A Quick Lesson in Music

By Kat

Music. To learn it, you also have to have a moderate vocabulary of Italian. But no worries. Here's a quick (and completely non-educational) lesson in music:

 This right here is a crochet. Basic rhythm.

 This right here is a quaver, which is twice the speed of a crochet.

This right here is a semiquaver, which is twice the speed of a quaver.

And this right here is the monstrosity that is a demisemiquaver, which is...yeah no, I'm not going near that.

Next, tempo. 

Andante means slow walking pace (kind of like a Sunday morning walk pace), but andante is not as slow as largo, but slower than moderato, which is moderate, ALTHOUGH larghetto is slower than andante but also slower than adagio, where on the other hand moderato is slower than allegro which is slower than presto (which means fast) which is slower than prestissimo (which is very fast).

Wasn't that a breeze? 

Next, markings.

I'll introduce you to two today, staccato and legato.

Staccato means short and detached and is characterised by a small dot above a note.

Legato means played for full length and sounds flow-like.

But if you combine the two and put a staccato under a slur, meaning you play between staccato and legato if that's even possible...then you get...a portato!

Hehe. Portato. 

Case in point: music theory is tedious.