music vocab keywords - rhythm and notation Flashcards
What is a stave?
The five lines which tell you the pitches of the notes- this one has a treble clef on it.
What is a score?
Written down music.
What is a treble clef?
The clef used for right hand piano and higher pitch instruments.
What is a bass clef?
The clef used for left hand piano and lower pitch instruments. Sometimes called F clef - the line is between the two dots.
What is a bar line?
Line that separates the stave into beats according to the time signature.
What is a double bar line?
A double bar line- shows the end of a section or end of a piece.
What are repeat marks?
Tell you to repeat what you just played.
What is a key signature?
Shows you which key you are in. You should know these up to 4 flats and 4 sharps at GCSE level.
What is a time signature?
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.
What does simple time mean?
Simple time means the beats divide into 2.
What does compound time mean?
Compound time means the beat divides into 3.
What is duple time?
6/8 (2 beats per bar).
What is triple time?
9/8 (3 beats per bar).
What is quadruple time?
12/8 (4 beats per bar).
What does a sharp do?
Raises the note by a semitone - (not a hash tag!).
What does a flat do?
Lowers the note by a semitone.
What does natural mean?
Means play the note unflattened or unsharpened.
What is a phrase mark?
A line that goes over the notes to show a ‘musical sentence’.
What is a tie?
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.
What is an ornament in music?
A musical decoration.
What is a trill?
Play two neighbour notes one after the other quickly lots of times.
What is a turn?
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.
What is a mordent?
Like a trill but only play the neighbour note once.
What is an acciaccatura?
A crushed note, play it very quickly as though it is crushed into the other note.
What is an appoggiatura/grace note?
A note to play before the main note, not as quick as a crushed note.
What is an anacrusis?
One or more unstressed notes before the first bar line of a piece or passage.
What is an off beat?
Note is played off the beat.
What is syncopation?
Placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn’t normally occur eg off beat.
What is metre?
The time signature.
What is irregular metre?
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.
What is a rest?
Don’t play. They come in a variety of note durations.
What is cross rhythm?
When two rhythms clash. For instance, triplet rhythms at the same time as quaver rhythms.
What is polyrhythm?
2 or more complex rhythms played together- often heard in Samba/African and other world music.
What is swung rhythm?
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.
What is tala?
The rhythmic cycle used in Classical Indian Music.
What is son clave?
The rhythm used in latin music including samba / calypso.
What is a bridge in music?
A middle section.
What is a coda?
Italian for tail. The end section.
What is a cadenza?
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.
What is an instrumental break?
In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section during a song derived from or related to stop-time.
What is a middle 8?
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.
