| a tempo |
return to the original tempo |
| Accelerando |
gradually getting faster |
| Adagio |
quite slow |
| Allegro |
fast and cheerful |
| Andante |
easy walking pace / a moderate tempo |
| Arpeggio |
broken chord in which the individual tones are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously |
| Beat |
regular steady pulse in music |
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| Call and response |
style of song where a leader sings a phrase and the group responds with a phrase |
| Canon |
song or piece of music in which one musical line strictly imitates another at a fixed distance throughout |
| Castanets |
percussion instruments consisting of small wooden clappers that are struck together |
| Chord |
three or more tones played simultaneously. The most common chords are the major and minor chords |
| Claves |
percussion instrument consisting of two wooden sticks that are tapped together |
| Compound meter / Compound time |
meter in which each beat is subdivided into three rather than two |
| Crescendo |
gradually getting louder or stronger |
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| Decrescendo |
gradually getting softer |
| Diminuendo |
gradually getting softer |
| Duple meter |
basic metrical pattern where the measure is divisible by two |
| Dynamics |
the loudness or softness of sound |
| Forte |
the italian term for "loud", indicated in the musical score by the marking "f" |
| Fortissimo |
the italian term for "very loud", indicated in the musical score by the marking "ff" |
| Gamelan |
musical ensemble of Java or Bali, including gongs, chimes, metallophones and drums |
| Glissando |
rapid slide through pitches of a scale, either ascending or descending
|
| Glockenspiel |
percussion instrument with horizontal, tuned steel bars of various sizes that are struck with mallets and produce a bright metallic sound |
| Improvisation |
refers to the spontaneous performance of music without prior preparation and without any written notes |
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| Interlude |
music played between sections of a piece of music |
| Interval |
distance and relationship between two pitches |
| Key signature |
sharps or flats placed at the beginning of a piece to show the key of a work |
| Largo |
very slow |
| Legato |
smooth and connected; opposite of staccato |
| Major scale |
series of eight tones: do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do |
| Metallophone |
percussion instrument consisting of tuned metal bars, usually struck with a mallet |
| Meter |
organization of rhythm in time; the grouping of beats into larger, regular patterns, notated as measures |
| Mezzo forte |
the Italian term for "moderately loud", indicated in the musical score by the marking "mf" |
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| Mezzo piano |
the Italian term for "moderately soft", indicated in the musical score by the marking "mp" |
| Minor scale |
a series of tones that defines a minor tonality, the natural minor scale can be written la, ti, do, re, mi, fa, so, la |
| Moderato |
moderate |
| Ostinato |
a short melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic pattern that is repeated throughout a song / music piece or a section of one |
| Pentatonic scale |
a scale of five tones. One example of a pentatonic scale often used with children is do-based pentatonic: do, re, mi, so, la |
| Percussion instrument |
an instrument made of metal, wood, stretched skin or other material that is made to sound by striking, shaking, scraping or plucking. The many varied percussion instruments fall into two basic categories: pitched (such as xylophones and metallophones) and unpitched (such as a drum, tambourine or woodblock) |
| Phrase |
musical unit, often a part of a melody. A musical ‘sentence’ that is a part of a whole |
| Pianissimo |
the Italian term for "very soft", indicated in the musical score by the marking "pp" |
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| Piano |
the Italian term for "soft", indicated in the musical score by the marking "p” |
| Pitch |
highness or lowness of a tone |
| Presto |
very fast |
| Rallentando |
gradually slowing down |
| Range |
distance between the lowest and highest tones of a melody, an instrument or a voice |
| Rhythm |
while beat is a steady pulse throughout the music, rhythm is made up of long sounds, short sounds, and silence. If you clapped the words of a song you would be clapping the rhythm of the song |
| Round |
a part song (or musical piece) which starts off with the melody, then has other voices follow singing the exact same melody, but starting later, creating harmonies (for example, “kookaburra sits in the old gumtree") |
| Scale |
a series of tones or pitches in ascending or descending order. Scale tones are often assigned numbers (1-8) or syllables (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do) |
| Scat singing |
a jazz style consisting of improvised vocals, made up of nonsense syllables |
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| Solfeggio |
the practice of singing exercises using syllables for each pitch (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, etc…) |
| Staccato |
short, detached notes, marked with a dot above them
|
| Tambourine |
percussion instrument consisting of a small round drum with metal plates inserted in its rim; played by striking or shaking |
| Tempo |
rate of speed or pace of music |
| Timbre |
the quality of a sound that distinguishes one voice or instrument from another |
| Tonic |
the note upon which a scale or key is based, the home note |
| Tonic Sol-fa |
a technique of teaching music based on “moveable do”. Uses syllables do, re, mi, etc... |
| Tremolo |
rapid repetition of a tone; can be achieved instrumentally or vocally |
| Unison |
singing or playing the same note or melody at the same time |
| Vivace |
lively |
