Musical terms.

mike_l

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

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

Semitone - two guitarists playing in unison. 

Phil_aka_Pip

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

treble : women ain't nothing but

digitalscream

IanSavage said:

Semitone - two guitarists playing in unison. 

Unison - two bassists trying to play in harmony

Clarky

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

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

Clarky

Tremolo: an oscillating fluctuation in volume

unless of course you have a Fender

Clarky

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

Clarky

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

@ Clarky, thanks for the correction.

Phil_aka_Pip

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

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

Compound time - fresh air for high security prisoners?

Phil_aka_Pip

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

Or check the ABRSM syllabus.

frankus

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

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

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

"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!