| Pitch | The highness or lowness of sound.
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| Octave | From one letter up or down to its next occurrence.
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| Octave Register | The space from any C up to the next B.
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| Staff | Indicates the precise pitch desired. An arrangement of five lines and four spaces that can be extended through the use of ledger lines.
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| Ledger Lines | Used to extend the staff.
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| Clef | Must appear at the beginning of the staff in order to indicate which pitches are to be associated with which lines and spaces.
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| Grand Staff | A combination of two staves joined by a brace, with the top and bottom staves using treble and bass clefs, respectively.
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| Major Scale | A specific pattern of small steps (called half steps) and larger ones (called whole steps) encompassing an octave.
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| Half Step | The distance from a key on the piano to the very next key, white or black.
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| Whole Step | Skips the very next key on the piano keyboard and goes instead to the following one.
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| Tetrachord | A four-note scalar pattern.
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| Accidental | A symbol that raises or lowers a pitch by a half or whole step.
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| Key | Identifies the first degree of a scale.
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| Key of G Major | Refers to the major scale that begins on G.
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| Key Signature | A pattern of sharps or flats that appears at the beginning of a staff and indicates that certain notes are to consistently raised or lowered.
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| Enharmonic | Notes that are spelled differently but sound the same.
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| Transpose | To write or play music in some key other than the original.
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| Circle of Fifths | A diagram like the face of a clock that aids in the memorization of key signatures.
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| Natural Minor Scale | A minor scale formation, similar to a major scale with lowered 3, 6 and 7.
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| Harmonic Minor Scale | A minor scale type which can be thought of as a major with lowered 3 and 6.
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| Melodic Minor Scale | A minor scale type which has an ascending form and a descending form. It lowers scale degree 3 when ascending and scale degrees 3, 6, and 7 when descending.
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| Relatives | Major and minor keys that share the same key signature.
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| Parallels | Major and minor keys that share the same starting note.
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| Interval | The measurement of the distance in pitch between two notes.
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| Harmonic Interval | Separates pitches that are sounded simultaneously.
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| Melodic Interval | Separates pitches that are sounded in succession.
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| Unison | In discussing intervals, the term used instead of 1.
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| Octave | In discussing intervals, the term used instead of 8.
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| Simple Intervals | Intervals smaller than an 8ve.
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| Compound Intervals | Intervals larger than and including 8ve.
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| Perfect | A modifier used only in connection with unisons, 4ths, 5ths, 8ves, and their compounds (11ths, and so on).
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| Augmented | When a perfect or a major interval is made a half step larger without changing the numerical name.
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| Diminished | When a perfect or minor interval is made a half step smaller without changing its numerical name.
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| Tritone | The term used for the +4 or its enharmonic equivalent, the (5.
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| Interval Inversion | When one puts the lower note above the upper one (or the reverse).
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| Consonant | Pleasing to the ear.
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| Dissonant | Not pleasing to the ear.
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| Bass | The lowest voice.
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