AQA GCSE Music: Melody Year 10

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

descending/ascending movement within 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.

Diatonic

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

Chromatic

A melody that uses notes outside the prevailing. E.g. in C major, all the black notes as well (movement in semitones).

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

where a tune is turned ‘upside down’ so   that the intervals between the notes  which rise in the   original version now fall, and vice versa.

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.

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

Trill

a rapid alternation between two notes

Turn

A short pattern that goes one note up then down around the decorated note

Acciaccatura

A very fast grace note, played as quickly as possible before a note of the main melody, “crushed grace note”

Mordent

A rapid ornament that has one upwards note then back to the original

Mordent (lower)

A rapid ornament that has one downwards note then back to the original

What does a trill sound like?

A fast wiggle between two adjacent notes

What does a mordent sound like?

One upwards wiggle between two notes

What does a lower mordent sound like?

One downwards wiggle between two notes

What is an ornament?

A short decoration of a note

A very fast note crushed into another

What does a grace note (acciacciatura) sound like?

Which period of music used a lot of ornaments?

Baroque

Trill (how it’s played)

Fast switching between the note and the next higher note (according to the key signature) within its duration.

Mordent

Fast switching between the note and the next higher note only ONCE

Inverted Mordent

Fast switching between the note and the next lower note only ONCE

Turn (how it’s played)

One note above (written), written note, one note below (written), then note written.

Appoggiatura

First half of the written note is the pitch of the grace note (the 1st note can be any note, higher, lower, or same as the written note).

Tonic

1st note of a scale

Supertonic

2nd note of a scale

Mediant

3rd note of a scale

Subdominant

4th note of a scale

Dominant

5th note of a scale

Submediant

6th note of a scale

Leading note

7th note of a scale

Octave

8th note of a scale

Interval of a 2nd

Distance between note 1 and note 2 of a scale

Interval of a 3rd

Distance between note 1 and note 3 of a scale

Interval of a 4th

Distance between note 1 and note 4 of a scale

Interval of a 5th

Distance between note 1 and note 5 of a scale

Interval of a 6th

Distance between note 1 and note 6 of a scale

Interval of a 7th

Distance between note 1 and note 7 of a scale

Interval of an octave

Distance between note 1 and note 8 of a scale

Motif

A short melodic or rhythmic fragment that recurs. It may be used in development and/or as a unifying device.