1. 6th Grade Keyboard Unit Essential Music Terms
Musical Terms
6th Grade Keyboard Unit
Essential Music Terms

2. Music Literacy Literacy means “to Learn to Read”
Music Literacy means “To Learn to Read Music”
Music is a language of symbols.
We will be learning and improving our Music Literacy Skills this trimester through music reading practice and playing the keyboards.

3. Staff The staff is a set of five lines and four spaces.
Music notes are written ON the lines or IN the spaces to indicate pitch and duration.

4. The Staff lines & spaces

5. Treble Clef Used for higher pitched notes, instruments and voices
Placed at the left end of the staff
Also called the G Clef because the final curl is around the second line or G pitched line.

6. Bass Clef Used for lower notes, instruments and voices
Placed at the beginning (left side) of the staff
Also called the F clef because the two dots are on either side of the F line

8. Pitch Pitch – the highness or lowness of a tone (note)
Pitches are indicated on the staff using the first seven letters of the alphabet: ABCDEFG
The lines and spaces in the treble and bass clef have letter names.
When a note is place ON a line or IN a space it tells the musician what key to play on their instrument or how high or low to sing

9. Treble Clef Pitch Names
To remember the lines think of this saying:
Every Good Boy Does Fine
For the spaces remember the word FACE

10. Bass Clef Pitch Names Glad Bags Don’t Fall Apart All Cows Eat Grass
To help you remember the lines of when the bass clef symbol is present:
Glad Bags Don’t Fall Apart
To help you remember the
Space in the bass clef:
All Cows Eat Grass

11. Duration Duration means length of time
Notes have duration names and special shapes that tell musicians how long or short to play that notes.
4 Beats
1 Beat
Eighth Note ½ Beat

12. Rests Rests are silence in music.
To create rhythms a musician uses both pitches (sounds) and rests (silence)
A whole note and a whole rest receive the same duration– 4 beats of sound or 4 beats of silence

13. More Rest Examples

14. The Grand Staff
The Grand Staff consists of both the Treble and the Bass
Clef Symbols and pitches. The two staves are connected with
Bar line and a bracket.
Both Hands are in the ready to play position!

15. Notes Between the staves in the Grand Staff
Notes with stems pointing down are ALWAYS PLAYED WITH THE LEFT HAND
Notes with the stems pointing up are ALWAYS PLAYED WITH THE RIGHT HAND

16. The Piano Keyboard
Left Hand
Right Hand

17. How to use your hands?
Beginner sheet music often has numbers below each note. These numbers refer to fingers on your hands.
BOTH HANDS: 1 – thumb
 – index finger
 – middle finger
 – ring finger
 – little finger

18. Melody Melody is an organized group of tones.
If it is a memorable tune, with lots of repetition you’ll remember it… like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”!

19. Harmony Harmony is a combination of tones sounded together.
The basic unit of harmony is a chord, where two or more tones are played at the same time.

20. Rhythm
Rhythm divides time in musical pieces using a combination of sound and silence

21. Tempo Tempo is how fast or slow music is played.
Italian is the language used for these terms:
Largo = Very Slow
Andante = At a Walking Speed
Moderato = A medium speed (faster than Andante)
Vivace = Very Fast

22. Dynamics Dynamics are how loudly or softly the music is played.
Italian terms used to indicate dynamics:
Piano = Soft
Mezzo piano – medium soft
Forte = Loud
Mezzo forte = medium loud
Crescendo = gradually get louder
Decrescendo = gradually get softer

23. Famous Piano Players Lady Ga Ga Beethoven Billy Joel Elton John Alicia
Keys
Jerry Lee
Lewis
George
Gershwin
Ray Charles