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unit one music theory study guide

Terms in this set (48)

pitch
the measurement of how high or low it sounds
staff
consists of five lines and four spaces
clefs
used to denote the general range of the notes and a reference pitch. the four clefs include treble, bass, alto, and tenor clef
middle C
is called c1 or c4
ledger lines
short horizantal lines representing and upwards
or downward extension
octave designation
two ways to label pitches. c1 d1 e1 etc or c4 d4 e4 etc
for the ease of reading music without a numerous amount of ledger lines, we ______ to _______ ______.
transpose, different clefs
octave signs (8va, 8va bassa)
8va means play an octave higher than written, 8va bassa means play an octave lower than written
half step interval
two notes next to each other
whole step interval
any two adjacent keys. this is also equal to two half steps
chromatic alterations
flat (lowers a pitch one half step) sharp (raises pitch one half step) double flat (lowers a pitch a whole step) double sharp (raises a pitch a whole step) natural (cancels the previous chromatic alteration)
enharmonic equivalents
different spellings of the same sounding pitches. ex: a flat and g sharp
accidentals
symbols placed in front of notes to change the pitch outside the current key
diatonic half step
half steps that occur between pitches having adjacent letter names ex: g sharp to a or d flat to c
chromatic half step
pitches that have the same letter names ex: a flat to a or c sharp to c
enharmonic intervals
intervals that sound the same but are spelled differently ex: g sharp to a and a flat to g sharp
rests
symbols for durations of silence
ties
lines that connect adjacent notes of the same pitch. add the note values together
augmentation dots
dots that extend the value of the note before it. the dot is half the value of the preceding note
beat
durational unit that we tap our foot to
tempo
the speed of the beat
tonal accent
a note is stressed because it is noticably higher than the surrounding pitches
agogic accent
a note is stressed because of its longer duration than the surrounding notes
dynamic accent
a note is stressed because it is played more forcfully than the surrounding notes
meter signature
top number is how many beats per measure. bottom number tells us what note equals one beat
simple meter
the beat divides into two parts ex: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4
compound meter
the beat divides into three parts ex: 6/4, 9/4, 6/8
asymmetric meter
the number of beats in the measure is not two, three, or four and isn't divisible by 3
borrowed meter
triplet in 4/4 time or duple in 6/8
hemiola
rhythmic relationship based on the ratio of 3:2. page 32
dynamics
pages 37 and 38. forte, piano, crescendo, decrescendo
scale
pitches that make up a musical composition
chromatic scale
all twelve pitches of an octave, ascending or descending
major scale
scale composed of whole steps and half steps (w w h w w w h)
transposition
rewriting a scale or passage based on a scale at a different pitch level
tonic
the first note of a scale
key signature
it tells us what sharps and flats make up the scale of a certain musical composition
relative minor
this scale shares the same key signature of a major scale ex: cmaj-amin, fmaj-dmin
parallel minor
shares the same name as a major scale but with a different key signature. to find the key signature add three flats to the major key signature
natural minor scale
this scale uses the same key signature as the major scale equivalent without alteration
harmonic minor scale
same as the natural minor, with the exception of a raised 7th scale degree
melodic minor scale
same as the natural minor scale, with the exception of a raised 6th and 7th scale degree while ascending. descending it follows the natural minor scale exactly
intervals
are the steps between pitches. they are a two part designation. a numerical value and a letter name. ex:M3, P5, +4
enharmonic intervals
intervals that have the same number of half steps ex: f sharp-g sharp, f sharp-a flat, g flat-g sharp
simple interval
intervals contained in one octave
compound interval
intervals outside of a single octave
diatonic interval
intervals formed within the key signature
chromatic interval
intervals formed with accidentals/chromatic alteration
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