Glossary of music terminology

The list can never be complete: some terms are common, and others are used only occasionally, and new ones are coined from time to time. Some composers prefer terms from their own language rather than the standard terms here. For a list of terms used in jazz, country, rock, and other popular music genres, see the Glossary of jazz and popular musical terms.

This list needs to be organized accordingly

B

BACH motif – Back beat – Ballet – Band (music) – Bar (music) – Baroque music – Bass – Bass run – Bassline – Basso – Basso continuo – Beat (music) – Beatmatching – Bel canto – Binary form – Blue note – Blues – Blues ballad – Bohlen–Pierce scale – Boogie woogie – Brahmanada – Braille music – Break (music) – Bridge (music) – British opera D

Da capo – Da capo aria – Dance – Dance and music of Latin America – Definite pitch – Definition of music – Deutsch's scale illusion – Diapason – Diapente – Diatessaron – Diatonic functionality – Diatonic scale – Diesis – Diminished scale – Diminished seventh chord – Diminished triad – Diminution – Dissonance – DJ mix – Dominant – Drone – DSCH – Dubreq Stylophone – Duet – Duple – Dynamics

H

Harmonic – Harmonic accompaniment – Harmonic series (music) – Harmony – Hammond organ – Hearing (sense) – Hemiola – Hexachord – Hornbostel-Sachs – Hymn – Hip hop I

Improvisation – Indefinite pitch – Indeterminacy in music – Indian Classical Music – Inharmonic – Instrumentation (music) – Interactive music – Interval (music) – Interval class – Intonation – Intuitive music – Inversion (music) – Irrational rhythm – Isorhythm – Industrial (music) J

Jazz – Jazz standards – Just intonation K

Key (music) – Key signature L

L'istesso – Largo – Larghetto – Leading-tone – Learning music by ear – Legato – Leitmotif – Ligature – Limit (music) – Linear – List of major chord shapes for guitar – List of most sad English songs; List of popular music terms – Lubbock Sound M

Madrigal – Major chord – Major second – Major scale – Major seventh – Major sixth – Major third – Maqam – Mariachi Mathematics of the Western music scale – Meantone temperament – Measure – Melody – Metre (music) – Metronome – Mezzo-soprano – Micropolyphony – Microtonal music – Microtone – Minor chord – Minor second – Minor scale – Minor seventh – Minor sixth – Minor third – Missing fundamental – Mix tape – Mixing – Modern musical symbols – Modulation (music) – Monophony – Motet – Motif (music) – Mouthpiece (brass) – Mouthpiece (woodwind) – Music – Music and politics – Music critic – Music genre – Music history – Music journalist – Music school – Music technology – Music theory – Musical acoustics – Musical composition – Musical ensemble – Musical form – Musical instrument – Musical keyboard – Musical mode – Musical notation – Musical ornament – Musical piece – Musical terminology – Musical tuning – Musician – Musicology – Mute (music) N

New interfaces for musical expression – Nonchord tone – Note – Novelty song – Number – Number opera – Numerical sight-singing O

Octave – Octave illusion – Opera – Operetta – Oratorio – Orchestra – Orchestration – Organ – Organology – Ornament – Ostinato – Overtone P

Pastance – Parallel minor/major – Passacaglia – Passion music – Patriotic song – Pensato – Pentatonic scale – Perfect fourth – Perfect fifth – Period (music) – Phonograph – Phrase (music) – Physics of music – Piano – Picardy third – Pipe band – Piston valve – Pitch (music) – Pitch space – Pizzicato – Plainsong – Polyphony – Polyrhythm – Polytonality – Pop music – Power chord – Precompositional – Presto – Pro Tools – Protest song – Pseudo-octave – Psychoacoustics – Pulse – Pythagorean comma – Pythagorean tuning Q

Quartal and quintal harmony – Quodlibet R

Rabindrasangeet – Radio Luxembourg[disambiguation needed] – Raga – Raggamuffin music – Range (music) – Reason (program) – Recitative – Record label – Recording industry – Reggae – Register (music) – Relative minor/major – Relative pitch – Relaxation – Remix – Resolution (music) – Resonance – Rhapsody (music) – Rhythm – Rhythmic gesture – Rhythmic unit – Riddim – Riff – Rock music – Roland Corporation – Rosegarden – Rotary valve – Round (music) S

Sampling (music) – Sargam – Scale (music) – Scratching – Second (music) – Secondary dominant – Secundal – Segue (music) – Serial music – Sequence (music) – Seventh – Shape note – Sheet music – Shepard tone – Sibelius notation program – Singing school – Single (music) – Sight reading – Simple meter – Simultaneity – Simultaneity succession – Sixth – Solo (music) – Solfege – Sonata form – Sonata (music) – Song – Soprano – Soul music – Sound – Sound quality – Sound recording – Sound sculpture – Sound system – Stab (music) – Staccato – Steps and skips – Staff – Step – Stochastic – Strähle's construction – String resonance (music) – Subdominant – Substitute dominant – Suite – Suzuki method – Suspension (music) – Swung note – Symmetry – Sympathetic strings – Symphony – Syncopation – Synthesizer – Syntonic comma T

Tablature – Temperament – Tempo – Tenor – Tension – Ternary form – Tertian – Tertium major – Tertium minor – Tetrachord – Theatre music – Third – Tie (music) – Timbre – Time signature – Time unit box system – Tone cluster – Tone row – Tonic (music) – Tonicization – Tonic Sol-fa – Total chromatic – Transposing instrument – Transposition (music) – Tremolo – Triad (music) – Trill – Triplet – Tritone – Tuning – Tuplet – Tutti – Twelve-tone technique U

Unison V

Verse – Vertical – Vibrato – Video game music – Vienna horn – Vocal music – Voice registers W

Wah-wah – Wolf interval X

Xenharmonic Y

Yamaha

   Beat (acoustics)
   Formant
   Fundamental frequency
   Frequency spectrum
       Harmonic spectrum
   Harmonic
       Harmonic series
       Inharmonicity
   Overtone
   Acoustic resonance
   Subharmonic
       Undertone series

#

• 3D audio effect:

A

• A cappella
• Absolute pitch
• Accidental
• Accompaniment

Ad libitum Adagio Added tone chord Additive rhythm Album Aleatoric music Allegro Alto Ambiguity American Music Awards Antiphon Arrangement Articulation Aspects of music Atonality Auditory illusion Authentic performance Augmentation Augmented chord

• Ableton
• Attenuation distortion:
• Audio feedback:
• Audio filter:
• Audio mastering:
• Audio mixing:
• Automatic double tracking:

B

• Bitcrusher:

C

• Cadence (music)
• Cadenza
• Call and response (music)
• Calypso music
• Canon (music)
• Cantillation
• Caribbean Hot 30
• Castrato
• Cent (music)
• Chaconne
• Chamber music
• Child singer
• Chicano punk
• Choir
• Chorale
• Chord (music)
• Chord progression
• Chromatic chord
• Chromatic fantasia
• Chromatic genus
• Chromatic scale
• Cimbasso
• Circle of fifths
• Clapping
• Clef
• Close harmony
• Coda
• Combination tone
• Compound metre
• Composer
• Conductor (music)
• Concert band
• Conclusion (music)
• Consonance
• Counterpoint
• Cover version
• Cubase D
• Chorus effect:
• Convolution reverb:
• Critical distance:

D

• Delay (audio effect):
• Diffusion (acoustics):
• Distortion (music):
• Ducking:

E

• Ear training
• Echo machine:
• Effects loop:
• Electronic music
• Equalization:
• Equal temperament
• Enharmonic
• Ethnomusicology
• Exciter (effect):
• Exposition

F

• Falsetto
• Feedback
• Fifth
• Filk music
• Finale notation program
• Figured bass
• Film score
• Flanging
• Flatted fifth
• FL Studio
• Folk music
• Forte
• Fourth
• Frequency
• Fugue

G

• Garageband
• Gamelan
• Gebrauchsmusik
• Genre
• Ghost note
• Glissando
• GNU LilyPond
• Grace note
• Groove
• Gain:
• Gated reverb:

I

• International Conference on Digital Audio Effects:

K

• Key:

L

• Legato:

M

• Metronome:
• Music theory:

N

• Noise gate:
• Note:

O

• Octave effect:
• Outboard gear:
• Overdrive:

P

• Pitch:
• Pitch shift:
• Phaser (effect):

R

• Reverberation:
• Ring modulation:
• Robotic voice effects:

S

• Scale:
• Score:
• Send tape echo echo delay:
• Sequencer:
• Sheet music:
• Slew-induced distortion:
• Sonic artifact:
• Subharmonic synthesizer:
• Synthesizer:

T

• Tab music

V

• Vibrator (music)
• Vocoder

See also

• List of musical symbols

External links

• Interpretations of Jazz Band Literature, musical terms used in jazz
• Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary (contains audio samples)
• Choral Conducting Terms
• Classical musical terms
• Musical Terms Dictionary Definitions