Section 01
Core vocabulary
- A cappella — choral music without instrumental accompaniment
- A tempo — return to the original rate of speed
- Accelerando — gradually faster
- Accent — a marking showing that a note should be stressed
- Accidental — a sign that changes a note's pitch for the measure
- Adagio — very slow
- Al fine — to the finish
- Allegro — rapid and lively
- Andante — moderately slow, but moving
- Arpeggio — chord tones played successively
- Bar line — a vertical line separating measures
- Bass clef — a sign used to show lower pitches
- Beat — the basic unit of time or pulse
- Chord — multiple pitches sounding simultaneously
- Chromatic — moving by half steps
- Composer — a person who writes original music
- Conductor — leader of a performing ensemble
- Crescendo — gradually louder
- Decrescendo — gradually softer
- Dynamics — intensity or volume of sound
- Fermata — hold a note or rest beyond its written value
- Fine — the place where a composition ends
- Flat — lowers a pitch by one half step
- Forte — loud
- Fortissimo — very loud
- Grand staff — treble and bass staves joined by a bracket
- Harmony — two or more pitches sounding together
- Interval — distance between two pitches
- Key signature — sharps or flats identifying the key
- Ledger line — a short line used for a note outside the staff
- Measure — a rhythmic section separated by bar lines
- Melody — an organized succession of pitches and rhythm
- Meter — recurring organization of strong and weak beats
- Natural — cancels a sharp or flat
- Piano — soft
- Pitch — the highness or lowness of a sound
- Repeat sign — repeat the preceding section
- Rest — a notated interval of silence
- Rhythm — organization of sounds of varying duration
- Ritardando — gradually slower
- Staccato — short and detached
- Slur — join notes without rearticulation
- Staff — five lines and four spaces used for notation
- Tempo — speed of the music
- Tie — joins adjacent notes of the same pitch and combines their durations
- Time signature — numbers showing the meter
- Triad — a three-note chord built in thirds
- Unison — parts sounding the same pitch or octave equivalent