Music Tools

Tool	Definition
Bridge	More than a transition, a bridge is a section that contrasts with the verse and is used to break up the repetitive pattern of a song. In a bridge the pattern of the words and music change.
Canon	One or more voices imitates a leading melody or voice. This often includes two or more overlapping parts. A round is a perpetual canon.
Call and Response	Where one instrument (or voice) initiates and another follows in a similar way (either melodically or rhythmically).
Chorus	Repeats at least once musically and lyrically; contains the main message or theme of the song. Frequently contains greater musical and emotional intensity than the verse.
Countermelody	A second melody above or below the main melody
Development	One of the ways a musical idea is communicated. It refers to changes or variations to the initial material. Often contrasted with musical variation.
Duration	The amount of time or interval in a composition. Includes the length of notes or whole songs, syncopation, tempo, etc.
Dynamics	Primarily focuses on volume. It can refer to the volume of individual notes, changes in volume (whether sudden or gradual), accented notes, articulation, etc.
Extension	Developing a phrase or motif by making it longer.
Fragmentation	Breaking a theme into pieces in order to develop it.
Harmony	Is about the vertical arrangement of sound (everything that’s going on at a single moment in the song). It incorporates chord, diatonic tonality (major, minor, dominant), tension and resolution, consonance and dissonance, countermelodies, etc.
Imitation	Repeating a melody by one or more instruments or voices. This usually occurs shortly after the melody’s first appearance in a piece of music.
Introduction	Comes at the beginning of the piece. Usually contains music and no words. Often creates the atmosphere or feel of the song.
Inversion	Reversing the order of a melody, rhythm, harmony, phrase, theme, or motif.
Melody	Refers to the horizontal arrangement of sound. Melody includes sequences of notes, patterns (phrases, riffs, sequences, motifs), pitch changes, melodic features that speak to particular generic conventions, etc.
Motif	A short musical idea, recurring figure, fragment, or succession of notes that has special significance or is characteristic of a particular composition.
Repetition	An exact (usually immediate) repetition of a phrase or melody.
Sequence	Repeating a motif. Longer melodic, or longer harmonic passage at a higher or lower pitch. Usually occurs in the same voice.
Structure	About all the sections of the music (the total composition of the song). It includes elements of music (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc.), repetition, variety, contrast, development and unification, use and treatment of other material (samples and sequencing), use of well-known musical forms, etc.
Texture	Primarily refers to the density of the music. Can include the number of instruments or tracks, mixing in the record, musical voicing, an instrument’s tone, broad musical textures (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic), etc.
Timbre	Primarily refers to tone. This can include the way instruments or voices sound, different tonal techniques used, electronic alteration, etc.
Transition	The movement from one musical idea/section to another. Transition can vary in how smooth or abrupt they are.
Variation	A musical technique where material is repeated in an altered form.
Verse	Often consists of rhyming lyrics. Musically, it prolongs the home key of the song. Lyrically, it provides the details of the song (story, events, images, emotions, etc.)