melody

• Ascending


  Moving in a upward direction
• Descending 


  Moving in a downward direction
• Stepwise


  Moving by step to the note directly above or below
• Leaping


  Jumping between high notes and low notes
• Repetition 


  Musical idea heard more than once in exactly the same way by exactly the same instrument / voice
• Sequence 


  A pattern of notes repeated higher or lower
• Question 


  A opening phrase in a melody
• Answer


  Reply to an opening phrase or musical answer
• Semitone


  The shortest distance in music - half a tone

  C to C# or B to Bb, etc
• Tone


  An interval of 2 semitones, eg from

  C to D or F to G, etc
• Broken chord / Arpeggio 


  Notes of the chord played separately
• Octave 


  The distance of 8 notes
• Improvisation 


  Music made up on the spot
• Ornament 


  A musical decoration in the melody line
• Glissando


  Sliding rapidly up and down the notes
• Grace-note


  A type of ornament played quickly before the note. Used mainly as a decoration
• Trill


  A rapid repeated movement between 2 notes
• Pitch bend 


  Changing the pitch of a note by pushing a string upwards on a guitar or by using a control wheel on a keyboard. Gives a ‘wonky’ effect
• Chromatic


  A scale built entirely on semitones
• Pentatonic scale


  A scale based on 5 notes. Very popular in folk music
• Whole tone scale


  A scale built entirely on tones. Popular in 20th century music and sometimes sounds strange to the ear
• Atonal / Cluster


  Music based on no particular key. Sounds dissonant and is hard to listen to. When a group of notes, which clash, are played together
• Syllabic


  One note for each syllable
• Melismatic


  Several notes sung to one syllable
• Scat singing


  Nonsense words and sounds made up by a singer, usually found in jazz music