A-B/A-B-A/A-A-B-A (Musical forms) - The organization of sections of a musical work, represented by letters that depict similar and contrasting sections. A-B refers to a work with the two distinct parts. A-B-A refers to a work with two distinct parts, the first of which is repeated after performing the second. A-A-B-A refers to a work with distinct parts; the first part is repeated, followed by the second and then a repeat of the first again.

A cappella - "In the chapel". Refers to choral music sung without instrumental accompaniment.

Accent - Giving prominence to a specific beat or musical note.

Accompaniment - A secondary vocal and/or instrumental part or parts added to a principal part or parts.

Acoustics - The science of sound

Aleatoric - Refers to music in which certain choices in composition or realization, to a greater or lesser extent, are left to chance or whim.

Arpeggio - The notes of a chord played one after another.

Articulation - The separation of successive notes from one another, singly or in groups, by a performer and the manner in which this is done; the manner in which notes are performed.

Atonal - A type of music in which tones and chords are not related to a central keynote.

Augmented - A major or perfect interval raised by a half-step.

Aural - Having to do with the ear or the sense of hearing.

Balance - The blend and positioning of voices, instruments, or other sounds.

Bass - The lowest adult male singing voice.

Beat - The regular repeated pulsation in music.

Binary - A form or structure in music with two distinct sections: part A and part B (AB form).

Body percussion - Sounds made by clapping hands, slapping legs and chest, or stomping feet.

Brass instruments - instruments where the sound is made by buzzing the lips (trumpet, French horn, trombone and so on).

Call and response - A structural device that derives from the work songs of Afro-American slaves; a soloist sings or plays and a group or second soloist replies "in response" to the first.

Canon - A composition in which all of the voices perform the same melody, beginning at different times.

Chest voice - The part of the voice which seems to resonate in the chest. This voice should be used with discretion by inexperienced singers.

Chord - Three or more tones sounded simultaneously.

Chromatic - Movement by half steps (e.g., C to C#, E to F).

Chromatic scale - A scale of half-steps with 12 tones to and octave.

Clef - A symbol written at the beginning of a musical staff indicating which notes are represented by which lines and spaces.

Coda - The ending section of a song or arrangement

Consonance - The property of sounding harmonious

Contour - The shape of a melody, or how the sound rises and falls in pitch.

Crescendo - A gradual increase in the volume.

Decrescendo - A gradual decrease in the volume.

Degree - Individual notes in a scale. If a major scale is defined by "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti," do is the first degree, re the second and so on.

Descant - A melodic voice part pitched higher that and concurrent with the melody.

Diatonic scale - The notes found within a major or minor scale.

Diction - Enunciation of words in singing.

Diminished interval - A minor or perfect interval lowered by a half-step.

Disjunct - A term applied to a melodic line that moves by leap rather than in conjunct motion (by step).

Dissonance - A sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience.

Dominant chord - In tonal music, the chord build on the fifth degree of the scale.

Duple metre - A time signature with groups of two beats to the measure, strong/weak.

Duration - The length of a tone or sound.

Dynamics - The degree of loudness or softness at which music is performed.

Elements of music - The key ingredients of music including dynamics, rhythm (beat, tempo, patterns of duration, metre), pitch and melody, timbre or tone colour and texture.

Embellishments - Notes added to ornament a melody or rhythmic pattern.

Flasetto - A technique in which a mature male voice can reach notes of the soprano or alto range. This is not the same thing as a pure countertenor voice. Only the edges of the vocal cords vibrate as opposed to the whole length and it is used by male voices to reach notes outside of their usual range.

Form - The organizational structure of the music.

Genre - A type or kind of musical work (e.g., opera, oratorio, art song, gospel, suite, jazz, madrigal, march, work song, lullaby, barbershop, Dixieland).

Half-step - The smallest distance between pitches commonly used in Western Art Music. The distance between F and F# is one example.

Harmony - A texture created when two or more sounds are combined.

Head Voice - That lighter voice that is free of tension and used higher notes, distinct from the lower register (chest voice). It resonates higher in the body.

Improvisation - The process of simultaneously composing and performing music.

Interdisciplinary - Interactions of two or more disciplines in response to a contemporary artistic challenge (e.g., explorations of relationship between dance and photography), or to art proactive that employs new technologies in a manner that challenges traditional definitions of arts disciplines.

Intermedia - Simultaneously using or involving several media such as dance, slides, electronic music, film and painting; multimedia.

Interval - The distance between two pitches.

Intonation - Singing or plating in tune.

Intro - The introduction to a jazz "head". Some tunes have standard introductions, some styles may have a typical introduction and some forms have standard introductions.

Legato - Played without any perceptible interruption between the notes.

Major scale - A succession of eight notes within an octave, moving in whole steps except for two half-steps between steps three and four and seven and eight.

Melody - A series of pitches and duration that combine to make a self-contained musical thought.

Metre - Recurring patterns of accented and unaccented beats that produce a rhythmic grouping.

Minor scale - A succession of eight notes within octave, moving in a specified pattern of whole steps and half-steps. The fundamental feature is that the interval between the tonic and third is minor.

Mixed metre - A mixture of duple and triple metres.

Mode - The selection of tones arranged in a scale that forms the basic tonal substance of a composition (i.e., unsually based on a major or minor scale but starting on a note other than the root). Starting with the first note of a major (sometimes with minor scales), the modes are: 1 - Ionian, 2 -Dorian, 3 - Phrygian, 4 - Lydian, 5 - Mixolydian, 6 - Aeolian, 7 - Locrian.

Monophonic texture (monophony) - One unaccompanied melodic line.

Motif - A small melodic fragment repeated within a melody.

Multidisciplinary - Composed of or combining several usually separate branches of learning or fields of expertise (a multidisciplinary study of the 18th century).

Multimedia - The combined use of several media, as in sound and full-motion video.

Music - The art of humanly organized sound.

Mute - A device placed over the bell of a brass instrument or on the strings of a stringed instrument to change or soften the sound. Types for brass instruments include straight, harmon, plunger, bucket and practice.

Non-pitched sounds - Sounds with no discernible pitch, such as the sound of tapping on a desk with a pencil.

Notation, invented or non-traditional - Original pictures or symbols created to convey sound or music ideas.

Notation, Traditional - Common system of writing used to convey music ideas.

Octave - The distance between notes of the same name and eight letter notes higher or lower; for example, A B C D E F G A. Also A at 440Hz is an octave lower than A at 880Hz.

Ostinato - A short melodic or rhythmic pattern that is repeated over and over to form an accompaniment.

Passagio - A transition or bridge between chest and head voice, generally occurring around an E-F# above middle C4 for men and around an !-B above middle C for women.

Percussion - All instruments that may be played by shaking, rubbing, or striking the instrument itself (includes piano).

Phrase - A natural division in the melodic line, similar to a sentence or part of a sentence.

Pitch - Designates sounds as high or low. Pitch is determined by the number of vibrations per second of a sound. Pitch direction describes the movement of pitch patterns or melodies, which may move upward downward, or stay the same.

Polyphonic texture (polyphony) - The simultaneous combination of two or more melodic lines.

Portfolio - A collection of artistic works, originally found mainly in visual arts but now often used in music, drama and dance.

Principles of composition - Tools or devices that help organize sounds and the elements of music into cohesive works (e.g., variety, repetition, balance, acoustics, transition, tension and resolution and unity).

Push-up - Describe one chorus and verse when speaking about traditional First Nations music. "A lead singer 'leads-off' (begins) with the first line of the song's chorus. Another singer 'seconds' him by repeating that line with slight variations in pitch and tone before the first line is completed. The rest of the group joins in singing all of the first chorus. Three accented drum beats indicate the break between chorus and verse" (Roberts, 1992, p.86).

Repertoire - A body or selection of musical works/pieces.

Rhythm - Movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. In other words, rhythm is imply the timing of the musical sounds and silences.

Rhythmic displacement - Moving an entire rhythm pattern so that it starts on a different part of the bar.

Rondo - A form having a repeated section A, alternation with contrasting material (B and C). ABACA is an example of rondo form.

Rote - Learning a written piece of music through the process of endless repetition; not exactly the same process by which music is memorized.

Round - A circular canon which may be repeated any number of times.

Scale - An ascending or descending pattern of half-steps and/or whole steps.

Sequence - A pattern within a melody that is repeated on a higher or lower scale step.

Serial music - A type of composition based on a technique involving a twelve-tone scale. See also twelve-tone scale.

Soli - A musical composition or a passage or section in a musical composition written for performance by a small group of instruments or voices (like or unlike) or section of the performing group, with or without accompaniment.

Sol-fa - A series of names or syllables used to designate the tones of a scale pattern (i.e., pentatonic: do re mi sol la; minor: la ti do re mi fa sol la).

Solfege - A system of designating verbal syllables for the degrees of the scale (major: do re mi sol la ti do).

Solo - A musical composition or a passage or section in a musical composition written for performance by one singer or instrumentalist, with or without accompaniment.

Staff (Staves) - The horizontal lines on ad between which notes are written.

Structural devices - Devices used in constructing a piece of music (e.g., motif, phrase, sequence, repetition, variation, cadence).

Style - The style of a composition is its manner of treating form, melody, rhythm, counterpoint, harmony and tone colour.

Syncopation - The placement of rhythmic accents on weak beats or weak portions of beats.

Tempo - The rate of speed or the pace of the music.

Tension and resolution - Tension can be created through the use of different elements (e.g., building dynamics, rising melodic line, using dissonant harmony). Resolution may be created by a change in dynamics or height of melody, or movement from dissonant to consonant harmony.

Ternary - Designates a form or structure in music that has three sections, with the first section being repeated after the second section (ABA form).

Texture - The weave of the music (i.e., dense or transparent, heavy or light, thin or thick).

Theme - A melodic or rhythmic idea that a piece or section of music is built around.

Timbre - The tone colour or the characteristics of a sound that helps distinguish that sound from another.

Time signature - A symbol denotes a metric rhythm (e.g., 3/4 or 4/4).

Tonality - A function of texture. The sense that the musics gravitating towards certain pitches in a key. Different scales can be said to have different tonality (e.g., major tonality, minor tonality and so on).

Tonic/Tonic chord - In tonal music, the chord built on the first not of the scale/key (the tonal centre).

Transcribe - The listening to and then writing down of music by ear.

Transdisciplinary - Pertaining to or involving more than one discipline; interdisciplinary.

Transpose - To write or perform music in a different key.

Triad - A chord of three notes consisting of a root, a third above the root and a fifth above the root.

Triple metre - A time signature with groups of three beats to the measure, as in strong/weak/weak.

Tuning - The state of being in the proper pitch (i.e., to be in tune). The proper adjustment of instruments with respect to the frequency of the pitches.

Twelve-tone scale - A scale constructed of all twelve half-steps within an octave and organized in a specific order called a tone row.

Unison - Singing or playing at the same pitch or exactly an octave apart.

Vamp - An accompaniment, usually improvised, consisting of a succession of simple chords. Often used in a musical to hold place in a song until the action and song are ready to continue.

Vibrato - a slight fluctuation of pitch.

Whole step - The equivalent of two half-steps (e.g., the distance between G and A is a whole step).

Whole tone scale - A scale that divides the scale into six equal, tempered whole tones.

Woodwind instrument - Instrument where the sound is made by moving air across a reed or moving the air across a sharp edge. Clarinets, flutes, saxophones, oboes and bassoons are members of the woodwind family.