Electronic music - musical terms: Difference between revisions
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==Ornament== | ==Ornament== | ||
Ornaments are notes | Ornaments are notes, or other things playing with pitch, | ||
that are not necessary to the melody, harmony, or rhythm (in the analytical sense), | that are not necessary to the melody, harmony, or rhythm (in the analytical sense), | ||
but still add to the piece as a form of decoration. | but still add to the piece as a form of decoration. | ||
May be improvised, may be marked, or marked with some interpretation on how to play) | |||
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All mean | Musicians are also confused about these terms, and disagree, and that seems to relate somewhat to what instrument they play, | ||
what is possible on specific instruments, and what works out as effectively the same on them anyway. | |||
All three mean going from one pitch to another hearing pitches inbetween. | |||
: slide is not very specific | |||
: glissando | : glissando often means in a more discrete way, e.g. meaning 'go through all the steps (in the scale / at all) inbetween these two notes' | ||
: | : portamento is often continuous, and frequently may be slower | ||
There is also sometimes distinction in whether you slide up to a note or start and then slide. | |||
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{{stub}} | {{stub}} | ||
Ghost notes are notes that that ''do'' have | Ghost notes are notes that that ''do'' have rhythmic value, but are intentionally very soft. | ||
They are often de-emphasized below what would be considered regular soft notes for the instrument you're on. | They are often de-emphasized below what would be considered regular soft notes for the instrument you're on. | ||
Exactly what they are called, and how you make them (or avoid them), will vary with the instrument, | |||
so depending on instrument and context you may also see specific terms like muted notes, silenced notes, or false notes. | |||
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On stringed instruments, | On stringed instruments you pick, it often means probably play strings while also muting them. For example, doing so on a bass guitar is more percussive than tonal (compared to regular playing). | ||
Fretting the note without playing (like a hammer-on), or playing it very quietly, can also make sense. | Fretting the note without playing (like a hammer-on), or playing it very quietly, can also make sense. | ||
Revision as of 15:05, 2 September 2023
These are generic musical terms (of which there are many more).
And roughly the subset seen implemented on synths.
Arpeggio
Arpeggio is the concept of breaking a chord into notes in quick succession, often specifically one ordered by increasing or decreasing tone.
You may associate (particularly slower) arpeggiation with seventies and eighties synth sounds,
because arpeggiation was both
a way to get chord-like things out of often-monophonic synths,
and an easy way to something that functions like a bassline.
Wider than that, it can be an intentional technique in composition.
Vibrato
Vibrato is a regular variation in pitch.
Tends to be a small and fast change.
Used in singing, and in various instruments, often for
a fuller sound,
a more emotive sound,
for a spacier sound,
for more permissive pitch perception,
etc.
From a synthesis perspective, it's frequency modulation with a small amplitude (typically less than a semitone) and fairly slow(-for-FM) carrier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato
Tremolo
A trembling effect.
This can come either from
- very rapid repetition of a note
- sometimes for the perception of it being played longer
- sometimes for the texture that the variation in volume gives
- a (often fast) variation in volume.
Sometimes confused with vibrato,
which makes sense in that on various instruments (and e.g. a Leslie speaker) the two come hand in hand, due to physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremolo
Sostenuto
A three-pedal piano will often (details actually vary [1]) have those pedals be
- soft
- sostenuto
- sustain
Where sustain disengages all the string's dampers allowing free resonance until the pedal is released,
sostenuto is more selective: holds away the dampers of the notes that were held when the pedal is pressed, until that pedal is released.
With some well-timed foot movement this allows you to e.g. sustain the chords, while the melody is moving quickly without sustain.
The faster the piece, the harder this is to do, because you should not be playing any melody the moment you play the chord to which the sostenuto should apply.
For context, the soft pedal is actually not about the dampeners.
If you've ever seen a piano open you'll have noticed that every note has multiple strings. The details vary per model, but it's often three, lowering to two or one for bass notes. There are multiple reasons for that, but the one we care about here is loudness - and this is relevant to why the piano's full name at the time was piano-forte.
The soft pedal shifts the entire keyboard so that the hammer hits fewer of these strings, which is also why it can apply to specific played notes without further mechanisms.
Dynamics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics_(music)
Ornament
Ornaments are notes, or other things playing with pitch, that are not necessary to the melody, harmony, or rhythm (in the analytical sense), but still add to the piece as a form of decoration.
May be improvised, may be marked, or marked with some interpretation on how to play)