This page is dedicated to the musical terms and concepts addressed and explored in rehearsals.

Chordal construction based on notes of a Major scale:

I  (tonic)  Major chord made up of the root, 3rd & 5th of the scale.

ii  (supertonic)  minor chord made up of the 2nd, 4th & 6th of the scale.

iii  (mediant)  minor chord made up of the 3rd, 5th & 7th of the scale.

IV  (subdominant)  Major chord made up of the 4th, 6th & root of the scale.

V7  (dominant)  Major chord with additional tone for color made up of the 5th, 7th, 2nd & 4th of the scale.

vi  (submediant)  minor chord made up of the 6th, root & 3rd of the scale.

vii  (leading tone)  diminished chord made up of the 7th, 2nd & 4th of the scale.

Voice leading: the ways in which chords are produced by the motions of the individual musical lines.  Good voice leading moves to the closest option possible (common tone, half step or whole step).

Hemiola:  a compositional device using rhythms in a ratio of 3:2 (i.e. triplets vs. duple eighth notes simultaneously).

molto: much

meno: less, think meno = minus (-)

piu: more, think piu = plus (+)

mosso: motion

examples: molto meno mosso = much less motion, molto piu mosso = much more motion

tenuto: held on, sustained or kept down the full time

Scale Relationships:  Parallel Approach

Scale Relationships:  Relative Approach