Understanding Music

The chromatic Scale consists of 12 notes – each note is separated from the next by the interval of a semitone (or half step). It can be described as …

A perfect fourth is an interval of 5 semitones (half steps) between 2 notes. For example, if you play middle C on the piano followed by the F above …

A perfect fifth is an interval of seven semitones (half steps) between 2 notes. For example, if you play a C on the piano followed by the G above …

Ostinato Music Definition Ostinato (plural – ostinati or ostinatos) is an Italian word meaning obstinate or persistent and is used in music to describe a musical phrase or rhythm …

Timbre Definition Timbre can be defined as describing the tone-colour or tone quality of a sound. It is how we identify the difference between the quality of tone of …

What is a Picardy Third? A Picardy Third (or Tierce de Picardie) is where a major chord is written as the final chord of a piece that has mostly …

What is a Suspension in Music? A suspension in music is where a note from a chord is held whilst the other notes of the chord change to a …

The Neapolitan 6th is a chromatic chord built on the flattened supertonic of a key. It is predominantly written in its 1st inversion and has a very distinctive sound. …

Augmented 6th chords are chromatic chords that are built upon the interval of a major 3rd and an augmented 6th. They are very useful in modulation to different keys …

12 bar blues is a chord progression that defines the number of bars or measures in a typical blues song structure. In this lesson we are going to learn …

Musical Texture refers to how different layers of a piece of music are combined to produce the overall sound. There are four music textures that you need to understand: …

Syncopation Definition Syncopation is the accenting of a note which would usually not be accented. Syncopation is often described as being off beat. The time signature of a piece …

Semitones Definition A semitone (or half step) is the distance in pitch between a note and its nearest neighbour on a piano keyboard. Have a look at this keyboard: …

The term modes in music describes the scales which dominated European music for over 1,000 years up until 1500 and continued to be heavily influential for another 100 years …

An Introduction to Serialism The 20th century was a time of great experimentation and serialism (or twelve tone music) was a “20th century revolution in composition” (The Oxford Dictionary …

Sonata Form (sometimes known as Compound Binary Form or Sonata-Allegro or First Movement Form) is one of the most difficult forms of music to understand. However, do not be …