Important terms for musicians, especially beginners.

These are the starter definitions for these important terms.  As we learn more we may extend the definition...

Note  A musical sound

Chord   Three or more notes sounded (played) at the same time.

Scale     A sequence of notes, usually 7 but sometimes 5 or 6, organized in a specific pattern.

Beat      The steady pulse of music that we respond to when we tap our feet, nod our head, tap with our hands etc...

Tempo   Speed of the beat.

Pitch      The relative highness or lowness of a note

Measure, bar  A unit of musical measure. Wikipedia says: "In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats"  We will usually have four beats per measure in the music we play at first.

Bar line   The line that divides measures in a piece of sheet music. 

Time signature   Two numbers placed at the beginning of a piece of sheet music, one on top of the other, that tell us how many beats each measure gets and what type of note gets the beat.   It's important to know this term because the time signature tells us how to count the music which helps us with the rhythm of a piece.  "four-four" for example, is a common time signature and tells us that we will be counting to four a lot!