Music dictionary: music terms explained
The words you hear in lessons, explained in a few lines: from pulse and meter to key, embouchure or bambuco.
Rhythm and time
- Accent
An accent is an emphasis that makes a note sound louder or more prominent than the notes around it. There are metric accents (the first beat is usually the strongest) and written accents, marked with the > sign above or below the note.
- Anacrusa
An anacrusis, or pickup, is the note or group of notes that sounds before the first strong beat of a piece or phrase, in an incomplete bar. It works like a push that carries you into that first beat.
“Happy Birthday” starts with a pickup: “Hap-py” sounds before the first strong beat.
- Half note
The half note lasts half as long as a whole note; in 4/4 it gets two beats. It's drawn with a hollow head and a stem (the little vertical line) and equals two quarter notes.
- BPM
BPM stands for beats per minute and is the measure of a piece's tempo. At 60 BPM there's one beat per second; at 120 BPM, two per second.
Practice the hard passages at a comfortable BPM and raise it by 4 or 8 once they come out clean.
- Time signature
A bar (or measure) is a grouping of beats into regular units, each with a stronger first beat. In the score, bars are separated by vertical lines, and a time signature such as 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 appears at the start: the bottom number says which note value is counted, and the top one says how many fit.
- Simple and compound time
Simple time signatures are those in which each beat divides into two equal parts (2/4, 3/4, 4/4); compound ones, those in which each beat divides into three (6/8, 9/8, 12/8). That's why 6/8 is felt as two beats of three eighth notes each, not as six.
Pasillo is written in 3/4, a simple time signature; bambuco, in 6/8 or 3/4.
- Contratiempo
An offbeat note is one that sounds on the weak part of the beat while the strong part stays silent. Unlike syncopation, the note isn't held over into the next beat.
If you count “1 and 2 and” and only play on each “and,” you're playing on the offbeat.
- Eighth note
The eighth note lasts half as long as a quarter note, so in 4/4 two of them fit in each beat. It's drawn like a quarter note with a flag on the stem; when several come in a row, they're joined by a beam.
- Meter
Meter is the organization of beats into regular patterns of strong and weak beats, which the score shows with the time signature. It can be duple (like 2/4), triple (3/4), quadruple (4/4) or irregular (5/4, 7/8).
- Metronome
A metronome is a device or app that plays a steady click at a fixed tempo, measured in BPM, so you can practice with a steady pulse. Many let you accent the first beat of each bar.
Try the online metronome and read how to practice with a metronome.
- Quarter note
The quarter note lasts a quarter of a whole note and, in time signatures like 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4, gets one beat. It's drawn with a filled-in head and a stem, and equals two eighth notes.
- Beat
The pulse is the steady unit of time you feel in music, like a heartbeat: it's what you mark when you clap or tap your foot along to a song. Each pulse is also called a beat.
If you clap along to a song without thinking about it, you're marking the pulse.
- Puntillo
The dot (augmentation dot) is a dot written to the right of a note or rest that adds half of its value. So a dotted half note lasts three beats instead of two, and a dotted quarter note lasts a beat and a half.
- Whole note
The whole note is the longest note value in common use: it's drawn as a hollow oval with no stem and, in 4/4 time, it lasts all four beats. It equals two half notes or four quarter notes.
- Rhythm
Rhythm is the organization of sounds and silences in time: how long each one lasts and where the accents fall. Along with melody and harmony, it's one of the basic elements of music.
- Sixteenth note
The sixteenth note lasts half as long as an eighth note: in 4/4, four of them fit in each beat. It has two flags on the stem or, when grouped, two beams joining them.
Tap the beat with your foot and play four even notes for each tap: those are sixteenth notes.
- Silencio
A rest is the sign that shows how long nothing should sound. Each note value has a rest of the same length: whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth rests.
Rests are counted just like notes: they're part of the rhythm too.
- Syncopation
Syncopation is a rhythmic effect in which a note starts on a weak beat, or on the weak part of a beat, and is held over the next strong beat, shifting the expected accent. It gives drive and swing to genres like cumbia, son and jazz.
- Tempo
Tempo is the speed at which a piece is played, that is, how fast the beats go. It's indicated in BPM or with Italian terms such as largo (very slow), adagio (slow), andante (at a walking pace), moderato, allegro (fast) and presto (very fast).
- Tresillo
A triplet is a group of three equal notes that take up the time normally taken by two notes of the same value. It's written with a 3 above or below the group: three eighth-note triplets last as long as one quarter note.
Don't confuse it with the tresillo of Afro-Caribbean music, which is a different thing: a 3 + 3 + 2 rhythmic pattern.
Melody and harmony
- Chord
A chord is a combination of three or more different notes sounding at the same time. The most basic is the triad, and chords are named by their root and their type: C major (C), A minor (Am), G seventh (G7).
Start with the basic guitar chords.
- Seventh chord
A seventh chord is a triad with a fourth note added, a seventh above the root. The most common is the dominant seventh (G7: G-B-D-F), which creates tension and wants to resolve to the tonic, in this case C.
- Harmony
Harmony is the use and study of notes that sound at the same time, that is, chords and how they link together. If melody is the horizontal line of music, harmony is its vertical dimension, the accompaniment that gives it color.
- Arpegio
An arpeggio is a chord played note by note, one after another, instead of all at once. It's a very common accompaniment technique on guitar and piano, and a standard technical exercise.
- Cadence
A cadence is the chord progression that closes a phrase or a piece, like punctuation in a text. The authentic cadence (V-I, like G-C in C major) sounds conclusive; the half cadence, which ends on V, leaves the phrase hanging.
- Circle of fifths
The circle of fifths is a diagram that arranges the twelve keys like a clock face, each a perfect fifth from the one before. Going clockwise, each key adds a sharp to the key signature; going counterclockwise, a flat.
Learn to draw and use it in the circle of fifths explained.
- Consonance and dissonance
Consonance is the sense of stability and rest produced by certain intervals and chords, such as the octave, the perfect fifth or thirds; dissonance is the sense of tension produced by others, such as seconds, sevenths or the tritone. Dissonance isn't a mistake: it creates movement and asks to be resolved.
- Contrapunto
Counterpoint is the technique of combining two or more independent melodies that sound at the same time and fit together harmonically. It reached its peak in the Baroque era with Johann Sebastian Bach, in forms such as the canon and the fugue.
- Scale:
A scale is an ordered series of notes, ascending or descending, that follows a fixed pattern of whole tones and semitones from a starting note called the tonic. A key's melodies and chords come from its scale.
- Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale covers all twelve notes of the octave, moving one semitone at a time. On the piano, this means playing every key, white and black, in order.
- Major scale
The major scale has seven notes with the pattern tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. C major uses only the piano's white keys: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Its sound is often described as bright or cheerful.
Compare it with the minor scale in major and minor scales explained.
- Minor scale
The natural minor scale has seven notes with the pattern tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone; A minor (Am) uses the same notes as C major, starting on A. There are also harmonic minor (raised seventh degree) and melodic minor (raised sixth and seventh when ascending).
- Pentatonic scale
The pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. C major pentatonic is C, D, E, G, A, and A minor pentatonic is A, C, D, E, G; since it has no semitones, almost any combination of its notes sounds good.
It's the most common scale for starting to improvise on guitar, especially in rock and blues.
- Interval
An interval is the distance in pitch between two notes. It's named by counting the notes from the first to the last, both included (C to E is a third), and specified by its quality: perfect, major, minor, augmented or diminished.
Dig deeper into what a musical interval is and how to recognize one by ear.
- Inversion
An inversion is a way of voicing a chord with a note other than the root in the bass. C major in root position is C-E-G; in first inversion, E-G-C; in second, G-C-E. In chord symbols it's written with a slash: C/E.
- Melody
Melody is a succession of notes of different pitches and lengths that you perceive as one complete idea: the part of a song you sing or hum. It's built from intervals, rhythm and phrasing.
- Modulation
Modulation is a change of key within a single piece. It's usually done through a chord shared by both keys or through the dominant of the new key, and it adds contrast or intensity.
The jump up a half step or a whole step in the last chorus of many ballads is a modulation.
- Octave
An octave is the interval between a note and the next note with the same name, higher or lower, for example C to C (twelve semitones). The higher note vibrates at twice the frequency, which is why the two are heard almost as the same note.
- Quinta
A fifth is the interval spanning five notes, such as C to G. A perfect fifth has seven semitones and is, after the octave, the most stable and consonant interval; it's the basis of power chords on electric guitar and of the circle of fifths.
- Semitone
A semitone, also called a half step, is the smallest distance between two notes in Western music. On the piano it's the step from one key to the very next one (E to F, or C to C♯), and on the guitar, the step from one fret to the next.
- Tercera
A third is the interval spanning three notes, such as C to E. A major third has four semitones (C-E) and a minor third has three (C-E♭); that difference is what makes a chord major or minor.
- Key
Tonality, or key, is the system that organizes a piece around a central note, the tonic, and the scale built on it. Saying a song is “in G major” means G is its point of rest and that it mostly uses the notes of that scale.
- Whole tone
A whole tone (whole step) is the distance between two notes equal to two semitones, such as C to D or F to G. In everyday Spanish, “tono” is also used to mean key (as in “what key is the song in?”) or the pitch of a sound.
- Triad
A triad is a three-note chord made up of a root, its third and its fifth, for example C-E-G. Depending on its intervals, it can be major, minor, diminished or augmented.
Reading and writing
- Accidentals
Accidentals are the signs that change a note's pitch: the sharp (♯) raises it a semitone, the flat (♭) lowers it a semitone and the natural (♮) cancels an earlier one. They can appear in the key signature or right next to a note, in which case they last until the end of the bar.
- Key signature
The key signature is the group of sharps or flats written at the start of each staff, right after the clef, that applies to every note with that name throughout the piece. It indicates the key: one sharp (F♯) means G major or E minor.
- Becuadro
The natural sign (♮) is the accidental that cancels a sharp or flat, whether it comes from the key signature or from an earlier accidental, and returns the note to its natural pitch.
If the key signature has F♯ and an F with a natural sign appears, you play F natural in that bar.
- Bemol
The flat (♭) is the accidental that lowers a note by a semitone. For example, B♭ (also written Bb) sounds a half step lower than B. The same key can have two names: C♯ and D♭ sound the same on the piano and are called enharmonic notes.
- Scientific pitch
Letter notation, which Spanish speakers call cifrado americano, names notes and chords with letters: A is La, B is Si, C is Do, D is Re, E is Mi, F is Fa and G is Sol. The symbols show the chord type: Am is A minor, G7 is G seventh and C/E is C with E in the bass.
- C clef
The C clef is the sign that shows which line of the staff middle C sits on. The most common today is the C clef on the third line, used by the viola; the one on the fourth line appears in the high passages of the cello, bassoon and trombone.
- Bass clef
The bass clef (F clef) is the sign that shows the note on the fourth line of the staff is F, the F below middle C. It's used for low-pitched instruments and voices: cello, double bass, bassoon, trombone, electric bass and the piano's left hand.
- Treble clef
The treble clef (G clef) is the sign written at the start of the staff that shows the note on the second line is G, the G above middle C. It's used for high-pitched instruments and voices: violin, flute, guitar, voice and the piano's right hand.
- Music dictation
Musical dictation is an ear-training exercise in which you listen to a fragment (a melody, a rhythm or a chord progression) and write it on the staff. It's common in theory lessons and in admission exams for music degree programs.
You practice it in music theory, starting with short rhythms and melodies.
- Sight-reading
Sight-reading is the ability to play or sing a score you've never seen, without preparing it, while keeping a steady pulse. You develop it by often reading simple, varied material.
Before you start, check the key signature, the time signature and the tricky passages; then don't stop, even if you miss a note.
- Ligadura
A tie or slur is a curved line that connects notes. If it joins two notes of the same pitch, it's a tie: you play only the first and add their durations together. If it joins different notes, it's a slur: it tells you to play them connected, without breaks, in other words legato.
- Ledger lines
Ledger lines are short lines drawn above or below the staff to write notes that fall outside its five lines. For example, in treble clef, middle C is written on a ledger line below the staff.
- Sheet music
A score is the written version of a piece of music: notes, rhythm and markings for tempo, dynamics and articulation, and, in ensemble music, the parts for every instrument. The music a single player reads from is called a part.
If you're just starting out, follow this guide to reading sheet music.
- Pentagrama
The staff is the set of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which notes are written. The higher a note sits, the higher it sounds; lines and spaces are counted from the bottom up.
- Sight-singing
Solfège is the practice of reading written music by speaking or singing the note names (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si) in rhythm. It trains reading, pulse and ear all at once, and it's the foundation of music theory training.
Here we explain what solfège is and how to practice it.
- Sostenido
The sharp (♯) is the accidental that raises a note by a semitone. For example, F♯ (also written F#) sounds a half step higher than F; on the piano it's the black key just to the right of F.
- Tablature
Tablature (tab) is a notation system for fretted string instruments, such as guitar or bass, in which each line represents a string and each number shows which fret to press. It's easy to read, but it almost never shows the rhythm precisely.
Learn to decode it in how to read tabs.
- Transport
Transposition means playing or writing a piece in another key, moving every note by the same interval, for example to suit a voice. It also explains transposing instruments, whose written pitch differs from their sounding pitch: on a B♭ clarinet or trumpet, a written C sounds B♭.
The alto saxophone is in E♭: when it reads a C, it sounds an E♭, which is why its part is written transposed.
Technique and performance
- Tuning
Tuning is adjusting the pitch of an instrument or voice so its notes match a reference, almost always A440. The word also covers how accurately someone sings or plays in tune, and the notes of the open strings: standard guitar tuning is E, A, D, G, B, E.
Tune up with the guitar tuner or the violin tuner right in your browser.
- Articulation
Articulation is the way each note is attacked, sustained, and joined to or separated from the others. The most common are legato (connected notes), staccato (short and detached), the accent (>) and tenuto (–, held for its full value).
- Fingering
Fingering is the choice of which finger plays each note, and also the numbers that show it in the score. On the piano, fingers go from 1 (thumb) to 5 (pinky); on the guitar's left hand, from 1 (index) to 4 (pinky).
Decide on the fingering for a hard passage before repeating it many times: changing it later is harder.
- Dynamics and dynamic markings
Dynamics are the changes in intensity (volume) in music, and each marking that indicates them is called a dynamic marking: pianissimo (pp), piano (p, soft), mezzo piano (mp), mezzo forte (mf), forte (f, loud) and fortissimo (ff). Crescendo (<) asks you to get louder little by little, and diminuendo (>) to get softer.
- Embocadura
Embouchure is the position and use of the lips, facial muscles and teeth when playing a wind instrument such as the flute, clarinet, saxophone or trumpet. Sound, tuning and endurance depend largely on it.
- Fraseo
Phrasing is the way you shape musical phrases when you perform them: where to breathe or break, which note to lead the phrase toward, and how to use dynamics and articulation. It is to music what intonation and pauses are to reading aloud.
- Glissando
A glissando is a continuous or very fast slide from one note to another, passing through the pitches in between. It's written with a straight or wavy line between the two notes and is characteristic of the trombone, harp, piano and strings.
- Improvisation
Improvisation is creating music in the moment you perform it, without a prewritten score, based on a harmony, a scale or a style. It's central to jazz, blues and many traditional musics, and you learn it through scales, phrases picked up by ear and lots of listening.
- A440
A440 is the international tuning standard that sets the A above middle C at 440 hertz (vibrations per second). All other notes are tuned from that reference; some orchestras use nearby values such as 442 Hz.
- Legato
Legato is an Italian marking meaning “tied together”: the notes are played connected, with no silence between one and the next. It's written with a slur over the group of notes.
- Perfect pitch and relative pitch
Perfect (absolute) pitch is the rare ability to identify or sing a note without any reference, for example knowing that a sound is an A. Relative pitch is the ability to recognize notes and intervals from a reference note; it's what most musicians use, and it can be trained.
Read more about the differences in perfect pitch and relative pitch.
- Pizzicato
Pizzicato (abbreviated pizz.) is a technique on bowed string instruments such as the violin, viola, cello and double bass, in which the string is plucked with the fingers instead of played with the bow. The marking “arco” tells you to go back to the bow.
- Staccato
Staccato is an Italian marking meaning “detached”: the notes are played short and separated, shorter than their written value. It's marked with a dot above or below the notehead.
Don't confuse it with the augmentation dot: the staccato dot goes above or below the note, while the augmentation dot goes to its right.
- Vibrato
Vibrato is a slight, regular wavering in a note's pitch that gives it warmth and expression. On string instruments it comes from moving the finger that presses the string; in singing and on wind instruments, from controlling the air or, on some instruments, the jaw.
Instruments and voice
- Tuner
A tuner is a device or app that detects the pitch of a sound and shows whether the note is in tune, flat or sharp. There are clip-on tuners, which pick up the instrument's vibration, and microphone tuners.
You can use an online tuner on your phone or computer.
- Breath support (singing)
In singing, support is the control of your outgoing air with the muscles of the abdomen, back and ribs, which lets you sustain a steady sound without squeezing your throat. It's not about pushing or tensing your abdomen, but about pacing your air.
You train it with breathing exercises for singing.
- Bow
The bow is a stick of wood or carbon fiber strung with tightened hair, traditionally horsehair, that is drawn across the strings of the violin, viola, cello and double bass to make them sound. The hair is coated with rosin so it grips the string.
See how to hold a violin bow step by step.
- Mouthpiece
The mouthpiece is the part of a wind instrument that touches the mouth. On brass instruments such as the trumpet or trombone, it's a cup in which the lips vibrate; on the clarinet and saxophone, it's the piece the reed is attached to.
- Reeds
A reed is a thin blade, made from a plant called giant cane, that vibrates to produce the sound in several woodwind instruments. The clarinet and saxophone use a single reed, held against the mouthpiece with a ligature; the oboe and bassoon use a double reed, two blades that vibrate against each other.
Reeds wear out with use; here you'll see how to care for an oboe and its reeds.
- Barre
A barre is the guitar technique in which one finger, usually the index, presses several or all of the strings at the same fret, as in the F chord. In Spanish, the word cejilla (or capotraste) also names the capo, the clamp you put on the neck to raise the pitch of all the strings.
It's one of the first challenges on acoustic guitar: you build strength with short, frequent practice.
- Fingerboard
On string instruments, the fingerboard is the long piece of wood the strings are pressed against, with frets on the guitar and without them on the violin. In Spanish, the same word (diapasón) also names the tuning fork: the metal fork that, when struck, produces a fixed note, almost always A440, and is used for tuning.
- Falsetto
Falsetto is a way of producing the voice in which the vocal folds vibrate stretched and thin, without closing completely, so the sound comes out high, light and breathy. Both men and women use it, and it's common in pop, soul and some traditional singing.
- Register
A register is a pitch zone of an instrument or voice, such as the low, middle or high register. In singing, people also talk about registers like chest voice, head voice or falsetto, depending on how the vocal folds vibrate.
- Vocal technique
Vocal technique is the set of skills for singing in a healthy, in-tune and expressive way: breathing and support, voice production, resonance, diction and handling your registers. You develop it with consistent exercises, ideally guided by a teacher.
Start every practice session with a few vocal warm-up exercises.
- Tessitura
Tessitura is the range of notes in which a voice or instrument sounds comfortable and good, without straining. It's narrower than the full range, which includes every note you can reach, and it helps classify voices as soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone or bass.
- Fret
Frets are the metal bars set into the fingerboard of the guitar, bass, tiple or bandola, dividing the neck into semitones. By extension, the space where you press the string is also called a fret: “fret 3” is the space between the second and third bars.
Forms and styles
- Arreglo
An arrangement is the adaptation of an existing work to another format, style or set of instruments: deciding who plays the melody, which harmonies and rhythms accompany it and how it's structured.
Taking a bambuco written for Andean trio to a symphonic band or a choir requires an arrangement.
- Bambuco
Bambuco is a rhythm and genre from Colombia's Andean region, considered one of the symbols of the country's music. It's written in 6/8 or 3/4 because it combines the feel of two groups of three and three groups of two at the same time, an interplay called sesquialtera or hemiola.
Hear the difference in bambuco, pasillo and cumbia explained.
- Symphonic band
A symphonic band is a large group of wind instruments (woodwinds and brass) and percussion, without the orchestra's violin section, although it may include double bass. In Colombia, municipal and school bands are a very traditional way into music.
If the idea appeals to you, read how to get started in wind bands.
- Composition
Composition is the creation of a new piece of music: its melody, harmony, rhythm, form and instrumentation. Unlike improvisation, the piece is fixed so it can be repeated, usually in a score or a recording.
- String quartet
A string quartet is a chamber ensemble made up of two violins, a viola and a cello, and also the name for works written for it. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven made it one of the central genres of classical music.
- Cumbia
Cumbia is a rhythm and genre from Colombia's Caribbean coast, associated with the banks of the lower Magdalena River, written in 2/4 or cut time (2/2). In its traditional format it's played on drums (alegre, llamador and tambora), gaitas or caña de millo, and maracas or guache, and it has spread throughout Latin America.
- Ensamble
An ensemble is any group of musicians who play or sing together, from a duo to a large group. Playing in an ensemble trains your listening, a shared pulse and tuning as a group.
- Orquesta
An orchestra is a large instrumental group, organized in sections (strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion) and led by a conductor. A symphony orchestra usually has between 60 and 100 musicians, with the strings as its foundation; a chamber orchestra is smaller.
- Pasillo
Pasillo is an Andean rhythm and genre in 3/4 time, related to the 19th-century European waltz and transformed in Colombia and other Andean countries. It can be instrumental and fast, a showpiece for the bandola or tiple, or sung and slow.
- Porro
Porro is a rhythm and genre from Colombia's Caribbean coast, originating in the savannas of Córdoba and Sucre and tied to wind bands such as the bandas pelayeras. It's in duple meter, usually in cut time, and has variants such as porro palitiao and porro tapao.
- Andean trio
The Colombian Andean trio is the typical lineup of Colombia's Andean music: bandola, tiple and guitar. The bandola carries the melody, the tiple holds the harmony and rhythm, and the guitar plays the bass lines, especially in bambucos, pasillos and danzas.
To choose your role in the trio, read this guide to Colombian Andean music.
- Vallenato
Vallenato is a musical genre from Colombia’s Caribbean region, originating in the Greater Magdalena region (Cesar, La Guajira and Magdalena) and traditionally played on accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca. It includes several rhythmic styles, such as paseo, merengue, son and puya, and UNESCO recognized it as intangible cultural heritage in 2015.
Get to know its instruments in instruments of Colombian Caribbean music.
From the glossary to your instrument
Learn theory, reading and technique with vetted teachers, in online lessons or at home in Bogotá.