From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Rhythm
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Accents and articulations
From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Rhythm
Accents and articulations
- Articulations are performance techniques that affect the sound and duration of notes. There are a number of different articulations. And here are a few of the most commonly used. I'll go through the terms, and play some examples. Staccato means to play the note short. (piano music) Tenuto means to play the note for its full value. (piano music) Legato means to play the note long and smoothly, and connect it to the next note. (piano music) An accented note means to play the note louder, or with emphasis in contrast to its surrounding notes. I'll accent the first and third notes here. (piano music) Let me dig into this a little more. I'll grab the bass for this. Earlier in the course, I played a bassline that is similar to the bassline in Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, and it went like this. (bass music) This part utilizes both short and longer notes. The F sharp and A are both longer notes, while the two B notes are shorter. This simple adjustment of the length of the notes has a…
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