Reading & Writing Music

Question 0

Pitch

Answer 0

How high or low a note is

Question 1

Time Signature

Answer 1

Numbers telling you the amount of beats in a bar and how long they are. They go at the beginning of a piece of music

TOP NUMBER: How many beats in each bar e.g 2 “2 beats in a bar”

BOTTOM NUMBER: How long each beat is

Question 2

Tempo

Answer 2

How fast or slow the music is

Largo - slow
Adagio - faster than largo
Andante - walking pace
Moderate - moderate speed
Allegro - quick
Vivace - quicker than allegro 
Presto - really fast

Question 3

Dynamics

Answer 3

How loud or quiet the music is

PP - pianissimo - very quiet 
P - piano - quiet
MP - mezzopiano- fairly quiet
MF - mezzoforte - fairly loud
F - forte - loud 
FF - fortissimo - very loud
< - crescendo - getting louder
> - diminuendo - getting quieter

Question 4

Staccato

Answer 4

when the music is played short and sharp

Indicated by short vertical strokes or dots above the note

Question 5

Accent

Answer 5

Tells you to emphasise a note

usually marked with these symbols > ^

Question 6

sforzando

Answer 6

Strongly accented note. A sudden accent e.g very loud in a quiet section. It makes the music more dramatic

Shown by writing sFz or sF under the note

Question 7

Glissando

Answer 7

A slide from one note to the other. Shown by putting a line between two notes or writing gliss under the stave