Accents
Indications instructing the player to put special emphasis on notes.
Broken Octave Accompaniment
A type of accompaniment pattern that primarily uses broken octave intervals with simple or slow-moving rhythms.
Dotted Quarter Notes
Quarter notes whose lengths are increased by half; equal to three 8th notes.
Fermatas
Indications placed above or below notes instructing the player to hold those notes longer than their original notated length.
Left Hand Melody
A type of texture where the left hand plays the melody and the right hand plays the accompaniment for an extended period of time.
Legato
A type of articulation indicating the player to play smoothly and seamlessly, with the notes slightly overlapped.
Octave Higher and Octave Lower
Symbols that indicate playing a note or range of notes either an octave higher or lower than notated.
Ritardando
An Italian term meaning "delaying"; an indication instructing the player to decrease speed, often gradually.
Sforzando
Indications instructing the player to play with sudden emphasis.
Simple Two Voices in One Hand
A type of texture where one or both hands play more than one voice at a time; usually briefly and with simple rhythms.
Staccato
A type of articulation indicating the player to play short and light; notes not held for their full value.
Sustain Pedal
Also called the damper pedal, it is the rightmost pedal on the piano and used to sustain notes by moving the dampers away from the strings.
Syncopation
Temporary displacement of established meter by the stressing of a weak beat.
Ties
Symbols indicating that two notes are to be played as one with the value equal to their sum.
Triplets
Notes whose values are determined by a subdivision into three-note groupings instead of two or four.
- Clap and Count
- Demonstrate
- Hands Separate Practice
- Play Small Segments
- Slow Practice
- Tap One Hand While Playing the Other