Elementa Of Music

Question 1

What are the 7 elements of music?

Answer 1

Pitch
Tempo 
Dynamic
Duration
Timbre
Texture
Tonality

Question 2

What is pitch?

Answer 2

How high or low a note sounds, described using the letters of the musical alphabet; A-G

Question 3

What is tempo?

What are the terms for fast/slow/speeding/slowing?

Answer 3

The speed or pace of a piece of music.
Slow music may feel sad or relaxed, whereas fast music may feel more energetic or happy.
Adagio - slow
Andante - at a walking pace
Allegro - fast
Getting faster is called accelerando. 
Getting slower is called rallentando.

Question 4

What is dynamic?

Answer 4

This refers to the volume of music. 
Loud music is called forte.
Soft music is called piano.
Getting louder is called crescendo. 
Getting softer is called diminuendo.

Question 5

What is duration?

Answer 5

This refers to how long a note sounds.
The length of notes are measured in beats.
The effect of short notes can give music an energetic, up beat feel.
The effect of long notes can create a warning, e.g. a fog-horn.

Question 6

What is texture?

Answer 6

This refers to the complexity of a piece of music.
Where more than one melodic line is played in a piece of music the texture can be described as complex or polyphonic.
Where a melody is played and accompanied by, for example, block chords the texture can be described as simple or homophonic.

Question 7

What is timbre?

Answer 7

This refers to the unique sound characteristic of an instrument that distinguishes it from other instruments.
The sound of an instrument depends on how it is played,
e.g whether it struck, blown, plucked or bowed.

Question 8

What is tonality/tone?

Answer 8

“If the music sounds happy, it is in a ‘major’ key.

If it sounds sad, it is in a ‘minor’ key.