CONCEPT DICTIONARY Flashcards
A B
Two-part form (see binary).
A B A
Three-part form where the first section is repeated at the end (see ternary).
A cappella
Unaccompanied choral singing.
Accelerando
Getting gradually faster.
Accompanied
Other instrument(s) or voice(s) supporting / accompanying the main melody.
Accordion
An instrument with a keyboard in which sounds are produced by squeezing bellows with the arms. Sometimes called a “squeezebox.” Often features in a Scottish dance band.
Acoustic guitar
A guitar that does not require an electric amplifier to produce sound.
Adagio
Slow and stately.
African music
Music that features voices and/or African drums.
Alberti bass
Broken chords played by the left hand outlining harmonies while the right hand plays the melody. Classical composers such as Haydn and Mozart used this technique extensively in their piano music.
Allegro
Fast tempo
Alto
The lowest type of female voice.
Andante
Walking pace (tempo).
Anacrusis
The notes that appear before the first strong beat of a musical phrase. It sounds as an upbeat.
Answer
A reply to a “musical question.” For example, an instrument will play a short tune and then another instrument will play something in response to this.
Arco
Instruction given to string players to play using a bow.
Aria
A song in an opera (or oratorio or cantata) with orchestral accompaniment.
Arpeggio
Notes of a chord played one after the other. For example, the chord of C major has 3 notes (C,E,G). Therefore an arpeggio based on this chord would be C followed by E, followed by G, followed by C, and so on.
Ascending
Notes which rise in pitch.
A tempo
An instruction telling the performer to return to the original speed after a speed change.
Atonal
No feeling of key (major or minor). Very dissonant (clashing notes), A feature of some 20th-century music.
Backing vocals
Singers who support the lead singer(s), usually by singing in harmony in the background.
Bagpipes
The national instrument of Scotland. A bag with 3 drones and a chanter (to play the melody on) inflated by blowing through a mouthpiece.
Baritone
A male voice whose range lies between that of bass and tenor.
Baroque
Music written between 1600-1750 approximately. Bach and Handel were two of the composers from this period. This music is often very polyphonic and often features the harpsichord.
Bass (voice)
The lowest type of male voice.
Bass Guitar
A 4-string electric guitar that plays the bass part of a piece of music.
Beat
The basic pulse you hear in music. The pulse might be in groups of 2, 3 or 4 and so on with a stress on the first beat in each group / bar.
Binary (form)
A B. A form in which the music up of two different sections labelled A and B (so tune A followed by tune B). Each section may be repeated.
Blowing
The sound is produced by blowing into or across the mouthpiece of the instrument, e.g. brass, woodwind etc.
Blues
Blues music is often in 4/4 time and is often patterned on a 12-bar structure and on a scale where some of the notes are flattened. For example, the blues scale in the key of C: C, Eb, F, Gb, Bb, C.
Bodhran
An Irish wooden drum played with a double headed stick. This is a popular instrument in a folk group.
Bothy ballad
A folk song, usually with many verses, from the North-East of Scotland. It is often in strophic form. It is sung in Doric, usually by a solo male singer. The songs are usually about farming life and / or the lives of the farm workers.
Bowing
The sound is produced by drawing the bow across the strings of a stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello, double bass) to create sound.
Brass
A family of instruments made from metal with a mouthpiece (e.g. trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba).
Brass band
A band of brass instruments and percussion. (A brass band uses additional brass instruments not found in an orchestra such as the cornet, flugal horn, tenor horn and baritone).
Broken chord
The notes of a chord are played separately (like an arpeggio).
Cadenza
A passage of music in a concerto when the orchestra stops so that a soloist can display their technical ability (show off) in singing or playing an instrument. Performers used to improvise cadenzas themselves but eventually composers began to write them into the score. In a concerto the end of the cadenza is marked by a dominant 7th chord and often a trill (to signal that the orchestra should join back in).
Canon
Strict imitation. After one part starts to play or sing a melody, another part enters shortly afterwards performing exactly the same melody that the previous part played.
Celtic rock
A style of music that mixes Celtic music with rock music.
Change of key
A move from one key to another key.
Choir
A group of singers - this can be all male, all female, or a mixture of voices (SATB - soprano, alto, tenor, bass).
Chord
Two or more notes sounding together.
Chord change
A move from one chord to a different chord.
Chord progressions using I, IV, V in a major key or in a minor key
A series of related chords. Examples of chord patterns are: I, V, IV, V I, IV, V, IV I, IV, I, V etc.
Chord progressions using I, IV, V, VI
Different progressions using the chords built on the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th notes of a major or minor scale. Examples of chord progressions are: I, vi, IV, V I, IV, vi, V etc.
Chorus
- A group of singers with several people to each part.
- The music written for the aforementioned group of singers.
- The refrain between the verses of a song (the catchy, repeated section of a song).
Chromatic scale
A stepwise series of notes built up entirely of semitones. For example, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C.
Clarsach
A Celtic harp - a folk instrument. Often features in Scottish and Irish music.
Classical
Music written between 1750-1810 (approximately). The era of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
Cluster
A group of notes played on a keyboard instrument with the palm of the hand or even the with the forearm. Used in some 20th-century music. It sounds very dissonant / clashing.
Coda
A passage at the end of a piece of music that rounds it off effectively.
Compound time
The beat subdivides into groups of 3. Jigs are written in compound time.
Compound time groupings
The beat is a dotted note that divides into three. For example, the time signature 6/8 = two dotted crotchet beats in a bar and each beat can be divided into three quavers.
Con sordino
The Italian term telling a performer to play their instrument “with a mute.”
Concerto
A piece of music written for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra. For example, a flute concerto is written for a solo flute and accompanying orchestra. A concerto is normally in three movements.
Contrapuntal
Texture in music where two or more parts have independent melodic interest - it has a similar meaning to polyphonic. A lot of music from the Baroque period is particularly contrapuntal.
Contrary motion
Two parts that move in opposite directions. For example, as one part ascends (gets higher in pitch) the other part will descend (get lower in pitch).
Countermelody
A 2nd melody played against the main melody.
Crescendo
Gradually getting louder. Can be abbreviated to cresc.
Cross rhythms
- A term used to describe the effect of two notes being played against three (e.g. in piano music, there might be groups of two quavers played in the right hand while groups of triplets are played in the left).
- The term is also used to describe the effect that occurs when the accents in a piece of music are different from those suggested by the time signature (e.g. the division of 4/4 time is changed to 3+3+2 quavers).
Descant
Another melody above the main tune (mainly in vocal music).
Descending
Notes that get lower in pitch.
Diminuendo
Getting gradually quieter. Can be abbreviated to dim.
Discord
A chord where the notes clash.
Distortion
An electronic effect used in rock music to colour the sound of an electric guitar. Distortion makes the guitar sound rough / gritty.
Dotted rhythm
A longer note followed by a shorter one. For example, a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver.
Drone
- One note or notes held on or repeated in the bass.
2. The low-pitched pipes of a bagpipe that provide a sustained sound (a drone) to accompany the melody being played.
Drum fill
A rhythmic decoration played on a drum kit.
Drum kit
A set of drums and cymbals often used in rock and pop music.
Electric guitar
A guitar that requires an electric amplifier to produce sound. Often used in rock, pop, jazz & blues music.
Episode
A section of music linking / separating / contrasting two appearances of the same material. For example, in Rondo form (A-B-A-C-A), section A is a recurring tune and sections B & C are episodes that separate the appearances of the section As.
Faster
The speed increases.
Fiddle
Another name for the violin (used in Scottish / folk music).
Flutter tonguing
A method of tonguing used by woodwind and brass players where the performer rolls the letter “r” while playing their instrument.
Folk group
A group of singers and instrumentalists who perform traditional music from a particular country, e.g. Scotland and Ireland.