The following terms in boldface (as well as a few concepts not specifically listed, but indicated in these review questions) will form your basic vocabulary for discussing and describing music. You should know all of these terms, including their (1) spelling, (2) pronunciation, and (3) definition, and be able to use them correctly in speaking and writing about music.

In addition to your notes and the daily PowerPoint slides, remember to view the "Podcasts" on the publisher's textbook web site for video demonstrations of several of the terms and concepts listed below.

Dictionary definitions may be found in reference works such as The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music (REF ML 100 .N8 1988), The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (REF ML 100 .N485 1986), the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music (REF ML 100 .H36 1999), or other similar brief dictionaries of music found in that area of the library. For an extended explanation of any term or other general topic in music, look at The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians II (REF ML 100 .N48 2001), which is also available as an online database (look for “Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians” on the UCF Library list of “Databases Titles”).

1. Know the definition of music, and know the four parameters of sound (duration/rhythm, pitch/frequency, volume/dynamics and timbre/tone color) and how changes in them are described.
2. What are some of the basic sources of musical sounds?
3. In dealing with rhythm, what is the beat (or pulse) in a piece of music, and how does the concept of tempo relate to it?
4. What is an accent, and how do accents mark off measures? What is a meter, and what does it mean when a meter is either duple, triple, or quadruple? How do simple and compound subdivision relate to the basic beat?
5. When two different pitches are sounded, why might one sound higher (or lower) than the other, i.e., what is the scientific/acoustical basis for this difference? What is an interval, and what is special about the interval of an octave and the way we hear it and use it in singing?
6. What is a scale, and why might one note of a scale sound like a home or tonic pitch? What sorts of scales are prefered in rock music?
7. What is harmony, especially in its broadest meaning? What is a chord, and what is a triad? What are the three most important chords in much rock music? What do the concepts of consonance and dissonance mean, and how are they used to describe individual intervals, chords, or even harmony?
8. What are the three basic techniques for creating musical form? What is a phrase, and what is a cadence?
9. What are some of the basic formal patterns used in popular music?