Music Elements

• The tonic is the key note, which is usually the first note played at the beginning of a piece.
• AB

  Binary form
• ABA

  Ternary form
• Minuet (AB) - Trio (AB) - Minuet (AB)


  Minuet and trio
• ABACADAE coda

  Rondo form
• Theme - Variation 1, variation 2, variation 3

  Variation form
• AAA


  Strophic form
• The exact repeat of a musical idea

  Repetition
• A change in musical content

  Contrast
• pickup beat or upbeat

  Anacrusis
• When a musical idea is copied in another part

  Imitation
• A repetition of a motif in the same part but at a different pitch

  Sequence
• A repetition of a motif in the same part but at a higher pitch

  Ascending sequence
• A repetition of a motif in the same part but at a lower pitch

  Descending sequence
• A musical pattern that repeats many times

  Ostinato
• Rhythms that accent the off or weak beats

  Syncopation
• Rhythms that use pairs of notes that are long and short - such as dotted quaver semi quaver patterns

  Dotted rhythms
• A repeated or held note throughout a passage of music

  Drone
• A held or repeated note, heard against changing harmonies

  Pedal or pedal point
• When a melody which is repeated in another part after the first part has started

  Canon
• Melody moving in steps

  Conjunct Melody
• Melody moving in leaps

  Disjunct melody
• A chord played as separate notes

  Broken chord or arpeggio
• A broken chord pattern popular in the classical era using a 1 5 3 5 pattern

  Alberti bass
• Balanced melodic parts in 4 or 8 bar phrases

  Regular phrasing
• Key Change

  Modulation
• Chords at the end of a section of music

  Cadence
• Chord 5 to chord 1 (V-I)

  Perfect cadence
• Chord 4 to chord 1 (IV-I)

  Plagal cadence
• Sounds incomplete, NOT found at the end of the music, ends on chord 5 e.g. IV-V

  Imperfect cadence
• Ends unexpectedly on a minor chord - sometimes called the surprise cadence

  Interrupted cadence
• The first note of a scale

  Tonic note
• The 5th note in a scale

  Dominant
• A chord build on the first degree of the scale

  Tonic chord
• A chord built on the fifth degree of the scale

  Dominant chord
• A chord in its original 3 note position

  Root position
• A chord where the order of notes has changed - the bottom note is moved up an octave


  1st inversion
• A chord where the order of notes has changed - the bottom two note are moved up an octave


  2nd inversion
• 3 note schord


  Triad
• The distance between two notes in pitch

  Interval