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23 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Two-beat bass
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type of bass accompaniment in which the bassist plays the root of the chord on the first beat of a measure and the fifth of the chord on the third beat of a measure. Associated very strongly with county music.
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Vamp
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A short chord progression that is repeated several times as a means of marking time. Often used as an introduction, a coda (usually of the fadeout type), or as an internal segment of a song over which the singer might talk to the audience. Many of James Brown’s songs use a vamp.
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Reverb
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A short chord progression that is repeated several times as a means of marking time. Often used as an introduction, a coda (usually of the fadeout type), or as an internal segment of a song over which the singer might talk to the audience. Many of James Brown’s songs use a vamp.
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Flat-four beat
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A rhythm style in which all four beats of a four-beat measure are equally accented, as opposed to an backbeat rhythm. The flat-four beat is prominent in Motown songs.
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Riff
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A short melodic and/or rhythmic pattern that is repeated over and over while musical changes take place over the fragment. A riff is often the harmonic and rhythmic basis of the entire song. A good example of a riff-based song is the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction.
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Standard song form
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A musical structure that typically consists of two musical parts (A and B) played in four sections. Each section is generally 8 measures long, resulting in a 32-measure form. The A part is played and repeated (8 + 8 measures), followed by the B part or bridge (8 measures), and a return of the A part (8 measures) for an overall form of A A B A in 32 measures. In some rock songs the A A B A form is borrowed with a great deal of freedom and combined with strophic song form: in some cases the A part further divides into a verse (a) and chorus (b), while the B part retains its bridge function.
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Strophic
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A song form in which each verse of the text is sung to the same music. The music for each verse remains the same while the words change. Most blues songs and folk songs are strophic forms. (Compare with standard song form and through-composed form.)
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Subdominant
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The fourth pitch of a major or minor scale. Subdominant also refers to the chord that is built on the fourth pitch of a scale.
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Tonic
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The main or central pitch of a major key. Tonic also refers to the chord that is built on the first pitch of a scale and is therefore the main or central chord, or home chord, of a major or minor key.
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Skiffle
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folk song style based on American folk music and using acoustic guitars and banjos and other acoustic instruments such as washboards and thimbles for rhythm, washtub (or as the British referred to them, tea chest) basses, spoons, and kazoos.
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Aleatory/Aleatoric
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A method of composition in which pitches, rhythms, motives, and other compositional decisions are left to the performers discretion. Also referred to as chance music because whatever happens is due to chance.
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Dominant
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The fifth pitch of a scale. Dominant also refers to the chord built on the fifth pitch of a scale.
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Super group
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Cream, CSNY
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Power trio
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a three-piece group that produces a great deal of sound.
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Backbeat
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Placing a strong accent on the offbeats. In a four-beat measure, the drummer typically emphasizes beats 2 and 4, creating the basic rhythm of rock music.
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Backturning
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Used by early rap MCs, the technique of manually reversing the revolution of the turntable to repeat a phrase.
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Concept album
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Album that has a consistent theme throughout
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Musique concrète
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Electronic music composed of instrumental and natural sounds often altered or distorted in the recording proces
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Polyphonic texture
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all of the different musical parts are important in creating the overall sound.
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Polyphony
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musical texture in which two or more independent melodic lines of equal importance or interest sound simultaneously.
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Melisma
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A melody line in which one syllable of a lyric is sung to many different pitches. Used frequently in Gospel music and, through influence, in Soul. The adjective form of the word is melismatic
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Contrafacta
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taking a pre-existing gospel song and putting secular lyrics to it
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Scratching
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A technique used by rap MCs in which the turntable is moved rapidly back and forth.
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