Music glossary
The words of music this manual uses, each with a short meaning and the chapter that explains it with examples you can hear in the app.
| Term | Meaning | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Accidental | A sharp (♯), flat (♭) or natural (♮) before a note, raising or lowering it a semitone; a double sharp or double flat moves it two. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Andalusian cadence | Four chords walking down from a minor tonic, Am, G, F, E in A minor, the E major chord heard as home. The harmony of flamenco. | Tango and Latin America |
| Arpeggio | The notes of a chord played one after another instead of together. | Chords and their names |
| Augmented second | A step and a half between two neighbouring notes of a scale, such as B♭ to C♯ in the makam hicaz, or F to G♯ in A harmonic minor. | Odd meters and the Balkans |
| Augmented triad | Two major thirds stacked, such as C E G♯, written C+. | Chords and their names |
| Backbeat | The snare drum on the weak beats, 2 and 4: the pulse of rock, soul and funk. | Rhythm and meter |
| Bar | A group of beats, the first the strongest; bar lines divide the music into bars. Also called a measure. | Rhythm and meter |
| Beat | The steady pulse you tap your foot to. | Rhythm and meter |
| Blue notes | Notes such as the flat third and the flat seventh, played against the major chords under them: the sound of the blues. | Jazz, blues, gospel and pop |
| Borrowed chord | A chord taken from the parallel key, such as A♭ (♭VI) in C major, from C minor. Also called modal mixture or modal interchange. | Chords from outside the key |
| Bossa nova | The Brazilian song of the late 1950s: the samba slowed down and filled with jazz chords. | Tango and Latin America |
| Break | A bar or two where the band stops and a soloist plays alone. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Cadence | The end of a phrase, where the harmony comes to rest: authentic (V to I), plagal (IV to I), half (stopping on V) or deceptive (V to vi). | What chords do |
| Cadential six-four | The tonic chord with its fifth in the bass, on the dominant’s bass note just before V: C/G before G7 in C major. | Folk music of South America, and the Misa Criolla |
| Chacarera | A quick folk dance from Santiago del Estero, in Argentina, in 6/8 and 3/4 at once. | Folk music of South America, and the Misa Criolla |
| Chord scale | The scale a soloist plays over a chord: the chord’s notes, and the notes of its key between them. | The soloist |
| Chord symbol | A chord’s name written over the music, such as Am7 or G/B. | Lead sheets |
| Chorus | In jazz, once through the whole form of a tune. In a pop song, the part that comes back after each verse. | Song form and sections |
| Circle of fifths | The twelve keys in a ring, each a fifth from the next, in the order of their key signatures. Chords whose roots fall a fifth go round it. | What chords do |
| Clave | A syncopated pattern of one or two bars that the whole band fits around, the backbone of Cuban music. | Rhythm and meter |
| Clef | The sign at the start of a staff that says which line is which note: the treble clef for high parts, the bass clef for low ones. | Lead sheets |
| Close position | A chord’s notes as near together as they go, inside an octave, as horns play them under the lead. | A bigger band and the horns |
| Comping | The chords a pianist or a guitarist plays under the tune, and the rhythm they play them in. | Styles and the Library |
| Compound meter | A meter whose beats divide into three eighths: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8. | Rhythm and meter |
| Concert pitch | The notes as they sound, as a piano plays them. | Lead sheets |
| Contrary motion | Two parts moving in opposite directions, one up and one down. | Voice leading |
| Diminished seventh chord | Four notes a minor third apart, such as B D F A♭, written B°7 or Bdim7. | Chords and their names |
| Diminished triad | Two minor thirds stacked, such as B D F, written B°. | Chords and their names |
| Dominant | The fifth note of the key, and the chord built on it, V: the chord of tension that pulls home. | What chords do |
| Dominant seventh chord | A major triad with a minor seventh, such as G7 (G B D F), the dominant chord of C. | Chords and their names |
| Dorian mode | The natural minor scale with a raised sixth: D E F G A B C D. | Keys and modes |
| Enharmonic | Two names for the same key of the piano, such as F♯ and G♭, or F♯ major and G♭ major. | Keys and modes |
| Fill | A short figure at the end of a phrase, often on the drums, that leads into the next. | Song form and sections |
| Four-part writing | Harmony for four voices, soprano, alto, tenor and bass, as in a hymn or a Bach chorale: where the rules of voice leading come from. | Voice leading |
| Function | What a chord does in the key: tonic is home, subdominant moves away, dominant is the tension that leads home. | What chords do |
| Ground bass | A bass line that repeats from start to end while the music above it changes. | The concert hall |
| Guide tones | The third and the seventh of a chord, which say what kind of chord it is. | The soloist |
| Habanera | A Cuban dance whose rhythm, long, short, long, long, crossed to Spain, the River Plate and Brazil. | Tango and Latin America |
| Half-diminished seventh chord | A diminished triad with a minor seventh, such as B D F A, written Bø7 or Bm7♭5. | Chords and their names |
| Harmonic minor | The natural minor scale with a raised seventh, the leading tone: A B C D E F G♯ A. | Keys and modes |
| Hemiola | Two bars of three beats heard as three of two, or 6/8 against 3/4, in the same six eighths. In Spain and Latin America, the sesquiáltera. | Rhythm and meter |
| Hold | A chord the band strikes and holds until the next harmony, while the beat goes on. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Huayno | The dance of the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina, in a quick 2/4, often on the minor pentatonic scale. | Folk music of South America, and the Misa Criolla |
| Interval | The distance between two notes, named by the letters it spans (a third, a fifth) and measured in semitones. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Inversion | A chord with a note other than its root in the bass: the third in the first inversion, the fifth in the second, the seventh in the third. | Chords and their names |
| Key | The scale and the home note a piece is built on, such as C major or A minor. | Keys and modes |
| Key signature | The sharps or flats written at the start of each staff, those of the key. | Keys and modes |
| Lead sheet | A page with a tune’s melody and its chord symbols, what a band plays from. | Lead sheets |
| Leading tone | The seventh note of the major scale, and of the harmonic minor, a semitone below the tonic, which pulls up to it: B in C major, G♯ in A minor. | What chords do |
| Leap | A move of a fourth or more between two notes of a part. A move of a second is a step, and of a third a skip. | Voice leading |
| Major scale | Seven notes, with semitones between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth: C D E F G A B C. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Marcato | In tango, the accompaniment hitting every beat, short and hard. | Tango and Latin America |
| Melodic minor | The natural minor scale with a raised sixth and seventh: A B C D E F♯ G♯ A. | Keys and modes |
| Meter | How the beats group into bars, in two, three or four, and how each beat divides, in two or in three. | Rhythm and meter |
| Micromode | One of Francisco Kröpfl’s twelve groups of three notes, used as harmony and melody at once. | Beyond keys |
| Milonga | A quick, cheerful dance of the River Plate, in 2/4, on the rhythm 3 + 3 + 2; the tango’s elder. | Tango and Latin America |
| Mixolydian mode | The major scale with a flat seventh: G A B C D E F G. | Keys and modes |
| Mode | The major scale started on another of its notes: from D, the Dorian mode; from E, the Phrygian; and so on. | Keys and modes |
| Modulation | A change of key in a piece. | Chords from outside the key |
| Natural minor | The minor scale with nothing raised: A B C D E F G A, the white keys from A. | Keys and modes |
| Neapolitan sixth | A major chord on the lowered second note of the key, usually with its third in the bass: D♭/F in C major, written N⁶. | Chords from outside the key |
| Neighbour note | A note a step above or below a chord note, which goes back to it. | The soloist |
| Ninth | A note a ninth above a chord’s root, stacked over its seventh; the eleventh and the thirteenth go on stacking thirds. | Chords and their names |
| Octatonic scale | Eight notes, a semitone and a whole tone in turn: C D♭ E♭ E F♯ G A B♭. | The concert hall |
| Octave | The distance from a note to the next one up with the same name, twelve semitones. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Odd meter | A meter that counts its eighths in twos and threes mixed, such as 3+2+2/8, so its beats are long and short. Turkish musicians call it aksak. | Rhythm and meter |
| Parallel fifths | Two parts a fifth apart that move to another fifth in the same direction; four-part writing avoids them, and parallel octaves too. | Voice leading |
| Parallel keys | A major and a minor key on the same tonic, such as C major and C minor. | Chords from outside the key |
| Passing note | A note between two notes a third apart, passing from one to the other by step. | The soloist |
| Pedal point | A note held or repeated, usually in the bass, while the harmony changes around it. Also called a pedal. | Odd meters and the Balkans |
| Pentatonic scale | A scale of five notes. The major pentatonic, C D E G A, has no semitones; the minor pentatonic has the same notes from A. | Jazz, blues, gospel and pop |
| Phrygian mode | The natural minor scale with a flat second: E F G A B C D E. | Keys and modes |
| Picardy third | A major tonic chord at the end of a piece in a minor key. | Chords from outside the key |
| Pitch class | A note’s name in every octave at once: every C, high or low, is the pitch class C. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Pitch-class set | A group of pitch classes, named by its set class, such as 3-11 for every major and minor triad. | Beyond keys |
| Pivot chord | A chord that belongs to the old key and the new, through which a piece changes key: Am is vi in C major and ii in G major. | Chords from outside the key |
| Polychord | Two chords sounding at once, one over the other, written with a vertical bar: Eb7|Fb. | Chords and their names |
| Prime form | The most compact way to write a set class, counted from 0, such as [037] for the major and minor triads. | Beyond keys |
| Push | A chord played an eighth note early and held over the beat it belongs to. Also called an anticipation. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Ragtime | The piano music of around 1900 that jazz grew out of: a steady left hand under a syncopated right hand. | Jazz, blues, gospel and pop |
| Relative minor | The minor key with the same notes as a major key, a minor third lower: A minor for C major, which is its relative major. | Keys and modes |
| Rhythm changes | The chords of Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm, on which jazz musicians wrote more new tunes than on any chords but the blues. | Jazz, blues, gospel and pop |
| Roman numeral | A chord named by the note of the key it is built on, upper case for major and lower case for minor: in C major, G7 is V7 and Am is vi. | What chords do |
| Root | The note a chord is built on and named after. | Chords and their names |
| Scale | The notes of a key in order, from the tonic up to the tonic an octave higher. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Secondary dominant | The dominant of a chord of the key other than the tonic, written V/V, V7/vi and so on: D7 in C major is V7/V. | Chords from outside the key |
| Semitone | The smallest step on the piano, from one key to the next, white or black. Also called a half step; two make a whole tone. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Set class | All the pitch-class sets of the same shape, moved to other notes or turned upside down, named by a number such as 3-11. | Beyond keys |
| Seventh chord | A triad with another third on top, a seventh above the root. | Chords and their names |
| Shot | A chord the whole band strikes once, short, and then is silent until the next harmony. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Shuffle | The blues’ long-short feel on every beat, usually a full triplet. | Swing and feel |
| Simple meter | A meter whose beats divide into two: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4. | Rhythm and meter |
| Slash chord | A chord with a bass note after a slash, such as C/E: C major with E in the bass. | Chords and their names |
| Solfège | Naming the notes Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si instead of C, D, E, F, G, A, B. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Subdominant | The fourth note of the key, and the chord built on it, IV: the chord that moves away from home. | What chords do |
| Suspended chord | A chord with a second (sus2) or a fourth (sus4) in place of its third. | Chords and their names |
| Suspension | A note held over from one chord into the next, where it clashes, and then falls a step. | Voice leading |
| Swing | Playing the two eighth notes of each beat long-short instead of even. | Swing and feel |
| Syncopation | An accent where the meter doesn’t expect one: between the beats, or on a note held over a strong beat. | Rhythm and meter |
| Tango | The music and dance of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, born around 1900 out of the habanera and the milonga, mostly in minor keys. | Tango and Latin America |
| Time signature | Two numbers at the start of the music: how many notes to the bar, and which note. | Rhythm and meter |
| Tonic | The first note of the key, home, and the chord built on it, I. | What chords do |
| Tonicization | Making a chord of the key sound like a tonic for a moment, with its own dominant, without changing key. | Chords from outside the key |
| Transposing instrument | An instrument whose part is written in other notes than it sounds, such as the clarinet in B♭, the alto sax in E♭ or the horn in F. | Lead sheets |
| Tresillo | Three notes spread over eight eighths as 3 + 3 + 2: the habanera with its two middle notes tied. | Rhythm and meter |
| Triad | A chord of three notes: a root, a third and a fifth. | Chords and their names |
| Triplet | Three notes in the time of two. | Rhythm and meter |
| Tritone | Six semitones, three whole tones, such as F to B: the interval at the heart of the dominant seventh. | Notes, intervals and scales |
| Turnaround | The chords at the end of a tune that lead back to its start, such as I, vi, ii, V. | Song form and sections |
| Twelve-bar blues | Three lines of four bars: the first on I, the second starting on IV and the third on V, each coming home to I. | Jazz, blues, gospel and pop |
| Twelve-tone row | An order of all twelve pitch classes, each once, that a piece is built from, forwards, backwards, upside down and both. Also called a row. | Beyond keys |
| Vamp | A short harmony repeated before the tune comes in, setting up its sound. | Song form and sections |
| Voice leading | How each part of the harmony moves from one chord to the next. | Voice leading |
| Walking bass | A bass line with a note on every beat, stepping from chord to chord. | Song form and sections |
| Zamba | The slow handkerchief dance of northern Argentina, in 6/8. | Folk music of South America, and the Misa Criolla |
| Zwiefacher | A Bavarian dance that changes between bars of three and bars of two, in an order the tune fixes. | Odd meters and the Balkans |