Questions tagged [terminology]
For questions about musical terms. Questions about symbols should use the "notation" tag.
561
questions
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6answers
174 views
Is a bass line the same as a bass progression?
In alot of songs there's a chord progression. Say we have a 4 chord progression. Each chord can correspond to a note the bass plays. So now the bass is playing a 4 note progression. Is that called a ...
0
votes
2answers
86 views
How do certain chords get such prominent names?
A musician friend just mentioned that "F major is my favourite chord (or tonality)". Regardless whether it makes sense to have a "favourite" chord, this got me thinking.
There must be many, many ...
5
votes
5answers
379 views
Why would you need merely the term “collection” for pitches, but not “scale”?
In his lecture Understanding the Fundamentals of Music from 2006, Robert Greenberg says (on p. 119 of the transcript) this quote. Scan of that page is at the bottom.
Despite its overwhelmingly ...
2
votes
3answers
195 views
Why is it incorrect to say “I'm going to play a note on the piano”, when any pitch played on a piano by a human must have “given duration”? [closed]
In his lecture Understanding the Fundamentals of Music from 2006, Robert Greenberg introduces these two definitions (on pages 114-115 in this transcript):
Pitch
A pitch is a discrete sound, ...
2
votes
0answers
29 views
What are these kinds of rhythms called? [duplicate]
I've noticed that these kinds of rhythms seem to be extremely common in popular music:
X: 1
M: 4/4
L: 1/16
K: C
c3c3c2 c3c3c2|c3c3c3c3c2c2|
The example in the first bar appears to be a 2 over 3 ...
9
votes
1answer
485 views
What is this particular type of chord progression, common in classical music, called?
I don't know anything about music theory but I am a fanatic when it comes to listening to classical music. For a while I have been curious about a type of chord progression which is very common in ...
9
votes
1answer
98 views
Difference between One-Step and Two-Step Rags
I would like to know the actual difference between one-step and two-step rags.
So far I thought that a one-step is a rag, where the melody is mostly written in quarter and eighth notes, so there are ...
5
votes
2answers
138 views
What are Antecedent & Consequent Phrases in Music?
I've never heard the terms before:
Antecedent and consequent phrases
they seem to be elements of a period. It seems to be evident that I am not the only one ...
3
votes
1answer
30 views
Pentatonic Terminology Box versus Position Requesting Feedback [closed]
All comments appreciated. I created an app for learning the pentatonic scale on guitar. On the app, I used the word ‘Position’ to indicate ‘Box’. When I requested feedback from fellow guitarists, I ...
3
votes
1answer
94 views
Pentatonic Terminology Box versus Position
I'm late to the party. Is it incorrect to refer to "Box 2 of the Am pentatonic scale" as "Position 2 of the Am pentatonic scale"? I am aware of a classical guitarist would say position 1 if the root ...
6
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4answers
715 views
Usefulness of complex chord names?
We get many questions about chord names for various odd bunches of notes. I often wonder whether they have much value.
Obviously, the common simple chord names are useful. E.g. you might ask a ...
3
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4answers
1k views
What word describes the sound of an instrument based on the shape of the waveform of its sound?
I'm interested in learning about how human beings perceive qualities of sound.
We know that the human ear hears sound when air vibrates against the eardrums at different frequencies and amplitudes. ...
2
votes
2answers
90 views
What does ben tenuto il basso mean?
In the second theme of the recapitulation of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata where the bass line goes into the treble clef and the bass register becomes part of the melody, I see the marking ben tenuto ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
What does “function” actually mean in music?
I remember when the term function was introduced in math - y=f(x) - the teacher was a substitution and still himself a student. He used the term function as if we already knew of what he was talking ...
6
votes
3answers
166 views
Pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic… what is a 12 tone scale called?
Pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic... what is a 12 tone scale called?
This seems like a dumb question. I know it's just called the chromatic scale, but isn't there a ______-tonic name?
I ...
3
votes
3answers
74 views
Is there a term that define the number of notes in a chord?
There are triads (3 notes), 7th chords (4 notes), 9th chords (5 notes), 11th chords (6 notes), 13 chords (seven notes).
Is there some commonly used term that is used only to describe the quantitative ...
4
votes
2answers
133 views
Identifying “Drop chords” from a given voicing
I'm new to this concept of "drop chords" for guitar, and apparently other instruments as well. Well, I know about chord voicings in general, but not necessarily how the drop-n voicing system works.
...
2
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2answers
93 views
What is chord melody?
I've heard the term "chord melody" used by a jazz player acquaintance of mine, but I'm not really certain what he is describing or how it works. Would someone please give me a definition in easy to ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
What is the musical term for a note that continuously plays through a melody?
I have been wanting to know this for a long time. It is when a note stays on while some other notes are being played at the same time, it is kind of like a Pedal Point from research. Here are some ...
1
vote
0answers
25 views
What does it mean to rework or remodel an existing composition?
I was looking at the contributing artists for Ryuichi Sakamoto's album ASYNC-REMODELS, where on the back cover are some terms I wasn't so sure what they meant:
You can see that the first track is ...
5
votes
1answer
84 views
What would this chord progression be called?
There's a section of the melody of Kyari Pamyu Pamyu's song ふりそで〜しょん, specifically the part preceding the chorus, where the composition shifts from a relatively straightforward A mixolydian melody to ...
5
votes
3answers
172 views
Why is it called Mixolydian #11 and not Mixolydian #4?
I was watching an instructional video and the guy's talking about Mixolydian #11 being one of the modes of the melodic minor.
The regular G mixolydian looks like:
G A B C D E F G
And the G ...
2
votes
1answer
75 views
What is the name of the practice of rhythm being written as series of 2's and 3's?
I remember some time ago learning about traditional Irish music and how a lot of the music wasn't written with our modern time signature structure, but was instead written as a series of 2 beat / 3 ...
1
vote
4answers
288 views
Music terminology - why are seven letters used to name scale tones [duplicate]
Since the scale is logarithmic with each interval (half-step) being a constant multiple of the previous frequency, why didn't they just name the pitches A to F with each note having a half-step #/b in ...
11
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4answers
6k views
What is the term when two people sing in harmony, but they aren't singing the same notes?
I'm not a musician, and I know basically nothing about music, and music theory and what-not. (I basically just know a few common terms, and how to play chords)
In most songs with two or more people ...
1
vote
2answers
103 views
What do you call a lightwheight version of chorus inside a verse or in between them?
If you have two different choruses, where one is a more mellow version of the "real" chorus. What do you call it? For instance on this form: Verse, X, Verse, Chorus. What do you call X?
It's not a ...
4
votes
4answers
721 views
Slur or Tie when they are mixed?
For my understanding, the top notes D and F are slurs, the bottom notes G and C, what are they? Please help! Thanks!
6
votes
1answer
105 views
Is there a name for songs whose lyrics are sung through twice?
Some songs just have their lyrics sung through from beginning to end twice - usually with a key change for the second time through. Is there a name for that?
I am thinking of "The Impossible Dream" (...
0
votes
5answers
423 views
Is A♭ major a closely related key to C♯ major?
I'm trying to list the closely related keys to C♯ major, and here is what I get:
C♯ major, the original key
D♯ minor
(???)
F♯ major
(???)
A♯ minor
x (B♯ diminished is not a key!)
For the points that ...
8
votes
2answers
121 views
What's the musical term for a repeated phrase with shifting emphasis?
For example, a riff/pattern that's three beats long played over 4/4 so that a different part of the phrase is emphasized on each repetition.
This happens briefly in The Killers "Somebody told me", ...
3
votes
2answers
235 views
What does “con piu fuoco possibile” mean?
Towards the end of Chopin's Etude No. 4 in C# minor, Op. 10 No. 4, it says "con più fuoco possibile." What does this mean?
4
votes
2answers
106 views
Musicians' jargon, on-stage communication
I’m translating a documentary about a Hungarian folk-jazz musician into English and there are a few words, which I am sure are very simple, yet which I simply cannot find a solution for anywhere on ...
2
votes
3answers
73 views
Is it correct to call a 'tone row' a 'scale'?
I'm unskilled at German; perhaps translation is the snag. Anyhow, at 6:07, the violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann refers to the tone row in Berg's Violin Concerto as a 'scale'. Is this correct?
3
votes
1answer
84 views
What is the term for the sung voice found especially in Bach's chorale music (eg. Jesu Joy of Man's Desire BWV147)?
I have wondered what the correct musical term for the voiced melody overlaid in a piece like Jesu Joy of Man's Desire BWV147, or Sleepers Awake BWV645 is. In this piece of music (and other likes it, ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Are the terms “stab” and “staccato” synonyms?
When I look up the term "stab" in Wikipedia it says: "In music, a stab is a single staccato note or chord that adds dramatic punctuation to a composition."
So I was wondering, are stab and staccato ...
4
votes
3answers
495 views
When to use the term transposed instead of modulation?
I was playing 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' and noticed it modulates from B minor to a fifth above, F-sharp major.
I looked on wikipedia and found it says:
"...
10
votes
5answers
948 views
Must a tritone substitution use a dominant functioning seventh chord?
The tritone substitution has been discussed in several questions here, perhaps most notably What is tritone substitution? and Why is bII 7(b5) considered a dominant? (I believe my question is ...
0
votes
2answers
135 views
Is there a more specific term for this blues sound? (5 and ♯4)
I like the crunchy, janky texture of playing a note with the note a semitone under it in a melodic voice, usually on the dominant scale degree. For example, in the original Thomas the Tank Engine TV ...
6
votes
1answer
361 views
Is there a name for the progression ♭VI–♭VII–I?
The so-called Andalusian cadence occurs when one harmonizes the descending tetrachord from tonic down to dominant with I–♭VII–♭VI–V.
Yet the progression ♭VI–♭VII–I seems just as common. It's ...
4
votes
1answer
96 views
What is a “Slovenian Cadence”?
I recently acquired a large collection of music theory review materials. In it, I came across the term "Slovenian cadence." Does anyone know what this might be?
Unfortunately, the review materials ...
5
votes
5answers
1k views
What's the relationship between the chords Cmaj Dmaj Emaj?
If I play the chords: C major, D major, then E major. I'm wondering what their relationship is called.
It almost sounds like chromatic mediants but I can't call it that since it doesn't move by a ...
0
votes
2answers
49 views
Is a doubly augmented seventh a compound interval?
I'm reading about the theory behind intervals, and Wikipedia says:
A compound interval is an interval spanning more than one octave.
Does "spanning" in this case refer to the number of staff ...
3
votes
4answers
112 views
Term for distinguishing dim/perfect/aug intervals from dim/min/maj/aug ones
There are two types of intervals, distinguished by their possible qualities:
Unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves (and their compound variants) may be of perfect or (multiply) diminished/augmented ...
1
vote
3answers
141 views
Terminology for 3 beats per measure
What terms do people use to refer to music with 3 beats per measure? I have heard the term "waltz beat" and "triple meter" but are there other (not necessarily professional) terms?
8
votes
6answers
2k views
What's the difference between “con brio” and “con fuoco”?
Do they just have different names but are meant to be played the same? Also, it seems like if "con fuoco" never appears in major keys, except for Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18.
1
vote
1answer
41 views
Is there a specific name or descriptive term for happy, productive melodies/tunes that you see on ads? [closed]
Example
Feel free to include some of your favorite ones also!
2
votes
3answers
207 views
Does it exist some kind of “1-bit” / “binary” / “one note only” musical notation?
Disclaimer: I'm a programmer and I know nothing about music.
I connected a small electronic component to my computer, and I'm able to control it using a software I developed.
This electronic ...
6
votes
8answers
230 views
What is the 'and' called in 4/4 time?
"1 and 2 and 3 and 4."
If beats 1 and 3 are strong (aka on-beat) and 2 and 4 are weak (aka off-beat). What is the 'and' called? I'm wondering about the terminology.
5
votes
3answers
665 views
Chromatic vs Non-diatonic vs Accidental
I was wondering if all three of these terms: chromatic, non-diatonic, accidental, all mean the same thing?
4
votes
5answers
2k views
If parallel keys aren't closely related, then why are they so easy to get to?
I got this comment on an answer of mine:
"Parallel major/minor keys are not closely related. They are easy to
get to, but not closely related. It's like you might live by a subway
that make it ...
