II-V-I

The most common resolving chord module in standards and jazz. A basic example would be in the key of C major using Triads : Dm G C.

Interval

An Interval is the distance between two notes. An interval has a name and a type. Intervals can be played as one note (melodic) or two notes (harmonic) at a time, ascending or descending. Simple and Compound Intervals are taken from a major scale. Chromatic intervals are NOT taken from a major scale. They are derived from the Diatonic intervals.

The distance part of an interval can be determined by counting the lines and space from the bottom note to the top note.

Imagination

The abstract source of musical ideas.

Internal Modulation

A term from used in harmonic analysis. It refers to a temporary key change without a key signature change. It implies the eventual return of the original key.

Ionian scale

A modal scale whose step pattern is 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1. This is the Major scale starting on the same root. By numbering each note of the scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 you can use the Major Scale for comparison and deriving other scales. One of the Six Essential Scales.

Just Intonation Tuning

Just Intonation (JT) or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. Just intervals (and chords created by combining them) consist of members of a single harmonic series of a (lower) implied fundamental.

Just Intonation creates smooth chords and melodies that are slightly out of tune.

The most common tuning in our Western Music is Equal Temperament which focuses on tuning to enhance melodies and chords are a bit out of tune.

Key

In music theory, the Key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of a music composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music.

Keys

A key signature is a summary of the sharps or flats in a Major or it's relative Natural Minor scale. This series of lessons covers ALL 15 major and relative minor keys with their primary and secondary chords as well as sample common chord progressions.

Key Signatures

A key signature is a summary of the sharps or flats in a Major or it's relative Natural Minor scale. This series of lessons covers ALL 15 major and relative minor keys with their primary and secondary chords as well as sample common chord progressions.

Lead Sheet

A Lead Sheet is a form of musical notation that specifies the essential elements of a popular song: the melody, lyrics, and harmony. The melody is written in modern Western music notation, the lyric is written as text below the staff and the harmony is specified with chord symbols above the staff.

The lead sheet does not describe the chord voicings, voice leading, bass line or other aspects of the accompaniment. These are specified later by an arranger or improvised by a performer or rhythm section, and are considered aspects of the arrangement or performance of a song, rather than a part of the song itself.

Commercially published and available Sheet music is a Lead Sheet.

Leading Tone

The Leading Tone refers to the seventh scale degree/note of a major scale a major seventh above the tonic.

A Leading-tone triad is a triad built on the seventh scale degree in a major key, while a leading-tone seventh chord is a seventh chord built on the seventh scale degree. This is a diminished triad or as a 4-part chord a half-diminished sevenths chords. This chord, although rare typically functions as a dominant chord in tonic dominant harmony.

Leap Recovery

A melodic device which suggests that a melody reverses its direction after a leap.

Leap

A melodic device in which the distance between two consecutive notes is 2 and 1/2 steps (perfect fourth) or more. Usually followed by a Leap Recovery with the next note in the opposite direction. Unless the leap was part of an arpeggio (chord tones).

Legato

In musical notation the Italian word legato (literally meaning "tied together") indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence. Legato technique is required for slurred performance, but unlike slurring (as that term is interpreted for some instruments), legato does not forbid re articulation. In standard notation legato is indicated either with the word legato itself, or by a slur (a curved line) under the notes that are to be joined in one legato group. Legato, like staccato, is a kind of articulation. There is an intermediate articulation called either mezzo staccato or non-legato.

Locrian scale

A modal scale whose step pattern is 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2. Based on a Major Scale the scale degrees are: 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8. Locrian is a diminished type scale.

Lydian Chromatic Concept

The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization is a 1953 jazz music theory book written by George Russell. The book is the founding text of the Lydian Chromatic Concept (LCC), or Lydian Chromatic Theory (LCT). Russell's work was that all music is based on the tonal gravity of the Lydian mode.

George Russel believed that the Dominant Function, V to I , Dominant to Tonic resolution was the driving force behind all harmonic motion in our western music. He also believed that the Lydian scale, which can be build by on a Tonic by stacking perfect fifths. C G D A E B F♯ * G♯(A♭) E♭(D♯), B♭(A#), F, and D♭(C#). *The C♯(D♭) was George's comprise by moving this note out of the sequence to the end of the his sequence

George Russell's theory was a big influence on modal jazz. Think the best selling Miles Davis Kind of Blue album — the best selling jazz album of all-time. It had a big influence on John Coltrane.

Interval-wise have (based on the major scale): 1 5 2 3 7 ♯4 (lydian) * ♭6 ♭3 ♮7 ♮4. This is arranged the order of tonal gravity according to the tonic.

This concept allowed jazz musician to break out of the, mainly chord tone, set chord approach to soloing before the 1950s. Ushering in a the Modern Jazz era.

The Lydian Scale is a great second choice scale for situations where the Major scale is the first choices. The ♯4 is actually less dissonant the the Perfect Fourth.

Lydian Scale

A modal scale whose step pattern is 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1. Based on a Major Scale the scale degrees are: 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8. Lydian is a major type scale

Major scale

A diatonic scale whose step pattern is 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1. By numbering each note of the scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 you can use the major scale for comparison and deriving other scales.

Major 7 (maj7)

A 4 part chord consisting of 1 3 5 7 of a Major Scale . One of the foundation chords of the Core Jazz Chords – The Big Six

Major Chord

A triad consisting of 1 3 5 of a Major Scale .

Mediant

The third note of a Diatonic scale.

Melodic Contour

A graphic representation of a melody created by connecting the successive notes of a melody with a line.

Melodic Minor Scale

The Melodic Minor scale is the same as the natural minor with the exception that the sixth and seventh tones are raised by a semitone (half step) when the scale is ascending. While some composers, notably Mozart, have used this interval to advantage in melodic composition, other composers, having felt it to be an awkward leap, particularly in vocal music, considered a whole step between these two scale degrees more conducive to smooth melody writing, so either the sixth scale degree was raised or the seventh flattened.

Meter

Repeated pattern of strong and week beats. Strongly suggesting a repeated pattern of pulses .

Minor Pentatonic Scale

A Pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale. A Minor Pentatonic scale is a 1 b3 4 5 b7 8 of a Major Scale or a 1 3 4 5 7 8 of Aeolian or Dorian/ scales .

Minor 6 (m6)

A 4 part chord consisting of 1 b3 5 6 of a Major Scale .

Minor 7 (m7)

A 4 part chord consisting of 1 b3 5 b7 of a Major Scale . One of the foundation chords of the Core Jazz Chords – The Big Six

Minor Chord

A triad consisting of 1 b3 5 of a Major Scale .

Minor Large 7 (m^L7)

A 4 part chord consisting of 1 b3 5 7 of a Major Scale . The L stands for Large or Major Seventh. One of the foundation chords of the Core Jazz Chords – The Big Six

Mixolydian Scale

A modal scale whose step pattern is 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2. Based on a Major Scale the scale degrees are: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8. Mixolydian is a major type scale. Notice there is only a one note, scale degree difference between the Major/Ionian and Mixolydian/Dominant scales. You can reuse alot of the work you might have already done with the major scale and simply flat the seventh.

Modes

A mode is a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic behaviors. Musical modes have been a part of western musical thought since the Middle Ages, and were inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music. the modern modes are: Dorian , Phrygian , Lydian , Mixolydian , Aeolian , and Ionian .

Modal Interchange

Modal Interchange (Modal Mixture, Borrowed Chords) is temporarily borrowing chords from a parallel tonality or mode that shares the same root. These borrowed chords originate from the major or minor parallel modes, including their respective harmonic and melodic minor, as well as symmetrical scales sharing the same root. You can borrow from any parallel scale or mode.

It typically is support of a melody.

These chords are brief enough to no imply a modulation to a different key. These modal interchanges are different from Secondary Dominant chords.

The original key should be clearly established before using these chords, and not enough to create a modulation to the borrowed tonality/key.

A few famous examples are: A Day In The Life (The Beatles) ( D Dm ), Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day) ( C Cm ), Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye (by Cole Porter) ( IV IVm ). Light My Fire (The Doors) Am F♯m

Modular

Any concept that can be broken down into small units. Modular is a self-contained unit or item, as of furniture, that can be combined or interchanged with others like it to create different shapes or designs. In music this is how the Modular Phonetic Rhythm by Chuck Anderson is applies.

Modular Phonetic Rhythm

A system of learning rhythm developed by Chuck Anderson.

Modulation

A change of tonal center. A modulation can be supen, prepared, a temporary modulation or an actual modulation.

Mono

One.

Mono Song Form

A songwriting form with one musical theme. It usually has multiple verses of lyrics. The 12 bar blues is the most famous mono theme form.

Movable Chords

Sometimes called barre (Old English spelling) chords, these chords venture beyond the third fret.

Motif

In music, a motif (also motive) is a short musical phrase, a recurring figure, musical fragment, or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition/song: The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity.

Non-Harmonic Tones

Harmonic Tones are the chord tones: the roots, thirds, fifths, etc. of a chord.

These Non-harmonic Tones are the non-chord tones that add the emotional qualities that take music places.

Non-harmonic tones can be active, passive, dissonant or, constant depending on context.

The Rhythmic Placement is one of distinction of the various non-harmonic tones. Accented and Unaccented — Accented is on the beat and unaccented is off the beat. On the beat is naturally stronger and off the beat is not and can often go unnoticed.

Common unaccented non-harmonic tones are the unaccented (off-beat) passing tone, unaccented neighboring tone, escape tone, and anticipation

• Passing Tone (PT): [step]
• Neighboring Tone (PT): [step]
• Escape Tone (ET) [step, skip]: Occurs on unaccented non-harmonic tones.
• Appoggiatura (APP) [skip, step]:
• Suspension(SUS) [common tone, step]:
• Retardation(RE)) [common tone, step]:
• Anticipation(ANC) [step, common tone]:

Neapolitan Sixth

A Neapolitan 6th chord is a major chord built on the lowered second scale degree, a flatted Supertonic chord. Can be notated as a bII. (see tritone )

These are the common Neapolitan Sixths chords: Neapolitan Sixth, Italian Neapolitan Sixth (, French Neapolitan Sixth, German Neapolitan Sixth, and Double-Diminished Neapolitan Sixth.

Neapolitan Sixth: Standard ♭II chord in first inversion, without augmented sixth. Italian, French, and German Neapolitan Sixths: Combine the ♭II Neapolitan chord with the distinctive intervals of their respective augmented sixth types.

Each of these chords serves as a powerful pre-dominant, leading to a resolution that drives the music toward the dominant and, ultimately, the tonic.

Neighbor Tone (NT)

A Neighbor Tone (NT) or Auxiliary Note (AUX) is a non harmonic tone one scale step above or below another tone that return to the first tone.

Non Chord Tone

A melodic note not contained within the current chord.

Notation

Any written language used to communicate musical concepts. TAB or tablature is a form of music notation typically used by guitar players.

Octave

The distance of eight consecutive Diatonic scale tones. The eighth note of a scale or the chord built on that note.

To distinguish one pitch of the same letter from the same lower or higher pitch with the same letter (note name). A number cab be used to indicate the octave. Middle C is C4. Lower and higher octave get the number of that octave (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). Theoretically it can go lower or higher. The 0..8 is the ranges of the piano.

Open Position

Open Position typically refers to the open strings, frets one, tho, three and four on a fretted string instrument such as the Ukulele. You here the term used when referring to basic chords, i.e.: An Open Position C Chord.

Ornament

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes—typically, added notes—that are not essential to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line (or harmony), provide added interest and variety, and give the performer the opportunity to add expressiveness to a song or piece. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central, main note. (from Wikipedia)

Types of ornaments/embellishments include: Trill, Mordent, Turn, Appoggiatura , Acciaccatura, Glissando, and Slide.

Overtone Series

A Harmonic Series or Overtone Series is the sequence of frequencies, musical tones, or pure tones in which each frequency is an integer multiple of a fundamental. See the Wikipedia: Harmonic series (music) listing for too much information on this.

Here is the Overtone Series for a C notes as the fundamental: C C` G E G Bb C` D E Gb G Ab Bb B C` C# D ... In intervalic relationship to the Root or fundamental: Root Octave Fifth(+2) Octave Third(-14) Fifth(+2) Flat Seven(-31) and then an Octave again and is goes up the chromatic scale.

Notes in the overtone series vibrate in perfect harmony with the fundamental note. But, are slightly out of tune or off of by the number of cents or difference from Equal Temperament , rounded up or down indicated by the plus (+) and minus(-) number indicated. These between notes are the notes of the common major and minor scales. This allows chord to sound very smooth. However you would have to return you instrument for every new key or modulation.

Parallel Fifth

Parallel Fifths, or Consecutive Fifths are simply an interval of a Perfect Fifth. In the traditional "Common Practice Period" of classical music the parallel fifth was frowned upon. Though used in, and evocative of, various kinds of popular, folk, and medieval music, parallel motion in perfect consonances (P1, P5, P8) is strictly forbipen in species counterpoint instruction (1725–present) and during the common practice period, consecutive fifths were strongly discouraged. This was primarily due to the notion of voice leading in tonal music, in which, "one of the basic goals...is to maintain the relative independence of the individual parts." The perfect intervals (the 4th, 5th and octave) sound 'pure'.

Passing Tone

A Passing Tone (PT) is a scale tone on a weak or upbeat, off-beat, not stressed, that connects two chord tones step-wise by seconds, ascending or descending. A passing tone sits between two chord tones.

Passive Chords

Chords that resolve harmonic tension Typically, the I, II and VI chords of a diatonic key.

Pentatonic

As in reference to a scale, a Pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).

Phyrgian scale

A modal scale whose step pattern is 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2.

Based on a Major Scale it's the scale degrees are: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8.

A Natural Minor / Aeolian with a flat second (b2).

A few songs based on or using the Phrygian scale/mode: Misirlou, Whenever I May Roam, Humble. (from David Bennett Piano )

The Phrygian Mode would have the primary chords of the scale. Songs that are in Phrygian or use elements of the Phrygian sound: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun by Pink Floyd, London Calling by The Clash

Phrase

A phrase is a musical thought which typically ends with a cadence. These phrase are created as an interaction to melody, harmony, and rhythm of the music.

A phrase can be pre-planned or improvised on the spot.

Picardy Third

A Picardy Third (also known as Tierce de Picardie) is a harmonic device. It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key. Basically the expected minor resolution is major instead. A common Jazz harmonization.

The Beatles I'll Be Back, in minor key with each verse ending on a major chord ... and I love here.

Pickup Measure

A Pick Up measure. An incomplete measure, based on the time signature, of music a the beginning of a songs or piece of music. A pickup measure is a for of Anacrusis .

Pitch

Pitch is the lowness or highness of a tone, for example the difference between middle C and a higher C. The frequency of the sound waves producing a pitch can be measured precisely, but the perception of pitch is more complex because single notes from natural sources are usually a complex mix of many frequencies.

Pivot Chord

A single chord which is the final chord of one tonal center and is simultaneously the first chord of another tonal center. Serves a double function connecting two tonal centers.

Power 5

A chord consisting of only roots and perfect fifths. Technically not a chord by the standard chord definition.

Production

All related activities of coordinating the process of recording music, video or putting on a concert or show.

Pulse

This pulse is typically what listeners respond to as they tap their foot or dance along with a piece of music. Even someone not trained in music, can generally sense the pulse and may respond by tapping a foot or clapping. The pulse may be audible or implied. The pulse is not necessarily the fastest or the slowest component of the rhythm, but the one that is perceived as basic.

Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend, but he appears to have been the son of Mnesarchus, a gem-engraver on the island of Samos.

In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five regular solids, the Theory of Proportions, the sphericity of the Earth, and the identity of the morning and evening stars as the planet Venus. It was said that he was the first man to call hims the first to divide the globe into five climatic zones.

Pythagorean Interval

In musical tuning theory, a Pythagorean interval is a musical interval with frequency ratio equal to a power of two divided by a power of three, or vice versa. For instance, the perfect fifth with ratio 3/2 (equivalent to 31/ 21) and the perfect fourth with ratio 4/3 (equivalent to 22/ 31) are Pythagorean intervals.

This is the basis for our Western music

Pythagorean Tuning

is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2. This ratio, also known as the pure perfect fifth, is chosen because it is one of the most consonant and easiest to tune by ear and because of importance attributed to the integer 3. As Novalis put it, The musical proportions seem to me to be particularly correct natural proportions.

Quaver

Needed an entry for Q — so went with the British term for a quarter note.

An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note ( crotchet ) and twice that of the sixteenth note ( semiquaver ), which amounts to one quarter the duration of a half note ( minim ), one eighth the duration of whole note ( semibreve ), one sixteenth the duration of a double whole note ( breve ), and one thirty-second the duration of a longa, hence the name.

Quartal Harmony

Quartal Harmony is the building of harmonic structures built from the intervals of the perfect fourth, the augmented fourth and the diminished fourth. For instance, a three-note quartal chord on C can be built by stacking perfect fourths, C–F–B♭.

Quintal Harmony

Quintal Harmony is harmonic structure preferring the perfect fifth, the augmented fifth and the diminished fifth. For instance, a three-note quintal chord on C can be built by stacking perfect fifths, C–G–D.

Real Book

The Real Book may refer to a number of compilations of lead sheets for jazz standards . It usually refers to the first volume of a series of books transcribed and collated by Berklee College of Music students during the 1970s.

Originally sold illegally, In 2004, music publisher Hal Leonard obtained the rights to most of the tunes contained in the original Real Book and published the first legal edition, calling it the Real Book Sixth Edition in tacit acknowledgment of the five previous illegal versions.

Several of these are available right here on LearningUkulele.com Books

Range

The high and low note of a piece of music. The high and low notes of a melody or a melodic phrase.

Reentrant tuning

A re-entrant tuning is a tuning of a stringed instrument where the strings (or more properly the courses on coursed instruments) are not ordered from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch (or vice versa). A break in an otherwise ascending (or descending) order of string pitches is known as a reentry. Most common re-entrant tunings have only one reentry; In the case of the soprano ukulele, for example, the reentry is between the third and fourth strings, while in the case of the Venezuelan cuatro it is between the first and second strings.

Rehearsal Marks

These are the boxed letter scattered through a piece of music. Used to navigate to specific sections during rehearsal.

This allows the person running the rehearsal to to give verbal directions such as Take from the C section.. or, A section, second ending.

Also a way of remembering the form of the song. AABA is a very common form.

Re-harmonization

A musical effect created by retaining the original melody while rewriting the original chord progression.

Relative Minor

The minor key, chord or scale based on the sixth degree of any Major Scale .

Repetition

The reuse of an identical melody, phrase, chord progression or rhythm.

Replacement Substitution

The use of a different chord instead of the original chord.

Rhythm

Rhythm is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular Pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted or felt as a single beat.

By Dbolton - Own work after User:Hyacinth's w:Image:Metric levels.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Rubato

"Free in the presentation", literally Italian for '"stolen time"' is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor. Rubato is an expressive shaping of music that is a part of phrasing.

One can distinguish two types of rubato: in one the tempo of the melody is flexible, while the accompaniment is kept in typical regular pulse (yet not rigidly in mechanical fashion; but adjusting to the melody as necessary—see below). Another type affects melody and accompaniment. While it is often associated with music of the Romantic Period, classical performers frequently use rubato for emotional expressiveness in all kinds of works.

Scale

As a sequence of musical notes, collection of pitches in ascending (UP) and descending (DOWN) order. Most commonly, the notes of a scale will belong to a single Key or Tonality , used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony.

Scale Degree

In music theory, scale degree refers to the position of a particular note in a scale relative to the tonic, the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees, 1 2 3 4 etc are useful for indicating the size of intervals and chords, and whether they are major or minor. Examples would include major second (M2), perfect fourth (P4), minor third (m3), diminished fifth (dim5), augmented fifth (aug5).

Scale Degree Names

• 1st, Tonic — Tonal center and the resolution tone. In the movable do solfège system, the tonic note is sung as do. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 2nd, Supertonic — One scale step (whole step) above ) the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as re. more info available on Wikipedia
• 3rd, Mediant — Midway between the tonic and the dominant. In the movable do solfège system, the mediant note is sung as mi. While the fifth scale degree is almost always a perfect fifth, the mediant can be a major or minor third. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 4th, Suddominant • The same distance below the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic – in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. Also the note one step below the dominant.[4] In the movable do solfège system, the subdominant note is sung as fa. A subdominant chord followed by a tonic chord produces the plagal cadence. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 5th, Dominant & The second in command in the scale to the tonic. Creates the most tensions and demands resolution to the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the dominant note is sung as "So(l)". In music theory, the dominant triad is a major chord, symbolized by the Roman numeral "V" in the major scale. In the natural minor scale, the triad is a minor chord, denoted by "v". In a minor key, the seventh scale degree is raised by a half step (♭ scale degree 7 to ♮ scale degree 7), creating a major chord. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 6th, Submediant — The lower mediant, halfway between the tonic and lowed subdominant. A third down from the tonic and a sixth up from the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the submediant is sung as la in a major mode and fa in a minor mode. It is occasionally called superdominant,[3] as the degree above the dominant. This is its normal name (sus-dominante) in French. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 7th, Leading Tone — Leads melodically to the tonic. A half step below the tonic • One of the most important scale degrees of a major tonality. In the movable do solfège system, the leading-tone is sung as ti. (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia
• 7th, Subtonic — Used to designate the seventh scale degree in the Natural Minor scale (a whole step below the tonic). The subtonic can be contrasted with the leading note, which is a half step below the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the subtonic note is sung as te (or ta). (wikiwand) · more info available on Wikipedia

Secondary Dominant

Basically a Secondary Dominant is a seventh function as a dominant, and not the main dominant of the tonality which resolves to a temporary tonic chord that is part of the original key, a Full Diatonic chord to the key.

Secundal Harmony

Secundal is the quality of a chord made from seconds, and anything related to things constructed from seconds such as counterpoint.

Semitone

A semitone, also called a Half Step or a Half Tone , is the smallest musical Interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. Think Jaws, Twilight Zone or any secret agent inspired theme.

Sequence

The repetition of musical phrase at different pitch level. A melodic device that uses parallel melodies starting on consecutive scale degrees.

Seventh (7)

A chord designation for a 4 part chord consisting of 1 3 5 b7. Often refereed to as a Dominant Seventh chord. One of the foundation chords of the Core Jazz Chords – The Big Six

Sharp

Sixth (6th)

In modern popular music, a sixth chord is any triad with an added sixth above the root as a chord. In classical music is is still called and added sixth chord. A common A chord designation for a 4 part chord consisting of 1 3 5 6.

When a sixths is added to a minor triad it is called a minor sixth and less commonly a minor major sixth.

In 4-part harmony, Jazz, more often that not the m6 chord is often misnamed and is really function as a II chord, a m7b5 as part of a II V in a minor key. An example would be D9 in the key of E minor followed by a B7. In reality is is a F#m7b5 B7 to either Em or can be part of a Picardy Third.

Slash-Chord

A Slash Chord, Chord Name / Bass Note is where the lowest note of the chord is indicated after the slash (/). This can be ANY note. The piano, guitar and bass or capable of playing the indicate voicing as they actually a a wide range of bass note on their instrument. The bass only has to play the note indicated. For ukulele players you can get this with a triad and the note after the slash as the lowest note in the chord. It is typically used to create chromatic and diatonic movement in the bass voicing of the chord and how it is function harmonically.

A Slash Chord is not any chord played by this guy ->.

Saul Hudson (born July 23, 1965), better known as Slash, is a British-American guitarist who is best known as the lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Slash has received critical acclaim and is considered one of the greatest guitarists in history.

Solfege

A system of melodic organization that uses syllables (DO RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO) to designate pitches. Two common systems are Moveable-DO Solfege and Fixed-DO Solfege.

Song

The basic product of the music industry. A song consists of four elements: 1) title 2) melody 3) chords 4) lyrics (if vocal).

Staccato

Staccato (Italian for detached) is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence.

Staff

A Staff consists of five horizontal, equally spaced lines.

Steps

In the Diatonic Scale, a step is either a minor second (also called a half step) or a major second (also called whole step), with all Intervals of a minor third or larger being skips. For example, C to D (major second) is a step, whereas C to E (major third) is a skip.

In the major scale or any of its modes, a step will always be a movement of 1 or 2 semitones.

Stress Tone

A series of techniques used to bring attention to a specific. Stress can be applied to a note in the following ways: begin on it, end on it, sustain it, accent it, overplay it, place it on a down beat, embellish it.

Strum

A Strum is the execution of a specific rhythmic pattern, in tempo, in a particular style. Rhythm are in-separately linked to strums. Using the Modular Phonetic Rhythm System developed by Chuck Anderson this series of lessons start with the core four strums all ukulele players use and throughly digs in to the many variations possible.

Subdivisions

A note can be subdivied into any number of equal parts. 2,3,4,5,6,7,…

Subdominant

The fourth note of a Diatonic scale or the chord built on that note. It is the same intervalic distance below the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. The triad built on the subdominant note is called the subdominant chord.

Submediant

The sixth note of a Diatonic scale or the chord built on that note. The mediant is the third note is a scale. Also, called the lower mediant as it is halfway between the tonic and subdominant.

Supertonic

The second note of a Diatonic scale or the chord built on that note.

Suspended, Suspension, sus

A suspended chord (or sus chord) is a musical chord in which the (major or minor) third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or, less commonly, a major second.

The above definition, from Wikipedia, I believe really misses the traditional and historic use of a suspension where you are delaying the inherent tendency of the perfect fourth to resolve to a major third. Transitionally, this resolution almost always happened (downward) fourth the third. It is only in modern times that the resolution doesn't happen. There is no resolution of a Major Second to a third. So, the modern, common sus2 chord where the third is omitted, and a major second is added. This is really just a DYAD of a Root and Perfect Fifth with an added second. e.g., C5add2.

However, when new terms and chord names are introduced that are not based on the principles of Music, i.e., Music Theory. We, still, need to know how to identify what they are really going for. Bottom-line, Wikipedia has to be taken with a Grain of Salt .

Sustain

To let a note ring out.

Symmetry

Balance in music.

Symbols

Musical Symbols are marks and symbols used since about the 13th century in musical notation of musical scores. Some are used to notate pitch, tempo, metre, duration and articulation of a note or a passage of music. In some cases, symbols provide information about the form of a piece (e.g., how many repeats of a section) or about how to play the note (e.g., with violin family instruments, a note may be bowed or plucked). Some symbols are instrument-specific notation giving the performer information about which finger, hand or foot to use. For a big list see the Wikipida page: List of musical symbols

Technique

Technique is the physical control and coordination needed to play an instrument or sing. It involves position, efficiency of motion and effort, as well as exercises to develop specific physical skills.

Right behind the fret and less effort required!!!.

Too far from the fret - TOO much effort required.

Tempo

The tempo of the piece of music is the speed of the Pulse . If a pulse becomes too fast – the tempo – it would become a drone; one that is too slow would be perceived as unconnected sounds.

Tension/Resolution

Tension is created melodically, harmonically or rhythmically. Each element seeks a resting point. That resting point is the resolution.

Tertiary Form

A song writing form using three themes.

Tertiary Harmony

Tertian (Latin: tertianus, of or concerning thirds) • Tertian Harmony (also called tertiary harmony) principally uses chords based on thirds; the term is typically used to contrast with quartal and quintal harmony which uses chords based on fourths or fifths.

Tetrachord

Traditionally, a tetrachord (Greek: τετράχορδo) is a series of three smaller intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. ( more info on Wikipedia )

Theory

The established principle of how music works.

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan; a plaque (see below) on the sidewalk on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth commemorates it.

The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan. The end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph, radio, and motion pictures supplanted sheet music as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into the 1950s when earlier styles of music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll, which was centered on the Brill Building. Brill Building songwriter Neil Sedaka described his employer as being a natural outgrowth of Tin Pan Alley, in that the older songwriters were still employed in Tin Pan Alley firms while younger songwriters such as Sedaka found work at the Brill Building. (wikiwand) ·

Timbre

Sometimes called "color", or "tone color," allows us to distinguish one instrument from another when both play at the same pitch and volume, a quality of a voice or instrument often described in terms like bright, dull, shrill, etc.

Tonic

In music, the tonic is the first Scale Degree (scale degree 1) of the Diatonic Scale (the first note of a scale) and the tonal center or final resolution tone that is commonly used in the final cadence in tonal (musical key-based) classical music, popular music, and traditional music.

Tonality

Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and chords in a musical work in a hierarchy of relationships, stability, attraction, and directionality.

A central tone, a.k.a. the note to which other tones relate and establish a tonality or identity, Tonality is implied through harmonic articulation, through tensions and release, or a base chord.

A Chord in isolation, can belong to many keys or no keys. When used in chord progressions with other chords, it can only belong to the tonality or key. A chord's harmonic function determines its name.

Tonality is established using tones of a scale as chord roots in varying degrees supporting a central tonic. The main support for a tonic is the Dominant Subdominant of a key in balanced support by the mediant and sub mediant chords.

Tonic Minor

The minor key, chord or scale based on the root of any Major Scale .

Tremolo

In music, Tremolo, is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. A rapid reiteration of a single note, particularly used on bowed string instruments, by rapidly moving the bow back and forth; plucked strings such as on a harp, and tremolo picking, in which a single note is repeated extremely rapidly with a plectrum (or "pick") on traditionally plucked string instruments such as guitar (although a pick is not necessary to execute a tremolo), mandolin, ukulele, etc. Tremolo picking sustains sound for a longer span. The second is using electronic effects in guitar amplifiers and effects pedals which rapidly turn the volume of a signal up and down, creating a "shuddering" effect. A vocal technique involving a wide or slow vibrato.

Triad

A triad, 'tri' meaning three, is a three note Chord . In music, a triad is traditionally a set of three notes that can be stacked in thirds.

When stacked in thirds, the triad's members, from lowest pitched tone to highest, are called: the root, the third, the fifth – its interval above the root being a minor third (three semitones) or a major third (four semitones) and the fifth – its interval above the third being a minor third or a major third, hence its interval above the root being a diminished fifth (six semitones), perfect fifth (seven semitones), or augmented fifth (eight semitones).

Tritone

The best explanation of the Tritone comes from Adam Neeley in his video - The Devil in music (an untold history of the Tritone) .

From Vincent Persichetti's book, 20th Century Harmony (great book - Buy it) regarding the tritone "(The Tri-tone) sounds primarily neutral in Chromatic passage and restless in Diatonic passages."

The Tritone is part of the Minor Third Substitution Principle .

Tunings

Equal Temperament and Just Intonation are two tuning systems you will run across regarding instrument and tuning systems. The Ukulele uses Equal Temperament where all intervals, regardless of the key are an equal distance from its fundamental note, the tonic.

All tuning system have everything to do with the Harmonic Overtone Series of notes. Overtone Series.

Turnaround

A Turnaround is a passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section. This next section is most often the repetition of the previous section or the entire piece or song. Typically a harmonic chord progression leading to the first chord of the next section or melodic. In Jazz is is mostlikely soms sort of V or II V leading to that first chord.

Upper Partials

A term that refers to the extended / upper partial chord tones of a chord. The 9th, 11th and 13th of chords. These are Extensions to the fundamental 4-part chords, often called Jazz chords.

Unresolved

A harmonic principle using a temporary implied key change with an eventual return the the original key. The unresolved progression uses active chords only.

Virtuoso • Virtuosity

A neuromuscular skill that has to be acquired. All new reflexes have to be learned. No one is born with a virtuoso technique. It's helpful to have a good teacher who can play their instrument well and show you how to do things correctly. This will help you avoid bad habits that can hurt your joints, make your music sound bad, or are difficult to get rid of once they become habitual.

Tonic Dominant Harmony • V to I

The strongest resolving progression in western, tonic-dominant music.

Voice Leading

Voice Leading is a musical technique to smoothly connect chords. It is based on common and non-common tone location.

Walking Bass

The bass player plays on all four (4) beats in a bar, not just the 1st and 3rd.

Whole Tone

A major second. This is a musical interval spanning two semitones, and encompassing two adjacent staff positions. For example, the interval from C to D is a major second or whole tone apart, as the note D lies two semitones above C, and the two notes are notated on adjacent staff positions.

Whole Tone Scale

A symmetrical scale with each interval a major second apart. There are only two whole tone scales. The scale step pattern is 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Why DO I Need All of This Theory?

Music Theory is the established facts and principles of music you can use to explore your instrument and music in general.

Don't confuse Theory with Conjecture , Conjecture is the Opinion or judgment based on inconclusive or incomplete evidence; guesswork. (wordnik.com)

• The more music knowledge you have the more FUN you;ll have.
• The better you get the better the musician you can ply with and Funnerif gets.
• The Funner if get the more you'll want to learn and the better music you'll become attracting even better musicians and the more Fun you'll have..

Xylophone

Just like Q I didn't have an entry for X - So I went with Xylophone - a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets.

Yellow Book

The Yellow Book —The Yellow Book is the what The Daily Ukulele, 365 Songs for Better Living book by Jim Beloff book is affectionally called. This book is used by a large majority of ukulele groups for the jam sessions and sing-alongs.

You

You — Yes! You. You are reading this so you now have an entry in the LearningUkulele.com glossary of music terms.

Now, get to work on your instrument and music.

Zither

For years, just like Q and X didn't have entries (the do now). I finally went with Zither for the letter Z — The word Zither is a German rendering of the Greek word cithara, from which the modern word "guitar" also derives.

Zombie Chords

The first open position chords most players learn on guitar, ukulele, banjo, mandolin,...

Checkout this video on Open Chords = Zombie Chords? How to Ruin Your Guitar Covers . Applies to the Ukulele as well.

Open Position chords and the same famous strums = Zombie Chords and bland covers. All for te sake of simplicity which in turn typically ruins the song.

Enjoy, Explore, and Learn!