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

V

Valve
Vacuum tube that acts as an amplification component, also known simply as a tube. Since the silicon revolution this component has been replaced in amplification circuits with the transistor.

Verse
Lyrically a verse is similar to a poetic stanza. Commonly the verse is used to "tell the story" of the song.

In popular music verses tend to have the same musical theme but different lyrics.

Volt
Unit of measurement used to describe the magnitude of electro-motive force (EMF).

Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA)
VCAs' are commonly used in audio equipment. Basically they are amplifiers whose gain is governed by an input control voltage.

Volume
This term is used to describe the signal level of an audio signal, or the intensity of the sound. Volume is usually expressed in decibels relative to a standard reference level or zero level.

Volume Unit (VU)
Unit used for measuring the magnitude of a complex electrical signal.

VU Meter
A volume indicator.