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Music in Our Schools Month: Music - Introductory

Review this list and your music vocabulary will be pitch perfect. You'll learn about musical notation, genres of music, different types of instruments, and much more. Master these words and you won't miss a beat!
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. a cappella
    without musical accompaniment
  2. accompaniment
    a musical part that supports other musical parts
  3. acoustic
    relating to the study of the physical properties of sound
  4. alto
    the lowest female singing voice
  5. arrangement
    a piece of music that has been adapted for performance
  6. arranger
    a musician who adapts a composition for particular voices or instruments or for another style of performance
  7. bass
    the lowest part of the musical range
  8. bass clef
    a clef that puts the F below middle C on the fourth line of a staff
  9. beat
    the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
  10. blues
    a type of folksong that originated among Black Americans
  11. brass instrument
    a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) that is blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece
  12. chord
    a combination of three or more notes that blend harmoniously
  13. chorus
    the part of a song where a group of singers joins a soloist
  14. classical music
    traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste
  15. composer
    someone who writes music as a profession
  16. conductor
    the person who leads a musical group
  17. crescendo
    a gradual increase in loudness
  18. double bar
    notation marking the end of principal parts of a musical composition; two adjacent bar lines
  19. duet
    a musical composition for two performers
  20. eighth note
    a musical note having the time value of an eighth of a whole note
  21. ensemble
    a group of musicians playing or singing together
  22. expression
    communication without words
  23. flat
    lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone
  24. folk music
    the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community
  25. genre
    an expressive style of music
  26. half note
    a musical note having the time value of half a whole note
  27. half rest
    a musical rest having the time value of half a whole rest or equal in duration to two beats in common time
  28. harmony
    the structure of music with respect to composition of chords
  29. improvise
    perform without preparation
  30. instrumentation
    the act of arranging a piece of music for an orchestra and assigning parts to the different musical instruments
  31. jazz
    genre of American music that developed in the 20th century
  32. key
    diatonic scale providing tonal framework for a musical piece
  33. keyboard
    set of levers that can be pressed, as on a piano or computer
  34. major key
    a key whose harmony is based on the major scale
  35. march
    genre of music written for walking with regular steps
  36. measure
    musical notation for a repeating pattern of musical beats
  37. melody
    a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence
  38. metronome
    clicking pendulum indicating the tempo of a piece of music
  39. middle C
    the note designated by the first ledger line below the treble staff; 261.63 hertz
  40. minor key
    a key based on the minor scale
  41. movement
    a major self-contained part of a symphony or sonata
  42. musical phrase
    a short musical passage
  43. notation
    a technical system of symbols to represent special things
  44. octave
    a musical interval of eight tones
  45. opera
    a drama set to music
  46. orchestra
    a musical organization consisting of instrumentalists
  47. percussion
    section of a band or orchestra that plays struck instruments
  48. pitch
    the high or low quality of a sound
  49. pop
    music of general appeal to teenagers
  50. quarter note
    a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole note
  51. quarter rest
    a musical rest having one-fourth the time value of a whole rest
  52. quartet
    a musical composition for four performers
  53. recorder
    a tubular wind instrument with 8 finger holes and a fipple mouthpiece
  54. reed
    a thin strip of material that vibrates and produces a tone
  55. refrain
    part of a song or poem that recurs at regular intervals
  56. repertoire
    a collection of works that an artist or company can perform
  57. rest
    musical notation indicating silence of a specified duration
  58. rhythm
    the basic recurring unit in a piece of music
  59. rock music
    a genre of popular music originating in the 1950s
  60. round
    a partsong in which voices follow each other
  61. scale
    a series of notes differing in pitch according to a scheme
  62. score
    a written form of a musical composition
  63. sharp
    raised in pitch by one chromatic semitone
  64. sightread
    perform music from a score without having seen the score before
  65. sixteenth note
    a musical note having the time value of a sixteenth of a whole note
  66. solo
    a musical composition for one voice or instrument
  67. soprano
    the highest female voice; the voice of a boy before puberty
  68. staccato
    marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds
  69. staff
    five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written
  70. stringed instrument
    a musical instrument in which taut strings provide the source of sound
  71. symphony
    a long and complex sonata for an orchestra
  72. synthesizer
    (music) an electronic instrument (usually played with a keyboard) that generates and modifies sounds electronically and can imitate a variety of other musical instruments
  73. tempo
    the speed at which a composition is to be played
  74. tenor
    the adult male singing voice above baritone
  75. timbre
    the distinctive property of a complex sound
  76. tone
    the distinctive property of a complex sound
  77. treble clef
    a clef that puts the G above middle C on the second line of a staff
  78. trio
    a musical composition for three performers
  79. tune
    adjust the pitches of (musical instruments)
  80. unison
    two or more sounds or tones at the same pitch or in octaves
  81. vocal
    music intended to be performed by one or more singers, usually with instrumental accompaniment
  82. whole note
    a musical note having the longest time value
  83. whole rest
    a musical rest equal in duration to four beats in common time
  84. wind instrument
    a device played by blowing air to create musical tones
  85. woodwind
    any wind instrument other than the brass instruments
Created on Fri Feb 03 14:16:48 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 16:05:10 EDT 2017)

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