Music Ch. 1

Define Note

A symbol used to notate a pitch and its duration or to identify a pitch/tone

True or False: The black notes are arranged in alternating groups of twos and threes

True

True or Flase: The white notes of a keyboard don't all have an identical shape

True

True or false: Both the unison and the octave are intervals in which the two notes have the same letter name

True

Define Vivace

a fast and vivacious tempo

Define forte (f)

a loud dynamic level

Define Decrescendo/Diminuendo

gradual change in dynamic levels where the music gets softer, giving the effect of calming tension

Define Unison

a single pitch, but repeated or doubled

Define Piano (p)

a soft dynamic level

What does adding the suffix "issimo" mean?

an extreme of the dynamic levels

Define Crescendo

indication that the music is getting louder, expressing exuberence

Define Irregular Meters

meters in which beats are counted in groups of 5, 7, or those that avoid patterns of regular accents completely

Define Allegro

faster than allegretto; literally, cheerful

Define Interval

the distance between two pitches

Define Downbeat

the first, and often stressed, beat of a metric pattern of beats

Define Rhythm

the ordered flow of music through time, including the ways music flows between beats

Define Meter

the organization of beats into regular groups

Define Beat

the regular, recurrent pulsation in most music

Define Sound

the result of vibrations in the air set in motion by the activation of a sounding body

Define Pitch Range

the span from low to high pitches that an instrument or a voice can produce

Define Tempo

the speed at which a piece of music moves

Define Measures

the units used to organize meter

Define Tone

vibrations caused by musical sounds that are definite and steady

Define Syncopation

A deliberate disturbance of the normal metrical pulse, produced by shifting the accent from a normally strong beat to a weak beat

Define Staff

A graphlike structure consisting of five lines and four spaces. Each line and each space represents a different pitch

Define Accent

A stress on a particular beat, note, or chord

Define Octave

Covers the span of eight total consecutive pitches although only the first seven letters of the alphabet are used to designate pitches

What is the range of a C major scale if limited to eight consecutive notes?

One octave

Define Timbre

The characteristic tone quality of a musical sound as produced by a specific instrument or voice, or by a combination of instruments or voices

Define Quadruple Meter

a meter in which each measure has four beats

Define Triple Meter

a meter in which each measure has three beats

Define Duple Meter

a meter with two beats

Define Alegretto

a moderately fast tempo

Define Major Scale

a scale having a pattern of whole and half steps, with the half steps falling between the third and fourth and between the seventh and eighth notes of the scale

Define Presto

a very fast tempo

Define Prestissimo

as fast a tempo as possible

Define Mezzo

medium

Define Upbeat (aka Pickup)

one or more unaccented beats that precede the accented downbeat

Define Dynamics

relative degrees of loudness or softness

Define Compound Meters

subdivide the basic beats into sets of three

Define Pitch

the highness or lowness of a note