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GCSE Music > music vocab keywords - rhythm and notation > Flashcards

music vocab keywords - rhythm and notation Flashcards

1
Q

What is a stave?

A

The five lines which tell you the pitches of the notes- this one has a treble clef on it.

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2
Q

What is a score?

A

Written down music.

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3
Q

What is a treble clef?

A

The clef used for right hand piano and higher pitch instruments.

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4
Q

What is a bass clef?

A

The clef used for left hand piano and lower pitch instruments. Sometimes called F clef - the line is between the two dots.

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5
Q

What is a bar line?

A

Line that separates the stave into beats according to the time signature.

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6
Q

What is a double bar line?

A

A double bar line- shows the end of a section or end of a piece.

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7
Q

What are repeat marks?

A

Tell you to repeat what you just played.

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8
Q

What is a key signature?

A

Shows you which key you are in. You should know these up to 4 flats and 4 sharps at GCSE level.

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9
Q

What is a time signature?

A

Shows you how many beats per bar (top number) and what note value gets a beat (bottom number)- a 4 means a crotchet counts as a beat, an 8 means a quaver counts as a beat.

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10
Q

What does simple time mean?

A

Simple time means the beats divide into 2.

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11
Q

What does compound time mean?

A

Compound time means the beat divides into 3.

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12
Q

What is duple time?

A

6/8 (2 beats per bar).

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13
Q

What is triple time?

A

9/8 (3 beats per bar).

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14
Q

What is quadruple time?

A

12/8 (4 beats per bar).

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15
Q

What does a sharp do?

A

Raises the note by a semitone - (not a hash tag!).

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16
Q

What does a flat do?

A

Lowers the note by a semitone.

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17
Q

What does natural mean?

A

Means play the note unflattened or unsharpened.

18
Q

What is a phrase mark?

A

A line that goes over the notes to show a ‘musical sentence’.

19
Q

What is a tie?

A

A line that joins two notes of the same pitch- they are tied together so you only play the first and hold it for the length of both notes combined.

20
Q

What is an ornament in music?

A

A musical decoration.

21
Q

What is a trill?

A

Play two neighbour notes one after the other quickly lots of times.

22
Q

What is a turn?

A

A musical turn is a curled symbol written above a note on the staff. The turn creates a musical flourish that expands the initial single note into a series of four notes.

23
Q

What is a mordent?

A

Like a trill but only play the neighbour note once.

24
Q

What is an acciaccatura?

A

A crushed note, play it very quickly as though it is crushed into the other note.

25
Q

What is an appoggiatura/grace note?

A

A note to play before the main note, not as quick as a crushed note.

26
Q

What is an anacrusis?

A

One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage.

27
Q

What is an off beat?

A

Note is played off the beat.

28
Q

What is syncopation?

A

Placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn’t normally occur eg off beat.

29
Q

What is metre?

A

The time signature.

30
Q

What is irregular metre?

A

Often used in world music (Greek/Israeli) and jazz. Irregular meters establish a regular metric pattern from an asymmetrical sequence of two or more time signatures.

31
Q

What is a rest?

A

Don’t play. They come in a variety of note durations.

32
Q

What is cross rhythm?

A

When two rhythms clash. For instance, triplet rhythms at the same time as quaver rhythms.

33
Q

What is polyrhythm?

A

2 or more complex rhythms played together- often heard in Samba/African and other world music.

34
Q

What is swung rhythm?

A

Used in jazz styles most often. Instead of quavers being played straight with equal note lengths, the first quaver lasts longer than the second giving a ‘swing feel’ to the music.

35
Q

What is tala?

A

The rhythmic cycle used in Classical Indian Music.

36
Q

What is son clave?

A

The rhythm used in latin music including samba / calypso.

37
Q

What is a bridge in music?

A

A middle section.

38
Q

What is a coda?

A

Italian for tail. The end section.

39
Q

What is a cadenza?

A

An improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a ‘free’ rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display.

40
Q

What is an instrumental break?

A

In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section during a song derived from or related to stop-time.

41
Q

What is a middle 8?

A

A middle 8 is so called because it is a section in a song that tends to happen towards the middle of the song, and tends to be eight bars in length.

GCSE Music (2 decks)

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