Glossary

Bar: Music is divided into bars. Each bar contains a set number of beats, for instance four beats.
Bass: Notes which are low in pitch. The low notes on the piano.
Bass clef: A symbol used at the beginning of a stave to indicate bass notes.
Beat: The beat is the underlying pulse of music. It’s the thing you dance along to!
BPM: Abbreviation: beats per minute.
Chord: A group of three or more notes played at the same time.
Chord inversion: The notes of a chord, but played in a different shape.
Chromatic: Moving in semitones.
Chromatic scale: All twelve notes of the musical alphabet, played in order.
Da capo: ‘From the beginning’ in Italian. Return to the beginning and continue through your piece.
Diminished chords: Three notes made of the formula: root note, 3 semitones above, 3 semitones above.
Dynamics: The volume of music. The range between quiet to loud.
Enharmonic equivalent: When a pitch has several names e.g. C# / Db.
Fine: ‘End’ in Italian.
Flat / b: A note that is lowered by one semitone, to become the flat form of that note.
Interval: The musical word for the distance between any two pitches. (Semitone / Tone).
Key: The group of notes that a song uses. Can be major or minor.
Key signatures: The visual representation of a key, indicating which notes are sharp / flat.
Major: A key, scale, chord or interval relating to the major tonality. Music in a major key sounds happy.
Major scale: A group of notes organised by the following formula: R T T S T T T S.
Middle C: The note C in the centre of the piano.
Minor: A key, scale, chord or interval relating to the minor tonality. Music in a minor key sounds sad.
Minor scale: A group of notes organised by the following formula: R T S T T S T T.
Musical notation: The standard way of writing down music used in the West.
Notes: Different pitches / sound frequencies e.g. A, B, C.
Octave / 8ve: The interval (distance) between two notes that are twelve semitones apart, and share the same name.
Phrase: A brief passage of music that feels whole, much like a phrase or sentence in the English language.
Pitch: Different sound frequencies e.g. low pitch, high pitch.
Pulse: The underlying beat of the music, the thing you dance along to!
Register: The register is the pitch range in which an instrument plays, or a part is written e.g. the bass register for the double bass.
Rehearsal marks: Alphabetical letters or numbers used to signpost the different sections of a piece of music, used so players can quickly find the start of a section.
Repeat symbol: Repeat symbols indicate a musical phrase that should be repeated by the player/s.
Relative minor: A minor key that shares the same notes as its relative major key.
Rhythm: Different combinations of long and short sounds and spaces. Rhythm is laid over a steady pulse/beat.
Root position: The notes of a chord, played in a specific shape where the lowest note is the root.
Scale: A group of notes played in order, ascending or descending.
Semitone: Two notes right next to each other, the smallest possible distance apart in music e.g. C and C# are a semitone apart.
Sharp / #: A note that is raised by one semitone, to become the sharp form of that note.
Stave: The five horizontal lines that musical notes are written on, indicating the pitch of those notes.
Tempo: The speed, understood in relation to the clock e.g. the tempo 80bpm means 80 evenly spaced beats that fit within 1 minute.
Tie: A curved line connecting two rhythmic values together.
Time signature: The numbers at the start of a piece that tell you how many beats there are per bar, and the type of beats they are.
Tone: Two notes that are two semitones apart e.g. C and D.
Treble: Notes which are high in pitch. The high notes on the piano.
Treble clef: A symbol used at the beginning of a stave to indicate treble notes.
Triad: A chord consisting of three notes.