Musical terms and definitions Tips

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Adagio

Adagio means very slow. Adogio comes from Italian ad agio, 'at ease'.

   
What is Timbre?

Timbre

Timbre -The quality of a musical tone that distinguishes voices and instruments.

   
What is a phrase?

Phrase

Phrase - A small section of a composition comprising a musical thought. Comparable to a sentence in language.

   
What does forte mean?

Forte

Forte - to play loud

   
What is acapella?

Acapella

acapella-without instrumental accompaniment

   
What does the musical term "romantic" mean??

Romantic

Romantic -Relating to the nineteenth-century musical period characterized by subjectivity on the part of the composer, emotionalism in music, longer musical forms, and richer harmonies.

   
What is an intermezzo?

Intermezzo

Intermezzo- a short musical compostition, as between main divisions of an extended musical work.

   
Where is the humbucker located?

humbuckers

Humbucker - pickup on a guitar. Unlike the single coil pickups, it is fatter. To see a picture of some humbucker pickups, look at some Fenders and some Gibsons. They are located right under the strings near the bridge.

   
What is a chord?

Chord

Chord -Three or more tones combined and sounded simultaneously

   
What is an absolute pitch?

Absolute Pitch

Absolute pitch- 1. the exact pitch of a tone in terms of vibrations per second 2. the ability to sing or recognize the sound of a tone.

   
What is a slur?

Slur

Slur-A curved line drawn over two or more notes of different pitches, indicating that they are to be executed in a smoothly connected manner without a break.

   
What is Mezzo Forte?

Mezzo forte

Mezzo forte-Moderately loud

   
What is Just Intonation?

Just Intonation

Just Intonation-any system of tuning in which all of the intervals can be represented by whole-number frequency ratios

   
What is distortion?

Distortion

distortion - check out this page for a great definition of distortion. I couldn't explain it half as well.

Distortion

   
What is a cacaphony?

cacaphony

cacaphony-harsh discordant sound

   

Abandon

Abandon is a French-originated musical term that means 'Without restraint'. In laymen's terms, the musician is to play louder and present a slightly uncontrolled feeling to the music. Tempo, volume, and pitch is effected.

   

Accelerando

Accelerando is musical notation symbol that means to gradually quicken tempo. An accelerando symbol may be accompanied by a new tempo marking (example: Tempo = 80).

   
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Jeff Beer