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| how high or low the note is. |
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| the gap in pitch between two notes. |
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| a group of notes played in ascending or descending order |
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| playing the notes of a chord one by one. |
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| melodies move mainly by step (next door notes like C-D) and sound smooth. |
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| melodies use a lot of leaps (bigger intervals) rather than step movement. They will sound spiky and are much harder to sing! |
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| melodies are melodies that follow the order of a particular scale. Similar to conjunct melodies except that a scalic melody can only move up or down to the next note of the scale, whereas a conjunct melody can have a few little jumps. |
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| a five note scale. Often used in Chinese, African & Celtic Folk melodies. |
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| a scale made up of only whole tones. (Sounds quite mysterious) |
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| scale made up of semitones (smallest interval e.g. C-C#). |
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| doubling the note values/lengths of the original tune |
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| halving the note values/lengths of the original tune |
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| when a tune is repeated a step higher (ascending sequence) or a step lower (descending sequence). |
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| a slide between 2 notes. (instruments like piano or harp would play all the notes in between the 2 notes really fast by sliding the fingers over the notes really quickly.) |
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| decorating the melody with ornaments such as trills (2 adjacent notes played rapidly). |
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| a repeated rhythm or tune. (Both words mean the same, but riff tends to be used in a pop context.) |
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| a musical sentence (where you’d naturally take a breath). Often 2, 4 or 8 bars long. Indicated by a curved line above the stave. |
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| smooth. Indicated by a slur |
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| notes played with more force. |
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| when a player makes the music up on the spot. In jazz/blues/pop players will often improvise a solo – commonly on a guitar/sax/trumpet/keyboard. |
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| (how the different parts of the piece are woven together) |
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| one single melody line. No harmonies, but it may be played/sung by more than one instrument/voice. |
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| When everyone sings/plays one part together |
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| a texture where all parts (melody and accompaniment) move in the same (more or less) rhythm creating a chordal effect. The accompaniment is supporting a clear melody. |
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| A texture where 2 or more equally important melodies interweave (weave in and out of each other). |
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| a phrase is repeated (imitated – so not necessarily exactly the same!). Could be one instrument/voice imitating itself, or 2 or more imitating each other. |
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| is a particular type of imitation. It’s like a round (‘London’s Burning’), where the imitating part repeats the entire melody and not just a few notes of it. |
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| stereo effect as a musical phrase is passed from one group of performers to another. E.g. like two choirs singing alternate phrases standing in different places in a church. A lot of early religious vocal music was antiphonal. |
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