Grade 3 Italian Musical Terms

Written by Dan Farrant
Last updated

For the ABRSM grade 3 music theory exam you’re going to need to know some Italian words and symbols and what they mean.

Although it can seem quite daunting at first don’t worry you’ll pick them up with a bit of work. 

So below are all the Grade 3 Italian Musical Terms for you to start getting to know.

The Grade 3 Italian Music Terms

Grade 3 Italian TermsDefinition
ad libitum, ad lib.at pleasure, to be played freely
adagiettorather slow
agitatoagitated
alla brevewith a minim beat
amorelove (amoroso – loving)
animasoul, spirit
animandobecoming lively
animatoanimated, lively
benwell
briovigour
comodoconvenient, comfortable
decisowith determination
delicatodelicate
energicoenergetic
forzaforce
largamentebroadly
leggierolight, nimble
marcato / marc.emphatic, accented
marzialein a military style
mestosad
pesanteheavy
prima / primofirst
risolutobold, strong
ritmicorhythmically
rubato / tempo rubatowith some freedom of time
scherzando / scherzosoplayful, joking
seconda / secondosecond
semplicesimple, plain
semprealways
stringendogradually getting faster
subitosuddenly
tantoso much
tranquillocalm
triste / tristamentesad, sorrowful
voltatime (prima volta – first time)

Grade 3 Italian Terms Quiz

Time for a quiz!

See how well you know the above grade 3 performance terms by taking the quiz below.

Good luck.

As well as all these grade 3 Italian terms and symbols, if you’re doing your grade 3 exam you’ll need to know the words and symbols from grades 1 and 2.

Below you’ll find links to those words as well as the terms you’ll need to know for grades 4 and 5 once you’re finished with these.

Grade 1 Performance Directions

Grade 2 Performance Directions

Grade 4 Performance Directions

Grade 5 Performance Directions

Or if you’re done with learning performance directions for a bit you can head back to read more of our lessons on our learn music theory.

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Dan Farrant, the founder of Hello Music Theory, has been teaching music for over 15 years, helping hundreds of thousands of students unlock the joy of music. He graduated from The Royal Academy of Music in 2012 and then launched Hello Music Theory in 2014. He plays the guitar, piano, bass guitar and double bass and loves teaching music theory.