Piano

Quarter Note

1 beat

Quarter Rest

1 beat of silence

Minor Interval ( All )

A minor interval has one less half step than a major interval.

Harmonic Minor Scale

A minor scale like the natural form except that the 7th tone is raised by a half step.

Melodic Minor Scale

A minor scale with the ascending intervals between the scale tones consisting of whole steps except those between two and three and seven and eight and with the descending intervals corresponding to the pattern of the natural minor scale with half steps between six and five and three and two.

Trill

A musical pattern that involves rapid alternation between a note and an auxiliary note directly above it.

Half Rest

A musical rest corresponding in time value to a half note.

Natural Minor Scale

A natural minor scale is a seven-note musical scale characterized by a minor third scale degree (also known as a flat third), a minor sixth scale degree (or flat sixth), and a minor seventh scale degree (or flat seventh).

Damper Pedal

A pedal on a piano that when depressed with the foot raises the dampers and permits the strings to vibrate and sustain the tone.

Minor Scale

A seven-note musical scale that features a minor third scale degree (also known as a flat third).

Bouree

Bouree is a 17th century French dance usually in quick duple time also : a musical composition with the rhythm of this dance.

Octave

A space of eight steps between musical notes.

Chord Symbols

A symbolic representation of the chord quality, such as major, minor, or diminished.

Augmented Chord

Augmented chords are major triads with a sharp fifth.

Pentatonic Scale

5 note scale

Chord ( Block )

A block chord is a chord or voicing built directly below the melody either on the strong beats or to create a four-part harmonized melody line in "locked-hands" rhythmic unison with the melody, as opposed to broken chords.

Counterpoint

Counterpoint is the art of combining different melodic lines in a musical composition.

CutTime 2/2 C (with a slash)

Cut time (or "cut common time") is a 4/4 time signature that's been rhythmically "cut" to manipulate rhythm and/or tempo. Cut time can be written as 2/2, or as a c-shaped symbol with a vertical slash (see image).

Homophonic

Homophonic is musical texture based primarily on chords.

Tenuto

In musical notation, tenuto, denoted as a horizontal bar adjacent a note, is a direction for the performer to hold or sustain a note for its full length.

Mezzo Piano (mp)

More subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by: mp, standing for mezzo-piano, which means "moderately soft".

3/4 Time Signature

The 3/4 time signature means there are three quarter notes (or any combination of notes that equals three quarter notes) in every measure.

Bass Clef ( F Clef )

The clef used for notes in the lower pitch ranges

Tied Notes

connected by a curved line, note values are added together to make one long sound

Dotted Half Note

This means that a dotted note is equivalent to writing the basic note tied to a note of half the value.

Mezzo Forte (mf)

This symbol is mezzo forte, it means play moderately loud.

Sonata

This word sonata originally meant simply a piece of music. It comes from the Latin word sonare, to sound; so a sonata is anything that is sounded by instruments.

Minor Scale Formula

whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole

Major Scale Formula

whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half

Whole Rest

4 beats of silence

Character Piece

A character piece is a musical composition which is expressive of a specific mood or non-musical idea.

Arpeggiated Chord

A chord that is played as an arpeggio or in an arpeggiated pattern, in which the notes are plucked or played consecutively instead of at the same time.

Legato

A curved line above or below a group of notes tells you those notes should be played legato - smoothly, with no gaps between the notes.

Slur

A curved line that connects two or more notes of different pitches.

Dimished Chord

A diminished triad is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered fifth.

Sfozando

A directive to perform the indicated note or chord of a composition with particular emphasis pollowed by a sudden decrease in loudness.

Staccato

A dot above or below a note tells you to play it short and detached.

Dotted Quarter Note

A dot after the quarter note adds ½ beat (½ of the original value).

Eighth Note

A eighth note is a musical note with the time value of ¹/₈ of a whole note.

Fermata

A fermata is a symbol of musical notation indicating that the note should be prolonged beyond the normal duration its note value would indicate.

Fuge

A fuge is a compositional procedure characterized by the systematic imitation of a principal theme (called the subject) in simultaneously sounding melodic lines (counterpoint).

Articulation

A fundamental musical parameter that determines how a single note or other discrete event is sounded.

Diminuendo

A gradual decrease in loudness or the musical direction.

Half Note

A half note is a note having the time value of two quarter notes or half of a whole note, represented by a ring with a stem.

Harmonic Intervals

A harmonic interval occurs when two notes are played at the same time.

Invention

A invention is a piece of music for the keyboard.

Major Chord

A major chord is built from a root note, a major third and a perfect fifth. If a chord is built from these particular intervals it is called a major triad in music.

Major Keys

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C♯, D, E, F♯, and G♯. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only key where a Neapolitan sixth chord on {\hat {2}} requires both a flat and a natural accidental.

Marcato

A marcato is a wedge-shaped vertical accent mark. It comes from the Italian word for "hammered." A note with a marcato accent should be as loud as one with a standard accent and as short as a staccato note.

Melodic Intervals

A melodic interval occurs when two notes are played in sequence, one after the other.

Atonality

Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key.

Hammer

A playing technique performed on a stringed instrument.

Major Scale

A scale consisting of a series of whole steps except for half steps between the third and fourth and seventh and eighth degrees.

2/4 Time Signature

A time signature of 2-4 means there are 2 quarter beats in each measure.

4/4 Time Signature (Common time)

A time signature of 4-4 means there are 4 quarter beats in each measure.

6/8 Time Signature

A time signature of 6/8 means count 6 eighth notes to each bar.

Whole Tone Scale

A whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone.

Accent Sign

An accent mark indicates a louder dynamic and a stronger attack to apply to a single note or an articulation mark.

Eighth Rest

An eighth rest is a musical rest corresponding in time value to an eighth note.

Etude

An etude is a short, tricky tune that a musician plays mainly for practice or to demonstrate skill.

Mordent

An ornament indicating that the note is to be played with a single rapid alternation with the note above or below.

Anacrusis

Anacrusis is a note or sequence of notes, a motif, which precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase.

Binary

Binary is a type of form of music pieces. The word Binary means "in two parts." The word Form is a kind of guideline for composers when they write a piece of music. ... Each part of a binary form piece of music are usually repeated.

Bitonality

Bitonality is the simultaneous occurrence of two or more different tonalities or keys.

Cadence

Cadence, in music, the ending of a phrase, perceived as a rhythmic or melodic articulation or a harmonic change or all of these; in a larger sense, a cadence may be a demarcation of a half-phrase, of a section of music, or of an entire movement.

Concerto

Concerto is a musical composition for instruments in which a solo instrument is set off against an orchestral ensemble. The soloist and ensemble are related to each other by alternation, competition, and combination.

5/8 Time Signature

For 5/8, a bar only lasts for two and a half beats (five eighth notes) often with one snare hit occurring either on the third eighth note (marking the second grouping of three in a 2+3 grouping) or the fourth eighth note (marking the second grouping of two in the grouping 3+2).

Fortissimo (ff)

Fortissimo is a dynamic marking that indicates a VERY LOUD volume.

Bar Line

In music theory, a bar (or measure) is a single unit of time containing a specific number of beats played at a particular tempo.

Triplet

In music theory, a triplet is a three-note pattern that fills the duration of a typical two-note pattern.

Circle of 5ths

In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths.

Modes

In music theory, the term mode or modus is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors.

Coda

In music, a coda is a passage that brings a piece to an end.

Motive

In music, a motif IPA: is a short musical phrase, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity".

Primary Chords

In music, a primary triad is one of the three triads, or three-note chords built from major or minor thirds, most important in tonal and diatonic music, as opposed to an auxiliary triad or secondary triad.

Accidental

In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature.

Ostinato

In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch.

Ornamentation

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes—typically, added notes—that are not essential to carry the overall line of the melody, but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line, provide added interest and variety, and give the performer the opportunity to add expressiveness to a song or piece.

Texture

In music, texture is how the tempo, melodic, and harmonic materials are combined in a musical composition, determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece.

Dynamics

In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases.

Theme and Varitions

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.

Major Interval ( All )

Major intervals are those which are part of the major scale.

Minor Keys

Minor Keys are a musical key or tonality in the minor mode.

Mixed Meter

Mixed meter means that each measure (bar) of music has the same number of beats.

Polyphonic

Polyphony is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, homophony.

Rondo

Rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period.

Half Step

Smallest distance between two notes.

Sonatina

Sonatina, in music, a shorter and often lighter form of the sonata.

Strophic

Strophic form - also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form - is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music.

Terraced Dynamics

Sudden changes in the volume level, sometimes creating an echo effect.

Syncopated

Syncopation is a musical term meaning a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat.

Subito

The Italian musical term subito, which means "quickly; suddenly," is used alongside other musical commands to make their effects immediate and abrupt.

Chromatic

The chromatic scale is a set of twelve pitches used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone.

Crescendo/Decrescendo

The definition of decrescendo is a gradual decrease in the volume of music. ... Decrescendo is the opposite of crescendo, which refers to the gradual increase in the loudness of a musical passage.

Relative Minor Key

The relative minor of a particular major key, or the relative major of a minor key, is the key which has the same key signature but a different tonic.

Forte (f)

The two basic dynamic indications in music are: p or piano, meaning "quiet". f or forte, meaning "loud or strong".

Piano (p)

The two basic dynamic indications in music are: p or piano, meaning "quiet". f or forte, meaning "loud or strong".

Triad

Triad, in music, a chord made up of three tones, called chord factors, of the diatonic scale: root, third, and fifth.

Una Corda

Una corda is the Italian term meaning "one string", and is used because depressing the soft pedal shifts the entire hammer mechanism to the left so the hammer only hits two of the three strings in the upper register of the piano and one string in the bass register.

Pianissimo (pp)

When a musician performs something pianissimo, she plays very softly.