Whole note
Counts for 4 beats
Half note
Counts for 2 beats
Quarter note
Counts for 1 beat
Eighth note
Counts for 1/2 of a beat
Sixteenth note
Counts for 1/4 of a beat
How does a composer indicate silence?
With rests
What are some clues in a musical score that indicate that a particular note is to be emphasized?
-That it occurs on a downbeat
- That it has an accent on it
- That it has a louder dynamic marking than surrounding notes
Pitch
the highness or lowness of a sound
Melody
a tune or series of notes heard one after another that make a pleasing whole when played together
Interval
the measurement of the musical distance up or down from one pitch to the next
Texture
The relationship among musical lines played or sung together
Harmony
Two or more pitches heard at the same time, or simultaneously
Chord
Three or more pitches heard simultaneously
What does the key that a particular piece is in determine?
The key determines which pitches are used and what the functions are of certain pitches within that piece
How is the key a piece is in notated?
using a key signature
Key signature
a set of symbols that appears at the beginning of every line of printed music
Scale
an ordered collection of all the pitches in a given key
How many pitches are most scales based off of?
seven pitches
Diatonic scale
A type of scale that consists of seven pitches
Pentatonic scale
A five-note scale frequently used in Eastern cultures
Articulation
the variety of ways in which notes can be connected to or separated from the surrounding notes.
What does the top number of a time signature indicate?
the number of beats per measure (BPM)
What does the bottom number of a time signature indicate?
The rhythmic value that gets the beat
Score
written music that shows all the instrumental parts on one page
Rhythm
the combination of long sounds and short sounds and the aspect of music that has to do with time
largo
slow and stately (BPM 40-60
larghetto
fairly slow (BPM 60-66)
adagio
slow (BPM 66-76)
andante
moderately slow, waling speed (BPM 76-108)
moderato
moderately (BPM 108-120)
allegro
brisk, lively (BPM 120-168)
presto
quick (BPM 120-168)
prestissimo
very quick (BPM 200-208)
Music
the art of combining sounds in a coherent way
composition
a written piece of music
composer
a person who writes a composition
Improvisation
making up something in the moment
Note
a single sound/ the symbol composers write to represent that sound
Timbre
the specific sound quality of a particular instrument or voice
interval
the musical distance up or down between two pitches
unison
two pitches that are exactly the same as each other
half step
the interval between any two adjacent keys on the piano (the smallest interval in classical music)
Notes on the piano are a _______________ away from each other if there is a _______________ between them
half step, black key
Which note pairs are a half step away from each other?
B and C, E and F
When two half steps are added together, the resulting interval is called a ____________________.
whole step
Most white keys are a _____________ away from the neighboring white key, and the two exceptions are ____ - ____ and ____ - ____.
whole step, B-C, E-F
stepwise motion
when a tune travels from one pitch to another pitch that is a half step or whole step away (as in EE-I-EE-I-O in "Old MacDonald")
leaps
when a song jumps up or down through large intervals (as in the beginning of "The Star-Spangled Banner")
octave
the interval between any note and its nearest neighbor that shares the same letter name
How many octaves are there?
eight (just as an octopus has eight arms and an octagon has eight sides)
How are pairs of notes an octave apart related?
The notes (for example: octave 1 A and octave 2 A) sound similar, and the frequency of the higher not is exactly double the frequency of the lower note.
second
an interval in which the letter names of the notes are adjacent (for example: A to B or E to F)
thirds
an interval in which the letter names of the notes have another note in between them (for example: A to C or G to B)
fourths
an interval in which the letter names of the notes have two other notes in between them (for example: B to E or D to G)
accidentals
sharps and flats (the black keys on a piano or keyboard)
When a ___________ symbol appears to the left of a note head, that note is played one half step higher than usual.
sharp
When a __________ symbol appears to the left of a note head, that note is played one half step lower than usual.
flat
If a composer wants to cancel an accidental within the same measure in which it appears, she writes a ______________ symbol.
natural
melodic intervals
intervals that separate one note from the note that follows
harmonic intervals
two notes heard at the same time
whole step
made up of two half steps. On the piano, whole steps occur between pairs of white notes that have a black key between them, between pairs of black keys that have a white key between them, or between a white key and a black key that are separated by two ha
C-major scale
begins and ends with the note C, has eight notes: the first and last notes share the same letter name, and the six notes in between represent each letter that is not first or last, and the intervals between each pair of consecutive notes are as follows, w
scale degrees
numbers assigned to notes in a scale
Tonic
the first scale degree
subdominant
the fourth scale degree
dominant
the fifth scale degree
How do you sing a major scale?
do re mi fa sol la ti do
Which syllable is sung on the tonic note of a major scale?
do
Which syllable is sung on the subdominant note of a major scale?
fa
Which syllable is sung on the dominant note of a major scale?
sol