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Music Jargon
buster |
Many images on this page use the piano
as the piano gives the best pictorial illustration of Intervals,
Chords, Arpeggios,
etc. the points though are as relevant to any other instrument.
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| Ad-lib'
or 'at liberty',
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where you play just whatever you like. You can do this all over
your favourite tracks! It's a great way of practicing your instrument.
Do it first when the kids are out! If you don't seem to be playing
anything decent, keep the faith & keep having a stab when
you can anyway. One day it could all just come your way in a
eureka! moment. More here.... |
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Arpeggio
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Series of notes which make up a chord. The Tonic (or Root), the third (minor or major) & the fifth. Arpeggios are usually played from the lowest root note on an instrument to the highest available & down again.
Start your arpeggio on the root of the arpeggio, so start on an ‘A’ for an A arpeggio. If you find you can’t hit the root again as your highest available note is the third or the fifth, don’t let that stop you from playing those notes.
Similarly, when you go down again & end up on your starting note, keep going to see if there’s another component or two of your chosen arpeggio lower down. |
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One Octave of an arpeggio played with the left
hand in 'C major''(C, E & G) |
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Barred
chords
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| By barring
the fretboard, any standard chord shape, like E or A (minor
or major) can be moved up to make any chord. Simply
bar the appropriate fret with first finger & play the same
shape above it. Moving up 1 fret raises the chord 1 semi-tone.
Here the chord 'A Minor' is raised to 'Bb minor' by barring
the 1st fret. |
A
Bb
B
C
C#
D
Eb
E
F
F#
G
Ab |
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'A Minor' Guitar chord |
A#Minor
(or Bb) Guitar chord (a bar chord) |
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Bridge |
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"Take it to the bridge"– says James Brown in Sex Machine - & he does. Most songs have distinct chunks, Verse & Chorus being the most obvious. The intro & out-tro are also distinct chunks quite often based on the verse. However a ‘bridge’ is like a new chunk of song – as different as the verse & the chorus are from each-other.
Sex-Machine is not such a good example to listen to as there is little distinguishing the verse from the chorus, but when Brown says ‘Hit me now’, we certainly do go into a different chunk of song with new chords. Whilst you get several verses – especially Bob Dylan…. with different lyrics, & you get the chorus more than once in a song – usually with the same words & the ‘hook’ (the thing you remember coz it just grooves), you only usually get one ‘bridge’. It’s kinda nice coz it takes you to a new place for a wee while before you return to the familiarity of the main song. |
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Classification
of instruments including: Trumpet, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba,
Flugal Horn, French Horn. All the Brass instruments use 3 valves
to add a piece of tube of different length to the overall length
of the instrument, altering the arpeggio
range of notes that can
be played. The Trombone is the only exception. Here the range
is altered using a slide. Being able to play one Brass instrument
means you have 90% of what it takes to play another. Again the
trombone is different. With all the Brass instruments slackening & tightening the lips gives you the different notes in the
arpeggio that the current valve position gives. |
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semi-tones.
A Chromatic Scale is a series of semi-tones. |
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| A number
of different notes played together. The basis of most standard
chords is Root , Third,
Fifth & often the root
again up the octave.
In more complicated chords, other parts of the key
scale are added (most often the 7th) & in power chords,
some are taken away - notably the third. Even though a guitar
plays 6 strings simultaneously, often 2 or 3 strings will be
playing the same note, but with an octave
interval. |
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A
guitar or piano can play a whole chord on their
own. Other ‘mono-tone’
instruments (only one note comes out at a time)
can help make up a chord with other instruments.
In
an orchestra for example 100 musicians could be
contributing only a limited number of the 12 notes
available in our chromatic
scale. Many will be duplicating notes in different octaves. |
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key when playing to music is to play something which fits
within the chord at a particular moment. Chords usually
change every few seconds. In jazz they can change many
times a second. See 'String
Quartet'. See also Key. |
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| Chordal |
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Any instrument capable of playing chords |
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Chorus
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Repeated section of a song where the words are usually the same each time & the song ‘lifts’ before sinking back into the groove of the next verse – which will have different lyrics. The Chorus contains the ‘hook’ in the song – the magical bit one remembers. This effect is accentuated as it’s played many times.
The Chorus usually has a new chord structure, & new melody which is usually higher in pitch than the verse.
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Diaphragm
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| That part of your
abdomen which you use to draw air into your lungs & push
it out. You'll feel it strain if you're new to a wind instrument.
Once you think you've identified it, try to exercise it. Take
good long deep breaths & use this part of your body to control
the amount & pressure of air you're providing for your instrument.
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| Diminished
fifth |
| Note
no 7 in a chromatic scale.
It's not in a major or minor scale
but is sometimes added to a chord.
The chord is then often referred to as a 'Diminished fifth'. .
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| Dynamics |
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Changes in Volume |
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Embouchure
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The
positioning of the lips. The best way to find your unique
embouchure is to faff around with your lips on your instrument
until it sounds good! Don't be scared! Try everything. The
trick is to identify pure notes that sound nice & round.
If you haven't heard that yet, faff some more.... more at
'5 Seconds'
There's a whole page
on Embouchure,
just click the image |
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| Flat(b) |
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note Bb (B flat) is one semi-tone
lower than the note of B. Use the same rule for any note.
(This note can also be referred to as A# ). |
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| Flatten |
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To Lower (in Pitch) |
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Frets
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wee bars of metal across a guitar fret board. They're position
is very accurately calculated to shorten a string exactly the
right amount when you press the string down on one. Each one
brings you up a 'semi-tone' |
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Fifth
(5th)
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Note
number 5 in a Scale (or note number 8 in a chromatic
scale). This is a very important interval
in a chord. It's very unusual to find a chord without a fifth.
Finding & identifying the fifth has a major role in determining
just what a particular chord is. See also 'Diminished
fifth'.
The strings on
a Violin, Mandolin, Viola & Cello are in 5ths. On a guitar
though they're 4ths (except one which is a Major 3rd)
A Fifth played on the piano |
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Finger Memory
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The automatic reflex of
the fingers to follow certain patterns following repetition. Finger
memory means that your fingers instinctively follow patterns you’ve
done many times before & leave your brain free to add some soul
to your music.
At any given moment in your music you will be within a particular
chord. This can be as short as a single beat or be several bars
long. If your fingers can run up & down the arpeggios &
scales of that particular chord fast & instinctively, you’ll
find the holy grail of improvisation at your fingertips. As you
move though the chord sequences, you simply change the set of notes
accordingly.
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| Interval |
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The distance between 2
notes. (Always includes both notes) Examples: Semi-tone, (the closest), Tone, 3rd, 5th, & Octave the widest 'standard' interval, although in theory with 9ths etc you can go one forever. |
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| Key |
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A
piece of music is a journey though a series of Chords
of different Keys however there is always a 'Home' Key. The
music will nearly always start & finish in this Key. The
Home key is the most prominent to the piece of music &
other chords are relative to it. It means that only certain
notes within the Chromatic
scale can normally be used
for a melody & even less notes may be used for the background
chord without things
sounding a little odd.
If the music is
in the key of C major, It'll usually start with this chord
of C major sounding. The different notes in the chord could
be played by one instrument - a piano or a guitar, several
different ones in a band or a 100 different instruments in
an orchestra. However, no matter how many instruments are
playing, they will all be playing notes within that single
chord of C Major. In this case, those 3 notes are C (root),
E (3rd) & G (5th).
An orchestra could be playing many different notes, all at
the same time, but they will be different Octaves
of just these 3 notes. Many instruments will be holding the
same note.
In a 'Wall of
sound' recording, tracks will be laid down on top of each-other
time after time, but they'll always stay within the key of
the chord presently being played. As soon other notes are
added which are not C, E or G, it becomes a different chord.
Staying within the current chord & key, stops things sounding
messy.
As the music progresses,
the chords change & the instruments will find a new note
to play within the new Chord (or Key - because during the
moment of a new chord, the music has moved to a different
Key too - the same one as the chord).
It's possible to
transpose a piece of music from one key to another. If a singer
is finding it hard to hit the top notes of a song, the whole
song can be transposed down a key or two. If this was say
from the Key of E down to C, All the chords - indeed all the
notes of the whole song would be brought down by a 'major
3rd'. And as a listener,
you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It's
as if an old record player was slowed down a bit - although
this doesn't just change the key but also the speed - which
you probably would notice. |
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Minor V Major
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refers to Keys Chords
& Intervals. It's
a very important aspect of understanding music. The worst sounding
mistakes are often clashes between someone playing a Major 3rd
in a Minor Chord - or vica versa. |
major 3rd |
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Without
any knowledge of music you will probably spot someone doing
this because they are so incompatible & clash so badly.
A Major Chord will have a Major 3rd
in it. All musical rules are there to be broken though & it's the use of a minor 3rd in a major chord that makes those great 'blue' notes....
This means that
the Interval between
the Root & the Third
in the Chord will be 5 semi-tones.
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bottom & top notes) For a Minor it would be 4 semi-tones.
A tune in a minor Key tends
to sound sad or serious. Chopin's Funeral March is in a minor
Key as is most sad music. Most 'happy' up beat music - music
written for Children for example tends to be Major. |
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minor 3rd |
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all Music in a Minor Key
will have some major chords in it & most in a Major will
have minor chords in it, but it naturally returns to it's 'Home'
key often & nearly always starts & finishes in this
Key reinforcing the Major or Minor feel. |
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| Mono-tone |
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| Classification
of mainly wind instruments capable of playing only one note
at a time. Includes: Trumpet, Sax, Flute, Bag Pipes - err, well
perhaps not the bag pipes - as they have drones. Fiddles, Cellos,
etc too are not really mono-tone as you can play 2 strings at
a time, although most of the time that's what they are doing.
Bass - you can actually play chords on a bass, but again it's
predominately used as a mono-tone instrument. |
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Octave
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Octave (meaning '8') is an important interval.
The two notes in an Octave have the same name. An 'A' &
an 'A' for example - only the second 'A' would be up an Octave.
A Piano typically has 7 Octaves, so you could play the same
note 7 times in different Octaves. Every time a note goes up
an Octave, the audio frequency which makes it the note it is,
doubles. Interestingly, a stringed instrument plays an Octave
on a particular string by halving the length of the string.
Within one register
a Woodwind instrument will half the length of the tube by releasing
fingers to go up an Octave. |
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An Octave of 'C' played
on the piano Both notes are 'C' |
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| Pitch |
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How high or low a note
is....&... place where folk play football.... |
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| Range |
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The amount of notes between
two points - usually the Highest & Lowest |
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| Reed
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| Thin
sliver of bamboo (or occasionally plastic) which fits
in the mouthpiece of a Sax or Clarinet. Pipes, Oboes &
Bassoons have reeds too but these are 'double'. They have
two reeds tied back to back & you blow down the middle. |
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Reeds are
rated in 'hardness' from '1' to '5'. The lower the number
the softer the reed. The softer the reed the easier it
is to play. Start with a soft one & don't play a harder
one unless you prefer one. Harder reeds require more 'puff',
They are certainly harder to play & the only advantage
with them seems to be that they're slightly harder wearing.
Top players though seem to prefer them. |
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Register:
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On wind
instruments there are often more than one 'register' of notes.
When the top note has been played on the bottom register, a
key is pressed, usually by the thumb, and the instrument offers
a fresh set of notes in a second register. Saxes have 2 registers
& the clarinet 3. The Flute has 3 but requires only embouchure
changes to change register. Saxes & flute go up by an Octave
between registers 1 & 2. Clarinet goes up an Octave &
a 5th. |
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Root
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Root (or Tonic) refers to the most important note in a chord.
The chord is indeed named after it so the root of the chord 'E major' or 'E minor' is the note
E. For the chord of 'C#
minor', (or C# major)
the root is the note C# (C Sharp) |
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| Rhythm section |
In a band – drums, percussion, bass, guitar, possibly keyboards but not lead players / mono-tone instruments like fiddle, brass or singers. The rhythm section is the rock of the band holding everything tightly together & changing direction in precise coordination. |
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| Scales: |
| If you
want to be able to play fast runs like John Coltrane, scales
will embed some 'finger memory' into you. This is a pattern
that you can reproduce without thinking because you've played
it many times before. More on Scales
& Chromatic Scales
on the exercises page |
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| Sharps
(#) |
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note B# (B sharp) is one semi-tone
higher than the note of B. Use the same rule for any note. (This
note is also 'C') |
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Flats (b) |
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note Bb (B flat) is one semi-tone
lower than the note of B. Use the same rule for any note.
(This note can also be referred to as A# ) |
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Semi-tone
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This
is the smallest possible interval
between two notes. A chromatic
scale uses a series of 13 Semi-tones to complete a scale.
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String Quartet
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Ensemble of 4 instruments. 2 Violins a Viola & a Cello.
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To hear
chordal progressions as clearly as is possible you can do no
better than listening to a String Quartet.
As there are no more than 4 voices at any one time, it’s possible the track the changes much more easily. Start with Schubert’s ‘Death & the Maiden’! |
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| Third
(3rd)
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A Major 3rd
The note in a particular
key which comes 3rd in the scale. This is different for Minor
& Major
scales / keys. For
the Scale of 'C Major', the third is E.
For 'C Minor'
The 3rd would be Eb (E flat).
For a 'Major 3rd'
the interval is 5
semi-tones (including
both notes) For A Minor 3rd it's 4.
A Minor 3rd |
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| Toys |
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James's affectionate name
for his armory of instruments |
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Tone
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Two
semi-tones = 1 'Tone'.
The interval between
the notes in a scale are
mostly tones, but sometimes semi-tones
A
tone |
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| Transpose
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To
move usually a whole piece of music to a new Key. Often done
in bands when a singers range
is different to the song. The low notes are too low or the
high ones too high to hit.
Keyboards
will 'transpose' meaning they will allow you to play up or
down the scale but still play the same notes on the keyboard.
So if you play a 'C' - & a 'D' comes out you've transposed
it up a tone.
Certain wind
instruments are not in 'Concert Pitch' & their
'C' will not be the same as the 'C' on a Piano, Guitar, Flute
or Fiddle. It's a regrettable fact that causes lots of headaches
when reading music. Fortunately, if you're playing by ear,
it doesn't matter! But it you're not, & you wish to play
something on a sax which is written in C, you'll have to transpose
the music. |
In a band, if
you're band mate tells you to play a 'D' - there's a good
chance if you play your 'D' it'll come out as a 'C' on a Sax,
Trumpet, Clarinet, Pipes etc. However, get your mate to play
the note to you, listen to it & find it on your instrument
& you're laughing. It can be a hindrance & a confusion
to try to think about which notes you're playing in this situation.Use
your ear every time & you'll have no problems
& a lot less head-aches.
Why are certain
instruments not in Concert Pitch? God Knows. I've never heard
a convincing explanation yet. If you have one, why not share
it! email |
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| Viola |
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Orchestral Instrument
looking, sounding & playing exactly like a Violin, except larger
& having a lower pitch range |
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| Wind |
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Classification of instruments
requiring to be blown including: Brass,
Woodwind, Bag Pipes. Also
includes Church Organ... |
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Woodwind
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| Classification
of instruments including: Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute, Piccolo,
Oboe Bassoon & Cor-Anglais. The first two are single reed
& the last three double reed. Saxophones are now commonly
referred to as Brass though this is not strictly the correct classification.
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KY14 6EG
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email: james
mobile: 07970 744986
landline:01337 842434 |
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