Dictionary of musical concepts from Sa to Sl
| Concept | Level | Listen | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salsa | Int 1 |
You don't have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. This website makes use of Adobe Flash Player, you have an old version which cannot play the content we've created. | A musical style which originated in Cuba. The most important element of salsa is rhythm provided by a large percussion section. |
| Samba | Int 1 |
| A very lively, syncopated dance with two beats in a bar in which a set of percussion instruments provides the foundation. It originated in Brazil. See Syncopation. |
| Scat singing | Int 1 |
| Nonsense words, syllables and sounds are improvised (made up) by the singer. Sometimes the singer is imitating the sounds of instruments. Used mainly in jazz singing. |
| Scherzo | Int 2 |
| A lively movement in triple time usually in ternary form and often found as the third movement of a symphony, sonata or chamber work. |
| Scotch snap | Acc 3 |
| A very short accented note before a longer note. See Strathspey. |
| Scots ballad | Int 1 |
| A slow Scottish song which tells a story. |
| Scottish | Acc 3 | Music which represents the various elements of Scottish music. See Scotch snap, Strathspey, Reel. | |
| Scottish dance band | Acc 3 |
| A band which plays music for people to dance to. The instruments may include fiddle, accordion, piano and drums. See Folk instruments. |
| Scottish instruments | Int 1 | See Folk Instruments. | |
| Section | Acc 3 |
| Part of the music, e.g. the music could be in two sections, section A and section B. Listen to the sections of a piece of music in binary form. |
| Semitone | Int 1 |
| Half a tone, e.g. G to Ab on a keyboard. From one fret to another on a guitar. See Tone. Below is the chromatic scale in which every interval is a semitone.
|
| Sequence | Acc 3 |
| A melodic phrase which is immediately repeated at a higher or lower pitch.  |
| Serial | H |
| A 20th-century method of musical composition invented by Schoenberg in which the 12 notes of the Chromatic scale are organised into a series or tone row. This row can be transposed, inverted or played in retrograde, and forms the material basis for an entire work or movement. See Tone row,Retrograde, Inversion and Atonal. Below is the tone row from the Berg violin concerto. |
| Silence | Acc 3 | No sound. | |
| Simple time | Acc 3 |
| Music has two, three or four beats in each bar. Each beat is usually one crotchet. The first beat of each bar is accented. See Accented, Beat, Waltz, Reel, Strathspey. |
| Simple time groupings | Int 1 |
| The beat is not dotted and can be subdivided into multiples of two (e.g. 4/4 = four crotchet beats in a bar and each beat can be divided into two quavers). Listen to a march. Compare with Compound time.
Simple time groupings.  |
| Single line | Acc 3 |
| A melody with no accompaniment. |
| Sitar | Int 2 |
| A plucked, stringed instrument from India. In addition to melody strings, it has a drone and strings which vibrate in sympathy with each other. |
| Slapping | Acc 3 |
| A method of playing bass guitar where the thumb is used to hit the side of the strings. Also in an orchestra to produce the sound of a whip. |
| Slide guitar | Int 1 |
| A method of playing the guitar whereby the guitarist uses a metal tube or bottleneck around his finger and slides it across the frets to change pitch. |
| Slow air | Int 1 |
| A slow traditional Scottish melody in the style of a song. Usually played on fiddle or bagpipes. Many examples were written by Scott Skinner. |
| Slower | Acc 3 |
| The speed decreases. Compare Faster. |
