Musical / Listening Terms

To help you succeed in this course and beyond, please familiarize yourself with the following musical terms. This is the vocabulary of listening and music.

Things to Notice

• FORM—
  •  repetition/contrast
  • If something new happens, what makes it different?
• CALL AND RESPONSE
• DYNAMICS—loud/soft, etc.
• TEXTURE—
  •  vertical/horizontal
  • Homophonic/polyphonic
• MELODY—riff, percussive, jagged, lyrical?
• HARMONY—tonal, modal?
• TEMPO—how fast? Or slow?
• RHYTHM—tempo, style, meter
• SYNCOPATION-how much?
• SOLOS—improvised/written, length
• TRADING

Tonal Colors

• INSTRUMENTAL--What instrument? Sound quality?
• VOCAL--
  •  Sung/spoken
  • What kind of voice?
  • Lyrics, words