Musical Terms (updated 9/18/12)

Auto Tune
Auto-Tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies.
Alters pitch in vocal and instrumental recording and performances.
It was originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies.
The processor slightly blends pitches to the exact pitch of the nearest tone.
Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly.
The overall effect to the discerning ear can be described as hearing the voice leap from note to note stepwise, like a synthesizer.
Earliest commercial use: Cher "Believe"


Currently, Auto Tune is used in many popular songs, as a desired effect. Two or three years from now, this sound will be considered very out of style. But don't worry, something else will take its place!

Used in Zane Matsko's songs "Wake Me Up", "Tesseract", and "Lifeboats & Anchors" as the background vocal.
Original news story Auto Tune version


Compression: a technique of "squeezing" the dynamic range of audio by making the soft parts louder, and the loud parts softer, to arrive at a more consistent dynamic level.
Normalize: a digital technique of anayzing a waveform to identify the loudest sound, and calculating the ratio that may be modified to arrive at the point just below distortion (clipping). It then processes the entire selected audio sample that amount, making the file louder.
The Loudness Wars - a modern production technique to obtain more density from recorded audio. The selected audio is compressed and normalized several times to even out the dynamic range, but enable the entire sample to be louder. Each track is processed this way, and the resulting mix is very dense, and loud.
An uncompressed audio file (WAV file) is about 10 MB per minute, and when it is compressed (squeeze the pitches to only those frequencies that are within our usual range of hearing), it is about 1.5 to 2 MB per minute. It sound muffled and softer, with less detail.

Duration

Tempo - the speed of the beat. Fast, slow, moderate, etc.
Meter - the automatic breaking up of beats into patterns of two or three in our ear when we hear music. "How the beats are grouped".
Measure or "Bar" - when we break up the beats into patterns of two or three, a measure is one complete time through the patterns. Ex. 1 - 2, 1 - 2, 1 - 2 is three measures.

To determine the meter, find the beat first, then try to locate the downbeat (beat 1 of the pattern). How many beats until the next downbeat 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4, etc.
4 beats is most common - really almost the same as 2 beats
3 beats is triple meter. Not nearly as common.
Happy Birthday, The Star-Spangled Banner, Break Away by Kelly Clarkson is in 6/8, End Of The Road by Boyz II Men, louis armstrong«s wonderful world, seal - kiss from a rose, Beatles, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and Norwegian wood. Raining In Baltimore Counting Crows, the verses of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", hallelujah by Shrek, George Michael one more try,
Nonmetric - when the beat is not evident.
Syncopation - an emphasis or accent placed in between the beats or on a weak beat. Gone by Kelly Clarkson

Rhythm - an organized and repeating pattern of beats and syncopations forming a musical idea. (I've modified this to " an organized and repeating pattern of shorts and longs forming a musical idea".)
Groove - the energy present in a piece of music that makes you bob your head, tap your feet, or dance down the hall.
Metronome - a clicker that keeps a steady beat. Used for practice by musicians - sets tempo (speed)
A metronome tempo is identified by how many beats will occur in 60 seconds.
A metronome tempo of 60 is slow - one beat per second
A metronome tempo of 120 is moderate tempo - 2 beats per second
Downbeat - beat 1 of a measure
In most commercial music, you can expect a snare drum on beats 2 and 4. This is called the "Backbeat"
Backbeat - beats 2 and 4 where you will commonly hear the snare drum
Pickup note - occurs before the downbeat as in Happy Birthday To You
Sometimes there will be a "fill" or buildup on beat 4 to set up the return of the downbeat
OK, for the quiz listening section, be ready on the following items:
Know what the "ball" is, what instrument has it in each selection, does the instrument that has the "ball" change?
Be able to recognize the meter, and how many measures are in 1) the main form or "head" of All Blues and 2) the drum solo introduction to "Love of My Life"

Prepare for next week's listening quiz!!

Terms

Listening Skill Quiz No. 2 - 9/11/12.
The selections to listen to include Santana: "Love of My Life"; Cher: Believe; Lady Gaga: Bad Romance; Bed Intruder Song, etc. As in the first quiz, I will choose another random selection to see how you do with your listening!

For each example, listen for the elements of music: beat / meter / rhythm, etc.?