McGarry 1st music vocab

Pitch- The exact name of a note.  (For example "C")

Timbre- The type, or quality of a sound. (A piano sounds different from a piano; they have different "timbres")

Beat- An individual unit of rhythm

Melody- Sequence of pitches, one at a time, that form a complete musical thought. (The part of the song you sing along with)

Interval- The distance between two pitches.

Harmony- Many pitches sounding at once.

Consonance- When pitches sound pleasant together.

Dissonance- When pitches sound harsh together.

Monophony- Music made up of only one melody.

Homophony- Music made of harmony and melody.

Polyphony- Music made of many melodies happening at once.

Solo Music- Music written for one performer.

Chamber Music- Music written for a small group of musicians.

Orchestral Music- Music written for a large group of musicians.

Choral Music- Music written for a group of singers.

*Be able to label the white keys for a drawing of a piano. On the test, I will start with the note "C" all the way on the left side, moving one note at a time, until it reaches "C" again. So altogether, you will write:

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

Remember, there is no "H" in the musical alphabet.

Lastly, over that same drawing of a keyboard, I will ask you to show me which direction is has  the "lower notes" and which direction has "higher notes". Left is lower, Right is higher.

Lower                                                                                                                                      Higher

<—--------------------                                                                                     ------------------------------>

Instrument Groups

For this section, I will draw four boxes. Label each box with one of the instrument groups, and give three examples of each. For the examples, do a google search, and you will find more than you can possibly use. The groups themselves are always the same though, so label them like this:

Strings

Woodwinds

Percussion

Brass

  ^ (any order is fine) 

Extra Credit

The extra credit question will look like this:

  "Some people say that there is a fifth instrument group. Name if below:"

Answer: Keyboards