feature commonly used by piano, harp and guitar.

Passing notes

A melodic notes placed between two harmony notes which results in stepwise movement.

Acciaccaturas

A very short ornamental note played before a principal melodic note.

Appoggiaturas

(1) a note of decoration which is written in smaller type but given its full notated value, this value being taken from the following note; (2) an accented but not harmonised note which resolves by step up or down.

Blue notes

A note that has been altered/flattened in blues music; most frequently it is the 3rd, 5th or 7th notes of the scale which are flattened.

Diatonic

Music written using the major or minor keys; a major or minor scale, or the notes from such a scale.

Chromatic

Where notes in the scale of the prevailing key are altered. An example would be G sharp in the scale of C major.

Pentatonic

Pentatonic music is based on a scale of five different pitches, such as CDEGA.

Whole tone

A scale which rises in whole tones.

Modal

Modal music is based on one of the scales of seven pitch classes commonly found in western music, but excluding the major and minor scales.

Augmentation

1. (Usually) doubling the duration of each notes of a rhythm or melody. 2. Extending the range of intervals upon repetition

Diminution

1. (Usually) halving the duration of notes in a melody or rhythm. 2. Reduction of the size of intervals upon repetition.

Sequence

where a passage of music is repeated at a higher or lower level of pitch.

Inversion

Turning a melody ‘upside down’ but keeping its intervals.

Slide/glissando/portamento

To slide between notes.

Ornamentation

Decorating the written pitch

Ostinato

A rhythmic, harmonic or melodic pattern played many times in succession.

Riff

A short, catchy melodic figure, repeated like an ostinato and commonly found in rock, pop and jazz.

Phrasing

Dividing a melody into phrases or short units, e.g. question and answer.

Articulation

The addition of specific instruction for performance, such as accents, staccato and tenuto.

Pitch bend

Changing the pitch of a note by moving the string across the fret.

Improvisation

To make up or extemporise; in practice, improvisation is generally done ‘on’ a particular musical feature such as a melody, chord sequence or scale.

Defining Feature

a prominent or characteristic musical element, technique, or device that helps identify a specific genre, style, period, or composer's individual work.

Blues Notes

C,D,Eb,E,F,G,A,Bb,B and C