Guitar Music Theory Part III

This is the final part of the guitar music theory lessons.

Please go to Music Theory I and Music Theory II if you have not study the first two parts of these guitar theory lessons.

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Reading Guitar Music : Types of Dynamics

How loud or soft to play the music depends on its markings. The dynamics of music is written at the beginning so that we get an idea of what the markings represent.

ff - Fortissimo - very loud.

f - Forte - loud.

mf - Mezzoforte - medium loud.

< crescndo - volume to be gradually increased.

> decrescendo - volume to be diminished.

dim or diminuendo - to decrease or become softer.

sf - sfz - sforzando - emphasize the note.

mp - Mezzopiano - medium soft.

p - piano - soft.

pp - pianissimo - very soft.

Reading Guitar Music : Different Tempo Markings

The speed of music is always indicated at the beginning of the piece. How fast or slow a piece is to be played is determined by the composer who gives an idea about how it should be played. Below is a list of words used to indicate the speed of the music from the slowest to the fastest tempos.

Largo Adagio - very slow.

Andante - slow.

Andantino - medium slow.

Moderato - medium.

Allegretto - medium fast.

Allegro - fast.

Vivace - Lively.

Presto - very fast.

Meno mosso - slower (less movement)

Piu mosso - faster (more movement)

Rit. Ritardando - slowing down the speed.

Rall.- Rallentando - Gradually slowing down the speed.

Accel - Accelerando - increasing the speed.

A tempo - (used if there was a change in tempo and meant to play the previous tempo.)

Fermata or Hold - placed above or below a note, means to hold the note until indicated to play the next note.

Da Capo(D.C.) - from the top.

Fine - end of music

Dal Segno(D.S.) - go to the sign.

Coda - to ending of music.

Appoggiatura - a grace note/notes before a melody note (refer to e.g.26a below)Example 26a

A Mordent - is a double grace note (refer to e.g.26b below)

Example 26b

Gruppetto - or turn - consists of four notes, the principal note and its upper and lower neighboring notes (refer to e.g.26c above)

A Trill - rapidly played between the written note and the note above.

M.M d - 60 indicates the tempo of the music. In this case there are 60 ticks per minute.

Now let us go to another interesting topic on Jazz Theory

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