ahsmusictechnology

Terms and Skills: Week 1-2

Page history last edited by John DiTomaso 13 years, 3 months ago

Music Tech Vocabulary Term	Definition	Additional Study
rhythm	A pattern of accented (strong) and unnaccented (weak) beats or subdivisions.
beat	the underlying basic pulse which is felt throughout the music (not always sounded or heard). Basic understanding includes ability to identify placement of downbeat and upbeat. A physiological analogy of downbeat/upbeat would be the beating of a heart, pumping (pulse, downbeat) and relaxing to refill again (upbeat, simple division between beats).
subdivision	Background fabric-grid of time. Like pixels on a screen, or notches on a clock's timewheel, the more subdivisions there are between downbeats, the more accurate, precise and refined the sense of time will be.
M.I.D.I.
Trigger
audio
wave - Waveform	all sound is wave energy - the shape of a wave determines its tambre (tone color), the length of a wave determines its frequency (pitch), the height and depth (amplitude) of a wave determines its volume (dynamics).
.wav, .mp3
workstation
tempo	rate of speed, measured in beats per minute (bpm), or sometimes indicated with more general terms in written music (largo - slow and drawn out, andante -walking tempo, allegro - quick with energy, vivace - quite fast and lively, etc.) Accelerando - to speed up, Rallentando - to slow down (also ritardando).
groove
pitch, register	pitch is the perceived highness or lowness of a sound, musically designated by specific note frequencies (Middle C, A 440, etc.) Register speaks to the general frequency range areas in music (High register, mid-range, Low register).
digital
dynamics	Variety and change of volume levels - very soft (pianissimo), medium soft (mezzo-piano), soft (piano), medium (mezzo-forte), loud (forte), very loud (fortissimo) and levels beyond or in-between. Crescendo -to get louder, diminuendo - to get softer.
articulation	Variety and change of note strength (velocity) and note length (full or abbreviated) affecting the resonance and tone quality of each note within a phrase. Simply put, *using accents and long vs. short durations to either stress or subdue notes in different ways.*
form (as in "song form")	structure and shape of a musical piece. Described by labelling the different parts in the order they occur or by giving a name to commonly used shapes. ABA, AABA, Intro-verse-chorus-bridge-coda, Rondo, Sonata form, canon, fugue etc.
syncopation	use of unexpected accents to energize the music
aleatoric	music in which random or chance operations are used to create the music; removing the composer's control of some fundamental elements of the composition. Usually characterized by a lack of recognizable patterns, though pattern fragments may occur in unexpected ways.

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