music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush music is made up of Dynamics and Articulations a lot more than pitch and rhythm! dynamics are symbols that show how loud to play or sing. Ï ƒ f F P p π ∏ ñ soft loud piano forte niente inaudible very soft very loud pianissimo medium soft fortissimo notated music medium loud specific mezzo piano very soft very loud uses interpretation italian terms pianississimo mezzo forte fortississimo to show relative is left to the volume. performer! gradual dynamic changes are indicated with hairpin symbols or the italian terms crescendo (increase volume) cresc. or diminuendo (descrease volume). dim. dynamics are usually placed below the staff on instrumental parts, and above the staff for vocal parts... to stay out of the way of the lyrics! articulations other symbols affect are symbols that groups of notes... show how to treat specific notes. 8va with additional all’ ottava: play the notes an octave higher v accent emphasis or lower, depending on where the symbol is. (two octaves is 15 ma , and three octaves is 22 ma !) > short and staccato detatched . emphasized and tenuto held for full value pedaling: On the piano, this symbol indicates when the damper pedal should be held down, - short and allowing the piano strings to ring freely. marcato accented older scores use for down and for u p. ° * ^ very short and staccatissimo forceful ´ suddenly loud sforzando and accented and then a simple shape sfz hold longer there’s with a bunch of fermata than indicated this thing... different uses! U rapidly alternate in most music it’s a tremolo between two notes slur, for bowed strings grouping notes like violin, it’s a which should be bow marking, up bow æ (bowed instruments) played smoothly showing notes start at tip of bow and connected! that should be played without switching ≤ (bowed instruments) the bow’s direction. down bow start at frog of bow in vocal parts, it shows melismas: groups of notes in any score, it can also rapidly alternate trill ≥ sung on a single be used on larger groups two adjacent notes syllable! of notes, where it serves as a phrase marking... helping Ÿ “roll” chord: notes the performer see the overall arpeggio added separately shape of the music! licensed gunder a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more.