Are you feeling lost in a sea of musical terms? You’re not alone. Music has its own language, and it can be confusing. That’s why we’ve created this Music Theory Glossary.
From basic terms like ‘melody’ and ‘rhythm’ to more complex ones like ‘negative harmony,’ we break things down in a way that’s easy to understand. Each term links to a guide that explains it further. So go ahead, explore, and make the language of music a little less mysterious in our glossary of music terms for beginners!
A
- AABA Form
- Absolute Music
- Accidental
- Aeolian Mode
- Altered Chord
- Alto Clef
- Anacrusis
- Aria
- Articulation
- Augmented Chord
B
C
- Cadence
- Cadenza
- Canon
- Cantata
- Circle Of Fifths
- Chord
- Chromatic Scale
- Clef
- Coda
- Compound Interval
- Concerto
- Counterpoint
D
E
F
H
I
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
- Scale
- Secondary Dominant
- Seventh Chord
- Slash Chord
- Slur
- Solfege
- Sonata Form
- Species Counterpoint
- Staccato
- Staff
- Stave
- Strophic Form
- Suspended Chord
- Syncopation
T
- Tempo
- Tenor Clef
- Ternary Form
- Tetrachord
- Texture
- Theme And Variation
- Through Composed Form
- Tied Note
- Timbre
- Time Signature
- Tone Poem
- Treble Clef
- Triad Chord
- Triplet
- Tritone
- Tritone Substitution
- Tuplet
- Twelve Tone Technique