Melody Flashcards
Acciaccaturas
An ornament printed as a small note with a slash through its tail, which is played as quickly as possible before the main note that follows it.
Appoggiaturas
A melodic ornament where a neighbouring note (that sounds dissonant) is sounded before the main note of the melody.
Arpeggio
The notes of a standard chord played one after another, in ascending or descending order, that is, the first, the third, fifth and eighth notes of a scale.
Broken chords
A chord in which the notes are sounded individually, rather all being played exactly together. An arpeggio is a type of broken chord.
Chromatic
Notes that don’t belong to the current key; the opposite of diatonic.
Conjunct
A style of melodic writing in which each note is a step away from the previous note.
Disjunct
A style of melodic writing including many leaps between one note and the next; opposite of conjunct.
Intervals
The distance between two pitches; count the letter names between the notes including the first and last so C to G is a 5th.
Ornamentation
Ornaments are decorations added to a melody line, for e.g. trill, turn, appoggiatura, acciaccatura and mordent. .
Ostinato
A rhythmic, melodic or harmonic pattern repeated many times in succession (similar to a riff in pop music)..
Passing notes
A non harmony note placed between and connecting two harmony notes, each of which are usually a 3rd apart.
Scalic
Melodies based on segments of scales are described as scalic.
Slide / Portamento
This is when there is a slide between two notes of a fixed pitch.
Triadic
A melody based on triads (eg, C E and G based around the triad of C Major).
