Despite my best efforts to read the score as I practice, it can be very easy for me to get so fixated on the notes that I forget to look at the other indications written on the music. Because of this tendency, I decided to spend some time reading everything written on all the music in my repertoire and looking up any term or indication that I didn’t understand. Even though I’ve done this before, I was pleasantly surprised how helpful it was to learn the meaning of indications on the score. It transforms your relationship with the pieces that you are working on, helps immensely with interpretation, improves your overall knowledge of music, and you even learn some phrases in Italian, Spanish, German, French, and other languages! See below for some of the musical terms (in no particular order) that I found and their approximate definitions-some are common and quite obvious, while others are a bit more obscure.
Maestoso: majestically
Leggiero: lightly
Andante: relaxed, moderate tempo (around 64-72 bpm)
Espressivo: expressively
Diminuendo: gradual decrease of volume
Con moto: with motion
Rallentando: gradual slowing down
Poco: a little
Subito: suddenly
Tranquillamente: quietly
Dolce e calmo: sweetly and quietly
Un poco mosso: less motion/slower tempo
Gallardo: elegantly
Cantado: in a singing/lyrical style
Pesante: heavy, important, pondering
Cediando: more relaxed
Allegro: fast, lively
Gallardamente: in a brave or heroic manner
Prelude: beginning of a work, improvisation written down
Allemande: German dance in 4/4, moderate tempo, flowing, polyphonic, starts on upbeat
Courante: Lively French dance in 3/4, starts on a pickup note
Sarabande: slow and stately Spanish dance in 3/4, starts on downbeat
Bourrée: French dance, lively, each phrase starts on the downbeat of 4
Gigue: fast English and Irish dance with imitation and wide skips
Vivace Molto: very lively, faster than Allegro
Meno Molto: less motion
Con cadenza: with ornaments or freely
Molto: much, very
Rubato: slight speeding up and slowing down of tempo, means “stolen time” in Italian
Poco Piu Mosso: a little more quickly
Allegro unmoristico: humorous allegro
Ritmico: rhythmically
Quasi ad libitum: at your pleasure
Tenuto: sustain for longer than written
Vivace: lively and fast
I’istesso mov.: same tempo
Sempre: consistent
A piacere: at the discretion of the performer
Marcato: louder
Con slancio: with enthusiasm
Marcatiss.: very strong accent
Sforzando (sf, sfz): sudden accent
Assai: very
Piùten: more tenuto
El bajo un poco marcado: the bass a little marked (accented)
Ad libitum: at your pleasure
Allargando: to broaden or play slightly lower
Piú mosso: more quickly
Poco meno: a little less quickly
Poco a poco: gradually, literally “little by little”
Senza: without
Vivo: lively, animated, brisk
Classical Guitar Analysis 