OCR GCSE Music Vocabulary, Phrases and What You Will Need to be Able to Describe
Rhythm
Regular Beats / irregular beats
Syncopated / Jazzy, Offbeat, Jerky
Repetitive - ostinato
Constantly changing (speed / rhythm patterns)
Simple time ( 3, 4,or 5 beats per bar). Compound time (3, 6 or 9 quavers per
bar)
With rests / without rests
Cross rhythms
Rhythmic counterpoint
Swing rhythm
Polyrhythm
Waltz – oom-cha-cha
Salsa - Call and Response
Bhangra - Chaal rhythm pattern (triplet feel in 12/8 time).
Bhangra - Tal rhythmic cycle
Bhangra – pop song structure
Melody
Legato - Smoothly played
Staccato - short detached sounds
Limited range of notes / wide range of notes
Stepwise melody / large leaps
High pitched / low pitched Major (happy), minor (sad), modal (folk like),
pentatonic (5 note scale), atonal (no key centre) melody
With rests / without rests
Scalic
Ornamentation / decorated
Tempo
Slow / fast (learn some Italian terms e.g. adagio, largo, andante, Moderato,
Allegro, Vivace, Presto etc)
Rituendo / rallentando (slowing down)
Accelerando (speeding up)
Constant / changing speeds
The speed of the piece also gives some idea of mood - e.g. slow = sad, lonely
Rubato
Silence
Pause
Harmony
Simple Triads - chords without 7ths and 9ths
Complex chords / harmony (chords with additional notes added = 7ths, 9ths
etc)
Major, minor, modal, atonal, consonance, dissonance (clashing sounds)
Diatonic
Cadences
Modulation
Transpose
Pedal
Drone
Chord pattern
Arpeggio
Figured bass
Dynamics
Constant / changing
Crescendo - getting louder
Decrescendo / diminuendo - getting quieter.
Learn some Italian terms – Piano (p) - softly, Forte (f) - loudly, Mezzo forte
(mf) - moderately loudly, Mezzo piano (mp) - moderately soft, fortissimo (ff)
- very loud, pianissimo (pp)- very soft.
Subito (sub p) – suddenly quiet
Accent / sforzando (sfz)
Instrumentation
Mention specific instrument names
Mention family groups - Brass / Woodwind / Percussion / Strings.
Explain the role of instruments - e.g. which instruments provide the melody,
harmony, bass line, accompaniment.
Compare instrument groups together - e.g. imitating same melody, question
and answer, melody and harmony etc.
Specific ensembles
Accompaniment Styles
Supporting the melody and providing chordal, arpeggio accompaniment
Mention family groups - Brass / Woodwind / Percussion / Strings.
Adding harmony parts to the melody
Improvising sections between the melody - instrument or voice
Imitating the melody / playing the same music.
Unaccompanied - a cappella
Tonality (also see harmony)
A piece may be in a MAJOR key (sounds happy) or MINOR key (sounds sad)
based on a Major or Minor scale
May also be chromatic, pentatonic or whole-tone scale
Music not based on a type of scale is called ATONAL - e.g. Twentieth
Century
Transposed
Modal
Pitch
May be High, Medium or Low
Try to identify any intervals between notes - either between two notes
played after each other in a melody - MELODIC, or between two notes
played simultaneously - HARMONIC, by counting up from the bottom note
to the top note.
3rd and 6ths sound pleasant, 2nds and 7ths sound unpleasant, 4ths and
5ths sound bare
tonic (1), sub-dominant (4th) dominant (5th)
Octave (higher, lower, in octaves)
Range
Register
Tones
Semi - tones
Tessitura - the most musically acceptable and comfortable timbre for a
given voice
Sharp, flats, naturals
Unison
Inversion
Blues Scale
Blue notes
Pentatonic
Texture
General words used to describe music include - light, heavy, thin, rich, soft
and hard.
MONOPHONIC - one sound e.g. a piece for a solo violin
POLYPHONIC - many sounds - where there are several instruments playing
together and there are several layers of sound.
HOMOPHONIC- block chords, as in a hymn
CONTRAPUNTAL - two or more tunes being played together which form
some interesting harmonies.
Melody and accompaniment
Time Signature
A time signature is a group of two numbers written near the beginning of
almost all music.
The top number says how many beats there are in every bar
The bottom number is a type of code which tells you what kind of beat to
count in. A bottom number of 4 tells you to count in crotchet beats. 8 tells
you to count in quaver beats.
SIMPLE time signatures are where the beat is a non-dotted note which can
be divided into twos.
COMPOUND - time signatures are where the beat is a dotted note that can
be divided into threes.
The most common time signatures are:
Jig – 3/4 or 6/8
Slip jig 9/8
Reel – 4/4
Waltz – 3/4
Salsa – 4/4 (2/4)
Tango – 2/4
Line dancing – 4/4
Disco – 4/4
Club dance – 4/4
Timbre
Timbre means 'sound quality'
The difference in sound say between a trumpet and a violin
Try to identify as many different sounds as you can.
Learn to identify the sounds of different instruments in the same family eg
Strings - violin, cello, double bass
Word painting
Use adjectives such as metallic, shimmering, bright
Structure
Structure or form describes the order in which sections of it are repeated or
not.
BINARY form (AB) consisting of a section (A) followed by a section (B)
TERNARY form (ABA)
Waltz – intro – ABA – Coda
Disco – song structure (intro, verse, chorus, middle 8, outro)
Salsa - Intro-verse (sometimes several) - break - montuno (improvisations,
call and response) – mambo – montuno – ending.
Irish Jig and Reel – AB (Binary) or AABB
Line dancing - Verse and chorus structure often with equal length sections. A
sequence of steps can be extended by adding a tag (few extra counts), or a
bridge (longer section).
Expression
The expression of the music, or in other words how it is played.
Many Italian words are used to describe the expression of the music. These
include : Animato - in an agitated manner, Con Brio - with vigour, Con Moto with movement, Dolce - sweetly, Grazioso - gracefully, - Legato - smoothly,
Mesto - sadly, Pesante - heavily, Subito - suddenly, Tutti - everyone plays or
sings, Vivo - lively.
Articulation
Legato – smooth
Staccato - short, detached
Tremolo
Pizzicato - plucked (strings)
Arco - with bow (strings)
Col legno - with the wood of the bow