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What is the 10 musical term?

10. Cadenza. A cadenza is a moment in a musical piece where an instrumentalist or singer is given the opportunity to play a solo freely and with artistic license to go outside of a rigid tempo or rhythm.

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Music Theory Music Glossary: 61 Obscure Music Terms to Know Alex Lavoie · · 10 minute read

There’s a lot of terms floating around in the music world.

Knowing what each term means is useful for understanding what’s going on in a piece of music. But more importantly, understanding music terms can help you better communicate how your music should sound with other collaborators. To help you get up to date on your music terms we’ve compiled this list of 60 definitions for some of the more confusing music terms out there.

Here’s 60 music terms you need to know.

1. Accent

An accent is when a specific note or phrase is emphasized with an increase in intensity above other non-accented notes.

2. Accidental

Accidentals in music refer to notes that are not within a specific key signature and therefore exist outside of the key. Adagio means slowly in Italian. In music, it signifies that a piece should be played a slower tempo or speed.

4. Allegro

Allegro means cheerful in Italian. In music, it means the music should be played at an upbeat and bright tempo.

5. Alto

Alto is a range of pitches normally assigned to a singer in a choir. The alto range of pitches is below Soprano but higher than the Tenor range.

6. Andante

Andante is used to describe a moderately slow tempo. It’s Italian meaning “to-go about” suggests a walking pace to be used in a piece of music.

7. Arpeggio

An arpeggio is when a chord of notes is broken and played in sequence. For example, a C major arpeggio would be played C-E-G-C.

8. Bar

In music, a bar is a subsection of time that’s defined by a time signature. For example, a 4/4 time signature assigns four quarter notes to each bar.

8. BPM

The acronym BPM stands for “Beats per Minute” and refers to the number of beats that will occur within sixty seconds.

9. Cadence

A cadence is a sequence of chords used to signify the end of a phrase.

10. Cadenza

A cadenza is a moment in a musical piece where an instrumentalist or singer is given the opportunity to play a solo freely and with artistic license to go outside of a rigid tempo or rhythm.

11. Canon

Canons in music are when a melody is played by one instrument or group of instruments, and then repeated a certain number of bars later by another instrument to overlap the initial melody.

12. Clef

The clef is a symbol used at the beginning of a piece of sheet music to denote the note values on the staff. For example, a G clef or treble clef symbolizes that a G is found on the second line of the staff.

13. Coda

A coda is a symbol used in sheet music to denote where the final passage of a piece begins. A piece will include a “da coda” instruction to tell the orchestra when to proceed to the beginning of the final passage.

14. Crescendo

A crescendo is a gradual increase in dynamic volume during a section of music.

15. Da Capo

Da capo is an instruction used in sheet music that tells the band or orchestra to re-start the piece from the beginning and go back to the top.

16. Dal Segno

Dal segno is an instruction used in sheet music that tells the band or orchestra to resume playing the piece from a different section of the piece, usually denoted by a star-like symbol or sign.

17. Diminuendo

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The opposite of a crescendo, a diminuendo is a decrease in dynamic volume during a section of music.

18. Dynamics

In music, the term dynamics refers to the intensity and volume with which a note should be played. The most basic dynamic are piano (soft), forte (hard), and mezzo (medium).

19. Enharmonic

Refers to two notes that have different spellings yet sound the same. For example, F# and Gb are the same notes with different spellings.

20. Fermata

A fermata is a symbol used in sheet music to indicate that a note should be held longer than its standard duration. The length that the note can be held is up to the artist or conductor.

21. Flat

In music, flat refers to the relative tonal quality of a note. A flat note is one half-step below the same natural note in pitch.

22. Forte

Forte is a term used to describe a louder dynamic. Forte should be louder than mezzo-forte but quieter than fortissimo.

23. Fortepiano

Fortepiano is a dynamic instruction that tells an instrumentalist to initially play a note loudly and then quickly decay to a quiet sustained dynamic.

24. Giocoso

Giocoso in music implies that the piece should be played in a fun and carefree manner, most often at a higher tempo. Understanding music terms can help you better communicate how your music should sound with other collaborators.

25. Glissando

A glissando instructs instrumentalists to slide in pitch from note to note, instead of accentuating each note.

26. Glockenspiel

The glockenspiel is a pitched percussion instrument with metal bars that are struck by a hard mallet.

27. Grave

Grave means solemn in Italian. In music a grave marketing indicates an extremely slow tempo below 60 BPM.

28. Key

In music, key refers to the set of notes belonging specifically to a major scale or its relative minor scale. For example the key of F-Major contains the notes F-A-Bb-C-D-E-F.

29. Largo/Larghetto

Largo means large in Italian. In orchestral music, it refers to a large and slow-moving pace. Unlimited mastering & distribution, 1200 royalty-free samples, 30+ plugins and more! Get everything LANDR has to offer with LANDR Studio.

30. Leggero

Leggero means light in Italian. In sheet music leggero means to play lightly, usually at a quicker pace and in a light-hearted manner.

31. Legato

In music legato means to connect each note smoothly without much articulation between notes.

32. Motif

A motif in music refers to a specific melody or series of notes is used in different ways throughout a piece of music or song.

33. Natural

Natural notes in music refer to a note that is neither sharp nor flat. Typically a natural note symbol is used to tell the musician that the note is natural despite the key signature.

34. Nonet

In music, a nonet is a group of nine musicians.

35. Ostinato

Similar to a motif, an ostinato is a rhythmic pattern that repeats throughout a piece of music.

36. Pan

Pan in audio production refers to the stereo direction of the audio signal. When an audio signal is fully panned to the left it will come from the left side of a stereo speaker.

37. Pianissimo

Pianissimo is a dynamic instruction in music that tells musicians to play very softly or quieter. The dynamic range for a pianissimo passage should be quieter than piano, but louder than pianississimo.

38. Pizzicato

Pizzicato means plucked in Italian, it instructs string sections to pluck their instruments instead of bowing them.

39. Poco-a-poco

Poco-a-poco means little by little, indicating an incremental change in tempo over a longer period of time either up or down.

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40. Presto

Presto means instantly in Italian. In music, presto to a very fast tempo usually above 170 BPM.

41. Quarter tone

A quarter tone is a musical interval that is half the value of a semitone and a quarter of the value of a whole tone.

42. Quintuplet

Similar to a triplet, a quintuplet is a rhythmic notation that instructs players to play five notes in the space a quarter note uses.

43. Rhapsody

A rhapsody is a one-movement piece of music that explores multiple free-flowing sections that don’t necessarily relate to one another.

44. Ritardando

A ritardando is a music instruction that requires musicians to gradually slow down in tempo.

45. Rondo

A rondo is a type of orchestral form or song structure. It usually consists of multiple repeating sections.

46. Rubato

Rubato indicates the player may appropriately speed up and slow down the tempo as desired. Usually rubato is marked during a solo section.

47. Scherzo

Scherzo refers to a short orchestral piece of music.

48. Sforzando

Sforzando is a dynamic instruction that requires players to play a note abruptly and loudly. The emphasis put on a sforzando note is usually more than an accent.

49. Sharp

A sharp musical note is a semitone higher in intonation than the same natural note.

50. Slur

Slurs in music are an instruction given to string and wind players to smoothly slur together each note without any articulation.

51. Solfege

Solfege is the phonetic set of notes correspond to the letter note. For example the notes from a C-Major scale in solfege is “do”, “re”, “mi”, “fah”, “so”, “la”, “ti”, “do”.

52. Soprano

A soprano is a range of pitches in the highest register of tones, this range is higher than the alto range of pitches.

53. Sostenuto

Sostenuto means sustained in Italian. In sheet music, sostenuto notes or musical passages require musicians to play each note beyond its normal value.

54. Staccato

Staccato is the opposite of sostenuto. Staccato notes are played much shorter than their normal values.

55. Tempo

Tempo is the pace or speed at which a piece of music is played. Usually, the tempo will define the length and duration of a quarter note. Unlimited mastering & distribution, 1200 royalty-free samples, 30+ plugins and more! Get everything LANDR has to offer with LANDR Studio.

56. Tenor

Tenor refers to a range of notes between alto and bass.

57. Tremolo

Tremolo is an effect musicians can put on a sustained noted to create a trembling sound. Usually, it takes shape in the form of repeating the same note very quickly.

58. Tenuto

Tenuto means hold in Italian. When a tenuto instruction is given the player is expected to hold each note for the entirety of its value and then some.

59. Trill

Trill is an instruction to sustain rapid alternation between two different pitches.

60. Vibrato

Vibrato is an effect where the pitch of a note is subtly moved up and down to create a vibrating effect.

61. Vivace

Vivace means lively or vivacious in Italian. Typically this instruction suggests a fast tempo, louder dynamic, and bright playing. Alex Lavoie works as a staff writer at LANDR by day and moonlights as a drummer for folk-rock outfit The Painters. @ Alex Lavoie Gear guides, tips, tutorials, inspiration and more—delivered weekly. Keep up with the LANDR Blog. Subscribe

blog.landr.com - Music Glossary: 61 Obscure Music Terms to Know - LANDR Blog