Musical Terms Flashcards
(27 cards)
1
Q
Define legato
A
- Smooth and connected
2
Q
Define staccato
A
- Short and detached
3
Q
Define rubarto
A
- Rhythmic flexibility
4
Q
Define fingerpicking
A
- Useof right hand fingers to pluck the strings
5
Q
Define syncopation
A
- Playing off the main beat
- Stressing of weaker beats in a bar
6
Q
Define Travis picking
A
- Steady bass kept with the thumb
- Syncopated notes played with fingers
Named after Merle Travis
7
Q
Define harmony
A
- Simultanous use of notes to create chords
7
Q
Define arpeggio
A
- Playing the notes of a chord one at a time
8
Q
Define melody
A
- Linear succession of notes
9
Q
Define polyphony
A
- 2 or more independent melodic voices
10
Q
Define rasgueado
A
- Spanish term
- Strumming
- Commonly used to refer to flamenco
11
Q
Define slurs (hammer ons and pull offs)
A
- Smooth execution of 2+ notes
12
Q
Define phrase
A
- Musical sentence
- Art of shaping musical ideas
13
Q
Define virtuosity
A
- Impressive or outstanding technical skill
- Fluency
14
Q
Define sliding/portamento
A
- Smooth, uninterrupted move from one note to another
15
Q
Define string bending
A
- Change of pitch by bending a string with the left hand
16
Q
Define double stop
A
- 2 note chord
17
Q
Define riff
A
- Repeated musical phrase
18
Q
Define pentatonic scale
A
- 5 note scale
19
Q
Define power chord
A
- Chord containing only the root and fifth
- Absence of third degree scale makes it harmoniously ambiguous
20
Q
Define harmonics
A
- Bell-like notes most commonly achieved by lightly touching the strings above fret 12, 7 or 5
21
Q
Define artificial harmonics
A
- Harmonics played by touching the string 12 frets above a fretted note
22
Q
Define tremelo
A
- Rapid repetition of a note
23
Q
Define turnaround
A
- A passage of notes used at the end of a section to link back to the beginning
24
Define vibrato
* Subtle manipulation of pitch to achieve a singing quality
25
Define timbre
* Quality of sound or tone
26
Define ostinato
* Repeated phrase or musical pattern
