Musical Terms

Front 1

Accelerando

Back 1

tempo gradually gets faster

Front 2

Accidental

Back 2

symbols such as sharps or flats and naturals that raise or lower a pitch.

Front 3

Adagio

Back 3

slow speed (not too slow)

Front 4

Allegro

Back 4

fast tempo / speed

Front 5

Andante

Back 5

play the music at a moderately slow speed.

Front 6

Bar Line

Back 6

a vertical line on the staff to separate measures in a composition.

Front 7

Beam

Back 7

a straight line connecting two or more notes such as eighth and sixteenth notes.

Front 8

Beat

Back 8

a musical pulse or unit of time / the steady pulse of music.

Front 9

Chord

Back 9

a combination of three or more notes sounding at the same time / multiple notes sounding simultaneously (Ex. A C Major chord may consist of the notes C-E-G.)

Front 10

Clef

Back 10

a symbol placed at the beginning of the staff to indicate names of lines and spaces.

Front 11

Conductor

Back 11

the director of a group of musicians.

Front 12

Crescendo

Back 12

gradually get louder

Front 13

Decrescendo

Back 13

gradually get softer

Front 14

Dot

Back 14

a small symbol placed to the right of a note that increases the duration of the note by one half.

Front 15

Dynamics

Back 15

symbols that indicate a change in volume of a song. (The students played the music louder and softer, as indicated by the dynamics written on the music.)

Front 16

Enharmonic

Back 16

Two notes that sound the same but are spelled differently.

Front 17

Fermata

Back 17

a pause in the music, indicated by this sign.

Front 18

Flat

Back 18

a symbol written to the left of a note that lowers the pitch by a half step.