Songstuff: Music Glossary

You are one step away from taking part in the most inspiring community of musicians and songwriters.

It won't cost you a single cent.

Click NOW to get instant access!

Sign Up

or

Log In

Modules

New Articles

What Does Success Mean in the Music Biz and How Do I Get It?

How to be succesful in the music biz? It is a question that is often posed by would be stars. Songstuff author Cheryl Hodge looks at what success might mean to the modern musician an describes exactly how she achieved her own success in music. By Cheryl Hodge

Using Rhyme to Enhance Your Lyrics

Using rhyme effectively within your songs is something that you, as the songwriter, are likely to aiming for. In this article Songstuff author Anthony Ceseri explores the use of rhyme within a song. Using A song by Evanescence, Immortal, as an example Athony goes on to break down the basics of rhyme schemes and when you can break the rules. By Anthony Ceseri

Breathing Exercises

Most singers will have heard of the importance of breathing from the diaphragm, but what does that really mean? This article explains how to breathe properly when you are singing and describes exercises to develop your voice by breathing from the diaphragm. By Ken Taylor

Aligning Your Lyrical Phrases with Your Melodic Phrases

Does it make a difference how well lyrical phrases line up with melodic phrases? Using an example song we can look at exactly why it matters and understand what we as songwriters can do to improve our own songs. By Anthony Ceseri

Taste, Not Just In Your Mouth Anymore...

Songwriters can sometimes cause offense without intending to. By writing lyrics intended to have a broad appeal this is easy to do. This is further complicated by shifting trends in language. Jon looks at the topic in detail and explains what he finds. By Jon Hanover

Welcome to the Songstufff Glossary!

Find the meaning to common, and not so common terms in this broad ranging glossary. Covering a diversity of Music related terminology including Music Technology, Music Theory, Music Law, Acoustics, and Electronics, the Songstuff Glossary is an ever-growing collection. Everything from Absorption to Zero Level.

We're continually adding new descriptions, so if you have a suggested description please Contact Songstuff.

Glossary items are listed in alphabetical order. Please use the navigation block below to browse the glossary items.

Glossary Navigation

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

New Glossary Listings

Arco
Indicates the use of a bow.

Andante
Indicates a medium tempo of between 76 and 108 bpm

Aeolian Mode
Commonly called the Natural Minor Scale, Aeolian mode is the sixth mode of the major scale.

The Aeolian mode for the scale of C major is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A

Adagio
Medium slow in tempo, approximately 66 - 76 bpm

Action
The term 'Action' is used to decsribe the height of the strings from the fretboard of a stringed instrument.

Absolute Pitch
Absolute Pitch is simply another name for Perfect Pitch, the 1 in 10,000 people ability to tell the pitch of a note without using a reference note for comparison.

AABA
AABA is a shorthand notation for a common song form where A is the main theme and B is a bridge theme. AABA means that the main theme A is played twice, foloowed by the bridge, B, before a testatement of the original theme A.

Sections are of the same length, often 8 bars each giving 32 bars in total.

Crosstalk
When one signal "spills" or "leaks" onto another signal during the transmission process. For example when two audio cables are routed adjacent to each other and signal leaks from one onto the other.

This most commonly happens with poorly shielded cables carrying signals with sharp transient spikes. This is due to unwanted conductive, inductive or capacative coupling between the two cables (or anywhere on the cirtcuit).

Crosstalk is also applied to unwanted spill (bleed, leakage) from an unwanted acoustic sound source into a microphone, for example bleed from a singer's headphones onto a vocal recording, or hi-hat hits onto the snare microphone. This is effectively acoustic coupling.

FSK Sync
An old form of clock sync. Commonly used with the early Atari sequencers and drum machines.

SMPTE -VITC
Vertical Interval Time Code, a.k.a "vitsee", means SMPTE timecode that is placed into the space between video frames. Once "burned in" between frames it is called BITC or "bitsee".