| Term | Description |
|---|
| Time signature | The time signature (also known as "meter signature") is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and what note value constitutes one beat. |
| Toccata | Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring sections of virtuosic passagework, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. |
| Tonality | Tonality is a system of music in which certain hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center" or tonic. |
| Tone cluster | A tone cluster is a musical chord comprising consecutive tones in a scale. Prototypical tone clusters are based on the chromatic scale, and are separated by semitones. |
| Tonguing | Tonguing is when a musician playing a wind instrument uses the tongue on the reed or mouthpiece to enunciate different notes. A silent "tu" (too) is made when the tongue strikes the reed or roof of the mouth causing a slight breach in the air flow through the instrument. |
| Tonic | The tonic is the first note of a musical scale, and in the tonal method of musical composition it is extremely important. |
| Tonicization | In music, tonicization is the treatment of a pitch other than the overall tonic as a temporary tonic in a composition. Tonicization is achieved through the use of the scale and harmonies of the tonicized key. |
| Traditional grip | Traditional grip is a technique used to hold drum sticks while playing percussion instruments. Unlike matched grip, each hand holds the stick differently. |
| Traditional music | Traditional music is the term now used in the terminology of Grammy awards, for what used to be called "folk music". |
| Traditional pop music | Traditional pop or Classic pop or Standards music denotes, in general, Western (and particularly American) popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll, and its offshoots, as the dominant commercial music of the United States and Western culture. |
| Transcription | In music, transcription is the act of notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated. The heretofore unnotated piece can be something small or something large. |
| Transposing instrument | A transposing instrument is a musical instrument whose music is written at a pitch different from concert pitch. |
| Transposition | In music transposition refers to the process of moving a collection of notes (pitches) up or down in pitch by a constant interval. |
| Treble clef | When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the staff, it is called the "treble clef". |
| Treble response | Treble response is the high frequency portion of an audio system's frequency response. In an analogue recording, increasing the running speed of the recording medium increases its ability to reproduce high frequencies. |
| Tremolo | Tremolo is a musical term with several meanings:(1) A regular and repetitive variation in amplitude for the duration of a single note (2) A regular and rapid repetition of a single note, which is scored as a single note, and particularly used on bowed string instruments, the balalaika, and plectrum instruments such as the mandolin family. (3) A regular and rapid alternation between two notes, which is scored as a trill. (4) A roll on any tuned or untuned percussion instrument (5) A variation in pitch, slow or rapid, during the duration of a note |
| Tremolo arm | A tremolo arm, tremolo bar, vibrato bar, whammy bar, wobbler, or wang bar is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch to create a vibrato, portamento or pitch bend effect. |
| Triad | In music or music theory, a triad is a three-note chord (or, more generally, any set of three notes, pitches, or tones). |
| Trill | The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a super rapid alternation between two adjacent notes of a scale (compare mordent and tremolo). It is sometimes referred to by the German triller or the Italian trillo. |
| Trio | Trio is generally used in any of the following ways: (1) Three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument. (2) The performance of a song by three people. (3) The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form (4) The contrasting section of a march and similar forms, which usually opens at the third strain. |
| Triple metre | Triple metre (or triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3/4 and 9/8 being the most common examples. |
