Dynamics help you to communicate emotion in your music.  Without expression, music is lifeless and boring!  Learn to include all marks of expression and dynamic levels in your playing!

This page will help you complete the questions for the Italian Terms 1 page in Workbook 1.

Dynamics and Articulations 

Italian Term	English meaning	Symbol or Abbreviation	Variations
pianissimo	very soft	pp	ppp as soft as possible
piano	soft	p
mezzo piano	medium soft	mp
fortissimo	very loud	ff	fff  as loud as possible
forte	loud	f
mezzo forte	medium loud	mf
crescendo	gradually getting louder
decrescendo	gradually getting softer		diminuendo, dim
accelerando	gradually getting faster	accel
ritardando	gradually getting slower	rit	rallentando,   ral
fermata	stop and hold the note longer   (approximately twice as long)		pause
Articulation Term	Meaning	Symbol or Abbreviation	Variations
accent	play the note with greater force
staccato	play the note detached;  sharply tongued
slur	connect two or more  notes together smoothly; not tongued
repeat	return to either the beginning or the previous repeat symbol
tenuto	accent the note a little bit

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