| A | |
| A cappella | Melody sung without accompaniment |
| A tempo | Return to the normal speed of the piece |
| Accélérando | Gradual acceleration of the tempo |
| Accent | Sign placed on a note in order to give it a certain relief |
| Acciaccatura | Non harmonic note played on the beat or just before it |
| Accidental | Symbol placed before a note for raising or lowering it, one or two semitones |
| Accompaniment | Set of chords supporting a melody |
| Acoustic | Science that studies the issue, propagation and perception of sound |
| Adagio | Italian term for a slow movement |
| Ad libitum | Latin term allowing the musician a certain freedom of movement or repetition of a musical phrase |
| Allegro | Fast enough musical movement |
| Alleluia | Popular rejoicing & Spiritual song |
| Allemande | Binary Dance of moderate tempo in the 17th century |
| Alto | Vocal range located between the tenor and the soprano |
| Ambitus | Interval between the lowest and the highest notes of a melody |
| Amoroso | Term expression meaning: play with feeling |
| Anacrusis | Note or group of notes preceeding the first beat of a measure |
| Andante | Speed indication of a movement, located between "andantino" and "adagietto" |
| Andantino | Movement of a musical piece, a bit faster than "andante" |
| Antecedent | First part of a musical phrase |
| Anticipation | Non harmonic note or chord, which anticipates the following real note or chord |
| Appasionato | With passion |
| Appoggiatura | Expressive non harmonic notes located on the strong beats or strong part of the beat , which are resolved jointly on a note of the next chord |
| Arabesque | Improvised or ornamental melody with free le-rythme |
| Aria | Expressive melody sung |
| Arioso | Air sung in a recitative style |
| Arpeggio | Serie of successive and disjointed notes, which would form a chord if they were played simultaneously |
| Arranging | Different stages of the realization of a musical piece, including: structuring, harmonization and orchestration |
| Articulation | Clear statement of a musical phrasing by the use of accents and slurs |
| Athematic | Music without apparent theme |
| Atonality | Musical language that is no longer based on the harmonic and melodic tonal rules |
| Audio engineer | Technician and artist working on the sound |
| Auditorium | Acoustic place reserved for music listening |
| Augmented | Interval larger than the major interval, or chord with a major third and augmented fifth |
| B | |
| Background | Accompaniment of a theme or a solo, placed behind |
| Bagatelle | Small light musical composition for keyboard |
| Bagpipes | A class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag |
| Balafon | African percussion instrument made of wooden slats |
| Balalaika | Small triangular Russian folk guitar with three strings |
| Balance | Technical level adjustment and balance of the instruments and voices, before a concert |
| ballad | Musical piece played in a slow and free tempo |
| Ballet (music) | Music written for dance |
| Bandoneon | Small accordion with no key for chords |
| Bandwidth | Frequency range that can reproduce a sound recorder |
| Banjo | Small guitar used in American folk music |
| Barcarolle | Vocal or instrumental piece with swinging le-rythme |
| Bard | Ancient singer poet |
| Baritone | Tone of voice between tenor and bass |
| Barline | Small vertical line between the bars of a musical piece |
| Barrel organ | Portable mechanical organ operated by a crank |
| Baroque | Period of the music history corresponding to the 17th century. |
| Bass (voice) | The lowest part o harmony |
| Bass drum | Element of a drum set , as a large drum activated by the foot |
| Bassoon | Low double reed instrument, part of the woodwind family |
| Beat | le-rythmeic unit dividing a measure into several equal parts |
| Bebop | Jazz style of the 40s |
| Bel canto | Italian expression for an opera singing |
| Bellows | Tool powering some air in keyboard instruments (organ, accordion ..) |
| Big band | Large jazz orchestra composed mostly of trumpets, trombones, saxophones and a le-rythme section (piano, bass and drums) |
| Binary | Beat divisible into two parts, or multiple of two |
| Bitonality | Music superimposing two simultaneous keys |
| Blues | Music style born among black American slaves in the late 19th century. |
| Blue note | Minor third (or augmented 9th) placed over a dominant seventh chord |
| Bolero | Spanish dance of the 17th century, in three beats |
| Bongos | Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed drums of different sizes |
| Boogie | Piano style of the early twentieth century, based on the ostinato le-rythme: dotted eighth note + sixteenth note |
| Booklet | Literary work to be set to music at the opera |
| Bossa nova | Brazilian popular dance music |
| Bottleneck | Metal or glass tube placed around the finger to create a glissando effect on the strings of a guitar |
| Bourrée | Popular old French dance |
| Bow | Accessory used to vibrate the strings of string instruments |
| Brass | Instrumental family including the trumpets, trombones, French horns and tubas |
| Bridge | Piece located between the strings and the soundboard for separating the strings and transmitting their vibration |
| C | |
| Cabasa | Percussion instrument in Latin America |
| Cacophony | Set of dissonant and discordant sounds |
| Cadence | Suspensive or conclusive break occuring during a musical piece, and going from a chord to another |
| Calypso | Popular carnival music in the Caribbean |
| Cambiata | Non harmonic note resolving disjointly to a real note of the following chord |
| Cantabile | Musical piece played slowly and with expression |
| Cantarela | La cuerda más aguda de un instrumento de cuerda |
| Cantata | Composition from one to several voices, intended for concert or church |
| Cantus firmus | Ancient liturgical melody made of long note values |
| Capotasto | Device used on the neck of a stringed (typically fretted) instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. |
| Castanets | Wooden percussion used in Spanish music |
| Castrato | Singer with a soprano voice |
| Celesta | Percussion instrument close to a small piano made of bells of a chime |
| Cello | Low string musical instrument with four strings tuned in fifths |
| Chaconne | Former Mexican Dance |
| Chalumeau | Wind instrument, single or double reed, oboe ancestor |
| Chanter | The most acute string of a string instrument |
| Chimes | Instrument consisting of a set of fixed bells |
| Chord |
A combination of two or more sounds, played simultaneously |
| Chord chart | Chord progression |
| Chord extensions | Enrichment of jazz chords by the ninth, eleventh and thirteenth |
| Chord substitution | Replace the chords of a harmonic progression by other chords, without changing the original theme |
| Chord symbols | Notation system for chords representation, in the form of letters. For example: CMaj7 = C Major 7th |
| Chorister | Person singing in a choir |
| Chorus | Chorus of a song or whole or part of a jazz theme |
| Chromatic | Melodic or harmonic motion, proceeding by semitones |
| Circle of fifths | Ascending or descending sequence of notes or keys, separated by a perfect fifth interval |
| Clapper | Percussion instrument made of two wooden sticks slammed hard against each other |
| Clarinette | Reed instrument forming part of the woodwind family |
| Clave | Percussion consisting of two hard and full wooden sticks |
| Clef | Musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the stave, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line |
| Climax | Culminating intensity point of a melody or a piece of music |
| Cluster | Aggregate of dissonant sounds |
| Coda | Conclusion of a musical piece |
| Coloratura | Ornaments of a rich vocal line |
| Composer | Musician creating and writing music |
| Concerto | Instrumental musical form establishing a dialogue between a soloist and the orchestra |
| Conga | Tall and narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba |
| Compound measure | Measure in which the beats are ternary, that is to say, divisible by three or multiple of three |
| Consonances | Melodic or harmonic intervals between 2 notes, giving a pleasant sound while listening. They are : the unisons, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths and octaves |
| Continuo | Figured bass played by a polyphonic instrument, born in the early 17th century and designed to achieve harmony in an instrumental ensemble |
| Counterpoint | Melody superimposed on the main theme |
| Contralto | The lowest female voice |
| Countrepoint writing | Musical writing created by a superimposition of various independent melodic lines |
| Crescendo | Gradually increasing sound |
| Cymbal | Percussion composed of a circular plate of bronze, copper or tin |
| Cymbalum | The cimbalom is a concert hammered dulcimer: a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box with metal strings stretched across its top |
| D | |
| Da capo | Repetition referring to the beginning of a musical piece |
| Decay | Descending phase just after the attack of a sound and just before tits sustain phase |
| Decibel | Unit of measure of sound intensity |
| Decrescendo | Decreasing a sound gradually |
| Degree | Position of a sound in a scale or a tonality |
| Desinence | Resting phase and cool-down of a melody or a musical piece. |
| Development | Modulating central part of a musical piece, in which the main themes are transformed |
| Diatonic | Scale alternating tones and semitones |
| Diminished | Interval smaller than the minor interval, or chord including a minor third and a diminished fifth |
| Disjointed | Melodic motion proceeding by non successive notes, separated by an interval of a minor third minimum |
| Disonances | Melodic or harmonic intervals between 2 notes, giving an unpleasant sound while listening. They are : the seconds, sevenths, augmented fourths and diminished fifths |
| Distortion | Effect used in the creation of distorted sounds |
| Djembe | Drum from Guinea |
| Dodecaphonism | Atonal composition system, based on the twelve chromatic tones |
| Doigté | Finger placement on an instrument |
| Dominant | Fifth degree of a scale |
| Dot | le-rythmeic sign placed after a note or a rest, that extends it half of its value |
| Double bass | The lowest stringed instruments of the violin family |
| Double flat | Sign located before a note, intended to lower it 2 semitones |
| Double sharp | Sign located before a note, intended to raise it 2 semitones |
| Drone | Constant bass note heard in the vielle or the bagpipes |
| Drum machine | Programmable electronic instrument producing drum sounds |
| Drums | Set of percussions |
| Duet | Set of two musicians or singers |
| Duplet | Set of two notes, which, placed in a compound measure worth three notes of the same value |
| Duplication | Duplication of the note of a chord |
| Dynamics | Dynamic assigned to a note, a sentence or a musical movement |
| E | |
| Echappee | Anticipated note proceeding by contrary motion to its original interval |
| Echo | Multiple reflections of the same sound |
| Effect (sound) | Artificial modification of a sound |
| Eighth note | Note value of half beat duration |
| Eighth rest | A rest of one beat per bar |
| Eleventh | Interval made of 11 consecutive degrees |
| English horn | Reed wind instrument of the woodwind family |
| Enharmonic | Two notes or tones of the same pitch but of different names |
| EQ (sound) | Technical process consisting of maintaining a balance of the different frequencies of a sound |
| Ethnomusicology | Study of music theories of different civilizations |
| Expander | Electronic generator for sounds or sound effects |
| F | |
| Fanfare | Street Orchestra, composed mainly of wind instruments and percussions |
| Farandole | Traditional Provencal fast dance |
| Feedback | Reinjection of a sound signal, in a loop |
| Feeling | Sensitivity of the musician playing |
| Fermata | Sign placed above a note, a chord or a rest, that temporarily extends their duration |
| Fifth | Interval made of three tones + one semitone |
| Final | Last part of a musical work |
| Flageolet | Ancestor of the recorder |
| Flamenco | Musical style and gypsy dance from Andalusia |
| Flat | Sign placed before a note, for lowering it a semitone |
| Flugelhorn | Large trumpet with a low and sweet sound |
| Flute | Wind instrument of the woodwind family |
| Folk | Popular traditional music in English language |
| Form | Structure of a piece of music |
| Forte-piano | Sound attacked with a dynamic "Forte" immediately followed by a dynamic "piano" |
| Fourth | Interval between two notes separated by 4 consecutive degrees |
| Free jazz | Jazz style born in the 50s, based on spontaneous improvisation without pre-established rules |
| French horn | Wind instrument of the brass family |
| Frets | Paralel metal strips placed on the neck of the guitar in order to indicate the different pitches of the sound |
| Fugue | Musical form using a contrapuntal writing, in which several entries of the same subject occur successively |
| Funk | Music genre that originated in the mid to late 1960s when African-American musicians created a le-rythmeic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and R&B |
| G | |
| Gain | Increase or decrease of the amplitude of a sound signal |
| Gamelan | Indonesian traditional orchestra |
| Gavotte | Cheerful and quick popular French dance |
| Gigue | Quick original English Baroque dance |
| Glissando | Passage continuously slipped between two notes |
| Glockenspiel | Percussion instrument made of lamellae vibrated by small hammers or keyboard |
| Gloria | Sung liturgical piece located after the "Kirie eleison" in a Mass |
| Gong | Very powerful circular metal percussion |
| Gospel | Black American Spiritual song |
| Grace note | Note or group of notes was intended to adorn a melodic phrase in the 17th and 18th century |
| Gramophone | Ancestor of the turntable |
| Groove | le-rythmeic interpretation of Afro Americans styles of music (funk, soul ..) |
| Groopie | Female fan of musicians and rock bands |
| Gruppetto | Adorno melódico de cuatro notas |
| Guirro | Wooden percussion instrument of the caribbean, formed from a hollow gourd having rubbed cuts, rubbed by a small stick |
| Guitar | Plucked string instrument with six strings |
| H | |
| Habanera | Binary and fast Cuban dance |
| Half cadence | Rest on the dominant chord |
| Half diminished (chord) | Chord consists of a diminished triad and a minor seventh |
| Half rest | A rest of two beats per bar |
| Half tone | Note value equal to two beats a simple measure |
| Hammered | Kick-detached short and very accentuated note on string instruments |
| Hard bop | Jazz style of the 40s and 50s, extending the bebop current |
| Hard rock | Musical style based on technical bidding and sound of rock |
| Harmonica | Wind instrument following the same technique as the accordion |
| Harmonic bass | Real bass note of a chord in root position |
| Harmonic frecuency | Number of chords per bar |
| Harmonium | Small organ with metal reeds without pipes, played by using a single keyboard |
| Harmonization | Placement of chords in order to accompany a melody or a theme |
| Harmony | Art of linking musical chords |
| Harp | Plucked string instrument (47 strings) |
| Harpsichord | Stringed musical instrument with one or more keyboards, each string being "pinched" by a "jack" |
| Haute-contre | The most acute male voice |
| Hi-fi | High-quality reproduction of sound |
| Hi hat | Drum element composed of two superposed horizontal cymbals |
| Hip-hop | Musical genre born of the street culture, and pioneering rap |
| Homonym | Chords or keys having the same tonic, but a different mode; example: C major and C minor. |
| Home-studio | Small recording studio at home |
| Hurdy-gurdy | Stringed instrument that produces sound by a crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings |
| I | |
| Idiophone | Type of instrument whose sound is produced by the material itself |
| Imitation | Writing method establishing a dialogue between two successive vocal or instrumental parts |
| Infrasound | Sound wave being at a frequency lower than 20 Hz |
| Impromptu | Quite short piano composition, having the appearance of improvisation |
| Improvisation | Spontaneous Composition of the moment |
| Interlude | Small musical part located between acts or scenes of an opera |
| Intermezzo | Piano or orchestral interlude |
| Intermission | Interval between the representation of two acts at the theater, opera or concert |
| Interpretation | Personal vision of a musician in the reproduction of a written musical work |
| Interval | distance between two notes |
| Intonation | Musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously |
| Invention | Baroque musical piece from two to several voices, based on the process of imitations |
| Inversion (chord) | To swap an extreme note of a chord, at the lower or higher octave |
| J | |
| Jam session | Musician meeting in order to engage some collective improvisations |
| Java | Parisian popular dance of the early 20th century |
| Jazz | African-American musical style born in North America in the early 20th century |
| Jerk | American dance of the mid-60s |
| Jew's harp | Lamellophone instrument, which is in the category of plucked idiophones: it consists of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. The tongue/reed is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note |
| Jingle | Short sound sequence illustrating an advertisement |
| Ionian | Modal musical scale corresponding to the C major mode |
| Jukebox | Machine designed to automatically play music stored on records |
| K | |
| Karaoke | Japanese game, which consists in singing songs on an instrumental recording |
| Kettledrum | Skin Latin American percussion from Cuba |
| Keyboard | Buttons set activated by the fingers in order to produce sound |
| Key signature | All accidentals placed at the beginning of the stave, to give the key of a musical piece |
| Koto | Chinese zither with thirteen strings |
| Kyrie | Opening piece of the latin mass |
| L | |
| Largo | Slow metronomic Movement |
| Larsen | Hissing created by the proximity of a microphone and a speaker |
| Leading tone | Seventh degree of a range, located a semitone below the tonic |
| Legato | Phrasing linking the notes of a melody without interruption |
| Leslie | Amplification cab with a rotary speaker creating a vibrato effect |
| Leitmotif | Short, constantly recurring musical phrase |
| Loudness | Setting found in the wi-fi amplifiers, for obtaining a rounder bass frequency |
| Loudspeaker | Box allowing the acoustic reproduction of a sound, by an electrical signal |
| Lullaby | Sweet song intended to lull the children |
| Lute | Plucked string instrument, ancestor of the Arabic ud |
| Lute-making | Production of instruments of the violin family |
| Lyre | Ancient plucked instrument, ancestor of the harp |
| Lyricist | Musician who specializes in writing songs and (or) lyrics |
| M | |
| Madrigal | Theatre comedy set to music |
| Magnetic tape | Tape for recording digital and analogue sound data |
| Maker | Professional manufacturer of musical instruments |
| Mallet | Stick used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound |
| Major (chord) | Chord constituted by a root, a major third and a perfect fifth |
| Mambo | Musical genre and dance style from Cuba |
| Mandolin | Plucked string instrument of Italian origin |
| Maracas | Percussion musical instruments—rattles—that originated in Latin America |
| Marcato | Very strong musical accent |
| March | Instrumental le-rythmeic musical piece , of a military mood |
| Marimba | Latin American percussion instrument looking like the xylophone, with wooden slats |
| Mastering | Process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master) |
| Mazurka | Fast Polish music and dance |
| Measure | Dividing of a piece of music into equal parts |
| Mediant | Third degree of a diatonic scale |
| Melody | Serie of notes forming a musical phrase |
| Melodrama | Show uniting a spoken text to a musical accompaniment |
| Membranophone | Percussion instrument whose sound is produced by the vibration of a skin |
| Merengue | Dominican music genre and dance |
| Method | Educational musical book |
| Métronome | Device indicating the speed of a musical performance |
| Mezzo-soprano | Female voice range, located between the soprano and alto |
| Microphone | Device allowing to capture or enhance a sound source |
| Minor (chord) | Chord made of a root of a minor third and a perfect fifth |
| Minstrel | Singer musician and poet of the Middle Ages, speaking the "oil" language |
| Minuet | Ternary French slow dance |
| Mixed choir | Vocal choir including female voices (soprano – alto) et male voices (tenor – bass) |
| Mixing console | Electronic device allowing to combine and process the sound signals |
| Modal | Melodic or harmonic musical language based on teh ancient Greek modes, used between antiquity and the late Middle Ages. |
| Moderato | Indication of a moderate movement |
| Modes | Scales used in medieval modal music and rediscovered in modern French music of the early 20th century |
| Modulation | Going from a key to another, and (or) a mode to another, during a musical piece |
| Monophonic | One part music or recording on a single channel |
| Movment | Indication of the speed of a musical piece |
| Mourhpiece | Part of the instrument placed on the player's lips |
| Musette | French popular music style of the early 20th century |
| Music amateur | Person loving music |
| Musical dictation | Exercise to find a melody, chord or a le-rythme at the hearing |
| Musicology | Comprehensive analytical study of music |
| Mute | Accessory designed to attenuate the sound of an instrument |
| Muted guitar | Playing with a pick, by blocking the resonance of the guitar strings with the left hand, in order to obtain dry sounds |
| N | |
| Natural | Accidental which cancels previous accidentals and represents the unaltered pitch of a note |
| Neapolitan sixth | Major triad of the second degree of a key, lowered by half tone and under its first inversion |
| Neck | Part of string instruments, held by the left hand of the musician |
| Negro spiritual | Song of the black slaves of the United States in the 17th century |
| Neighbourg tone | Non harmonic note that ornaments the real note of a chord, by tone or semi-tone, above or below, that comes back to this real note |
| Ninth (interval) | Interval of 9 consecutive notes |
| Neume | Musical notation sign used in the Middle Ages |
| New orleans | Jazz style of the early 20th century |
| Nocturne | Brief musical piece for piano solo |
| Nut | Small piece of wood, metal or ivory, located on the top of the neck of the stringed instruments, designed to maintain a certain distance between the strings |
| O | |
| Oboe | Wind instrument with a double reed, part of the woodwind family |
| Ocarina | Ancient wind musical instrument—a type of vessel flute |
| Octave | Interval made of 8 consecutive notes |
| Octet | Instrumental ensemble including eight instruments |
| Offbeat | Note or chord played on the weak parts of the bar |
| Opera | Musical sung on stage, based on a booklet and accompanied by an orchestra |
| Oratorio | Dramatic lyrical work represented on stage |
| Orchestra | instrumental ensemble |
| Orchestra pit | Area in a theater (usually located in a lowered area in front of the stage) in which musicians perform |
| Orchestration | Transposing a piece of music from one instrument to the orchestra |
| Organ (liturgical) | Acoustic (or electric) wind instrument , provided with one or more keyboards, a pedal, and metal pipes of different sizes corresponding to the different heights of sounds |
| Ornamental chord | A non harmonic chord, that ornaments a real chord, by tone or by semi-tone, above or below |
| Ostinato | le-rythmeic or melodic pattern repeated regularly |
| Out of tune | Instrument having lost the ability to play right |
| Ouverture | Introductory part of a musical piece, used in the 17th and 18th centuries, with a majestic mood, and generally heard at the royal court |
| Overtones | Bright and light sounds obtained by slightly touching the strings of a string instrument |
| Ornament | Small note adorning the main notes of a melody |
| P | |
| Pastourelle | Medieval musical genre in the songs of the troubadours |
| Passacaglia | Popular dance of Spanish origin dating back to the Renaissance |
| Passing tone | Non harmonic note that provides a melodic bridge between two real notes of a chord or not |
| Pattern | Theme or part of a musical theme |
| Pavane | Binary dance in the courts of the 16th and 17th centuries |
| Peg | Key for tuning stringed instruments |
| Pentatonic | Scale of Chinese origin including 5 sounds only (eg. C-D-E-G-A) |
| Percussion | Instrumental family grouping instrument whose sound is produced by a shock |
| Phase | Segment of a melodic phrase |
| Phasing | Effect obtained by superimposing two identical sounds slightly displaced in time |
| Phone connector | Connector typically used for analog signals, primarily audio |
| Phrase | Part of a melody located between two punctuations |
| Phrygian | Scale based on the natural Mi mode. (eg. E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E) |
| Piano (dynamic) | Musical sign involving a soft dynamic |
| Picking | Guitar playing technique used in the "country" style |
| Piston valve | Device allowing the musician to change the pitch of brass instruments |
| Pizzicato | Technique des cordes consistant à pincer les cordes avec les doigts pour obtenir un son sec. |
| Plainsong | Body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church |
| Playback | Instrumental prerecorded tape on which plays a soloist |
| Plectrum | Small plastic piece designed to strum the guitar strings |
| Polka | Quick Czech dance of the 19th century |
| Polonaise | Court dance in three beats of Polish origin |
| Polyphony | Music for two or more simultaneous voices |
| Polyle-rythme | Layering of different voices with different le-rythmes |
| Polytonal | superimposition of several tonalities |
| Pop music | Set of different influences of popular musics of the sixties |
| Portamento | Instrumental slip between two disjointed Notes |
| Potpourri | Medley of very popular musical themes |
| Positive organ | Small organ or keyboard of the liturgical organ |
| Prelude | Introductory instrumental piece of an opera, or small free piece usually written for piano |
| Presto | Very fast movement of a musical piece |
| Progression (chords) | Succession of chords |
| Pulsation | Beat determining the tempo of music |
| Q | |
| Quadrille | Dance that was fashionable in late 18th- and 19th-century Europe and its colonies |
| Quarter note | Note value of 1 beat |
| Quarter rest | Rest of 1beat, equivalent to the duration of a quarter note |
| Quartet | Set of four instruments |
| Quintet | Group of five musicians |
| Quintuplet | Group of five notes of the same value as four identical notes |
| R | |
| Ragtime | American musical style of the early twentieth century, usually associated with piano |
| Rallentendo | Gradual slowing of the tempo |
| Range | Scope of a voice or an instrument |
| Rap | Musical genre born in the United States, derived from hip-hop |
| Rattle | Wooden percussion instrument producing a very shrill sound |
| Rhapsody | Musical composition of rather free structure, for soloist or symphonic orchestra |
| Recitative | Free singing style following the inflections of the spoken voice |
| Reed | Slat single or double, vibrated through the air in order to produce the sounds of wind instruments (woodwinds and saxophones) |
| Recording | Electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects |
| Recording studio | Soundproofed place for making audio recordings |
| Rehearsal | Final rehearsal of a show in a real situation |
| le-rythme changes | Chord progression including four chords: I - VI - II - V |
| Recorder (tape) | Device allowing the recording of sounds on a magnetic tape |
| Refrain | Melodic part of a song, returning regularly and alternating with verses |
| Reggae | Popular musical style born in the 60s in Jamaica |
| Register | Range of a voice or an instrument |
| Relative keys | Said of 2 tonalities separated each other from a minor 3rd, one of which is major and the other minor, and having the same number of alterations to the key. Example: C maj. and A min. |
| Release | Final phase of extinction of a sound |
| Remix | Balancing frequencies, volumes and effects of different recorded instruments and voices |
| Renaissance | Period in the history of music corresponding to the sixteenth century |
| Repetition | Repeating an integral part of a musical work |
| Résonance | Vibration emitted by a sound |
| Resolution | Phase back from a dissonance to a real note of a chord |
| Rest | Musical sign designating a sound interruption |
| Retardation | Non harmonic note establishing a dissonance with it, prepared by a slur in the previous chord and resolved jointly in the following chord |
| Reverberation | Sound reflections on the walls of a room |
| le-rythme section | Set of 3 or 4 instruments in an orchestra, providing the le-rythme of the orchestra (piano, bass, drums, guitar) |
| Rhodes (piano) | Electric piano widely used in jazz of the 60s and 70s |
| Ricercar | Baroque polyphonic piece, written in imitations |
| Riff | Repetitive melodic or harmonic pattern |
| Rigaudon | Music and folk dance from Provence county (France) |
| Rimshot | Percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. This sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of a drum with a drum stick |
| Ritornello | Recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus |
| Rock | Genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States |
| Rolling | Rapid repetition shot, hitting a percussion instrument, alternating both hands |
| Romance | French genre of the 16th and 17th centuries, synonymous with the term "melody" |
| Romanticism | Period in the history of music corresponding to the nineteenth century |
| Rondo | Musical structure alternating a chorus and several verses |
| Root | Real bass note of a chord |
| Rubato | Running a musical passage with great le-rythmeic freedom |
| Rumba | Music genre and ballroom dance born in Cuba in the early 19th century |
| S | |
| Salsa | Musical genre and Latin American dance |
| Samba | Style of music and popular dance in Brazil |
| Sample | Extract of an audio clip |
| Sarabande | Slow classical Music piece, in 3 beats |
| Saxophone | Metal wind instrument belonging to the woodwind family |
| Scherzo | Quick and cheerful instrumental piece, derived part of the minuet |
| Second | Interval between two notes separated by a semitone or a tone |
| Semitone | Smallest interval between two notes |
| Septet | Musical composition for seven voices and seven instruments |
| Sequence | Transposition of a musical exerpt to other pitches |
| Serenade | Piece of music played or sang in honor of a person |
| Seventh | Interval between two notes separated by seven consecutive degrees |
| Sextolet | Group of six equal notes used in a simple measure |
| Sharp | Sign located before a note, intended to raise it a semitone |
| Sheet music | Handwritten or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols |
| Shuffle | Ternary le-rythme equivalent of Swing |
| Sight reading | Sight reading and performing a musical score |
| Simple measure | Measure in which the beats are binairy, that is to say, divisible by two or multiple of two |
| Sincopated le-rythme | le-rythme accented on a weak beat and extended over a strong beat by a slur or a dot |
| Sixteenth note | Note value of half beat |
| Sixth | Interval consisting of 6 consecutive notes |
| Ska | Music style in 2 beats, from Jamaica |
| Slap | Bass technique consisting of striking the strings with the thumb |
| Soloist | Person who sings or performs a solo instrumental work |
| Sonata | Instrumental composition containing several movements |
| Sonata structure | Structure of a movement of a musical form, including one to three themes of different keys interconnected by bridges, and usually including an introduction, exposition, development and coda |
| Song | Sung popular musical form, alternating a chorus with several verses |
| Soprano | The most acute female voice |
| Sostenuto | Musical phrase well sustained |
| Soul music | Main musical genre of the black American community |
| Sound board | Sound box of a musical instrument |
| Soundtrack | Audio support including sound effects and music for a film |
| Sound system | Combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience |
| Speaker | Electromechanical transducer for producing sounds from an electrical signal |
| Spinet | Ancestor of the harpsichord |
| Staccato | Detached brief phrasing |
| Standard (jazz) | Jazz theme became famous with time |
| Stave | Set of 5 parallel lines and 4 spaces on which are written all the music symbols |
| Steel drum | Percussion instrument of the caribbean |
| Stereo | Recording technique using two sensor sources |
| Stride | Technique of the left hand of the pianist, alternating basses and chords |
| Study | Short musical piece with didactic goal |
| Subdominant | Fourth degree of a scale |
| Subject | Unique theme of a fugue |
| Submediant | Sixth degree of the diatonic scale |
| Suite | Musical form based on a succession of ancient dances |
| Supertonic | Second degree of a scale |
| Sustain note | Sustained or repeated notes or chords |
| Stand | Device that holds sheet music in a position that allows the musician to read it while performing |
| Stem | Vertical line starting from the head of a note |
| Strong beat | First and third beats of a 4 beat measure |
| Swing | Jazz dancing style of the 30s |
| Symphony | Instrumental composition in several movements, intended for large orchestra |
| System | Set of two or more staves |
| Synthesizer | Electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals converted to sound through loudspeakers or headphones |
| T | |
| Tablature | Graphic representation of the guitar neck |
| Tambourine | Percussion instrument from the skin family |
| Tango | Ancient dance of Latin America |
| Temperament | Distribution of intervals of the scale on a keyboard or other instrument |
| Tempo | Term indicating the speed of execution of a musical work |
| Tenor | Normal vocal range of men |
| Ternary | Measure in triple beats or division into three equal parts of the beat |
| Tetrachord | Set of four consecutive notes of a scale |
| Texture | Sound qualities of a sound |
| Thème | Main melody of a musical composition |
| Theory | Technical study of the musical language |
| Third | Interval including 3 consecutive degrees |
| Third of Picardie | Substitution of the minor third of a tonic chord, by a major third |
| Thirteenth | Interval made of of thirteen consecutive notes |
| Thirty second rest | Silence of 1/16th of beat, equivalent to the thirty second note |
| Thirty second note | Note value of 1/16th of the beat |
| Threnody | Practice the theory of melody in ancient greece |
| Theory (music) | Technical for teaching music reading |
| Timbre | Quality used to identify sound |
| Tocsin | Signal sounded by a bell or bells, especially with reference to France, or to the bell itself |
| Tom-tom | Percussion included in the gongs family |
| Tone | Tonality of a musical piece |
| Tonic | First degree of a scale |
| Touch | The way to approach a musical instrument by a finger or hand |
| Tremolo | Rapid repetitions of one or several notes, giving a shudder effect |
| Tie (or slur) | Musical sign placed above or below a group of notes to indicate a phrasing "legato", or between two successive notes of the same pitch to extend the first one without repeating the second one |
| Transcription | Transcribing and simplify an orchestral score for a solo instrument |
| Transposition | Exercise consisting of raising or lowering the pitch of a musical piece |
| Triad | Perfect corde made of three sounds (root, third and fifth) |
| Triangle | Percussion instrument from the family of metals |
| Trill | Rapid alternation between two adjacent notes |
| Trio | Musical ensemble composed of three instruments |
| Triplet | Set of three notes, which, placed in a simple measure, worth the value of two notes of the same value |
| Triad | A chord of three sounds that includes a major third and a perfect fifth (major), or a minor third and a perfect fifth (minor) |
| Tritone | Melodic or harmonic interval of augmented fourth, made of three tones |
| Trombone | Instrument with a slide, part of the brass family |
| Troubadour | Poet musician and composer in oc language, in the Middle Ages |
| Trumpet | Mouth musical instrument, part of the brass family |
| Tune (to) | Put an instrument in agreement with the other instruments of an orchestra |
| Tuning fork | Small instrument giving the reference sound (A3), allowing the orchestral instruments to tune |
| Tuner | Professional tuning the polyphonic string instruments |
| Tuba | Low wind instrument of the brass family |
| Tuplet | Group of seven notes of equal values, equivalent to one beat |
| U | |
| Ultrasound | Acute frequency imperceptible to the human ear |
| Unison | A same note played by two instruments |
| Ut | "C" note |
| V | |
| Variation | Musical form based on a series of variations on a single theme |
| Velocity | Virtuosity of the performing musician |
| Verse | Stanza of a song, alternating with a chorus |
| Vibes | American electronic percussion instrument consisting of metal plates struck by mallets |
| Vibration | Sound effect created by the play of two different simultaneous sounds |
| Viol | Any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed instruments that first appeared in Spain in the mid to late 15th century and was most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods |
| Viola d'amore | Musical instrument belonging to the family of bowed strings |
| Violin | Stringed bowed musical instrument with four strings tuned in fifths |
| Virginals | Keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the late Renaissance and early baroque periods |
| Virtuoso | Musician showing a great vocal or instrumental technicality |
| Vivace | Quick Speed interpretation of a musical piece |
| Vocalise | Virtuoso and ornamental vocal melody based on scales and arpeggios |
| Vocoder | Electronic module which distorts the sound of a voice |
| Voice | Set of sounds produced by the friction of the air in the lungs, and by the vibration of the vocal cords |
| Voicing | Arranging of the notes of a chord |
| Volute | Carved Part in the shape of a spiral, located at the top of the handle of bowed instruments |
| Vu-meter | Device displaying a representation of the signal level in audio equipment |
| W | |
| Walking-bass | Jazz bassist playing, based on regular quarter notes |
| Waltz | Three beat dance |
| Weak beat | Second and fourth beats of a 4 beat measure |
| Whole note | Note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note (or minim), and no note stem (see Figure 1). Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time |
| Whole rest | Rest of 4 beats, equal to the whole note |
| Woodblock | Small, two-toned slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument |
| Woodwinds | Instrumental family of the orchestra, composed of wind instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons ..) |
| World music | Musical genre covering the ethnic languages of the world |
| Wrong chromatic relationship | Said of two chromatic notes of the same name (eg. C and C#) that are not located at the same height, in a harmonic progression |
| Wurlitzer | Electric piano in vogue in the 60s and 70s |
| X | |
| XLR (connector) | Professional audio connector |
| Xylophone | Percussion instrument from the family of idiophones including metal strips arranged as a piano keyboard |
| Y | |
| Z | |
| Zarzuela | Spanish operetta from 17th century |
| Zither | Ancient stringed musical instrument |
Home
FR
EN
ES
CN
Shop 
