Elements of Music

Music is important in our everyday lives and it’s a common discussion topic in English.

The “Elements of Music” offer us specific terms and concepts that will help us better understand and describe any kind/style of music from Classical to Rock. The elements of music are rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony, tone color or timbre and silence.

Rhythm is the element of TIME in music. The effect created by combining a variety of notes with different durations. Consider syncopation, cross rhythms, polyrhythm’s, duplets and triplets.

There are several important aspects of rhythm:

• DURATION: how long a sound (or silence) lasts.

• TEMPO: the speed of the BEAT, which can be described by the number of beats/second (or in Classical music by standard Italian terms).

Dynamics: The relative loudness or quietness of music fall under the general element of dynamics. In Classical music the terms used to describe dynamic levels are often in Italian: pianissimo [pp] = (very quiet) piano [p] = (quiet) mezzo-piano [mp] = (moderately quiet) mezzo-forte [mf ] = (moderately loud) forte [f ] = (loud) fortissimo [ff ] = (very loud).

Melody is the element that focuses on the HORIZONTAL presentation of Pitch.

Pitch: the highness or lowness of a musical sound.

Melody: The effect created by combining a variety of notes.

Harmony is the VERTICALIZATION of pitch. Most often harmony is thought of as the art of combining pitches into chords (several notes played simultaneously as a "block"). These chords are then arranged into sentence-like patterns called progressions.

Tone color or Timbre: The tone quality of the music, the different sounds made by the instruments used or by human voices.

Silence:  an extremely important element, which allows for a breath, a rest, or a dramatic pause.

Related Terms:

Rhythm: (beat, meter, tempo, syncopation, polyrhythm)


Dynamics: (crescendo, decrescendo; forte, piano, etc.)


Melody: (pitch, range, theme)


Harmony: (chord, progression, key, tonality, consonance, dissonance)


Tone color: (register, range).