Definitions

Question 1

What’s the difference between diatonic and chromatic?

Answer 1

Diatonic means it’s in the scale.
Chromatic means it’s not in the scale.

Question 2

Do key signatures reflect modes?

Answer 2

No. By convention, key signatures are typically only based on a major or minor key, not on modes.

Question 3

What is modal mixture?

Answer 3

Ex. When you are in C major but add in some notes from C minor.

Adding notes from another scale/mode that (usually) shares the same tonic as the mode you’re in. In other words from a parallel key. (You can mix non-parallel scales & modes but it’s less common, and most people mean parallel when talking about modal mixtures)

AKA:
borrowed chord
mode mixture
substituted chord
modal interchange
mutation

Question 4

What does a circle mean in a chord name?

Answer 4

diminished

Note: it may be indicated by the symbols “dim”, “o”, “m♭5”, or “MI(♭5)”.
However, in most popular-music chord books, the symbol “dim” and “o” represents a diminished seventh chord which in some modern jazz books and music theory books is represented by the “dim7” or “o7” symbols.

Question 5

What does a triangle mean in a chord name?

Answer 5

“maj” or a triangle followed by 7, 9, 11, or 13 means the 7th of the chord is major, not the 9th, 11th, or 13th.

Question 6

What is the difference between a fully diminished chord and a half-diminished chord?

Answer 6

Half: the 7th is minor

C Eb Gb Bb

Fully: the 7th is diminished. Essentially the major 6th replaces the 7th.

C Eb Gb A

Question 7

What is the symbol for a half-diminished chord?

Answer 7

Cø
or
Cm7♭5

Question 8

What does a - mean in a chord name?

Answer 8

Lowercase “m” or the minus sign (“–”) means minor and applies to the 3rd of the chord.

The minus sign (–) is equivalent to a flat when placed in front of 9, 11, or 13 (i.e., ♭9 and –9 mean the same thing).

“C–” (equivalent to “Cm”) means a C minor chord (“C–”) with the 6th from major (A♯).

“C(add –6),” which is equivalent to “Cadd ♭6” means a C major triad with the ♭6 added

Question 9

Which notes are in a 6/9 chord?

Answer 9

It’s just a major chord with an added 6 and 9

C E G A D

Question 10

What is a Neapolitan chord?

Answer 10

A major triad built on the flat second.

In classical music, this usually presents in the first inversion and is called a Neapolitan 6th

Sometimes noted as N6

Question 11

What is first inversion?

Answer 11

Move the root up an octave so that the 3rd is now the bass note

Question 12

Quartal Harmany

Answer 12

uses intervals 4ths to create chords instead of 3rds

tends to be more “open”, jazzy, suspension-sounding

related to the “So What” chord from a Miles Davis song, which is a bunch of stacked 4ths with a major 3rd on top

Question 13

Drop 2 Chords

Answer 13

to create drop 2 chords, we simply take the second highest note in each chord and drop it down one octave (i.e., “drop 2” = move the 2nd note from the top down an octave).

This results in an open-position chord which has wider spacing between the notes of the chord and therefore sounds a bit larger.

Question 14

What is a parallel key?

Answer 14

One that has the same tonic as another scale or mode, e.g. C major and C minor are parallel keys.

Question 15

What are the two different definitions of a sixth chord, depending on genre?

Answer 15

In classical music, a sixth chord is a chord in first inversion (where the root is a sixth above the bass note)

In popular music, it’s any chord that has the sixth scale degree added.

Question 16

Altered Chord

Answer 16

Any chord with a non-diatonic chord tone

Question 17

Anacrusis

Answer 17

a pick-up note at the beginning of a piece or phrase

Question 18

Appoggiatura & other types of non-harmonic tones (AKA non-chord tones)

Answer 18

https://www.musictheory.net/lessons/53

Question 19

Which symbols appear on the staff at the start of a piece of music?

Answer 19

Clef
Key Signature
Time Signature

Question 20

When talking about notes, what are the degree names?

Answer 20

Tonic
Supertonic
Mediant
Subdominant
Dominant
Submediant
Leading tone

Question 21

On the staff, where do accidentals go in relation to the note?

Answer 21

Immediately to the left of the note

Question 22

Where do accidentals go in relation to the letter name of a note?

Answer 22

Immediately to the right of the letter name

Question 23

What is a scale degree?

Answer 23

The position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic.
Can be referred to as:
*the fifth
*V
*the dominant

Question 24

What is a pitch class?

Answer 24

All possible notes of a particular pitch in all octaves.

For instance, the pitch class of C refers to all possible C’s, regardless of the octave.

Question 25

What is a 6/4 chord?

Answer 25

Just a chord in second inversion, i.e. with the fifth on the bottom

Question 26

What is a 6/3 chord?

Answer 26

Just a chord in first inversion, i.e. with the third on the bottom

Question 27

What system calls inversions by names like “6/4” chord and “6/3” chord?

Answer 27

figured bass

Question 28

Motivic analysis

Answer 28

“Motivic analysis is concerned with identifying shapes in music and assembling them into a coherent whole.”

Question 29

What are closely-related keys?

Answer 29

Keys that have a lot of notes in common.
The key signatures of closely-related keys have either one more sharp or one fewer sharp than the tonic key.

Question 30

What’s a short cut to determine closely-related keys?

Answer 30

For a tonic I:
I, IV, and V major chords
and their relative minor chords

Or for any space on the Circle of Fifth, it’s the major and minor chords on both sides

Or for tonic I:
chords based on all scale degrees except the 7th (or for minor: everything except the 2nd)

Question 31

Can you hear the overtones of a note?

Answer 31

“While the fundamental tone is always heard, overtones are rarely heard by the human ear”

Question 32

appogiatura

Answer 32

a chromatic note, on the beat, that resolves into a note in the chord.

So if on the first beat, you had G B C#, then on the second beat had G B D, the C# is the appogiatura (leaning) note.

Question 33

recognizing an appogiatura in sheet music

Answer 33

It may be written in its correct value, or it may be written as a grace note.

If it’s a grace note, you play the appogiatura for about half of the target note’s value:

Question 34

What is a Ic chord?

Answer 34

It’s the tonic chord, but in a 2nd inversion (bass note is the 5th).
Also, the 5th is doubled.
And it cannot function as the tonic chord in common practice harmony.

Question 35

What do these represent?
IVa
IVb
IVc

Answer 35

Another way to notate inversions:
IV(a) = major triad
IVb = first inversion
IVc = second inversion

Question 36

Do melodic minor and harmonic minor use the same key signature as natural minor?

Answer 36

Yes.

“There’s only a key signature for the natural minor. When the harmonic or melodic minor scales are used, the seventh or sixth scale degree notes are sharpened by adding an accidental.”

Question 37

Inharmonicity

Answer 37

In music, inharmonicity is the degree to which the frequencies of overtones (also known as partials or partial tones) depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency (harmonic series).

Two facts:
*The inharmonicity in guitar strings can “cause stopped notes to stop sharp

*The less elastic the strings are (that is, the shorter, thicker, smaller tension or stiffer they are), the more inharmonicity they exhibit.

Question 38

Good topic for more definitions: psychoacoustics

Question 39

What’s the difference between the subtonic and the leading tone?

Answer 39

The subtonic is a whole step below the tonic, while the leading tone is only a half step below the tonic.