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.

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. Understand the difference between objective and subjective descriptions of sound and music.
2. 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?
3. 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 or triple? What is syncopation and why does it sometimes make it difficult to hear the meter?
4. What is "Jazz"? What geographic, cultural, and music techniques define this sort of music?
5. What are the four human voice ranges? (HINT: SATB) What is their order from highest to lowest, and which gender sings in each of them?
6. What are the four Western families of musical instruments? In general, how does each family make sound? What are the primary instruments used in Jazz?
7. 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?
8. What is a scale, and why might one note of a scale sound like a home or tonic pitch?
9. What is melody (three small parts to the definition) or a tune? What is a phrase, and what is a cadence?
10. What is harmony, especially in its broadest meaning, and what is a chord? What do the concepts of consonance and dissonance mean, and how are they used to describe individual intervals, chords, or even harmony?
11. In music, what is texture and how might it be described? What are the differences between a monophonic texture (monophony or unison) and a polyphonic texture (polyphony)? What are imitation and homophony, and how are they special kinds of polyphony? What is an accompaniment, and what kind of texture does it create?