Musical Terms & Tempo Markings

How to Read Musical Terms

Why they are Italian, and where to find them on the page

Most musical terms are written in Italian. This is for a simple historical reason: Italy was the centre of European music publishing in the 1600s and 1700s, when the habit of writing tempo and expression directions into the music first took hold. Composers everywhere copied the Italian words, and they stuck. A few later composers wrote in their own language — you will sometimes see German, French or English directions — but Italian is still the international default, which is why the same handful of words turn up in scores all over the world.

The way these terms are laid out on the page follows a number of long-established coventions. A tempo marking can be found above the stave at the very start of a piece (and again wherever the speed changes), telling you how fast to play. Dynamic markings — small letters such as p and f — appear below the stave, showing how loud to play. Articulation marks (dots, lines and curves) are connected to individual notes or phrases, shaping how each one is played. And expression words, describing the mood, are usually written in italics near the tempo or wherever the character shifts.

You do not need to memorise hundreds of words to read music confidently. A core of perhaps thirty terms covers the vast majority of what a beginner meets, and they recur constantly. Learn this core once — ideally alongside time signatures and note values, which tell you the rhythm while these terms tell you the delivery.

Searchable Term Finder

Look up any word in seconds

Type a term you have spotted on your music — or filter by family — and the finder shows its plain-English meaning straight away. Every term in the glossary below is included.

Prefer the full explanations? Read on — each family below has a reference table plus short, plain-English entries for the terms people look up most.

Tempo Markings (Speed)

The Italian words for how fast to play

Tempo markings tell you how fast a piece should go. Traditionally they are Italian words written above the stave at the start of the music, and they describe both a speed and a character — largo is not only slow but broad and dignified; allegro is not only fast but bright and cheerful. The table below lists the common markings from slowest to fastest, with their literal meaning and an approximate speed in beats per minute. Treat the BPM figures as a guide rather than a rule: composers and performers interpret them with some flexibility.

The five or six terms in the middle — from adagio through to allegro — cover the great majority of music a beginner plays. Here are the ones people most often look up, each in a single line:

Reading a tempo also depends on knowing the beat, which is set by the time signature and note values. A BPM figure counts beats per minute, so “the beat” has to be defined before a number means anything — which is exactly what a time signature does.

Speeding Up & Slowing Down

The terms that change the tempo mid-piece

A piece rarely stays at one speed throughout. These markings tell you to change the tempo gradually or to return to where you were. They are among the most useful terms to recognise, because missing one will throw off your timing.

Dynamics (Volume)

How loud or soft to play

Dynamics are the markings that tell you how loud or soft to play. The two anchors are piano (soft) and forte (loud) — and yes, the keyboard instrument is named after them, because the pianoforte could play both. From those two words a whole scale of volume is built up, written as single letters below the stave. The more f’s or p’s, the more extreme the volume.

You will also meet ppp and fff (even softer and even louder) at the extremes. Just as important are the markings for changing volume gradually:

Articulation (Note Shape)

How each note is started, held and released

Articulation markings shape the individual notes — whether each one is short and clipped, smoothly joined to its neighbour, or given an extra push. They are written as small dots, lines and curves on or beside the notes. On a wind instrument such as the saxophone or clarinet, articulation is produced mainly with the tongue; on piano, with touch and the release of the keys; on strings, with the bow. The two terms beginners meet first are opposites: staccato and legato.

Expression & Mood Markings

The words that tell you how the music should feel

Expression markings describe the character of the music rather than its precise speed or volume. They are usually written in italics, often beside the tempo, and they tell you the mood to aim for — sweet, singing, agitated, majestic. There is no exact measurement here: these words guide your interpretation. The most common ones are well worth recognising.

The Little Words That Combine Them

How to read markings like “Allegro ma non troppo”

Italian markings are often joined together: Allegro ma non troppo, poco rit., molto espressivo. Once you know a small set of connecting words, these combinations read themselves. Here are the ones you will see most.

So Allegro ma non troppo is simply “fast, but not too much”, and diminuendo poco a poco is “get softer little by little”. Break any long marking into its parts and it stops looking like a foreign sentence.

Repeats & Road-Map Signs

The directions that tell you where to go next

A handful of terms are not about speed, volume or note shape at all — they are navigation, telling you to jump back and replay part of the music. They are worth knowing because a missed repeat sign means playing the wrong number of bars.

These signs turn a short printed page into a longer performance by sending you back over sections you have already played — a kind of road map laid over the music.

Common German Musical Terms

The markings you meet in German scores

Italian is the default language of notation, but a great deal of music carries its tempo and expression markings in German. Schumann, Brahms, Mahler and Hindemith all wrote their directions this way, so if you play Romantic or later repertoire you will meet these constantly. Here are the most common German terms with what each one means in plain English. They are all in the term finder above too — set the language filter to German to browse just these.

German markings build up just like Italian ones. Learn the small joining words — sehr (very), etwas (somewhat), nicht (not), immer (always) — and a long instruction such as nicht zu langsam simply reads “not too slow”.

Common French Musical Terms

The markings you meet in French scores

French composers — Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Satie especially — often gave their directions in French rather than Italian, sometimes with very precise instructions about colour and balance. These are the French terms you are most likely to meet, with their plain-English meanings. Like the German set, they are searchable in the term finder above under the French language filter.

French directions combine in the same way: un peu retenu is “a little held back”, très expressif is “very expressive”. The bulk of notation is still Italian, but knowing this handful means a French score never catches you out.

Tempo Markings and BPM

Turning an Italian word into a number you can practise to

An Italian tempo word describes a speed and a feeling; a BPM figure (beats per minute) pins it to an exact number. The two work together. This glossary is the place to find out what a marking means — that allegro is fast and lively, that largo is broad and slow. When you then want to hear that speed and practise to it, set the number on a metronome.

If your music says Andante and you want a starting point, our free online metronome will play a steady pulse at any BPM you choose — and its display names the matching Italian marking as you change the speed, so you can dial in a walking pace, lock your timing to it, and gradually build speed. In short: come here to learn what a term means, and use the metronome tool to turn it into a tempo you can play along with.

Where These Terms Fit in the Bigger Picture

The rest of the free theory library

Musical terms are the “how to play it” layer that sits on top of the notes themselves. To get the full picture, pair this glossary with the other free guides in the theory library — each one covers a neighbouring piece of the puzzle:

Terms describe speed and shaping, but the rhythm underneath comes from time signatures and note values — that guide explains the beat that a BPM figure counts. For the notes and keys themselves, see the guides to major scales and minor scales, and the modes of the major scale once you are ready to go further. For harmony, the guide to the chords in every key shows which chords belong together, our interactive piano chord finder lets you look up and hear any individual chord shape, and the circle of fifths ties keys, sharps and flats into one picture. To put it all into practice on the page, work through improving your sight reading and keep time with the online metronome. You will find everything together on the tutorial hub.

Printable PDF Reference Card

Every term on one sheet for your music stand

Below is a free printable reference card covering everything on this page: the tempo markings from grave to prestissimo, the dynamic levels, the articulation marks, the most common expression words and the little connecting words. Print it at A4 or US Letter and keep it where you practise — it is the fastest way to look up a marking mid-piece.

The PDF is completely free — no email signup required. If you find it useful, share this page with a fellow musician or teacher. And if you would like one-to-one help putting these markings into your playing, book a lesson — we cover reading, technique and musicality from the very first steps.