Musicopedia is our area for everything to do with how music works and overall music theory. Music evolves and so does Musicopedia, so we update our content as often as we can.
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Terms and signs are how music is written to make it as universal as possible. The lists of confusing jargon, strange signs and chaotic symbols are there to ensure that every musician understands what the music should be doing, wherever they are in the world.
Terminology in music is made up of a mixture of mainly Italian but also the German, French and English languages. Terms are used to indicate lots of different things in how music is interpreted but specifically volume, speed and expression.
We have a whole range of vocabulary sheets in our Library. Just type in ‘vocabulary’ into the search box.
Ornaments are a family of symbols which indicate a specific sequence of notes to be played without having to write them all out. It’s shorthand to play short musical patterns.
Grace note (Acciaccatura)
Leaning note (Appoggiatura)
Trill
Turn
Mordent
Repeats are an easy (and less time consuming) way of writing a section of music again without having to write it all out twice.
When playing repeats there can be instances where the music indicates to play slightly differently the second time or even with an alternative ending (called a Volta Bracket).
DS in music means to go to a sign symbol which will be somewhere in the body of the music.
DC means to return to the beginning.
A coda is a section of music separate to the main body of the music which is the ending of the piece. It is reached using an ‘al Coda’ means to play to a coda symbol which would mean to jump to the coda section of music placed at the end of a piece.
Abbreviations of terms such as piano (softly) or forte (forcefully) are very common in written music. Dynamics indicate a volume or speed to play at. Most of the terms aren’t exact and leave a certain amount of the decision down to the performer to interpret in their own way.
Different instruments have different ways of creating sounds. Because of this some instruments can produce those sounds in significantly different ways to others. For example bowed instruments (such as violins and violas) can play a note ‘up bow’ or ‘down bow’ depending on the direction of the bow.
Pedal marks are used for instruments which have options such as a sustain pedal, for example a piano.
Pauses, octave signs, articulation and clefs are all symbols which have practical functions in music which can be attributed to instruments, voice or general music notation.