Glossary

Terms of the course

Every word is explained in one of the lessons. The link leads to where it first appeared.

accidental

A sharp, flat or natural before a note inside a bar rather than by the clef: it applies to that note in that octave from the sign to the end of the bar. lesson 05 →

accompaniment

The part that supports the tune: chords, a bass or a figure made from the notes of a chord; in the full Ode, the left hand's chords. lesson 06 →

accompaniment figure

A short accompaniment pattern that is repeated on other notes. lesson 07 →

arpeggio

A chord whose notes are played not together but one after another, usually from the bottom up; in Italian, “as on a harp”. lesson 10 →

articulation

How notes are joined to one another: connected (legato), detached (staccato) or something in between. In the score it is shown by slurs and dots. lesson 09 →

bar

A stretch of music between two bar lines, the vertical lines across the staff; every bar holds the same number of beats. lesson 01 →

bass clef

The sign at the start of the lower staff that puts F3 on the fourth line from the bottom, between its two dots; low notes are written in it, usually the left-hand part. lesson 02 →

beat

The even step into which time in music is divided; beats are counted aloud: one, two, three, four. lesson 01 →

broken chord

The notes of a chord played not together but in turn, one after another. lesson 07 →

C

The white key just left of a group of two black keys; the keyboard has several, and they are all called C. lesson 00 →

chord

Three or more notes played together; in the score their heads stand one above the other on a single stem. lesson 06 →

chord symbol

A chord's name as a letter over the notes: the letter is the root, a small m means minor, the figure 7 a seventh chord; which keys to play is up to the player. lesson 06 →

crescendo

A gradual increase in loudness; in the score, a hairpin opening out to the right, or the word crescendo (cresc.). lesson 04 →

diminuendo

A gradual decrease in loudness; in the score, a hairpin closing to the right, or the word diminuendo (dim.). lesson 04 →

dot

A dot to the right of a note makes it longer by half its length: a dotted quarter lasts a beat and a half, a dotted half three beats. lesson 01 →

double-dotted note

Two dots to the right of a note: the first lengthens it by half, the second by a quarter more. A double-dotted quarter note lasts 1¾ beats. lesson 09 →

downbeat

The first beat of a bar, where the weight falls: in 3/4 time it is “one” of “one, two, three”; it is played a little heavier than the others. lesson 03 →

Dual

An EZ-310 mode in which every key sounds two Voices at once: the main one and a second, the Dual Voice; it is switched on with the [DUAL] button. lesson 06 →

dynamics

Letters under the notes that set the loudness: pp very quiet, p quiet, mp and mf moderate, f loud, ff very loud; from the Italian words piano and forte. lesson 04 →

eighth notes

A note with a filled-in head, a stem and a flag: it lasts half a quarter note; two or more eighths in a row are usually joined by a beam instead of flags. lesson 03 →

fingering

The numbers of the fingers that play the notes: 1 the thumb, 2 the index, 3 the middle, 4 the ring, 5 the little finger, the same in both hands. lesson 00 →

first and second endings

A bracket with a number over the bars before or after a repeat: the first ending is played the first time through, the second ending the second time, in place of the first. lesson 05 →

five-finger position

A place for the hand on the keyboard where each of the five fingers has a key of its own; in the C position the right thumb is on middle C (C4) and the little finger on G4. lesson 01 →

flat

The sign ♭ before a note or by the clef: the note sounds a semitone lower, on the next key to the left; B♭ is the black key between A and B. lesson 04 →

grand staff

Two staves joined on the left by a curly bracket (the brace) and by shared bar lines: the upper one, usually in the treble clef, for the right hand, the lower one, usually in the bass clef, for the left; notes written one above the other sound together. lesson 02 →

half note

A note with a hollow head and a stem; it lasts two quarter notes, two beats in 4/4 time. lesson 01 →

key signature

Sharps or flats right after the clef: they apply to every note of that name, in every octave, until the end of the piece. lesson 03 →

latency

The time between pressing a key and the sound from the computer's speakers or headphones; usually a few hundredths of a second, much more with wireless headphones. lesson 00 →

ledger line

A short line above or below the staff for a note that does not fit on the five lines; middle C (C4) in the treble clef is written on a ledger line below. lesson 01 →

legato

Smooth, connected playing: the next key goes down at the moment the one before is released, and there is no silence between the sounds. lesson 01 →

letter and a number

A note's letter with the number of its octave: the octave from middle C up to the B above it is 4, so middle C is C4; the numbers rise to the right. lesson 00 →

major

The mode in which the third step is four semitones above the main note: in G major it is B. lesson 04 →

metronome

A device that clicks the beats evenly at a set tempo; the EZ-310 has one built in, switched on with [METRONOME]. lesson 01 →

middle C

C4: the C in the middle of the keyboard, where octave 4 begins; on the EZ-310 it is the third C from the left. lesson 00 →

MIDI

The language in which a keyboard and a computer pass notes to each other: which key was pressed, how hard, and when it was released; there is no sound in it. lesson 00 →

minor

The mode in which the third step is three semitones above the main note: in G minor it is B♭; minor often feels more restrained and sadder than major. lesson 04 →

modulation

A move of the music into another key, with another main note and other signs. lesson 08 →

Motion of the voices

How two voices move against each other: the same way is similar motion, opposite ways is contrary motion, and one standing while the other moves is oblique motion. lesson 08 →

natural

The sign ♮ before a note: it cancels a sharp or flat, from the key signature or an accidental; the note sounds without a sign, as on a white key. lesson 05 →

note names

The seven names of the white keys in order, left to right: C, D, E, F, G, A, B; after B comes C again. lesson 00 →

octave

The twelve keys from C to B, seven white and five black; in the next octave up or down the same notes sound higher or lower and keep their names. lesson 00 →

passing the thumb under

The way the hand covers more than five keys without a jump: going up, the thumb passes under the palm to the next key; going down, another finger crosses over the thumb. lesson 03 →

pedal

The piano's right pedal: while it is down, the dampers are lifted and the sounds do not die away when the keys are let go. On a keyboard instrument a footswitch takes its place. lesson 10 →

pedal marks

Signs under the lower staff: Ped. means press the pedal, an asterisk means let it up. Sometimes a bracket under the notes is drawn instead. lesson 10 →

posture

How a musician sits at the instrument: the height of the seat, the distance from the keys, the position of the hands, back and feet. lesson 00 →

quarter note

A note with a filled head and a stem; in 4/4 time it lasts one beat. lesson 01 →

repeat sign

Two dots before a double bar line: having reached them, you go back and play the passage again; from the start of the piece if there is no matching sign with dots after a bar line. lesson 02 →

rest

A sign for silence lasting an exactly measured time; every note value has its own rest: a quarter rest lasts one beat, a half rest two, a whole rest four. lesson 02 →

root

The note a chord is built from and named after; in the triad D, F♯, A it is D. lesson 06 →

semitone

The smallest step on the keyboard: from one key to the very next, white or black, with nothing skipped; E to F and B to C are semitones too. lesson 03 →

seventh chord

A chord of four notes, every other one: a triad and one more note above it, the seventh up from the root; in chord symbols, the figure 7: A7 is A, C♯, E, G. lesson 06 →

sharp

The sign ♯ before a note or by the clef: the note sounds a semitone higher, on the next key to the right; F♯ is the black key between F and G. lesson 03 →

shift of position

Moving the hand to a new place on the keyboard, where the fingers have other keys; it is done between notes, best after a long note or in a rest, and a finger number in the score hints at it. lesson 03 →

sixteenth notes

A note half as long as an eighth: four sixteenths fill one quarter-note beat. In the score, two flags on the stem or two beams. lesson 09 →

slur

An arc over several different notes: they are played connected, legato; the end of a slur is the end of a piece of the phrase, where the hand leaves the keys for a moment. lesson 04 →

smooth, connected phrase

Pianists' term for a phrase played connected, with the loudness rising smoothly to its top and falling away towards its end, without bumps. lesson 04 →

staccato

Detached playing: the key is let go well before the next note, and silence is heard between the sounds. In the score, a dot over or under the note. lesson 09 →

staff

Five horizontal lines on which and between which notes are written; the higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. lesson 01 →

tempo

The speed of the music: how many beats go by in a minute, in beats per minute (BPM); ♩ = 80 is eighty quarter notes a minute. lesson 01 →

tie

An arc between two neighbouring notes of the same pitch: the second is not pressed; the first is held for as long as both last together. lesson 06 →

time signature

Two figures at the start of the music, after the clef: the upper one says how many beats are in a bar, the lower one which note counts as a beat (4 is a quarter note). lesson 01 →

top voice

The highest note of a chord or of notes sounding together; it usually carries the tune, so it is played a little louder than the rest. lesson 09 →

Touch Response

The instrument's setting for how much the loudness depends on how hard a key is pressed; on the EZ-310 it is function 004, “TouchRes”, with the values Soft, Medium, Hard and Off. lesson 02 →

treble clef

The sign at the start of the staff that puts the G above middle C (G4) on the second line from the bottom; the other notes are counted from it. lesson 01 →

triads

A chord of three notes taken every other one: from the bottom note, the third and the fifth in the order of the notes, for example D, F♯, A. lesson 06 →

Voice

A sound of the instrument, the colour that tells a piano from an organ or a violin; the EZ-310 manual calls these sounds Voices and numbers them. lesson 00 →

voice

In a score, an independent line of notes that goes from note to note, like a tune. Not to be confused with a sound (a Voice on the EZ-310). lesson 08 →

whole note

A note with a hollow head and no stem; it lasts four quarter notes, the whole bar in 4/4 time. lesson 01 →