Over the next seven blogs I’ll give you a glossary of words to use when describing music and things that happen in music. There’ll be the word, a brief description, and where possible a not so good word to use in its place!
A Capella - Unaccompanied singing.
Accelerando (acce.) - Quicken the pace/increase the tempo.
Accent - A note is given extra force. It’s marked with a > above or below the note head.
Acciaccatura - A short note crushed into the main note.
Anacrusis - An unaccented beat at the start of a phrase. Also known as an upbeat.
Appoggiatura - Similar to an acciaccatura except that it is a grace note which delays the next note of the melody. It is a note (or series of notes) that doesn’t belong to the chord of the melody.
Arco - Direction for stringed instruments to play with the bow.
Basso Continuo - A type of bass line used in the Baroque period. Literally means continuous bass. Played on a harpsichord and/or cello.
Binary Form - A musical structure in two parts.
Cadence - Two chords used to finish a phrase. See here for more info about cadences.
Cadenza - A section of a concerto to display virtuosic skills on the solo instrument. (Don’t say “the soloist shows off” (even though they are!))
Cantabile - In a singing style.
Col Legno - Direction for string players to use the back of the bow
Concerto Grosso - a concerto for more than one solo instrument.
Conjunct - Music that moves in a stepwise manner without any big leaps. (Don’t say “scaley”)
Consonance - A pleasant sound created when notes being played together don’t clash. (Don’t say “sounds nice”)
Diatonic - Music that is in a major or minor key.
Discordance - Notes that create an unpleasant sound when being played together. (Don’t say “clashy” - the notes clash because they’re together, but use the proper term).
Disjunct - Music that moves with big leaps between the notes. (Don’t say “jumpy”)
Dominant - The fifth note of the scale.
Dissonance - See “Discordant”
Dolce - Sweetly
Double-Stopping - When a stringed instrument plays two notes at the same time.
Duet - Two instruments/players performing together.
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