Lesson 15: Common Musical Dynamic Markings
Category: Lessons, Practice and Performance
We have already had an introduction to musical dynamics in the post Commonly Used Musical Terms. In case you don’t remember, or you are just tuning in, dynamics in music refer to markings that tell the musician how soft or how loud to play the music. There are many types of dynamic markings, but we will go through some of the more common ones in this lesson.
Crescendo - a crescendo looks like a long V on its side, starting with the small end at the left, and opening up to the right. It tells the musician to gradually get louder.
Decrescendo - is the opposite of crescendo: A long V on its side, opening to the left. A decrescendo tells the musician to gradually get softer.
pp – pianissimo. Very soft.
p – piano. Soft.
mf - mezzo forte. Moderatley loud.
f – forte. Loud.
ff – fortissimo. Very loud.
These are the most basic dynamic markings that you should know. Remember, these markings are not absolute. You need to interpret how loud or how soft you should play based on the surrounding dynamics. However, in one piece of music the following is usually true:
Soft pp < p < mf < f < ff Loud
You can interpret this as: pianissimo is softer than piano, which is softer than mezzo forte. Fortissimo is louder than forte which is louder than mezzo forte. So mezzo forte can be seen as not too loud, not too soft – right in the middle. See the worksheet section for worksheets related to this lesson and others.
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Posted on November 26th, 2008 by sharlene
1 Comment
November 30th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Still going strong!
That’s awesome