Basic Musical Elements

Question 1

What is Ryhthm?

Answer 1

The arrangement of long and short duration of notes in a musical passage

Question 2

What is a beat?

Answer 2

The basic unit of measurement for time in music.

Question 3

What is an accent?

Answer 3

A Beat/part of a rhythm that receives a particular emphasis

Question 4

What is a meter?

Answer 4

A recurring pattern of strong and weak beats in a musical work (usually in 2s or 3s)

Question 5

What is duple meter?

Answer 5

When beats are grouped in twos

Question 6

What is triple meter?

Answer 6

When beats are grouped in threes (first beat is usually accented)

Question 7

What is a simple meter?

Answer 7

When there is an obvious division of twos or threes (2/4 or 3/4)

Question 8

What is a compound meter?

Answer 8

When a measure can be divided into strong beats (on 1 & 2), yet be subdivided into smaller groups within those accented patterns (ex 6/8)

Question 9

What is syncopation?

Answer 9

When accented rhythms occur off of the main beats, sometimes in irregular places or patterns

Question 10

What is Tempo?

Answer 10

The speed or pace at which a musical piece takes place

Question 11

What is pitch?

Answer 11

The rate of sound vibration, or frequency. This can be perceived as “high,” “low,” or somewhere in between

Question 12

What are dynamics?

Answer 12

How loud or soft a pitch or a phrase is played

Question 13

What is timbre?

Answer 13

The specific tone color produce by an instrument or voice creating the musical sound

Question 14

What is texture?

Answer 14

How songs and melodic lines interact or blend with one another (vertical dimension of music)

Question 15

What is Monophony?

Answer 15

A texture of music when there is only one melody or line (no other notes or harmony)

Question 16

What is Polyphony?

Answer 16

A texture where more than one melody or melodic line is playing at once

Question 17

What is Homophony?

Answer 17

A texture that has one melody of interest, and with “less important” notes being played in the background

Question 18

What is Tonality?

Answer 18

To have a written musical work based around one single “home” pitch (tonic)

Question 19

What is Modality?

Answer 19

To have different intervals relationships that make a scale that results in different “moods”

Question 20

What is a melody?

Answer 20

An organized series of pitches built from any scale

Question 21

What is a motive?

Answer 21

(Motif) A distinctive melodic fragment - easy to recognize

Question 22

What is a phrase?

Answer 22

A musical sentence that has a natural shape/motion as it’s expressed

Question 23

What is a cadence?

Answer 23

The ending of a phrase, behaves like the period of the end of a spoken sentence

Question 24

What is a tune?

Answer 24

A relatively short piece - ex popular song or hymn. They feel complete as you listen to them

Question 25

What is a theme?

Answer 25

An open-ended melody in a longer piece such as a symphony. They often feel incomplete, leaving room for development

Question 26

What is form?

Answer 26

How a piece of music is put together, most often can be divided into sections (ex ABAB’C)

Question 27

What is musical style?

Answer 27

The combination of qualities that make a distinctive piece of music (affected by culture & time period)