The Cool Cat Cards Music Terms and Symbols deck contains an assortment of various markings found in written music. This is often the second stage of memorization once the student has memorized the note names found in the Music Notes deck.

The Note Value is how long a note is held or sustained. It is based upon the Tempo Marking and the meter (or time signature). If the meter is common time and the Tempo is Presto (let's say 120 beats per minute or faster), then the note is held for approximately one half second.

The Rest Value is how long to pause between playing notes. A one quarter rest in 4/4 time would indicate to allow a quarter beat of silence to occur.

An Accidental raises or lowers to music note (or pitch). For example is sharp raises the note by one semitone (or half step) and a double sharp raises a note by two semitones (or two half steps).

Music Articulation refers to how a note or a grouping of notes are played. Examples are sharply and distinctly, slurred together or accented? Music articulation is often over looked by developing musicians and, along with Music Dynamics, gives music much of it interesting qualities. Aspirin musicians should spend considerable time becoming first familiar with the various articulations and developing a deep comfort with the various ways to play notes.

Music Dynamics are the symbols that tell a musician how loud of softly to play a note or grouping of notes and can range from barely perceptible to very very loud. Along with Articulations, Dynamics are often the last thing a person considers when they are learning a piece of music. But dynamics offer so much of the character and interest of a piece that they should be considered and practiced right from the beginning.

In Music, an Interval refers to the distance between two notes. Musicians often think about harmony in terms of intervals. For example, a Major Third is 4 half steps (or semitones). If we apply this to the Key of C Major, we can see that the Major Third is E (step 1 is C sharp/D flat, step 2 is D, step 3 is D sharp/E flat and step 4 is E).

We don’t have any Cool Cat Flash cards on Time Signatures and a lot of people ask us about this. We chose not to include these because we feel it is more about remembering the formula or algorithm than memorizing the specific time signatures.

Many musicians feel that timing (or rhythm) is the most important aspect of developing strong musical skills and it is often overlooked. We work so hard to memorize and accurately play the notes, develop fluency in harmonic progressions, develop to touch and so on, but we forget the importance of keeping the time throughout a piece.

The time signature is generally displayed as two numbers - one on top of the other. Some examples are shown below.

The top number is the number of beats in a measure and the lower number is the note value that is considered 1 beat.

So for example, 4/4 time means that there are 4 beats in a measure and a quarter note gets 1 beat. ¾ time means there are three beats per measure and a quarter note gets 1 beat. 6/8 time means there are 6 beats per measure and an eight note gets one beat.

When you simply see a C, this means ´Common´ time, which is 4/4 time, and a C with a vertical line through the middle means ´Cut´ time or 2/2 time.