Songstuff: Music Glossary

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3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Singing Range

Vocal coach Ken Taylor discusses three simple and effective ways to improve your singing range while at the same time addressing some common vocal issues. By Ken Taylor

Songwriters - Learn How the Position of Your Lyrics Can Change What You're Saying

Position lyrical phrases within your music so that the message you are trying to get through to your audience is the message they get. By Anthony Ceseri

Visualization

When writing lyrics why is visualization important? The use of effective imagery can be the difference between listeners connecting to your lyrics or not. This article is for lyricists who are looking to improve the use of imagery within their lyrics. By Jon Hanover

Why Do The Lyrics of John Mayer’s Daughters Work So Well?

A lyrics analysis of the song Daughters by John Mayer, looking at how he evolves the meaning of the chorus by adding extra information to successive verses. By Anthony Ceseri

How To Survive In Today's Music Business Recession

Jazz and blues singer, and HMMA nominee Cheryl Hodge shares 3 secrets of her ongoing success within the music industry. By Cheryl Hodge

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

H

Headroom
This is the amount of signal amplitude range between the nominal signal level and the siganl level at which clipping will occur. Headroom is normally expressed in dB.

Headstock
The headstock is situated at the top of the neck. Normally this has the tuning pegs (sometimes called machine heads), and often displays the guitar company logo.

Helmholtz Resonator
This is an acoustic room treatment that can trap a specified range of low frequency audio signals.

Hertz (Hz)
This is the unit of measurement for frequency.

1 Hz = 1 cycle/sec

More generally:

Frequency = Wavelength/time

Hi-Hat
Instrument used as part of a drum kit consisting of a stand, rod, pedal, and 2 cymbals, one on top of the other. As the pedal is raised or lowered it causes the rod running through the stand to raise the top cymbal. Creating different tones as it is struck.

High-Pass Filter
This is a type of filter that rejects low frequency audio signals.

Hum
Low frequency tone that is normally a multiple of 50Hz or 60Hz. This is because it is often related to the mains power frequency.