Dictionary
Short definitions for the words the lessons lean on, A to Z. Filter by area; where a sound explains a term better than a sentence, there's a button to hear it.
The terms
Alphabetical. Every play button uses middle C's neighborhood, so entries are easy to compare.
A ♯ or ♭ attached to a letter. It moves the note one half step from its plain (natural) position.
A chord played one note at a time instead of all at once.
One cycle of the count. In 4/4 a bar holds four beats; the barline marks where the count restarts.
The steady pulse under the music. It's what your foot taps.
A chord taken from the parallel key: same home note, other scale. In C major, an F minor chord (iv) is borrowed from C minor.
Beats per minute: the tempo as a number. 60 is one beat per second; 120 is two.
How a phrase ends. The last chords decide whether it lands, leans, or hangs.
Three or more notes sounded together.
Using all twelve notes. The chromatic scale walks them in half steps, no skips.
Notes that blend when they sound together. The octave and the perfect fifth are the smoothest.
A note's number inside its scale, counted up from the home note. In C major, E is degree 3.
Of the key: using only the seven notes of its scale. In C major, a diatonic chord has no sharps or flats in it.
Notes that rub or beat against each other. Tension, not error: music leans on dissonance, then resolves it.
The fifth degree of the key, and the chord built there (V). It pulls hard toward home. A dominant 7th adds one more note to sharpen the pull.
A dot after a note adds half its length again. A dotted half note lasts three beats.
Beat 1 of the bar: the landing point of the count.
Two names, one sound. C♯ and D♭ are the same key, spelled to fit different scales.
Lowers a letter by one half step. On the keyboard, usually the black key to its left.
How fast the air vibrates, in hertz (Hz). Faster is higher: A4 vibrates 440 times a second; the A an octave up, 880.
The smallest distance on the keyboard: one key to its nearest neighbor.
The distance between two notes, counted in half steps. Every distance has a name and a feel; the Intervals shelf plays them all.
The same chord with a different chord tone on the bottom. C major with E in the bass is still C major, just restacked.
A home note plus the scale built on it. The key names the palette a song draws from.
The scale from the W–W–H–W–W–W–H formula, and anything built on it. Bright, settled.
The scale with the lowered third (W–H–W–W–H–W–W), and anything built on it. Darker, heavier.
One set of notes, seven doors: start it on a different step and you get a different color. Major and minor are two of the seven.
The same letter higher or lower, at double or half the frequency. Notes an octave apart sound like family.
The space between beats: the '&' when you count 1 & 2 &.
The minor key on the same home note. C major and C minor share a tonic, not a scale.
A five-note scale: the major scale minus the two notes that make half steps. No clashes, so every note lands safe.
How high or low a note sounds. Pitch is frequency, heard.
A repeating sequence of chords: the loop a song sits on.
A chord's flavor independent of its root: major, minor, diminished, seventh, and the rest.
The minor key hiding in a major key's notes: same seven notes, home moved three half steps down. C major's relative is A minor.
Written silence, with a length. You count through it; you just don't play.
Chords named by the scale degree they sit on: I IV V work in any key. Uppercase means major, lowercase minor.
The note a chord grows from and takes its name from.
A set of notes in order, chosen by a formula of whole and half steps.
A dominant aimed somewhere other than home. V/V, 'the V of V', borrows dominant pull to point at a chord inside the key.
Raises a letter by one half step. On the keyboard, usually the black key to its right.
Syllable names for scale degrees: do re mi fa sol la ti. Do is the home note in every key.
Accents that land off the beat: the push and pull that makes a rhythm groove.
The speed of the beat, usually given in BPM.
The color of a sound: why piano and guitar playing the same note don't sound the same.
The two stacked numbers at the start of the staff. The top counts beats per bar; the bottom names which note value gets one beat.
The home note: degree 1, do. Where the music rests.
A three-note chord: a root, a third above it, and a fifth above it.
Three even notes in the time of two.
The six-half-step interval, splitting the octave exactly in half. The restless one.
Two half steps: one key to another with one key skipped between them.