Below are the 40 Basic Music Theory Terms You Need to Know!
Batch 1 – 40 Basic Music Theory Terms You Need to Know!
▪︎ Ascending: Rising in pitch the piano keyboard from left to right.
▪︎ Cadence: A short sequence of notes/ chords at the end of a musical phrase.
Also Read: In-depth of Music
▪︎ Chord: More than two notes played at the same time.
▪︎ Circle of fifths: A diagram charting the relationship between the 12 notes/keys in the chromatic scale.
▪︎ Descending: Falling in pitch, or going down the piano keyboard from right to left.
▪︎ Diminished fifth: An interval of a perfect fifth flattened by one semitone – eg, C-Gb or A-Eb.
▪︎ Dominant: The fifth note of a scale, an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic. Also, a chord built on this fifth note.
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▪︎ Extended: Extended chords contain extra notes added from further up the keyboard. A major ninth chord, for instance, contains root, third, fifth, seventh and ninth.
▪︎ Flat: Determines that a note should be one semitone lower in pitch.
▪︎ Harmonic interval: Notes of different pitches played together at the same time, as opposed to one after the other.
Batch 2 – 40 Basic Music Theory Terms You Need to Know!
▪︎ Harmony: A tune that complements a melody when played at the same time. Also refers to the relationship between a series of chords.
▪︎ Interval: The difference between two note pitches. Intervals are named according to the number of letter names they span, eg from C to D is a second, C to F is a fourth, etc.
▪︎ Inversion: The order of notes in a chord is changed. A first inversion would see the root shifted up an octaveto the top of a chord.
▪︎ Key: The scale on which a piece of music is based. The key takes its name from the tonic, or first note of this scale.
▪︎ Major scale: The most common scale in Western music. A series of eight notes with a set pattern of intervals: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1.
▪︎ Major second: An interval of two semitones between two different notes. For example, C to D is a major second interval.
▪︎ Major seventh: The interval between the root note and the seventh note (or ‘degree’) of a major scale. Equivalent to 11 semitones.
▪︎ Major sixth: An interval of nine semitones between two different notes. C to A, for example.
▪︎ Major third: In addition, an interval of four semitones between two different notes. Examples include C to E, G to B, D to F#.
▪︎ Melodic interval: When two notes of different pitches are played one after the other – in other words, atwo-note melody.
Batch 3 – 40 Basic Music Theory Terms You Need to Know!
▪︎ Melody: Basically, a sequence of notes played one after the other to produce a tune.
▪︎ Minor scale: The sad-sounding sequence of notes you get when you play a major scale from the sixth note upwards.
▪︎ Minor second: An interval of one semitone between two notes. For example, C to Db is a minor second interval.
▪︎ Minor third: An interval of three semitones between two different notes. For example, C to Eb is a minor third interval, as is G to Bb.
▪︎ Minor seventh: The interval between the root note and the flattened seventh note (or ‘degree’) of a major scale. Equivalent to ten semitones.
▪︎ Minor sixth: Likewise, an interval of eight semitones between two different notes. For example, C to Ab is a minor sixth interval.
▪︎ Mode: A type of scale built by starting another scale from a note other than its root.
▪︎ Octave: An interval of 12 semitones, at which the two notes have the same ‘quality’, just one higher and one lower.
▪︎ Root: The lowest note of a chord or scale. C, is the root note of a C major chord and of the C major scale.
▪︎ Rootless voicing: When an extended chord is played with the root note missing. Used a lot in jazz and gospel music.
Batch 4 – 40 Basic Music Theory Terms You Need to Know!
▪︎ Scale: A sequence of notes going up or down the keyboard with a particular pattern of intervals between them.
▪︎ Secondary dominant: The name given to a chord based on the fifth, or dominant, note of any key or scale other than the tonic key.
▪︎ Semitone: The smallest interval in a chromatic scale, or the distance between any two notes on the piano keyboard.
▪︎ Seventh: A four-note chord formed by adding the seventh note of the scale to a triad that already contains a root, third and fifth.
▪︎ Sharp: Raised in pitch by one semitone.
▪︎ Tone: Short for ‘whole tone’, an interval of two semitones.
▪︎ Tonic: The first note, or ‘root’ note, of a scale.
▪︎ Transpose: To shift a piece of music, note or chord up or down in pitch by a certain number of semitones.
▪︎ Triad: A chord made up of three notes. A major triad contains a root, a major third and a perfect fifth.
▪︎ Unison: An interval that’s not an interval – in other words, the interval of zero semitones, the same note played twice. If you interested on learning piano in a easy way.
More on Basic Theory Music Terms
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