Art & music · Grades 3–9
Music vocabulary · quick reference
Tempo is speed; dynamics are loudness. A piece can be slow and loud, or fast and quiet.
Key terms at a glance
Rhythm
The pattern of note durations and silences in music.
Beat
A recurring pulse used to organize musical time.
Tempo
The speed of the musical pulse.
Pitch
How high or low a sound is perceived to be.
Dynamics
Levels and changes of loudness in music.
Melody
A sequence of pitches heard as a musical line.
Harmony
The combination of simultaneous pitches and their relationships.
Timbre
The quality that helps distinguish sounds with similar pitch and loudness.
Rest
A notation indicating a duration of silence.
Bar line
A notation that separates musical measures.
Time signature
A notation indicating how beats are grouped and the reference note value.
Clef
A symbol that sets a pitch reference for a musical staff.
Staff
A set of five parallel lines used in common Western music notation.
Chord
A combination of notes sounded or understood together.
Scale
An ordered collection of pitches used as a musical framework.
Octave
The interval between pitches with an ideal frequency ratio of two to one.
Unison
The simultaneous sounding of the same pitch.
Crescendo
A gradual increase in loudness.
Decrescendo
A gradual decrease in loudness.
Ostinato
A repeated musical pattern.
Learning preview · teacher review required. Grade bands are approximate, not official curriculum alignment.