How to describe music in english

10 Words to Describe Music

Musical Parameters

Welcome to a carefully crafted list of words to describe music.

Music can be very inconceivable and hard to describe thanks to its almost magical nature. Especially, when you need someone to translate ideas, emotions and messages into music it is quite difficult to communicate your internal musical concepts in a way that someone understands them sufficiently enough to come close to your ideals. For example, you are a film creator and want a composer to create the most fitting and beautiful music that forms a symbiosis with the deeper meaning of the images. How can you steer the composer towards the musical ideal you perceive internally? Or imagine, you are in a band, wrote the perfect song and now need to instruct your drummer, bass player and guitar player about how they should accompany you. What words do you use to make your message clear?

If you are stuck in a comparable situation then you came to the right place. The following article explains how you can describe music using the 10 most common musical parameters: Rhythm, tempo, harmony, melody, instrumentation, dynamic, texture, genre, form and temperature. If you use this 10 words to describe music you are much more capable of talking about it while actually expressing yourself clearly and understandably.

Each musical parameter stands for a category through which music can be described. Thinking in categories has many advantages. It is proven that categorical thinking stimulates memorization. Categories also function as boundaries for your thinking which make focussing easier.

Each presented category contains a variety of words that can be used in its context. For example, “this tune has a warm temperature”(category 9), or “speaking over dynamic, this song has a smooth fade-out” (category 6) or to show off, “the music I am thinking of resembles a baroque fugue with polyphonic texture and complex harmonic structure” (category 3,7,8,9). This list by no means claims completeness but it is a good starting point when learning to describe music.

30 of the Best Words to Describe Music that Work Like a Perfect Pitch

Posted on Published: July 5, 2020

Sometimes music can be so beautiful that words seem to fall short. The truth is that your vocabulary falls short from time to time, and there are tons of words to describe music that can work like a perfect pitch.

Now, this is nothing to feel bad about because it happens to the best of us; music speaks to the heart and soul in a different language.

We’ve compiled a list of 30 of the best words to describe music that you can use in-person, online, or wherever you see fit.

Let’s take a look at different words to describe music based on style, melody/tempo, lyrics, and performances by musicians:

Eight words to describe music styles

There are several different styles, otherwise known as genres, that you can use to categorize music. Here are eight words to describe music styles/genres:

01 Classic

The word classic is a good word to use to describe classical music because the word describes something that embodies a traditional style or well-established style.

You may also use the word classic to describe other genres; for instance, you could call a rap or country song a classic because it is regarded as having great quality and setting the tone for other songs that follow.

This is one way you can use the word to describe a music style:

02 Electric

The word electric can be used to describe the genre of music that is based on upbeat and thrilling melodies and tempo. It can also be used in other genres to say that the music connects well with its audience.

03 Funky

Funky is a good word to describe music styles that have strong dance rhythms, such as pop, dancehall, or reggae. It is a good word because it shows that the style is energetic and uplifting.

Photo by NeONBRAND on unsplash

04 Hardcore

Hardcore music styles generally refer to rock, heavy metal, and/or rap that are more intense than other styles of music. The music is considered as high-energy music, and it is not really for conservative people. This type of music is known to invoke strong emotions.

05 Nostalgic

Nostalgic genres are like r&b, jazz, and country music because these genres are known for telling stories through their lyrics. These stories generally cause people to reflect on personal experiences which allows them to connect to the music.

This is one way you can use the word nostalgic to describe music:

How to Talk About Music in English

We all love music.

We all have our favourite songs that we love to listen to. Singers and bands that we really care about and return to their music again and again.

But how to talk about all of this music? How to express in English your admiration for your all-time favourite singers or bands?

For English students, this can be a real challenge.

So I have prepared this simple guide to help you talk about music. In the next few pages I will show you:

Then I will cover

Finally, I introduce

Then at the end, there is a big list of questions to help you practise talking about music with your friends or by yourself.

Are you ready? Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

Basic Vocabulary for Music

It’s probably a good idea to look at some basic vocabulary for music first.

We need to have a good understanding of the most basic words and phrases before moving on to more challenging vocabulary.

Music is made up of a series of notes. A musical note is a sound that has a defined pitch.

Any song you hear needs musical notes. Without notes, there is no music at all.

Musical notes come in different pitches or sounds. The basic scale of music is made of seven notes — A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The basic C scale is C up to B — C, D, E, F, G, A and B.

I love the singer from Gravity 8. She can really reach all those high notes.

The guitarist in RoadRage is fantastic — he plays so fast all the notes sound like one.

Chord

A chord is made of a group of notes played together in a song.

Most chords are made up of three notes together, but there can be chords with two or four notes.

Chords have a sound that is very pleasing to the ear. All the notes played together — for example, on a piano or guitar — have a very pleasant sound that makes us think these notes belong together.

I love the piano chords at the beginning of the song Temptation — they sound so beautiful.

Harmony

Harmony is the arrangement of the notes and chords played together that has a very pleasing sound to the human ear.

We can also describe harmony as the sound of two or more voices singing together. The singers may all be singing different notes, but they all sound good together.

Have you heard the new song by Generation Z? In the chorus, they all sing together in great harmony.

This is a series of notes played together in a sequence that sounds good to our ears. We might also use the word melody, but tune is more common. All songs have a tune that we can sing along to and recognise.

In English, we might also describe a song as a tune.

I can’t get that tune out of my head…

The radio has been playing this song all day.

I like the new tune by The Beats. It’s really great!

Rhythm

These are the common regular pulses or beats that we hear in the music. Rhythm is the sound that makes us nod our head, tap our feet or click our fingers.

Rhythm is the sound in music that people dance to.

All popular music has a strong sense of rhythm.

I love the rhythm to this song — it makes me want to dance.

I love the strong rhythm of the song Black Rain. It sounds like thunder.

Lyrics

Lyrics are the words to a song. There are usually two parts of the song’s lyrics — the verse and the chorus.

The chorus often has lyrics that are easy to remember and make us want to sing along with the singer or the band.

Most pop song lyrics are very simple — usually love songs or songs about friendship or positive elements in life.

But some song lyrics can be very complex or poetical.

I love the lyrics to this song — so powerful.

I love the lyrics to the songs of Meredith Jacobs. They all sound like poetry.

Chorus

This is the part of the song that is repeated again and again in the song. It makes us want to sing along.

It is easy for us to remember the words, and we feel engaged with the song when we hear it.

As soon as I hear the chorus to Wonderland, I have to start singing along with it.

The chorus to the new song by Dan White is really catchy. I know all the words and I’ve only heard it five times.

Common Words and Phrases to Talk about Music

Now we have a basic understanding of common words used in music, let’s look at some vocabulary people often use when talking about music.

Turn It Up!

Essentially, this means increase the volume or make it louder.

Imagine you are in your friend’s home and a song comes on that you love.

What would you say to your friend?

That’s right: Turn it up!

You want to hear this song louder because you really like it. You want to hear more of it.

You could also say:

Turn this one up (turn this song up)

Turn the music up (make the music louder/increase the volume)

This Song is So Catchy!

When we use the word catchy to describe a song, it means that the song’s lyrics are easy to remember. But also that the tune of the song sounds great and something that we want to sing along to.

If a song is catchy, it means that the song is very popular and any time you hear it you want to turn it up.

I Can’t Get This Tune Out Of My Head

This means you love the song so much that the tune is constantly playing inside your head. Or you are humming the tune as you walk down the street or take a shower.

You love this song so you want to play it on your music system or on your smartphone at least ten times a day.

I Love This One!

This one refers to the song or tune. You hear a song playing — could be on the radio, in a shopping mall, on your friend’s smartphone — and you love it, so you use this expression.

I Can’t Stand This Song…

And this is if you really dislike the song.

You hear this song playing, but you hate it. So you can say: I can’t stand this song!

This Band is So Cheesy…

Cheesy in English is used to describe things that we dislike or that we think are low quality. It can also refer to things that are cheap, unpleasant or corny.

So if you see a band on the TV that you think fit into this category, you can say: This band is so cheesy!

We might often describe bands that sing overly sentimental love songs or boy bands as cheesy. They are not to everyone’s taste.

This Band is Really Grungy…

Equally, we might describe a band as grungy. It means they are kind of dirty and unkempt. Their clothes are not fashionable and the singer is not even good-looking — he looks kind of ugly with greasy hair!

So we say: This band is really grungy!

Oh, This Song is a Classic!

Classic is used to describe things that are very old and have great value.

So you hear a song and you love it. The song could be old — or maybe just a very popular song from last year — and so you may regard it as a classic.

And that is when you say: This song is a classic — turn it up!

I Love This Track!

Years ago people listened to songs on vinyl records and CDs.

The songs were separated into tracks. So that is why people often refer to songs as tracks. This expression just means that you love the song.

This Song Gets on My Nerves…

If something gets on your nerves, it means it makes you feel very uncomfortable or irritable.

Maybe a song comes on the radio and you hate it. You hear it and it makes you angry because it is so unpleasant.

So you say: This song gets on my nerves!

How to Talk about How Music Sounds

There are many words we can use to describe the unique sounds of different types of music.

Let’s look at some of them.

Sound of Music

Exercise

Look up all the words in a dictionary and find the meaning to describe music. Be careful — many of these words have more than one meaning.

After you look the words up, try to make your own sentences to describe music you like. Try to describe music you don’t like too.

Tempo of Music

We can also describe the tempo of music. This is the speed or the rhythm of the music.

Exercise

Now look up these words to describe the rhythm or tempo of music. Again, take care of the correct meaning of these words — lively, moderate and frantic, for example, will have more than one meaning.

Make sure you find the correct meaning of each word as it is related to music.

When you find the correct meanings, try to write sentences of your own to describe the rhythm of music.

People Talking About Music

Look at the following extracts of people talking about songs or music they like.

The track starts with this really fast guitar. The high notes are piercing and loud. The guitarist picks out notes so fast it sounds frantic. It just introduces the song perfectly — full of energy.

I love the saxophone in this song. It has a really rich and resonant sound to it. It adds a great level of warmth to the whole song and at the end of the solo, it sounds mournful and melancholic.

This dance track has a clear and lively rhythm. As soon as I hear it, I feel part of it. There is a kind of sadness in the first verse, but when the singer gets to the chorus, the mood changes and it becomes more joyful and upbeat.

There is a rich and natural sound to the acoustic guitar in this tune. It has a soft sound, but it also has a very deep and warm feel to it. The rhythm is very gradual but builds into a steady, marching beat that becomes quite brisk towards the end of the song.

The piano and drums play at the same tempo. A great, crushing rhythm that sounds like thunder. Then the guitar comes in at double-speed and the rhythm picks up in rapid time. But the bass plays with a thick, smooth sound that sounds completely separate from the other musicians. It gives the song a really rounded, full atmosphere.

I love the gentle strings at the beginning of the song. They sound breathy and natural, like human voices. Then the piano plays a mellow melody, at times dark and mysterious, other times warm and light like air.

The track has a very distinct sound, but the singer’s voice is flat and reedy. At times her voice sounds shrill as she reaches for the higher notes. But the bass and drums work well together, playing in a slow and steady rhythm as one.

Read through all the extracts above. Highlight all the words that describe the sound or rhythm of the music.

Now You Try

Think of FIVE of your all-time favourite songs. They can be any songs you like.

Now describe them.

Use as much of the vocabulary from the previous exercise and use the extracts above to help you.

When you have finished writing a description of each song, read it out loud to yourself.

Describing the Effects of Music

Just as we can talk about the sound of music and how it sounds to our ears, we can also talk about the effect music has on our emotions or mood.

Let’s look at some words we can use to describe this.

Music

«I don’t know how to sing ‘like black’ and I don’t know what ‘white music’ is. Music has no color. » (c) Whitney Houston

The origin of the music

The names of the notes were invented by the italian guido d’arezzo. Full names of notes:

Mode is the most important aesthetic category of music; a system of sound-pitch connections united by a central sound (consonance). It is embodied in the scale (sound system). The elements of the tune (sounds, harmonies) are in the certain relations between (modal functions, stable and unstable). historical forms of the fret: singing of the tone-base with sounds close in pitch; modal (monodic) frets associated with the principle of the melody-model (modus, popevki; see ancient greek frets, natural frets, medieval frets, makam, raga); european harmonic tonality of the 17th and 19th centuries. (major and minor). New high-rise structures in music of the 20th century (including dodecaphony) are used along with classical and updated ancient types of fret (there are also: pentatonic, diatonic, chromaticism

The rhythmic pattern is in music: a sequence of durations of sounds, abstracted from their height. One of the components of the melody (along with the pitch pattern). In accordance with this meter, the durations are often combined into rhythmic groups (eighth, sixteenth, etc.; see also the dotted rhythm). In vocal melodies, the rhythmic pattern often reflects the rhythm of artistic speech and the metrics of verse. In applied music, an isolated rhythmic pattern (on percussion instruments) is used for signals, processions and dances.

The division of music into secular and spiritual is accepted.

The main area of ​​sacred music is cult (the oldest surviving now is the music of Buddhist ritual). The development of the European musical theory of musical notation and musical pedagogy is associated with European cult music (usually called church music). By performing means, music is divided into vocal (singing), instrumental (see musical instruments), and vocal-instrumental. Music is often combined with choreography, theater art, cinema.

Musical instruments are instruments designed to extract musical sounds (see musical sound). The oldest functions of musical instruments are magic, signal and others, which existed already in the Paleolithic and Neolithic times. In modern musical practice, musical instruments are divided into different classes and families according to the source of sound, material of manufacture, method of sound production, and other characteristics. There are: wind musical instruments, keyboard musical instruments, metallophones, stringed musical instruments, percussion musical instruments, electric musical instruments.
Distinguish between monophonic music (monody) and polyphonic (homophony, polyphony).

1) A complex of expressive means embodying a certain ideological and artistic content in a musical work.

Music genres

An important contribution to the development of symphonies was made by Western European composers of the 19th and 20th centuries (Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Cesar Frank, Antonin Dvorak, Jan Sibelius, etc.). Significant place of symphony in Russian (Alexander Porfirevich Borodin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Aram Ilyich Khachaturian, etc.).

March is a musical genre characterized by a strictly measured tempo, clear rhythm, vigorous, courageous, heroic character. Provides synchronized movement of a large number of people. Military marches are created for the military (brass) band. Used in opera and ballet, as well as an independent piece. A special kind is the funeral march.

The sound of the vargan

The influence of music on living organisms

In humans, listening to music can be accompanied by a feeling of euphoria caused by the release of dopamine in the striatum region of the brain.

Scientists have found that in humans, rabbits, cats, guinea pigs and dogs, music can change blood pressure, increase heart [ru] rate, and decrease the rhythm and depth of respiratory movements until breathing completely stops. In dogs from the Pinscher breed group, these changes are stronger than in other dogs (pressure changes by 70 mm Hg).

In Japan, an experiment was conducted that showed that breastfeeding mothers listening to classical music increased the amount of milk by 20-100%, while those listening to jazz and pop music decreased by 50-20%.

Classical music reduces the aggressiveness of a new species of bees bred in Brazil, but the bees enjoying the music stop working.

Even among animals of the same species there are differences: a certain part is indifferent to music, a part is very sensitive and receptive, and some are capable of active musical creativity.

The factor of music perception is national and cultural affiliation. For example, a European will not always feel comfortable listening to oriental tunes, and prolonged exposure to such music can cause him a severe mental disorder. While the people of Asia are unlikely to like Western music.

Playing the piano helps to harmonize the psyche, normalizes the functioning of the kidneys and bladder, and cleanses the thyroid gland. The sounds of the organ stimulate brain activity, contribute to the normalization of energy flows in the spine.

Percussion instruments, in turn, help restore the rhythm of the heart, heal the liver and circulatory system.

Any music relieves muscle tension and increases mobility. Promotes a clearer and more specific perception of information.

By studying the influence of music on humans, scientists have established the miraculous effect of many classical works. Especially a huge amount of talk is about the creations of such geniuses as Mozart, Vivaldi, Grieg, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Claude Debussy. It is believed that Mozart’s music activates brain activity and promotes the rapid assimilation of information. Beethoven’s Fidelio, Oginsky’s Polonaise and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody will help relieve headaches. The plays by Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Sibelius can be considered the best cure for insomnia. Regular listening to works from Vivaldi’s Seasons cycle improves memory.

People with amusia are unable to recognize and play music.

Videos of amazing musical performances

A professional pianist played on a random piano:

A little boy on drums anneals:

Poems and quotes of celebrities about music

The greatness of art is most clearly manifested in music.

I believe that music is the voice of a special spirit, whose task is to collect the dreams of the world, and which, passing through the consciousness of people, is able to settle, even for a short time, their strife, or shake souls, destroying social inconveniences.

I don’t know a single person who can live without music. When you get up in the morning, the song you hear on the radio can determine how you start your day. This is the power of music. Music is closely related to feelings. With music, you make the feelings you want to experience stronger. There is no doubt that music changes people’s lives. I am very glad that music has changed my life, becoming its main meaning.

The ideal music is silence, and the musicians are busy creating a beautiful frame around this perfection.

Life is like music. It must be created with the help of hearing, intuition and feeling, and not built according to the rules.

Music is the only world language, it does not need to be translated, the soul speaks with the soul in it.

Music, like rain, drop by drop, seeps into the heart and revives it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Music shows a person the possibilities of greatness that are in his soul.

But if you have the ability to breathe [ru] music,
Then everything is felt a little differently.
Slightly differently, the world in consonance is designated
And it should be understood a little differently.

But if you have the ability to live [ru] music,
Then the melodies of events are heard brighter.
Amid melodic inspirations and discoveries
It is much easier to appreciate life and loved ones.

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[Vocabulary] Adjective and phrases to describe music

Khosro

Senior Member

I am looking for adjective which describe different kinds of music. I am not looking much for the names of the genres but I need some adjective or phrases.

1- Happy music. (right? what other adjectives are applicable here?)
2- Sad music. (Any other adjectives?)
3- Some music without any song. (Is instrumental good enough?)
4- Mild music. (How can I describe it with one adjective?)
5- How can I describe the kind of music I hear in a party? What adjectives?
6- How can I describe the kind of music I listen to when I am studying? The kind of music which is not annoying when one studies and even helps.
7- How can I describe the rhythme of a piece of music?

Thank you very much in advance.

JMurray

Key Member

Khosro.
Adjectives used to describe all sorts of things are also used to describe music, but I’ll give you a few that are often associated with music.

Coolfootluke

Member

I am not a teacher. American answer:

I am looking for adjective which describe different kinds of music. I am not looking much for the names of the genres but I need some adjective or phrases.

1- Happy music. (right? what other adjectives are applicable here?) Right. Pretty much any adjective you would use to desribe the feeling would work.
2- Sad music. (Any other adjectives?) Good. Same as above.
3- Some music without any song. (Is instrumental good enough?) You mean without singing, I believe. Yes.
4- Mild music. (How can I describe it with one adjective?) The radio stations call that «easy listening», and the term has caught on.
5- How can I describe the kind of music I hear in a party? What adjectives? Dance music.
6- How can I describe the kind of music I listen to when I am studying? The kind of music which is not annoying when one studies and even helps. Background music, maybe, or mood music.
7- How can I describe the rhythme of a piece of music? The beat.