The building blocks every later unit relies on: reading pitches in treble, bass and C clefs, note and rest values, half and whole steps, major scales and scale degrees, key signatures and the circle of fifths, simple and compound meter, rhythmic patterns, and the Italian terms for tempo, dynamics and articulation.
Pitches are tones with specific frequencies. A clef assigns letter names to the staff's lines and spaces: treble, bass, and the C clefs (alto, tenor). An octave spans to the next pitch with the same letter. Accidentals (sharp, flat, natural) go to the left of the notehead. Enharmonic equivalents sound the same but are spelled differently.
Rhythmic values show how long notes and rests last. Ties and augmentation dots extend durations: a dot adds half the note's value, a double dot adds half plus a quarter. Ties join two notes of the same pitch into one sound.
The half step is the smallest distance between pitches; a whole step is two half steps. A major scale follows W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Each pitch has a function relative to the tonic, named by scale degree: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading tone (subtonic when the seventh is a whole step below the tonic).
Music built on a scale with that scale's tonic as center is in that key. A key signature lists the scale's sharps or flats in a fixed order. Pitches in the key are diatonic; others are chromatic. The circle of fifths places closely related keys next to each other. Dictation means spelling pitches correctly in the key and the right octave.
Meter layers three pulses: beat, division and measure. Simple meter divides the beat in two; compound in three. Beats group into duple, triple or quadruple measures. In a time signature, upper 2/3/4 means simple and 6/9/12 compound; the lower number is the beat in simple meter and the division in compound. The downbeat is strongest.
Rhythmic patterns are the ways values fill a beat; compound beats allow more patterns than simple beats. Some patterns, like dotted rhythms, have names. Notate rhythms so the beats are visible, never beaming across the half-bar in quadruple meter. Performances should match the score, except in styles like swing.
Tempo terms run from very slow (largo, larghetto, grave) through slow (lento, adagio), moderately slow (andante, andantino), moderate (moderato) and fast (allegretto, allegro, vivace, presto, prestissimo); metronome marks give beats per minute. Accelerando, ritardando, ritenuto and rubato change tempo. Dynamics run pp to ff, with crescendo, decrescendo, subito and sforzando. Articulation describes attack and connection.