The Jargon Buster Accidental Anacrusis

The Jargon Buster Accidental Example phrase: “Watch out for the accidentals!” An accidental is the term given to a note that is temporarily changed from what it would have been according to the key signature of a piece of music (see ‘Diatonic / Non-Diatonic’). Accidentals will appear as a sharp, flat, natural, double sharp or double flat sign just before a note head. The effect of this symbol will last for the bar in which it occurs and be cancelled out again by the next bar line. Sometimes you see a reminder in the following bar in brackets to confirm that the note needs to return to what it would be according to the key signature, but this is not essential and does not always appear. Anacrusis rd Example phrase: “The anacrusis starts on the 3 beat of the bar” An anacrusis is an incomplete bar at the beginning of a piece of music. Not all pieces start with a complete bar. For example, in ‘Happy Birthday’, it is the ‘birth’ syllable that is on the first beat of the bar, the ‘happy’ is on the 3rd beat of the previous bar, which as it is the beginning of the tune, would be written as an anacrusis – in this case, a one beat bar, even though the rest of the tune would have 3 beats in a bar. When this happens, it is the established tradition in music publishing that the last bar of the whole piece will also have an incomplete bar. In the instance of ‘Happy Birthday’ this would be a bar of 2 beats, i.e. the remainder of the anacrusis bar – together they will total the time signature. Bar Example phrase: “The chorus of this song lasts for 8 bars” Bars are a simple way to divide music up into much smaller sections, which has both visual and musical advantages. On paper, if a whole piece of music had no visual dividers, the score would be much more difficult to read. The regularly appearing vertical bar lines help with this. There are also musical advantages. Performing music often involves a lot of counting of beats. By having the music divided into bars, this means we can count beats in very small batches rather than have to worry about counting the hundreds or thousands of beats that may be in a full song. (See ‘Time Signature’). Beat Example phrase: “In this song there are 4 beats in the bar” The word ‘beat’ is often used interchangeably with the word ‘rhythm’ by people describing music. However, there are fundamental differences that mean it would be better to be more precise. The simplest way to think of the word beat, and how best to use it, is to imagine you were using the word ‘pulse’ instead, and see if the sentence still makes sense. The beat of music is the constant, regularly spaced pulse. The pulse of the music can get faster or slower, but when the speed is set, it is a constant – much like our pulse varies depending on whether we have been exercising or are resting. A rhythm CAN be the same as a beat, but in the vast majority of cases it is not, (see ‘Rhythm’). Cadence Example phrase: “This song ends with a perfect cadence” The term ‘cadence’ is used to describe pairs of chords that follow one another, and there are four types that we can label. The most commonly used, and easily recognizable, is a perfect cadence. This is a chord 5 followed by a chord 1, or to make use of correct chord labelling methods, chord V followed by chord I, as we use Roman Numerals in this situation. The sound of a perfect cadence to a listener is that something is ‘complete’, ‘finished’ or has arrived ‘home’. This is because we are pairing a chord which has a very strong sound of needing something else to follow it (chord V, see ‘Dominant’) with a chord based on the note that is based on the main note or root of the key (see ‘Tonic’). What is important to note here, is that the numbers are referring to the note that is the root of each chord, and that the type of chord is secondary. So, for example, in the key of C major, a chord of G major would be labelled Vmaj, and a chord of G7 would be labelled V7, i.e. the chord root and the chord type are two separate pieces of information, but both in this context could form the first chord in a perfect cadence as they are both formed on the 5th step of C major (see ‘Dominant’). So, in the key of C major, the chords of G major followed by C major is a perfect cadence, as is G7 followed by C major 6, as is G7 followed by C major 9 and so on. The important feature is that we are following a chord based on step 5 with a chord based on step 1. The next type of cadence to learn is a plagal cadence. This is a chord IV (4) followed by a chord I (1). Again, the type of chord formed on each does not affect the labelling of this pair of chords as a plagal cadence. Much like a perfect cadence, a plagal cadence also sounds complete as it finishes with a chord I. The most common way to remember the sound of a plagal cadence is to think of an ‘Amen’ at the end of old hymns (in fact a plagal cadence is even sometimes nicknamed the ‘amen cadence’). An example in a song in D minor would be a chord of G minor followed by a chord of D minor 7. Cadence (continued) The third type of cadence is an imperfect cadence. This is so-called simply because it is a perfect cadence in reverse, i.e. chord I followed by chord V. For example, in the key of Bb major this could be Bb major 7 followed by F7. As might be expected, this pairing of chords sounds ‘incomplete’ to the listener, as it follows a ‘home’ chord with a chord that sounds like it is leading somewhere. The final type of cadence is an interrupted cadence. Here we have many more variations possible, as simply put this is usually chord V followed by something OTHER than chord I. Perhaps the most common example is chord V followed by chord VI. For example, in the key of A major, this could be a chord of E7 followed by a chord of F# minor. Chord Example phrase: “A chord of B major” We use the word ‘chord’ to describe two or more notes that are sounded at the same time. In practical use, this tends to most commonly refer to three notes at once (‘triads’) or four notes or more (‘extended chords’). Clef Example phrase: “treble clef”, “bass clef” etc. The symbol that most commonly appears at the start of each line of music that indicates which notes are going to appear on the stave. Some instruments such as violin or flute use the treble clef because they play higher pitched notes. Some instruments such as bassoon or double bass use the bass clef because they play lower pitched notes. The alto clef is used by comparatively fewer instruments with the most common being the viola, and mainly covers the overlapping area from the top part of the bass clef to the lower part of the treble clef. The tenor clef is also used quite rarely, with its most common appearance being in cello parts where the usual bass clef is replaced with a tenor clef because the cello is needing to play a section in the higher part of its range. Treble clef Bass clef Clef (continued) The piano is an unusual example because it uses both the treble and bass clef because it has such a large range of notes that it can play. A common misunderstanding with piano music is that people think the treble clef means “right hand” and the bass clef means “left hand”. That is a myth, caused by the fact that most commonly the pianist uses their right hand to play higher notes and their left hand to play lower ones. But if the pianist needs both hands at the bottom of the piano, then they will have bass clefs on both of their staves, and vice versa with a treble clef if they need both hands at the top of the piano. One last point worth remembering is that instruments can change clef at any point on a stave (like the cello example) if they are going to need to play a section that is higher or lower than the clef range they are currently using. Diatonic / Non-Diatonic Example phrase: “Diatonic / Non-Diatonic harmony” Notes, chords or harmony can be described as either diatonic or non-diatonic depending on whether they ‘belong’ in the key being discussed. In simplistic terms, do they follow the ‘law’ of the key signature of the piece of music? For example, a C# does not appear in the key signature of G major, so any C# that appeared (see ‘Accidental’) in a piece of music in G major would be described as non-diatonic. This would also mean that any chord that contained a C# (for example a chord of A major) would be described as non-diatonic harmony. This is not to say that such occurrences are unusual: some examples of non-diatonic harmony are extremely common.

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