Welcome to the wonderful world of learning music! While along your musical journey, you may encounter some terms that are unfamiliar. Use this Music Dictionary to boost your understanding!
- Accent: the punch at the beginning of a musical sound
- Adagio (Italian): a slower speed
- Allegro (Italian): lively and fast speed
- Andante (Italian): a walking speed
- Beat: unit of rhythm in music
- Chord: a group of three or more pitches played simultaneously
- Clef: a symbol placed at the beginning of the staff that defines the range of pitches within the music
- Crescendo (Italian): becoming louder
- Decrescendo (Italian): becoming softer
- Downbeat: the first beat in the measure
- Dynamics: describes the loudness or softness of music
- Fermata: a note held for an unspecified length of time
- Flat: moves the note down a half step (denoted by ♭)
- Forte (Italian): loud and strong in volume
- Half-Step: the movement of 1/12 of an octave (examples are from E-F, B-C). The interval between keys on a piano is a half-step.
- Harmony: well blended pitches
- Key: a group of tones that make up a scale
- Key Signature: The arrangement of sharps and flats in a piece
- Largo (Italian): moving slowly
- Legato (Italian): to play smoothly
- Major:
- For a chord: three notes, separated by four then three half steps. It sounds happy!
- For a key: utilizing a nice sounding chord for central tonality
- Measure: a time segment corresponding to a specific number of beats
- Melody: identifiable composition of sounds
- Minor:
- For a chord: three notes, separated by three then four half steps. It sounds dark.
- For a key: central tonality built around the chord
- Notes: symbols to denote sounds or pitches
- Octave: interval between two music notes in which one is the lower or higher equivalent of the other.
- Piano (Italian): soft in volume
- Rest: absence of pitch or sound for a specific length of time
- Scale: an order of adjacent pitches, arranged in different sequences of half and whole steps
- Score: an entire sheet music composition
- Sharp: raising a note by half a step (denoted by ♯)
- Staccato: a single-dot symbol that indicates a note should be played short and detached from the other notes
- Step: interval between pitches
- Tempo: the speed of a piece
