Glossary

How to Use This Glossary

This sheet holds the terms this course defines: 89 entries, each with its session. For a new term that is the session that first uses it; for a beginner term given again it is the session from which this wording holds. It is for looking up. The entries stand in the order the course meets them, session by session, in six sections, one for each phase. The index at the end lists them by letter.

An entry is one line: the term in bold, a dash, its definition and, last, its session in round brackets.

Most terms of the beginner course are not here. They keep the definitions of the beginner course’s glossary and are not printed again. Where this course gives a beginner term again (rest, measure, quarter note, eighth note, open position and others), the wording here is the one that holds from the session its entry names.

This course prefers these words: “measure”, not “bar”; “half step” and “whole step”; “home note”; “staff notation”. The statements of theory are in the music-theory handouts, not here.

No session uses a new term before the session its entry names.

Phase 1: Sessions 1 to 6

These are the 33 entries of Sessions 1 to 6.

Entry check — The eight tasks of Session 1, each with its own pass mark, that show whether you can already do what this course starts from. (Session 1)
Complete piece — A piece printed whole, which you play from your own count-in to its written ending. An exercise, or a part of a song, is not a complete piece. (Session 1)
Course tempo — The tempo, in BPM, that this course sets for a piece or an exercise: the figure you work up to and are tested at; for a complete piece it is also called its performance tempo. Where a recording is faster, its tempo is not a target. (Session 1)
Sitting — One of the parts in which a day’s practice or an assessment is done. Two sittings on the same day have at least an hour between them. (Session 1)
Seventh — The seventh note of a scale counted from the root. A major seventh is one fret below the next root; a minor seventh is two frets below it. (Session 2)
Dominant seventh chord — A major chord with one more note added, written with a 7 after the letter: A7 is A, C sharp, E and G. The added note is named by counting a whole step down from the root, and in the chord it lies above the lowest root. (Session 2)
Seventh chord — Any chord with a seventh added. The first kind in this course is the dominant seventh chord. (Session 2)
Chord chart — Rows of measures that show which chord to play in each measure of a piece, with a bar line between measures. The reference sheet of chord diagrams has the same name. (Session 2)
Repeat sign — One of the two marks |: and :| in a chord chart, which stand where a bar line would. Play the measures between them twice. (Session 2)
Natural minor scale (natural minor) — A seven-note scale following the pattern: whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. It has the notes of the major scale that starts three frets higher: A natural minor is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, the notes of C major from A. (Session 2)
Recorded card test — The ear test of the beginner course, used again here: you record yourself playing the items written on slips of paper, shuffled face down and turned over one at a time, wait until the day the week’s ear-check line names, answer from the recording, and then mark your answers against the slips. The recordings for a checkpoint or for the end-of-course assessment are not marked that week: you mark them when you take that checkpoint or assessment, at least one day later. (Session 2)
Note slip — A slip of paper with one string and one fret written on it. For an ear test you draw slips and play their notes, so that what you play cannot be practised beforehand. (Session 2)
Count — A number, or a sign or word such as ”&” that comes between two numbers, said aloud to keep time, as a Count row prints it. (Session 3)
Rest — A silence that lasts a set number of beats, or a set part of a beat. In this course you stop the strings for a rest, and its count is written in square brackets, as in [2]. (Session 3)
Whole note — Four beats in 4/4 and 3/4 (a whole measure of 4/4). (Session 3)
Half note — Two beats in 4/4 and 3/4. (Session 3)
Whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest — A rest as long as the note it is named after: in 4/4 and 3/4, a half rest is two beats, a quarter rest one beat and an eighth rest half a beat. A whole rest is four beats in 4/4, and it also fills one silent measure of any time signature. (Session 3)
Rest stop — Stopping the strings with the strumming or picking hand on a rest, so that the sound ends on that count and the silence can be heard. (Session 3)
Brackets in a Count row — A count in round brackets, such as (2), is a count on which you play nothing new: keep counting and let the note or chord ring on. A count in square brackets, such as [4], is a rest: stop the strings on that count and keep counting. The silence lasts through every count in square brackets after it. (Session 3)
Stop-time — A rhythm in which the sound is stopped on counted rests, so that the silences are part of the pattern. (Session 3)
Rhythm cell — A rhythm exactly one beat long, written on a slip of paper for an ear test: at first a quarter note, two eighth notes or a quarter rest. Cells drawn from the pile and put side by side make a measure. (Session 3)
Home note — The note a tune keeps coming back to and comes to rest on. The tune of Beginner Session 14 uses the notes of the C major scale but keeps coming back to A, so its home note is A (a scale that starts from A with these same notes is called A minor). (Session 4)
Transposing — Moving a piece or a chord progression to another key, so that every note and chord moves up or down by the same number of half steps. A progression written as I, IV and V is transposed by reading the same numbers in the new key. (Session 4)
Relative major and minor — A major scale and a natural minor scale that have the same notes and different home notes: G major and E natural minor. The minor’s home note is three frets below the major’s. (Session 4)
Major pentatonic scale — A five-note scale: a major scale without its fourth and seventh notes. G major pentatonic is G, A, B, D, E, the same five notes as E minor pentatonic with G as the home note. (Session 4)
Song map — A written list of the sections of a tune or song in the order they are played, with the number of measures in each. For a song it also gives the tuning, the key and the capo fret. (Session 5)
First ending, second ending — Two different last parts for a repeated passage, marked 1. and 2. directly after the bar line that begins each. The first time, play the first ending and go back to the sign |: and play again; the second time, leave out the first ending and play the second. (Session 5)
Outside pulse — A steady beat that comes from outside you while you play: the metronome, a backing you recorded yourself, or a song’s own recording. (Session 5)
Programme — The pieces you perform one after another in a single recorded take. The final programme is three complete pieces. (Session 6)
Unseen — Written music you have not seen before a test: an unseen TAB passage, an unseen chart or unseen staff measures. You study it for 30 seconds and then play it; another name for this is sight-reading. (Session 6)
Must-pass item — An item of a checkpoint or of the end-of-course assessment that has to pass. It has a star after its number. In a checkpoint, if every must-pass item passes you go on to the next phase; if one does not, you spend one more week on the practice plan of the showcase week and take that item again. (Session 6)
Still open — Said of an item that has to pass and has not passed yet. An item that is still open comes again at the next checkpoint that holds it or at the end-of-course assessment. An item that is only reported is never open. (Session 6)
Take — One recording, made in one go. A programme is recorded in a single take, which holds all its pieces. A take with a stop has not passed and ends at the stop, and only one take of a programme is made a day. (Session 6)

Phase 2: Sessions 7 to 12

These are the 27 entries of Sessions 7 to 11.

Open position — The open strings plus frets 1 to 4. The beginner course used it as far as fret 3; from Session 7 finger 4 (little finger) plays fret 4. (Session 7)
First position — Where the fretting hand is in open position: finger 1 plays fret 1, finger 2 fret 2, finger 3 fret 3 and finger 4 (little finger) fret 4. (Session 7)
Key signature — The sharps or flats at the beginning of a piece that tell you which key the music is in. Each one holds for every note of that letter, and a major key shares its key signature with its relative minor: G major and E minor both have one sharp, F sharp. (Session 7)
Song chart — A chord chart of a song. It gives the chords section by section and may give the order of the sections, the strumming or picking pattern, the tempo, the key and the tuning; it prints no words and no sung melody. (Session 7)
Song excerpt — A part of a song, printed only as far as two published sources agree, and named by what it prints: for example “verse and chorus chords”. A chart is called complete only when every section of the song is printed. (Session 7)
Course form — The form of a song chart that you play at the course tempo: which sections, how many measures in each, and how long it lasts (about four minutes at most). You practise it in sections. (Session 7)
Sixteenth note — A quarter of a beat in 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4: four to a beat and two to an eighth note. (Session 8)
e and a (in a Count row) — 1 e & a is one beat in four equal parts, the sixteenth notes. The number and the & stay where they are in eighth notes; e (say “ee”) comes between the number and the &, and a (say “uh”) comes between the & and the next number. (Session 8)
Eighth-note click (the click as an eighth note) — The metronome set so that each click is one eighth note, not one beat. In 4/4 that is two clicks to a beat: for a beat of 40 BPM the metronome is set to 80. (Session 8)
2/4 time — A time signature with two quarter-note beats in a measure. 2/4 is counted as 4/4 is, with two beats to a measure. (Session 8)
Measure — A group of beats: four in 4/4, three in 3/4, two in 2/4. (Session 8)
Quarter note — One beat in 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4, and always as long as two eighth notes. It is one to a click only while the metronome clicks the beat. (Session 8)
Eighth note — Half a beat in 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4, where it is two to a click while the metronome clicks the beat and one to a click with an eighth-note click. (Session 8)
Capo — A clamp placed across the fretboard to raise the pitch of all strings. With a capo at fret 2 every open string sounds two half steps higher, and frets are counted from the capo. (Session 9)
Chord shape and sounding chord — The shape is the finger pattern, named as it is with no capo; the sounding chord is what is heard. With a capo at fret 2 the D shape sounds as E, and the chart still calls it D. (Session 9)
Capo line — The line under the title of a chart or TAB that is played with a capo, in the form “Capo: fret N”. The key line under it names the shapes and what they sound as, for example “Key: A shapes (sounds in C sharp)”. (Session 9)
Minor seventh chord — A minor chord with one more note added, written with m7 after the letter: Am7 is A, C, E and G. The added note is named by counting a whole step down from the root, and in the chord it lies above the lowest root. (Session 9)
Major seventh chord — A major chord with one more note added, written with maj7 after the letter: Cmaj7 is C, E, G and B. The added note is named by counting a half step down from the root, and in the chord it lies above the lowest root. (Session 10)
Seventh chord (three kinds) — This course has three kinds of seventh chord: dominant seventh, minor seventh and major seventh chords. (Session 10)
Crescendo (cresc.) — Getting gradually louder. (Session 10)
Diminuendo (dim.) — Getting gradually softer. (Session 10)
Dyn row — A row labelled “Dyn:” under the Count row that says how loud to play: p is soft, mf is medium, f is loud, and cresc. and dim. are crescendo and diminuendo. Each mark stands under the count where it begins, and a cresc. or dim. lasts until the next mark in the row, or to the end of the TAB or pattern it stands under. (Session 10)
Staff notation — This course’s name for standard notation: music written as notes on the lines and in the spaces of the five-line staff. (Session 10)
Two-part writing — Music made of two lines of notes that sound at the same time, a tune above and a lower part under it. (Session 11)
Voice (part) — One of the two lines of notes in two-part writing. Where two notes begin together, the higher one belongs to the tune and the lower one to the lower part, which is called the bass whichever string it is on. A note that begins alone belongs to the part that is moving at that count; the lesson of the piece says which. Where the two parts share one note, it belongs to both. (Session 11)
Pinch — Plucking two strings at the same moment with the thumb and one finger, so that the two notes begin as one sound. In a Finger row it is written pi, pm or pa: the thumb’s letter first. (Session 11)
Two strings plucked together — Plucking two strings at the same moment, so that the two notes begin as one sound. Two fingers together are written im, ma or ia in the Finger row; the thumb with a finger is a pinch. (Session 11)

Phase 3: Sessions 13 to 18

These are the 4 entries of Sessions 13 and 17.

Chord numbers — Roman numerals for the chords built on the notes of a key’s scale, counted from the home note. An uppercase numeral is a major chord (I, IV, V), a lowercase one a minor chord (ii, iii, vi), and a 7 after the numeral adds the seventh (V7). (Session 13)
The two, five and one chords (ii, V, I) — The chords on notes 2, 5 and 1 of a major scale, played in that order so that the progression comes to rest on the home chord. In the key of C they are Dm, G7 and C; in the key of G they are Am, D7 and G. (Session 13)
Turnaround — The last measure of a 12-bar blues, which leads back to the start. In this course it is also a short chord progression that leads back to the home chord, such as the two, five and one chords. (Session 13)
Root on string 6, root on string 5 — The two places for the moveable three-string power chord: finger 1 holds the root on string 6 or on string 5, and the chord is named after the note under finger 1. The name of a power chord placed this way says which, as in “G5 (string 6)”; the four of Beginner Session 20 (F5, Bb5, Ab5, Db5) keep their names. (Session 17)

Phase 4: Sessions 19 to 24

These are the 13 entries of Sessions 19 to 23.

Moveable chord shape (moveable shape) — A chord shape that uses no open strings, so the same finger pattern makes a different chord at each fret. The chord is named after its root, wherever the shape is placed. (Session 19)
Partial barre chord — A barre chord in which finger 1 lies across some of the strings, not all six. The simplified F is one: its barre holds strings 2 and 1. (Session 19)
Triplet (eighth-note triplet) — Three equal notes in the time of one beat, counted 1 trip let. (Session 20)
Straight eighth notes — Eighth notes that divide each beat into two equal halves, counted 1 & 2 &: the eighth notes of every piece in 4/4, 3/4 or 2/4 whose tempo line does not have the word Swing. (Session 20)
Swing (swung eighth notes) — Eighth notes played long then short. In this course the first of each pair falls on the number and the second on the “let” of 1 trip let; they are written as ordinary eighth notes with the word Swing on the tempo line. (Session 20)
Shuffle — A rhythm of swung eighth notes kept going steadily, two to every beat, as in the palm-muted power-chord pattern of the Shuffle Blues in A. (Session 20)
Position — A place on the neck for the fretting hand in which each finger has its own fret, four frets in a row. It is named by the fret that finger 1 plays. (Session 21)
Fifth position — The position in which finger 1 plays fret 5, finger 2 fret 6, finger 3 fret 7 and finger 4 (little finger) fret 8. (Session 21)
Staccato — Played short: the note or chord is stopped at once, so that there is a silence before the next one. A strummed chord is stopped with the rest stop; a single fretted note by relaxing the fretting finger so that it stops pressing and still touches the string. (Session 22)
Short row — A row labelled “Short:” under a TAB or pattern. A dot in it means that the note or chord above it is played staccato. (Session 22)
Slur — Two notes on one string joined so that only the first is picked: the fretting hand sounds the second by a hammer-on or a pull-off. In TAB it is written with h or p between the two fret numbers. (Session 23)
Legato — Played smoothly, each note running into the next with no gap. It needs no mark: a note with no other mark is played legato, for its full length. (Session 23)
Blues scale — The minor pentatonic scale with one note added, one fret above its third note (in A: D). The A blues scale is A, C, D, E flat, E, G. (Session 23)

Phase 5: Sessions 25 to 30

These are the 11 entries of Sessions 26 to 29.

6/8 time — A time signature with six eighth notes in a measure, in two groups of three. It is counted 1 2 3 4 5 6, one count to each eighth note, and the strong counts are 1 and 4. In 6/8 a measure has six numbered counts and two beats. (Session 26)
Eighth note (in 6/8) — In 6/8 an eighth note is one numbered count, three to a beat. (Session 26)
Time signature — Two numbers at the start of a piece. In 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4 the top number is the number of beats in a measure and the bottom number, 4, means that a quarter note is one beat. In 6/8 the top number counts eighth notes, six to a measure, and a beat is three of them. (Session 26)
Compound time — A time signature in which each beat is made of three equal notes, not two. 6/8 is one: it has two beats in a measure, each of three eighth notes, which is why the metronome can click twice a measure. 12/8, with four such beats, is another; this course names it and does not use it. (Session 26)
Published chart — A chord chart of a song made by someone other than this course, such as a page of a songbook you own. Read four things on it before you play: how it is tuned, its key, its capo line and the names of its sections. (Session 27)
Section names — The labels a published chart gives to the parts of a song. Besides intro, verse and chorus you may meet pre-chorus (a short part that leads into the chorus), post-chorus (a short part that follows the chorus), bridge (a part with new music), interlude or instrumental (a part with no singing), solo, and outro (the ending). (Session 27)
Screening a chart — Checking a published chart before you start to learn its song. Every chord in it must be one this course has taught so far, or be replaced by the power chord on its root, or be reached with a capo; if not, the song waits. (Session 27)
Full barre chord — A barre chord in which finger 1 lies across all six strings. This course uses one, A (full barre), at fret 5. (Session 28)
Accidental — A note that is not in the key signature, and the sign in front of it on the staff: a sharp, a flat, or a natural sign, which cancels a sharp or flat. The sign holds for that line or space until the end of its measure. (Session 28)
Tie — A curved line on the staff that joins two notes of the same pitch. Play the first and let it ring for the length of both. (Session 28)
Pushed chord — A chord that arrives early, just before the beat it belongs to. In this course it is strummed on the “a” before the beat. It is a kind of syncopation. (Session 29)

Phase 6: Sessions 31 to 36

This is the one entry of Session 34.

Arpeggio (as a technical exercise) — The notes of one chord played one at a time in order of pitch, going up and then down, like a scale made only of that chord’s notes. The G major arpeggio goes up G, B, D, G, B, D, G and comes back down by the same notes. (Session 34)

Index of Terms

The 89 entries by letter, each with its session, and five other names, each with “see” and the entry it points to. The two that begin with a number, 2/4 time and 6/8 time, stand before the letters, and “The two, five and one chords” stands under T-w-o.

Term	Session
2/4 time	8
6/8 time	26
Accidental	28
Arpeggio (as a technical exercise)	34
Blues scale	23
Brackets in a Count row	3
Capo	9
Capo line	9
Chord chart	2
Chord numbers	13
Chord shape and sounding chord	9
Complete piece	1
Compound time	26
Count	3
Course form	7
Course tempo	1
Crescendo (cresc.)	10
Diminuendo (dim.)	10
Dominant seventh chord	2
Dyn row	10
e and a (in a Count row)	8
Eighth note	8
Eighth-note click (the click as an eighth note)	8
Eighth note (in 6/8)	26
Eighth rest: see Whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest	3
Entry check	1
Fifth position	21
First ending, second ending	5
First position	7
Full barre chord	28
Half note	3
Half rest: see Whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest	3
Home note	4
Key signature	7
Legato	23
Major pentatonic scale	4
Major seventh chord	10
Measure	8
Minor seventh chord	9
Moveable chord shape (moveable shape)	19
Must-pass item	6
Natural minor scale (natural minor)	2
Note slip	2
Open position	7
Outside pulse	5
Partial barre chord	19
Pinch	11
Position	21
Programme	6
Published chart	27
Pushed chord	29
Quarter note	8
Quarter rest: see Whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest	3
Recorded card test	2
Relative major and minor	4
Repeat sign	2
Rest	3
Rest stop	3
Rhythm cell	3
Root on string 6, root on string 5	17
Screening a chart	27
Second ending: see First ending, second ending	5
Section names	27
Seventh	2
Seventh chord	2
Seventh chord (three kinds)	10
Short row	22
Shuffle	20
Sitting	1
Sixteenth note	8
Slur	23
Song chart	7
Song excerpt	7
Song map	5
Sounding chord: see Chord shape and sounding chord	9
Staccato	22
Staff notation	10
Still open	6
Stop-time	3
Straight eighth notes	20
Swing (swung eighth notes)	20
Take	6
Tie	28
Time signature	26
Transposing	4
Triplet (eighth-note triplet)	20
Turnaround	13
The two, five and one chords (ii, V, I)	13
Two-part writing	11
Two strings plucked together	11
Unseen	6
Voice (part)	11
Whole note	3
Whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest	3

Some letters have more than one meaning: this table names the row or line a letter stands in and its meaning there.

Letter	Where it stands	Meaning there
`p`	in a TAB line, between two fret numbers	a pull-off
`p`	in a `Finger:` row	the thumb
`p`	in a `Dyn:` row	soft
`a`	in a `Finger:` row	the ring finger
`a`	in a `Count:` row	a count
`e`	at the left of a TAB	string 1
`e`	in a `Count:` row	a count
`m`	in a `Finger:` row	the middle finger
`m`	after a chord letter, as in `Am`	minor
`dim.`	in a `Dyn:` row	a mark of that row: get gradually softer from here
`dim`	in a chord name, as in `Bdim`	part of the chord’s name, not a mark