Melody Flashcards
Anacrusis:
- a note (or notes) that come before the first strong beat in a piece.
- Sometimes called the ‘up-beat’ or ‘pick-up’.
Motif
A short melodic or rhythmic idea.
Leitmotif
A recurrent musical idea representing a person, place, feeling or idea.
Countermelody:
A 2nd melody played at the same time as the main one.
Pitch:
Whether the musical notes are high, middle-sounding or low
Range:
The distance from the lowest sounding note to the highest sounding note in a piece of music.
Ornaments:
Used to ‘decorate’ the music e.g trill, mordant, turn.
Chromatic:
When the tune moves in semitones (like a chromatic scale).
Pentatonic:
A musical scale based on 5 notes.
Question and answer phrases:
An initial idea balanced by a 2nd idea
Theme
The main musical idea in a piece of music.
Sequence:
Repetition of a musical idea at a higher or lower pitch.
Imitation
When a musical idea is copied in another part.
Repetition:
When musical ideas are repeated.
Contrast:
When there is some type of difference in the music.
Fanfare:
A musical ‘announcement’, based on the pitches of a chord.
Blue notes:
The flattened notes in a Blues scale
Types of scale:
Major, Minor, Pentatonic, Blues
Conjunct
Stepwise movement in a melody (Scalic)
Disjunct
When the melodic movement includes lots of leaps or intervals.
Arpeggio/broken chord:
When the notes of a chord are played separately in succession.
Anticipation Note:
When a note of the next chord is played early, preparing for the intended pitch in the chord.
Triadic:
Musical movement that uses the notes of a triad.
Pentatonic melody:
Melody based on a 5-note scale.
Trill
A continuous rapid alteration of a note immediately above.
Turn
A short figure consisting of the note above the one indicated, the note itself, the note below, then the note indicated.
Mordent:
A single rapid alteration of a note with the note immediately above it or below it in the scale.
Appoggiatura:
A grace note which delays the next note of the melody, taking half of its time value.
Acciaccatura:
A grace note performed as quickly as possible before an essential note of a melody.
