Pitch
The shape of a melodic line that describes how it ascends and descends
What is contour?
A family of orchestral instruments that includes horns, trumpets, trombones and the tuba.
What is the brass section?
A musical form commonly used in popular music that includes these sections: solo, bridge, instrumental, introduction, an outro, among others.
What is Verse-Chorus Form?
This can be described as being generally strong or weak and is a fundamental part of measuring the timing of music.
What is beat?
An explanation of how volume is used in music, where changes can be gradual or sudden and terms expressed in English or Italian.
What are dynamics?
Describes how notes work together to create dissonant or consonant sounds, often in counterpoint or chords.
What is harmony?
When music has a clear melody with all other layers providing accompaniment to this instrument.
What is homophonic texture?
A repeated musical idea that repeats throughout a section or across different sections, often played by percussion or guitar instruments.
What is an ostinato or riff?
This refers to the pace of the beat in music and can be expressed in both English and Italian terms.
What is tempo (or speed)?
An expression of how the notes are played in a piece of music, such as staccato, tenuto, accent, slurs or bends.
What is an articulation?
The overall selection of a group of notes that is used in a piece of music - some examples include blues, chromatic, pentatonic and harmonic minor.
What is tonality?
A second melodic line that provides interest in the accompaniment but is not the main melody.
What is a counter-melody?
A common form of music in the styles of blues, jazz and rock & roll, where the music moves through the following chord progression:
I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - VI - I - I/V7 (turn around)
What is 12-Bar-Blues form?
This can be simple or compound where the denominator refers to a reference note length.
What is metre (or time signature)?
A sign in music that tells the performer to gradually increase their volume over a series of beats or measures.
What is a crescendo sign? <
An observation around the relative area of the notes selected within an instruments overall note possibilities.
What is register?
An effect were the quality of the sound produced by an instrument has been affected by interruptions to the signal, most commonly with an electric guitar?
What is distortion?
A type of musical theme that is attributed to a character, scene, location or mood, most commonly used in film or video game music now, but developed in the world of opera.
What is a leitmotif? (Character motif)
An expression of short and long sounds usually produced in a pattern, this version alternates the two.
What is a dotted or swing rhythm?
When a singer iterates multiple notes in a flurry of steps up and or down a scale over a single syllable in the lyrics.
What is a melisma?
A description of the notes used in a section of music and their relative pitch relationship to one another.
What is range?
A classification of instrument based on the material used in its production that describes it having a skin that vibrates during its performance.
What is a membranophone?
A classical form of music that, like ternary form, has three sections: the exposition, where main themes are introduced, the development, where the themes are reworked though different keys and tonal centres, and the recapitulation, where the original themes return in the tonic key.
What is sonata form?
A rhythmic technique where compound and simple metre are switched by placing accents regularly at a different rate of beat, similar to syncopation but more sustained, albeit for a brief period of time.
What is a hemiola?
Popular in Baroque times, these additions can be added to notes to decorate them, such as turns, acciaccatura, appoggiatura, mordents and trills.
What are ornamentations?