Glossary of Key Terms (Junior Cert Music): Revision Notes

Glossary of Key Terms

Term	Interpretation
Appraise	To assess the value or the quality of something.
Body percussion	Sounds made using parts of the body (e.g. foot stamping, thigh slapping).
Chord	Two or more notes sounding simultaneously.
Chord progression	A series of chords sounding one after another.
Compression	A processing effect used in mixing or recording to control and reduce the dynamic range of the music.
Culture/cultural protocols	The ideas, customs, practices, values and social behaviours of a particular people or society.
Distortion	Change in the form of an electrical signal or sound wave during processing; alter the sound of amplified electric music instruments and most commonly associated with the electric guitar.
Elements of music	The key ingredients of music (pulse, duration, tempo, pitch, dynamics, timbre, texture, style and tonality).
Found sounds	Sounds created from everyday objects (e.g. sticks, stones, furniture).
Genre	A broad category of music or musical forms (e.g. rock, jazz, country).
Graphic notation	Notation in which sound or music is represented by shapes or lines or images.
Ideate	Form an idea; conceive or imagine.
Improvisation	Spontaneous musical creation, often based on an existing melodic or harmonic fragment.
Incidental music	Music used in a film, play, computer game, shopping centre or other media as a background or to create or enhance a particular atmosphere.
Jingle	A short slogan, verse or tune to be easily remembered, especially for use in advertising.
Metre	The grouping of beats usually in groups of twos, threes and fours.
Mood piece	A piece of music that suggests or indicates a particular feeling or state of mind or specific atmosphere.
Motif	A dominant or recurring idea in a piece of music.
Ostinato	A repeated accompaniment pattern that can be rhythmic or melodic and that is maintained continually throughout a piece of music.
Processing effects	A series of mechanical or technological operations on a recording process that modifies the original sound inputted.
Reverb	A processing effect where the sound produced by an amplified musical instrument is made to reverberate; an echo effect used to recreate the natural effects of room reverberation.
Sonority	The quality of sound or timbre of a particular sound source.
Sound source	The means by which a sound is produced (e.g. on an instrument, by using the voice, an environmental object, an electronic device).
Stimulus	Something that inspires the students to create a musical idea; a stimulus can for example come from a personal experience, an existing piece of music, a visual or graphic, a work of art, an object or a word.
Structural devices	Devices used in composing and creating pieces of music (e.g. motif, phrase, sequence, canon, imitation, theme and variation).
Style	The manner in which music is organised in relation to particular conventions; it often relates to a particular historical period, genre, performer or composer.
Texture	The 'density' of sound in a piece of music; this can range from thin (single line of melody) to thick (several layers of melodies, harmonies or timbres).
Timbre	The specific tone or sound quality of an instrument or voice, or a collection of instruments and voices.