Defining Musical Terms

Staff-- A musical staff is where notes and rests are written. This is drawn as five horizontal lines and four spaces, where each line and space represent a note on the piano.

Clef-- A clef is the first symbol at the beginning of the staff. It is placed at the far left of the staff. The clef indicates the pitch of the notes to be played; the two most commonly used clefs are the Treble or G- Clef and the Bass or F-Clef.

Measure-- A measure is a segment of time with a given number of beats of a given duration. In music, a measure is separated by a vertical line or a bar that crosses the horizontal lines of the staff. Each measure can be made up of notes and/or rests.

Note--There are several different types of musical notes, each one being a distinct symbol, such as sixteenth note, half note, and whole note, and these notes indicate the duration and pitch of a sound. Each note value corresponds with a rest.

Pitch-- Pitch dictates the frequency of a sound. Notes towards the right of a piano keyboard have a higher pitch, or frequency, than notes towards the left.

Beat-- A beat may be defined as a pulse of sound that marks the meter or rhythm of a piece of music. The beat counting starts at the beginning of a measure, whether it starts with a note or rest. A metronome is a device which is used to count the beats; the metronome will tick according to the speed at which it is set.

Time Signature-- The time signature, which determines meter, indicates the quantity of beats there are in a measure and which note gets one beat. The top number in a time signature indicates the number of beats are in a measure, and the bottom number determines what note value gets one beat.

About The Author Angela Nazario, is a freelance web programmer who enjoys writing articles about learning music for a change of pace. See Music Wizard's "Music Library of Articles" at http://www.MusicWizard.com/info/ . WEB MASTERS: Use of this article requires links to remain intact.