Vocabulary Flashcards
Define tonal harmony
music with a tonal center, based on major and/or minor scales, and using tertian chords that are related to one another and to the tonal center in various ways
Define harmony
the sound that results when two or more pitches are performed simultaneously. It is the vertical aspect of music, produced by the combination of the components of the horizontal aspect.
tonal center
a pitch class that provides a center of gravity
tertian
built of thirds, like C-E-G
functional harmony
the standard roles of a chord within a key in tonal harmony
define pitch
the highness or lowness of a sound, or the higher the frequency the higher the pitch, the lower the frequency the lower the pitch
define octave
from one pitch to the next within its pitch class, ex: C3 to C4
define octave register
all the pitches within an octave
define staff
A graph used to indicate what pitch(es) is desired and in what order; consists of five lines, four spaces, and a clef
define ledger lines
extra lines added to the staff to allow a wider range of pitches
define clef
appears at the beginning of a staff in order to indicate which pitches are to be associated with which lines and spaces
What are the four clefs?
treble: centered around G4 or the second line from the bottom on the staff; bass: centered around F3 or the second line from the top of the staff; alto: centered around C4 or the middle line of the staff; tenor: centered around C4 or the second line from the bottom of the staff
define grand staff
A combination to two staves joined by a brace, with the top and bottom staves using treble and bass clefs respectively
define major scale
a combination of whole steps and half steps encompassing an octave; the half steps occur between scale degrees 3 & 4 and 7 & 1
define half step
the distance from a key on the piano to the very next key, regardless of color
define whole step
on the piano, the distance between three keys, regardless of color
define tetrachord
stepwise four-note pattern
define accidental
a symbol that raises or lowers a pitch by a half or whole step depending on which symbol is used
key
identified by the first degree of a scale; ex: in the key of A the first degree is A
define key signature
a pattern of sharps or flats that appears at the beginning of a staff and indicates that certain notes are to be consistently raised or lowered
define enharmonic
describes notes that are spelled differently but sound the same
define transpose
to write or play music in some key other than the original
define circle of fifths
a diagram of all the keys that looks somewhat like the face of a clock that when read clockwise each new key begins on the dominant of the previous key
define natural minor scale
like a major scale except the third, sixth, and seventh scale degrees are lowered a half step
