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