Doctor Talk for Musicians

Music has its own terms, just like doctor talk.

There are several musical terms that sound very complicated, but in fact are easy to understand. Today's post will address a couple of those, because you will probably hear or read about them at some point. This should clear up the confusion. So here are two of my favorites:

• MODULATION: Changing keys during the song, usually moving up or down by a half-step or a whole step. On the guitar a half-step is one fret and a whole step is two.
• ENHARMONIC OR ENHARMONIC EQUIVALENTS: Two notes, chords or scales have different names but sound the same. For example, F sharp and G flat. The reason we need enharmonic equivalents? It all has to work out on paper.

These are just a couple of examples. The other confusing thing in music is that we have terms in different languages that also mean the same thing. For a complete list check out The Virginia Tech Multimedia Dictionary where you'll find the word or words, the proper pronunciation, and musical examples.