Musical terms.

mike_l · August 2013

Please feel free to expand/correct this (incomplete) list of musical terms

Piano - quiet

Forte - loud

tempo - the speed of the music

BPM - Beats per minute

Key - the note/chord which the tune revolves around.

Chord - 3 notes played together

Diad/dyad - 2 notes played together (usually outlines a chord)

triad - 3 notes (usually from a chord)

Pentatonic scale - a 5 note scale either major or minor

diatonic scale - a 7 note scale, either major or minor

Major scale - uplifting, happy sounding scale

minor scale - downbeat, sad sounding scale

arpeggio - the notes from a chord played individually

Phil_aka_Pip · August 2013

I asked a pupil if 'f' means loud what do you think 'ff' means? His guess was brilliant: "effing loud?"

Perfect interval: when the MD buys the round

IanSavage · August 2013

Semitone - two guitarists playing in unison.

Phil_aka_Pip · August 2013

flippancy aside:

I reckon

a chord is any group of notes played together but often containing a triad
a triad is a 3-note chord where the notes have a R 3 5 relationship

snakemanStoo · August 2013

treble : women ain't nothing but

digitalscream · August 2013

IanSavage said:

Semitone - two guitarists playing in unison.

Unison - two bassists trying to play in harmony

Clarky · August 2013

Diad: a fella from Cymru

Triad: a fella from Hong Kong

Legato: pick once.. at the start of the gig..

Power Chord: the wire from the amp to the mains. One end is apparently called the root and the other called the 5th. But I get too confused to be certain as to which end is called what..

Handsome_Chris · August 2013

Amplifiers - These are like lions. They have mains and when you twist their knobs they roar.

Clarky · August 2013

Tremolo: an oscillating fluctuation in volume

unless of course you have a Fender

Clarky · August 2013

Tremolno: a gadget that prevents a Strat from doing something that is not tremolo... lmao

Clarky · August 2013

Key - the note/chord which the tune revolves around.

this is not quite right

the key is essentially a combination of the series of intervals along with a "tonic" note whichy is used to determine the pool of notes from which the scale and chords are derived

mike_l · August 2013

@ Clarky, thanks for the correction.

Phil_aka_Pip · August 2013

Score (n.):
1. Musical notation for all of the instruments required to play the piece of music, laid out so as for the instruments' parts to be read in parallel
2. The value of the number of goals scored by each side in a football match.
Score (v.):
To avail oneself of wackybacky for the weekend

Clarky · August 2013

simple time: is where the count is divided by 2, 4, 8 etc..

as in 1/8th notes and 1/16th notes in 4/4 time

compound time: is where the count is divided by multiples of 3 to give a swing [triplet] feel

so 12/8 is essentially the compound equivelent of 4/4

and likewise, 9/8 is the compound equiv of 3/4 etc

EricTheWeary · September 2013

Compound time - fresh air for high security prisoners?

Phil_aka_Pip · September 2013

FWIW Eric Taylor's AB Guide to Music Theory contains good definitions of musical terms. Vol I has most of the stuff anyone will need. Vol II has the more esoteric stuff. Everyone should have a copy.

viz · September 2013

Or check the ABRSM syllabus.

frankus · September 2013

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I reckon
a chord is any group of notes played together but often containing a triad
a triad is a 3-note chord where the notes have a R 3 5 relationship

I know I've a rep for disagreeing but...

a voicing is a group of three or more notes that can be interpreted as one or more chords.

(this is really important for 7b9 or diminished chords - which are repeated every overtone)

a triad can also be inverted 3 5 R or 5 R 3 ...

Phil_aka_Pip · September 2013

agreed triads or anything else can be inverted. I didn't say the notes had to be stacked in exactly R 3 5 order

frankus · September 2013

Fair enough,

I was aiming to remove a piece of ambiguity (I percieved) rather than contradict what you'd said - but I can't be the judge of the success of that.

I'd say the R 3 5 relationship is founded on triadic harmony (stacked thirds) and that meaning is lost (or at least obscured) with inversions.

When someone says: what chord is this - 3X3456 ... I call that a voicing. What chord is it? out of context? dunno... G13, Fsus, Csus4... probably G13 but could be an Em11/G.

Equally, a voicing can reoccur with different timbres but be the same voicing (but not chord as a guitarist would know them): 10 X 10 11 X X === X5X56X === XXoX11 - same voicing, different fingering.

I don't think I'm telling you anything you don't know, simply clarifying the terms I use for concepts you're already familliar with... I found the differentiations useful to clarify my thinking of stuff is all

nikharrison · October 2013

"forte" actually means 'strong'.

I mention this because it makes the dynamic marking fff 'reinforced' rather than 'loud', 'loud', 'loud'!!!

another good basis for understanding music theory comes from the translation from the original language which has fed our current labelling system for theory. For example:

'Scale' is the Greek (/indo european) word for 'ladder'

'chroma' is the word for 'colour' (remember chromatography from school science class?)

so the "chromatic scale" is "our most colourful ladder".

Makes sense when you consider that it contains every note!

nikharrison · October 2013

Clarky said:

Key - the note/chord which the tune revolves around.

this is not quite right

the key is essentially a combination of the series of intervals along with a "tonic" note whichy is used to determine the pool of notes from which the scale and chords are derived.

The key is the "framework"

nikharrison · October 2013

can't figure out how to use the quote function things properly yet.....

Clarky · October 2013

the way I understand 'voicing' is that it describes the way that notes of a chord are stacked

R, 3, 5, R, 3, R is one voicing, R, 5, R, 3, 5, R is a different voicing

just like playing an open G chord, or voicing it differently by using the E fingering with a barre at the 3rd fret etc

inversion is determined by the lowest sounding note in the chord

Root inversion has the Root as the lowest sounding note

1st inversion has the 3rd in the bass

2nd inversion has the 5th in the bass

3rd inversion has the 7th in the bass

note though that in an ensemble, you may be playing a chord in root inversion, but a bass instrument may be playing a note other than the root [the 3rd for example]..

assuming that the bass instrument is playing the lowest sounding note, the resultant chord would be in 1st inversion

viz · October 2013

Yep that's my understanding, though YOU would be playing root, the music is in 1st.

Clarky · October 2013

Nik - in Italian, Scale means stairs, Scala means ladder

I think we'd generally interpret 'scale' in English as being 'steps' [in a musical sense that is]

and the vast majority of music terms are of Italian origin - although I have no idea why...

I could only hazard a guess that when the principles of music were being formalised during the 16th / 17th century, Italy was like some sort of European cultural epicentre..

if I recall correctly, Mozart was the first major bod to write an opera in "not Italian"

and he got a lot of stick for it...

although lots of German speakers liked it [especially the Austro-Hungarian socialite types]

cos it was essentially giving the accepted rule that "Italy was the land of all things cool and high class" the middle finger

Clarky · October 2013

forte actually has several translations, two of which are 'strong' and 'loud'

this means that Mike and Nik are both right

so you get to fight over the prize

and given the time of year and that Xmas advertising is reaching a climax

the prize therefore has to be an Easter Egg

nikharrison · January 2014

Clarky said:

Nik - in Italian, Scale means stairs, Scala means ladder
I think we'd generally interpret 'scale' in English as being 'steps' [in a musical sense that is]
and the vast majority of music terms are of Italian origin - although I have no idea why...

I could only hazard a guess that when the principles of music were being formalised during the 16th / 17th century, Italy was like some sort of European cultural epicentre..

if I recall correctly, Mozart was the first major bod to write an opera in "not Italian"
and he got a lot of stick for it...
although lots of German speakers liked it [especially the Austro-Hungarian socialite types]
cos it was essentially giving the accepted rule that "Italy was the land of all things cool and high class" the middle finger

I like this forum! This stuff reminds me of the old days! Good people discussing good stuff etc...

The linguistic history of the indo-european language set is the reason that a lot of terms are shared/ and or similar between certain languages. The greek/latin 'scal' (or "series of steps" as you say) informs the various uses that are born of it via a number of vocabulary sets within 'modern' languages, like any sliding scale (beaufort, richter, etc, e-scal-ator etc...). It's reasonable to assume that if a word (within a modern language of indo-european heritage) has 'scal' in it, it's referring to a 'series of steps' of one description or another.

'Loud' is essentially a musical equivalent of 'strength' which informed the 'forte = loud' interpretation (which makes sense) but this only happened when musical scores were developing to include more detail (beyond the historical recordings of notes- in a certain order, with limited expressive information). The examples of 'forte' used to depict 'strength' (more than 'loud') are widespread, and include (amongst my favourites) 'fortified wine', 'fort' (referring to a 'stronghold' or castle type structure. And when we use phrases like: "This is my 'forte'", it literally means "this is my strength".

Tunez · March 2014

Phil_aka_Pip said:

FWIW Eric Taylor's AB Guide to Music Theory contains good definitions of musical terms. Vol I has most of the stuff anyone will need. Vol II has the more esoteric stuff. Everyone should have a copy.

Yes, yes, yes!

meltedbuzzbox · March 2014

Tunez said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

FWIW Eric Taylor's AB Guide to Music Theory contains good definitions of musical terms. Vol I has most of the stuff anyone will need. Vol II has the more esoteric stuff. Everyone should have a copy.

Yes, yes, yes!

+1

Simple to follow. Great explanations.

It was my bible when I did my music degree.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Musical terms.

Comments