Glossary
Chord: A collection of more than two pitch values sounded at the same time or within the same chord duration.
Chord Stream: A sequence of chords creating a stream of music. Each chord is played for a specific Chord Duration and chords are played in a specific order.
Dynamics: The articulation of chords within a Chord Stream such that the volume of each chord changes to express rise and fall in energy. Also known as pp, p, mp, mf, f, and ff denoting the softest volume to the loudest volume. Dynamics in music is very similar to a spearker who avoids monotone by adding expression to certain words in a speech. In addition the symbols < and > are used to denote ramp up and ramp down of volume.
Infinite Chord Guru: A CD-ROM produced by QuantumPortal that contains a 200 MB database of scales and chords. 99 World Scales are included along with chords of three, four, five and six part harmony. Thousands of pages and thousands of MIDI Samples enable the user to explore the structure and sounds of scales and chords. Piano and Synth students can use the CD-ROM to learn how to play numerous scales and to see which chords are members of each scale.
Melody: A sequence or pattern of notes within a specific scale.
Music: A mathematical language that evokes emotion. A language consiting of the rise and fall of pitch values, the rise and fall of volume, and the color and nuance of chord structures. Music is the invention of the musician.
Musician: Anyone who can play chords on command and improvise Chord Streams. Sight-Reading skills are not required. With just a basic understanding of musical terms, a novice musician can begin a journey that can last a lifetime.
Practice: The joyful exploration of Chord Stream textures in liberating free form improvisation. The extreme opposite of note-for-note memorization!
Scale: A collection of sequential pitch values that create a unique scale identity. Across cultural boundaries, all humans recognize the Octave Interval. The Octave Interval consists of a pitch value played along with its octave value which is double the frequency of the root pitch value. Within different cultures the Octave Interval is divided up into 5, 6, 7, or 8 distinct notes. This provides a rich variety of scales recognized by each culture. In theory it is possible to create synthetic scales by dividing the Octave Interval into different patterns of distinct notes. Some synthetic scales created in this manner may match actual scales recognized by some cultures and other synthetic scales may be unrecognized by any culture. The unrecognized synthetic scales would provide additional opportunities in musical abstraction.
Time Stream: The combination of Time Signature and the Chord Duration of each chord in a Chord Stream. Time Streams create a range of rhythmic expressions from stagnate pools all of the way through to high energy ripples.