record
A physical medium for storing and reproducing music, or the act of capturing a performance.
In Depth
The first commercially released recording was a cornet solo by Jules Levy in 1878 — played into Thomas Edison's phonograph and pressed onto a tinfoil cylinder.
Related Terms
More in Techniques
Browse allSinging without instrumental accompaniment, with voices providing all musical parts.
The musical background that supports a solo melody or voice.
At the performer's discretion — an instruction allowing freedom in tempo, ornamentation, or inclusion.
An accent created by slightly lengthening a note rather than playing it louder, using duration rather than volume to create emphasis.
A left-hand keyboard accompaniment pattern that breaks a chord into a repeated sequence of low-high-middle-high notes, creating a gentle, flowing texture.
A broken-chord accompaniment pattern in which the notes of a chord are played in the order lowest-highest-middle-highest
The ubiquitous left-hand keyboard accompaniment pattern of low-high-middle-high notes, named after Domenico Alberti, that defines the texture of Classical-era piano music.
A guitar picking technique that strictly alternates between downstrokes and upstrokes.