Music glossary
This book uses the words musicians use. This page gives each one a short meaning and the chapter that shows it at work. The Rust glossary is separate: it explains the language, not the music.
| Term | Meaning | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Comping | The chords a pianist or guitarist plays under the tune, and the rhythm and voicings they use. As a verb, to comp is to play those chords. | How the band plays a chord sheet |
| Voicing | Which notes of a chord sound, in which octaves, and how they are spread. A good voicing keeps common notes and leaves the melody room. | How the band plays a chord sheet |
| Voice leading | Moving each voice of a chord to the nearest voice of the next, so the harmony joins smoothly instead of jumping. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Changes | The chord progression of a song, bar by bar. “The changes” are what the chord sheet holds. | How the band plays a chord sheet |
| Head | The written tune, played at the start and again after the solos. In a jazz performance, the head is the melody everyone knows. | Song form, sections, variations and locks |
| Chorus | In jazz, one complete pass through the form, from the top of the chart to the last bar. In a pop song, the repeated part that comes after each verse. | Song form, sections, variations and locks |
| Turnaround | The chords at the end of a section that lead back to its beginning, such as I–vi–ii–V. | Song form, sections, variations and locks |
| Walking bass | A bass line of one note per beat: the root, notes of the chord, and a step into the next chord’s root. | How the band plays a chord sheet |
| Slash chord | A chord symbol with a bass note after a slash, such as C/E. The bass may be a note of the chord (an inversion) or a note outside it. | Chords |
| Inversion | A chord with a note other than its root in the bass. In a triad, the first inversion has the third lowest and the second the fifth; in a seventh chord, the third inversion has the seventh. | Chords |
| Figured bass | A continuo shorthand: numbers above or below the bass note name the intervals to play above it, such as 6, 6/4 or 6/5. Ferrous Lineup writes the figures after the Roman numeral, as I⁶ and V⁶₅. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Roman numeral | A chord named by the degree of the key it is built on: upper case for major, lower case for minor. In C major, G7 is V7. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Enharmonic keys | Two names for the same keys of the piano, such as F# major (six sharps) and G♭ major (six flats). They sound the same; the composer picks the name that fits the music around it. | Scales, modes and keys |
| Function | What a chord does in the key: tonic is home, subdominant is away, dominant is tension that pulls home. The harmony keys colour them blue, green and orange. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Borrowed chord | A chord taken from the parallel key, the major or minor on the same tonic, such as A♭ (♭VI) in C major, borrowed from C minor. Also called modal mixture. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Picardy third | A major tonic chord at the end of a piece in a minor key: the major third borrowed from the major. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Secondary dominant | The dominant of a chord of the key other than the tonic, written V/V (“five of five”), V7/vi and so on. D7 in C major is V7/V, the dominant of G. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Tonicization | Making a chord of the key sound for a moment like a tonic, by playing its own dominant or leading-tone chord before it, without changing key. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Cadential six-four | The tonic triad in second inversion over the dominant’s bass, such as C/G before G7 in C major. It sounds like the dominant held back, and moves on to V. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Neapolitan sixth | A major chord on the lowered second degree, usually in first inversion: D♭/F in C major, written N⁶. It mostly goes to the dominant. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Pivot chord | A chord that belongs to both the old and the new key in a modulation, heard in the first and then reread in the second: Am in C major is vi, and ii in G major. | Roman numerals, the harmony keys and chord functions |
| Step, skip, leap | How far one part moves: a second is a step, a third a skip, a fourth or more a leap. | Voice leading and part motion |
| Contrary motion | Two parts moving opposite ways. Between the top line and the bass it keeps them two independent lines. | Voice leading and part motion |
| Oblique motion | One part holds its note while the other moves. | Voice leading and part motion |
| Parallel motion | Two parts moving the same way and keeping the same interval number, such as sixths going to sixths. Parallel fifths and octaves are what classical part writing avoids. | Voice leading and part motion |
| Close position | A chord voiced with its notes as near together as they go, all within an octave, as a horn section plays it. | How the band plays a chord sheet |
| Equalizer (EQ) | A filter that turns ranges of frequencies up or down, such as a channel’s lows, middle and highs. It changes a sound’s colour, not its notes. | The mixer |
| Compressor | An effect that turns a sound down when it goes over a threshold, by a ratio, so a part plays at a steadier level. | The mixer |
| Delay | An effect that plays a sound again a little later, and again, each echo quieter; in the app, in time with the song. | The mixer |
| Polychord | Two chords sounded at once, written one above the other, such as Eb7 over Fb. The ear hears both chords, not one large chord. | Hearing harmony |
| Pitch-class set | A group of notes named by pitch class, ignoring octave and order. Every chord is one, but the term also covers groups that have no chord name. | Pitch-class sets, and one harmony with four names |
| Prime form | The most compact transposition or inversion of a pitch-class set, used to compare sets. Forte’s catalogue lists each set class with its prime form and interval vector. | Pitch-class sets, and one harmony with four names |
| Twelve-tone row | An ordering of all twelve pitch classes used as the material of a piece. Its forms are prime, inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion. | Twelve-tone rows and their rules |
| Micromode | One of Francisco Kröpfl’s twelve three-note groups, classified by interval content and heard as a colour. The app can use one as a scale or draw with it. | Micromodes |
| Swing | Playing the second eighth note of each beat late, so pairs go long-short. A full swing, 100%, is a triplet: two thirds and one third. | Tempo, meter, swing and feel |
| Shot | A short, accented chord hit by the whole band, followed by silence. Also called a stab, a hit or a kick. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Push | A chord struck before its beat and held over it, written ^F; also called an anticipation. It makes the music lean forward. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Hold | A chord struck and held until the next harmony, with the beat going on underneath. It is not a fermata. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Rest | The band dropping out for a bar or more; in jazz, a break. In the app a rest also leaves the drums silent. | Shots, holds, rests and pushes |
| Concert pitch | Music written as it sounds, “in C”: what piano, guitar, bass, voice, flute and violin read. A song’s concert key is the key the band hears. | The lead sheet |
| Transposing instrument | An instrument whose written notes are not the notes it sounds, named after the note a written C sounds: a trumpet in B♭, an alto saxophone in E♭, a horn in F. Its music is written higher by that distance, so a song in C is in D for a trumpet. | The lead sheet |
| Solfège | Naming the notes with syllables, Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si, instead of the letters C D E F G A B, as in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese. A chord is named the same way: Am7 is Lam7. | Two languages |
| Fixed do | Solfège in which Do is always C, whatever the key, as the app and Spanish and Italian schools use. In movable do, used by some ear-training methods, do is the tonic of the key. | Two languages |