MUSIC VOCABULARY

  • Music= sound and silence
  • Sound is produced through vibration
  • Steady beat- a constant pulse or beat in the music with the same amount of silence between each beat. | | | | | |
  • Pattern- information that is repeated the same way over again, so you can predict what is coming next.
  • Strong & weak beat- the tendency of the music to have stronger emphasis on some beats and less on others. It helps to create meter in music (4) |…|… (3) |..|.. (2) |.|.
  • Patriotic music- music that shows love for one’s own country.
  • Form- the overall patterns found in a piece of music: call/response, question/answer, verse/refrain, ABA, ABAC, etc.
  • Melody- the main tune of a piece of music; it’s how you know what the song is
  • Folk music- music that is about regular people, their lives, villages, families, and celebrations. It is usually an oral tradition (learned by ear) and not written down.
  • Rhythm- the movement of the music within the steady beat.
  • Solo- only one person singing or playing an instrument.
  • Ostinato- a repeated rhythmic or melodic accompaniment.
  • Composer- a person who writes music.
  • Conductor- a person who leads or directs the ensemble.
  • Pitch- how high or low the music sounds
  • Pitched- an instrument that has different sized components or has the ability to change its size so as to create different high and low sounds (woodwind, brass, and stringed instruments; some percussion- xylophone, timpani, steel drum, etc.)
  • Unpitched- an instrument that can only play one sound; it cannot go higher or lower to play a tune (most drums, cymbals, triangles, etc.)
  • Unpitched percussion can be classified into: membranes (drums), wood (wood blocks, keegee sticks), metal (triangle, tambourine, sleigh bells), and shakers (shakers and maracas)
  • Tempo- the speed of the music

HOW TO DEMONSTRATE PROPER BEHAVIOR IN A MUSIC CLASSROOM

  • Follow rules and expectations
  • Be polite
  • Work together
  • Take turns
  • Listen carefully to others and musical examples
  • Encourage each other
  • Follow safety rules and procedures for movement activities
  • Playing on instruments carefully and with the proper technique
  • Being careful with all classroom materials

Good Vocal Technique: good posture (what you do with your body to prepare- sitting up straight and tall or standing straight and tall), air support, clear tone (articulating words), maintaining the correct pitch

TYPES OF PATTERNS

ABC

AB

AABB

MELODY MOVEMENT

Trace the movement of the melody through the note heads.

SAME, UP, DOWN

DOWN, DOWN, UP

UP, DOWN, DOWN

SAME, SAME, UP

DETERMINING FORM

To determine the form of a piece of music, you need to compare each measure to each other. Look for any that are the same; label them with the same letter. The first measure is always going to be “A.”

ABAB

INSTRUMENTS

xylophone