Key Signatures A grouping of sharp or flat signs placed immediately after the clef on the lines of the staff. Unless contradicted (cancelled) by natural signs, they affect every note with the same name as the ones marked.
Key the tonal focus of a musical arrangement
Toccata An important type of early keyboard music characterized by rapid, repeated notes, designed to 'show off' the instrument, composer, and the performer.
Accidental any sharp, flat, or natural that is not given in the key signature. An accidental in front of a note applies as often as the note is repeated at that particular octave during the remainder of the bar it is in. In the bar that comes after accidental sharps or flats is usual to find 'warning' to contradict the accidentals in the previous bar.
Sonata In the Baroque, the term 'sonata' was applied to a variety of works for solo instrument such as keyboard or violin, and for groups of instruments. In the transition from the Baroque to the Classical period, the term sonata underwent a change in usage, coming to mean a chamber-music genre for either a solo instrument (usually a keyboard), or a solo melody instrument with piano. Increasingly after 1800, the term applied to a form of large-scale musical argument, and it was generally used in this sense in musicology and musical analysis.
Sharp Sign A sharp sign (#) raises or 'sharpens' a note. It affects all notes in the same position which follow in the bar. Written immediately after the clef , it is a part of the key signature .
Relative major and minor the major and minor keys that share the same notes in that key.
Modulation shifting to a different key
Major Interval The interval between the keynote of a major scale and the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, or 7th of that scale.
Locrian Mode A mode whose scale pattern is that of playing B to B on the white keys of a piano. While this mode theoretically existed in medieval times, it was never used.
Fugue A composition, often for a keyboard instrument, in which several musical lines (or 'voices' - usually three or four) enter in succession in different ranges with the same theme, which is then extensively developed in further entries of the theme. The most famous composer of fugues was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
Flat Sign A flat sign (b) lowers or 'flattens' a note. It affects all notes in the same position which follow in the bar. Written immediately after the clef, it is part of the key signature.
Double Bar Line A double bar line are two vertical lines that marks the end of a piece of music, or the end of a repeat. It can also mark the end of a section of music, a change of key or a change of time signature.
Clef Literally means 'key', it's a symbol at the beginning of a staff that denotes the pitch of the notes.
Arrangement When music has been 'arranged' it has been changed from the original way in which it was written. It may be in a different key, simplified or expanded, or it may have been adapted for different instrumentation. Music which is arranged for an instrument or voice has been made particularly suitable for that instrument or voice.
Arpeggiando This is the wavy vertical line preceding a chord which is to be 'rolled.' It is used for keyboard and harp music.
Aeolian Mode A medieval mode whose scale pattern is that of playing A to A on the white keys of a piano. This scale is also called the natural minor scale.
