Terms Used In My Posts

The American and English teaching systems use some different terms to describe music. Even the word for a single musical sound is different: Americans say “tone”, the English say “note”. In Australia, where I had my musical education, we use the English system. Below are the most common terms and their equivalents.

General

  • note = tone
  • bar = measure
  • stave = staff
  • great stave = grand staff
  • root note = tonic

Note values

For note values I teach both versions. I mainly teach the American names to help interpret time signatures but overall I use the English names, such as:

  • minim = half note
  • crotchet = quarter note
  • quaver = eighth note

Scale degree names

There are two prevailing schools of naming scale degrees:

  • as interval names above the root note
  • as note numbers based on the major scale, with minor intervals marked as b (flattened).

In my posts I use the interval names method.

Relative scale degree names

  • subdominant = pre-dominant
  • leading note = leading tone

Key Relationships

  • cycle of 5ths = circle of 5ths

Chords

  • modal chord = power chord

Other terms in my posts

  • Western music = the music of Western culture in any school or genre, whether historic or contemporary
  • instrument = instrument including voice
  • piece = musical work, whether sung or played, improvised or written, with any number of players
  • part = one instrument’s contribution to a piece
  • section = a smaller structure within a piece
  • ensemble = more than one part, from a singer who accompanies the self to an orchestra or choir

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