| Term | Description |
|---|
| Lament | A lament or lamentation is a song or poem expressing grief, regret or mourning. |
| Latin American music | Latin American music, sometimes simply called Latin music, includes the music of all countries in Latin America and comes in many varieties, from the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico to the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, from the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos to the simple and moving Andean flute. |
| Lead sheet | A lead sheet is a form of music notation that describes the melody, lyrics and harmony of a popular song. The melody is written in traditional music notation, the lyric is written as text below the staff and the harmony is described by chord symbols above the staff. |
| Leading-tone | In music theory, a leading-tone (called the leading-note outside the US) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. |
| Ledger line | A ledger line or leger line is a tool of musical notation to express notes that do not fall on the regular lines or spaces of the musical staff. A short line (slightly longer than the note) is drawn parallel to the lines on the staff (above or below as appropriate), corresponding to where the staff line would be if the note were in range. |
| Legato | In musical notation the Italian word legato (literally meaning "tied together") indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence. |
| Libretto | A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. |
| Lick | In popular music genres such as rock music, a lick is a "a stock pattern or phrase" (Middleton 1990, p. 137) consisting of a short phrase, or series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines. |
| Linguaphone | Linguaphone (lamellophone) refers to a musical instrument in which sound is produced by a vibrating member fixed at only one end. |
| Locrian mode | The Locrian mode is a musical mode or diatonic scale. It may be considered a minor scale with the second and fifth scale degrees lowered a semi-tone. The Locrian mode may also be considered as a scale beginning on the seventh scale degree of any Ionian, or major scale.The Locrian mode has the formula 1, b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, b7. Its tonic chord is a diminished triad (Bdim in the Locrian mode of the diatonic scale corresponding to C major). |
| Longa | A longa is a musical note twice as long as a breve, four times as long as a semibreve/whole note, that appears in early music. It is equal to sixteen quarter notes, or four measures in common time. It is no longer used in modern music notation, although the sign for the equivalent rest is sometimes used to mark multi-measure rests. |
| Lounge music | Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s encompassing such genres as exotica, easy listening and space age pop. |
| Lullaby | A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to children before they go to sleep, but they can also be sung to insomniac teenagers and adults as well to help them sleep. |
| Lyric soprano | A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. |
| Lyric tenor | Lyric tenor is a graceful and brilliant tenor voice that is strong but not heavy. |
| Lyrics | Lyrics (in singular form Lyric) are a set of words that accompany music, either by speaking or singing. |
