Music Flashcards
Forte (f)
To play or sing loudly for music dynamics
Clef
the French word for “key”, indicates the pitch of the notes written on the staff
Treble clef
Jingles
catchy songs used in advertisements
Ba da ba ba ba, I’m Lovin’ It (McDonald’s)
Tempo
The speed at which a piece of music is played or sung
Sound Engineer
mixes music in live venues, like: theaters, conferences, and concerts. They ensure that the sound is perfect for an audience.
Time Signature
After the clef and key signature, this tells you how fast or slow the music is. There are two numbers that make up the time stamp. The number at the top tells you how many beats are in each measure, also called a “bar.” The number at the bottom shows which note is one beat.
Composer
author of a musical composition
Orchestra
A group of instruments that includes instruments from more than one family. They sometimes play with choruses or singers, but not always. Orchestras often play classical music, but they can also be used to make music for movies.
Opera
Dramatic style of music that includes singing with an orchestra. Operas are usually linked with the Italian Renaissance, but they have their roots in Greek drama, which mixed singing and dancing with acting. Operas are usually very big, and they tell stories through solo singers, choruses, bands, elaborate costumes, and sets.
Call-And-Response Format
A song in which a leader sings a line and a group responds, common in spirituals
Brass Instruments
Brass instruments consist of a series of tubes. Players produce sound by vibrating their lips into a mouthpiece, which causes the instrument to vibrate and produce sound.
Kodaly Concept
Holistic, experience-based method that focuses on how music makes you feel good and how important the human voice is. Named after Zoltán Kodály, a Hungarian musician and music teacher who thought that singing is the best way to get a feel for music and that it should come before learning to play an instrument.
Spirituals
A style of music that was made by African people who were brought to America as slaves. combines the rhythms of Christian hymns and traditional African folk songs.
Mezzo-Forte (mf)
To play or sing moderately loudly for music dynamics
Staff
set of five lines and four spaces. Each line and space represents a specific musical pitch.
Producer (of Music)
manages the sound recording for a band or an artist
Genre (of Music)
refers to a category of musical styles that share similar attributes and traditions
Jazz
Sharp
Playing or singing above pitch
Bowed Instruments
Produce sound when a bow is moved across the strings. Players produce different pitches by changing the position of their fingers on a fingerboard.
Diminuendo (dim.)
To continuously decrease volume when playing or singing for music dynamics
Country
Early 20th-century rural Southern music. White working-class Americans dominated early country music. They combined folk, popular, traditional, and cowboy songs to create a new genre. Modern country music has some of these fundamental elements but is heavily influenced by pop and rock.
Rhythm
Music’s pattern in time; has three parts: tempo, beat, and meter`
Symphony orchestra
Consists of at least 90 musicians and plays symphonies and other classical works. Symphony orchestras typically perform in grand concert halls.
Work Songs
Songs connected to manual labor, such as agricultural work or railroad work, and were used to help workers stay in unison as they completed their tasks, particularly popular among slave workers of African descent
“Pick a Bale of Cotton”
Plucked Instruments
Players produce different pitches by changing the position of their fingers on a fretboard. For many-stringed instruments such as the harp or lute, players provide different pitches by plucking different strings that are tuned to produce specific pitches.
Game Song
songs that include actions or coordinated activities
Mezzo-Piano (mp)
To play or sing moderately softly for music dynamics
Flat
Playing or singing below pitch
Publisher
Ensure that both the performers and the writers are paid for their work. These organizations help artists get paid when their music is on a commercial or tv show, for example.
Lullaby
Lullabies are soft, gentle songs, often sung by parents to their children. Lullabies not only help establish emotional bonds between adults and children, but they also convey important information about human relationships and cultural traditions.
Pitch
how high or low the sound seems to a human ear
Pitched Instruments
Percussion instrument that can produce differently pitched sounds and can be used to play melodies.
xylophone, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone, and timpani
Jazz
Improvised music that blends blues, folk, and other traditions into something new and distinctly American. New Orleans African Americans created jazz in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Jazz bands usually comprise a keyboardist, drummer, and bassist. Jazz uses brass and woodwind instruments.
Soprano
The highest vocal range for women
Form (in Music
There are many ways to describe how music is put together: binary, ternary, theme and variations, etc.
Ledger Line
notate the pitches that occur above or below the staff.
Intonation (in music)
Accuracy in pitch when singing or playing an instrument
Gospel
It has Christian themes, but the way it does so changes a lot between denominations and cultures. Gospel blues, bluegrass gospel, and Christian country music are all popular types of gospel music. Most gospel songs are hymns or spirituals with keyboard instruments (piano or organ) and harmonized voices.
Keyboard Instruments
Use keys or buttons to produce different pitches, but depending on how sound is produced, keyboard instruments may also be included among the other families of instruments
Stringed Instruments
Use strings to produce sounds.
violins
Woodwind Instruments
The pitch of these instruments can be changed by opening and closing a set of holes.
Improvisation
students apply what they’ve learned to creating their own musical patterns or compositions
Music Arranger
reimagines an existing composition and adapt the instruments, voices, rhythms, or tempos to create a new sound for the piece of music`
Bass
The lowest vocal range for men.
Tejano / Tex-Mex Music
Originating among the Mexican-American populations in Central and Southern Texas, Tejano music (also called Tex-Mex music) is an upbeat genre that blends pop, rock, folk, polka, and Latin influences.
Selena
Forte-Piano (fp)
To play or sing moderately loudly then immediately softly for music dynamics
Baritone
The middle vocal range for men.
Bluegrass
It started in Appalachia when people from the United Kingdom and Ireland moved there and started writing songs about their daily lives. Bluegrass, which is sometimes called “mountain music,” is usually played on acoustic stringed instruments like the fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and string bass.
Measure (in music)
notes grouped together
Grand Staff
A brace connects two staffs. Most of the time, the great staff connects the bass and treble clefs, and middle C is on a line between them.
Meter (music)
musical time features patterns of strong beats and weak beats; some syllables receive stronger emphasis than others
Blues
In the late 1800s, African Americans from the rural south created the blues by combining traditional African music with folk music and Christian songs. This kind of music has simple rhythmic and harmonic structures, and the words usually talk about being unhappy or sad. Blues music is almost always played on the guitar.
Timbre
The quality of a tone, usually used to describe changes between sounds played or sung by different instruments or voices at the same pitch and volume. Tone quality can be described with words like bright, dark, warm, and sharp, depending on the instrument.
Folk Songs
Thought of as music “of the people.” Folk songs were usually sung by people who worked in factories or farms. They were a way for cultures, especially those without written records, to pass on important values, stories, and traditions from one generation to the next. Folk songs are usually connected to the culture of a country or area. Folk songs usually have stringed instruments, wind instruments, and percussion. The instruments used in folk songs vary by region.
Non-Pitched Instruments
Percussion instrument that is used to provide rhythm.
Crescendo (cresc.)
To continuously increase volume when playing or singing for music dynamics
Solfege
System for singing notes, uses: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti
Rote Learning
learning songs by ear
Beat
the pulse. A rhythmic unit of time
Conductors
Organize bands. They not only keep the orchestra in time by using a baton to set the tempo and let musicians know when to start playing, but they also help interpret a piece of music by giving a unified vision that helps big groups of musicians stay on the same page in terms of tone, dynamics, and mood.
Piano (p)
To play or sing softly for music dynamics
Percussion Instruments
are shaken or hit to produce sound.
maracas
Contralto
The lowest vocal range for women.
Intervals
the difference between two pitches
Sight Sing
Sing a piece of music without having heard it before
Melody
the tune played by a series of notes
Dynamics
How loudly or softly a performer should play or sing a passage.
fortissimo, piano
Key Signature
Set of flats and sharps placed on the staff to indicate which notes should be performed at higher or lower pitches than their natural pitches on the staff.
Mezzo-Soprano
The middle vocal range for women.
Symphonic Band
feature woodwinds, brass, and percussion, but no strings, except for occasionally a double bass.
Music Therapist
these professionals use music to help people improve their health or functional processes through creative means
Chamber orchestra
A group of 15 to 45 musicians who play chamber works or works written to be performed in a smaller, more intimate space.
Beamed Notes
Beams can join eighth and sixteenth notes together to make the music easier to read.
Composer
author of a musical composition
Tenor
The highest vocal range for men.
