Understanding musical termsDynamics

Dynamics means how quietly or loudly a piece of music should be played.

Dynamics are an important way of conveying the mood of a piece and your use of dynamics is a marked element of your performance.

Composers use dynamics to change the mood. Sometimes a piece will have very few dynamics and others will have many changes.

Italian terms are used to describe dynamics. Each has its own abbreviation. Listen to the examples below and compare how each dynamic should be played with the opening reference notes.

Usually the appreviation is used to show dynamics in a piece of music. Below you can see how mezzo forte has been abbreviated to mf.

Two additional terms are used to describe changing dynamics.