Musical Terms Grade 1
Italian Terms In Grade One Music Theory (Trinity and ABRSM), you need to know what a handful of Italian terms mean in music. People often wonder why most musical terms …
Musical Symbols
Musical Symbols Symbols in music have many different shapes and uses. They are useful because they give us information quickly, without us having to read words. Symbols which are attached …
Dynamics
Dynamics – or “Volume Control” “Dynamics” are all about the volume (loudness) of music – is it quiet or loud, does it increase or decrease in volume? Constant or Changing? …
Tonic Triads
What does the term “tonic triad” mean? The tonic is the first (and last) note in a scale. “Triad” means “chord built with thirds”. A “tonic triad” is a music …
Interval Numbers
Intervals An interval is the distance between two notes, measured as a number. In Grade One Music Theory (ABRSM and Trinity), sometimes you have to measure given intervals, and sometimes …
Key Signatures
Key When we write music which mostly uses notes from the scale of C major and sounds good finished with a C, we say that the music is “in the …
Major Scales and Scale Degrees
Find out how important scales are to understanding everything about music theory in the MyMusicTheory Grade 1 Video Course! The C Major Scale Listen to this series of eight notes: …
Tones and Semitones
Semitones (Half Steps) A semitone (or “half step” in the USA) is the smallest distance between two different notes. Let’s use the piano keyboard to look at some examples of …
Tied Notes
Ties In music theory, a tie is a small, curved line which connects two notes of exactly the same pitch. The time values of tied notes are added together to …
Simple Time Signatures
Time Signatures A time signature is a symbol which we write at the beginning of a piece of music to show how many beats there are in one bar. Time …