3rd - 5th Essential Music Questions

ESSENTIAL MUSIC QUESTIONS - GRADES 3-5 

1. What does
pp or pianissimo mean? Very soft

2. What does p or piano mean? Soft

3. What does
mp or mezzo piano mean? Medium soft

4. What does mf or mezzo forte mean? Medium loud

5. What does  f or forte mean? Loud

6. What does ff or fortissimo mean? Very loud

7. What is a fermata? Means to hold the note a least twice the value or until the conductor cuts the sound

8. Define Legato -  Smooth and connected

9. Define Staccato  - Short and detached

10. Describe how you should hold the mallets when playing on the barred  instruments - Pinch mallet between the thumb and first finger, wrap fingers around, point your knuckles to the ceiling and move your wrists up and down (like bicycle handles)

11. Describe how to get the best sound on the barred instruments - Hit the center of the bar and bounce off so you pull the sound out instead of leaving it in.

12. Describe appropriate audience behavior - Sit quietly during a performance, pay attention and be a good listener, applaud quietly at the end

13. What type of voice should you use when singing high pitches? - Head voice

14. How should you sit or stand when singing? - Sit up tall without slumping, keep eyes facing forward, keep your air column open

15. Draw a quarter note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 1 beat of sound

16. Draw a half note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 2 beats of sound

17. Draw a whole note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 4 beats of sound

18. Draw and eighth note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - ½ beat of sound

19. Draw a dotted quarter note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 1 ½ beats of sound

20. Draw a dotted half note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 2 ½ beats of sound

21. Draw a quarter rest and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 1 beat of silence

22. Draw a half rest and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 2 beats of silence

23. Draw a whole rest and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - 4 beats of silence

24. Draw a sixteenth note and tell how many beats it gets in 4/4 time - ¼ a beat of sound

25. What do you call the space from one barline to the next barline - Measure

26. What is this symbol - Treble Cleff

27. What do you call the two lines found at the end of a piece of music - Double Barline

28. What is this symbol called and what does it tell you to do - Repeat sign, go back to the sign and repeat that section

29. What are the two numbers at the beginning of a piece of music called - Time signature or Meter

30. What do you call the line that separatesone measure from the next - Barline

31. Name one famous piece composed by Water Music, Fireworks Music, Messiah - George Frederic Handel

32. Name one famous piece composed by Jahann Sebastian Bach - Toccatta and Fugue, Well tempered Clavier

33. Name one famous piece composed by Franz Joseph Haydn - Surprise Symphony

34. Name one famous piece composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Marriage of Figaro, Ein Kleine Nacht Music,

35. Name one famous piece composed by Ludwig van Beethoven - Ninth Symphony, Fifth Symphony

36. Name one famous composer from the Contemporary period - John Cage, Scott Joplin, Bartok, Barber, Gershwin, Prokofiev,

37. Name one famous composer from the Romantic period - Schumann, Grieg, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Liszt,

38. Name one famous composer from the Classical Period - Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Clementi, Schubert

39. Name one famous composer from the Renaissance period - Dufay, Machaut, Palistrina

40. Name one famous composer from the Baroque period - Handel, Bach, Scarlatti, Couperin