| Term | Definition |
|---|
| 2,3 or 4 beats in a bar | Time signature |
| A cappella | In a church or chapel style, without instrumental accompaniment |
| Accelerando | gradually increasing in tempo |
| Accompanied | With instruments |
| Alberti bass | A reitarated broken chord used as an accompaniement |
| Anacrusis | The An unaccented beat or beats that occur before the first beat of a measure |
| Arpeggio | Sounding the notes of a chord in quick succession, also known as a broken chord |
| Backing Vocals | provides a vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists |
| Bending | When you bend strings to make a distortion |
| Boogie Woogie | Is a style of piano based blues that became very popular in the late 1930's and early 1940's |
| Broken Chord | Same as arpeggio |
| Perfect Cadence | The piece sounds complete |
| Imperfect Cadence | The piece sounds incomplete |
| Canon | Immatition |
| Chamber Music | Music intended for performance in a room or chamber rather than in a large room |
| Change of Key | The piece is repeated on a higher or lower scale |
| Cadenza | A short show off passage designed to show of the performers technical ability |
| Chromatic | A chromatic note is one that does not belong to the scale or key that is currently being played |
| Cluster | A group of notes |
| Col legno | Playing with the wood of the bow |
| Compound Time | 3/4 and 6/8 time signature |
| Con sordino | Played with a mute |
| Concerto | One solo instruemnt is accompainied by an orchestra, to get togethet |
| Contrapuntal | Music of or in counterpoint |
| Crescendo | Gradually getting louder |
| Cross Rhythms | 2 conflicting rhythm pattern |
| Delay | The sound drags longer than it should |
| Descant | Male highest voice |
| Diminuendo | Gradually getting quieter |
| Dischord | inharmonious combination of simultanoes sounded notes |
| Drone | Long sustained note |
| Electronice effects | Distortion etc |
| Era's | Classical, Baroque, Romantic |
| Fanfare | A loud flourish of Brass instruments |
| Folk Song | A song handed down among common people |
| Gamelan | Type of percussion orchestra found in indonesia |
| Ghanaian | Style of MUsic from west Africa |
| Ground Bass | Theme in the bass which is repeated many times |
| Harmony | Two or more notes at the same time |
| Inverted Pedal | Pedal point which sounds in an upper part instead of a bass |
| Legato | Notes are played or sung smoothly |
| Major | Music sounds in a major key |
| minor | Music sounds in a minor key |
| Minuet and Trio | Minuet is a graceful dance with 3 beats in a bar. Trio is a contrasting minuet after which the first is repeated |
| Modulation | Change of key |
| Mouth Music | Gaelic nonsense words such as imitation of bagpipes. |
| Musical | musical play with speaking, singing and dancing |
| Obbligato | Prominant solo instrument part in vocal music |
| Opera | Drama set to music with soloists, chorus and acting |
| Ostinato | Short Musical pattern repeated many times |
| Ornament | Decorates a melody by adding short extra notes |
| Passing Notes | Note which moves between 2 notes of the same chord which are a third apart |
| Pause | Musical flow is held up by a long note or silence |
| Pedal | NOte which is held on |
| Pentatonic | Any 5 note scale |
| Rallentando | Gradually getting Slower |
| Repetition | Musical Ideas heard more than once |
| Riff | Repeated Phrase found in jazz and popular music |
| Rondo | ABACA |
| Round | Each part sings or plays the same melody entering one after the other |
| Rubato | Rhythm give and take on a phrase allowing more expression |
| Samba | Very lively, syncopated dance with 2 beats in bar |
| Scat Singing | Nonsense words and sounds improvised by the singer |
| Scherzo | Lively movement in triple time |
| Scotch Snap | Very short accented note before a longer note |
| Sequence | Melodic phrase immediatly repeated at a higher or lower phrase |
| Simple Time | The beats subdivides into groups of 2 or 4 |
| Solo Voice | One singer |
| Stacatto | Notes are short and detached |
| Swing | Jazz style from the 1930s |
| Symphony | Large work for an orchestra in four movements |
| Syncopation | Strongly accented notes played off the beat |
| Tierce de Picardie | the final chord of a piece in minor is changed to major |
| tonality | the key. |
| triplets | Three notes of equal length performed in the space of two notes |
| unaccompanied | played solo |
| unison | more than one person singing at the same time |
| vamp | a single chord or a sequence of chords played in a repeated rhythm |
| walking bass | chord progression moves by step |
| wind band | a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family |
Combine with other sets
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