Download Score Reading Vocabulary Key signature: The sharps or flats that

Score Reading Vocabulary
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Key signature: The sharps or flats that are placed at the beginning of a staff to indicate the key
of the music
Time Signature: A symbol with 2 numbers, one on top of the other (like a fraction), that
indicates how many beats are in a measure; the bottom number indicates the type of notes that
receives one beat
Meter: The organization of beats and their divisions
Tempo: The rate of speed at which beats are played
Beat: Any pulsing unit of musical time
Accidental: A marking used the raise and lower the indicated pitch; sharps raise the note a
whole step, flats lower the note a half step, the naturals return the note to the original pitch
Notation: The art of writing musical notes on paper
Note: A symbol used to indicate the duration and pitch of sound, as in whole notes, and quarter
notes
Pitch: The highness or lowness of a tone
Score: The written deception of all the individual parts sung or played by each of the voices or
instruments in an ensemble
Staff: An assembly of horizontal lines and spaces that represent different pitches
Measure: A group of beats, indicated by the placement of bar lines on the staff
Key: The relationship of tones with a common center or tonic (Also a lever on a keyboard or
woodwind instrument)
Bar Lines: The vertical line placed on the staff between measures
Rhythm: The organization of sound in time; the arrangement of beats and accents in music
Tonality: The organization of musical notes around a tonic, or home pitch, based on a major or
minor scale or mode
Tonic: The first note of a scale (“Do” in solfeggio), which serves as the home base
Upbeat: The last of a measure as conducted; a weak beat which anticipated the downbeat (the
first beat of the next measure)
Common Time: The 4/4 time signature
Syncopation: An accent on an unexpected beat – or the lack of an accent on an expected beat