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Glossary for non-musicians
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Accidentals: Symbols that indicate a note to be raised or lowered by a half-tone. In the example below, from left to right, there is a flat (lowers the note by a half-tone), a sharp (raises a note by a half-tone) and a natural sign (returns the note to its normal pitch).
Articulation: An indication to the performer about the "attack" of the note. In the example below, the dots (staccatos) indicate that the note should be played short, while the dash indicates that the note should be played long.
Bar line: The vertical line that separates two bars. A bar contains as many beats as indicated by the time signature. Dividing a musical line into bars makes it easier to read and conduct.
Baroque: The musical period generally thought of to be from the late 16th century to the mid-18th century, including such composers as J.S. Bach and Handel.
Beaming: Connecting the flags of notes together, to make the notes easier to read.
Classical: The period in music generally thought to be from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, including such composers as Mozart and Haydn.
Clef: The symbol, usually at the beginning of each line of music, that tells the musician which lines are what notes on the staff. In the example below, the treble clef, which is G clef, indicates that the line it encircles (shown by the inner red circle) is the note G.
Crescendo and diminuendo: An indication to gradually become louder (crescendo) or softer (diminuendo). These can be indicated graphically, as below, or with the abbreviations cres. or dim. The example below indicates to the performer to gradually become louder, then gradually become softer.
Dynamics: the loudness or softness of a pitch, notated using letters: f (forte- loud), mf (mezzo-forte - medium-loud), p (piano- soft). It is not uncommon for composers to notate dynamics as extreme as fff (forte-fortissimo- very loud) to ppp (piano-pianissimo- very soft). In the example below, it is indicated that the second note should be played medium-loud, or mezzo-forte.
Flags: Indicates duration of a note. Usually if two or more notes with flags are in a row, they are beamed together to make them easier to read. The example below shows a flag un-beamed because it is not followed by another note.
Intonation: Commonly thought of as playing or singing "in tune."
Note head: The circle-shaped part of a note, placed the on the staff to notate the pitch. The example below shows that note heads can be either solid or empty, depending on the duration.
Romantic: The period of music generally thought of to be from the early 19th century to the early 20th century, including such composers as Beethoven (mid to late works), Brahms and Schumann.
Slur: An articulation that connects the notes together smoothly.
Transposition: The act of changing music from one key to another. This task is often required of wind players, whose music is not always written for the key that their instrument plays in. For example, in the late 19th century it was not uncommon for clarinetists to own a clarinet in a key of C, so because it is no longer common to own a clarinet in that key, the clarinetist would have to transpose their music.
Western Music: Generally, music that is referred to as "classical music," often called "art music" in the music industry.