British and American Musical Terms

British and American Musical Terms. Differences between main British and American Musical Terms: British and American note values, rests values, cadences, ...

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British and American note values

	Double whole	Breve
	Whole note	Semi-breve
	Half note	Minim
	Quarter note	Crotchet
	Eighth note	Quaver
	Sixteenth note	Semiquaver
	Thirty-second note	Demisemiquaver
	Sixty-fourth note	Hemidemisemiquaver (or quick note)

British and American rests values

	Double-whole rest	Breve rest
	Whole Rest	Semibreve Rest
	Half Rest	Minim Rest
	Quarter Rest	Crotchet Rest
	Eighth Rest	Quaver Rest
	Sixteenth Rest	Semiquaver Rest
	Thirty-second rest	Demisemiquaver rest
	Sixty-fourth rest	Hemidemisemiquaver rest

British and American cadences

Authentic cadence	Perfect cadence	V -> I
Perfect Authentic cadence	No British label for that concept	V5 -> I5
Imperfect authentic cadence	No British label for that concept	V -> I (at least one is not in root position)
Half-cadence (semi-cadence)	Imperfect cadence	V
Plagal cadence	Plagal cadence	IV -> I
Deceptive cadence	Interrupted cadence	V -> VI
No American label for that concept	Inverted cadence	Cadence whose chords are not in root position

Intervals and degrees

Half step	Semitone
Whole step (noun)	Tone (noun) (but as an adjective, whole-tone scale = whole-tone scale)
Leading tone	Leading note
Picardy third	Tierce de Picardie

Other

Staff (sing.) / staves (plur.)	Stave (sing.) / staves (plur.)
Grand staff	Great stave
Bar, barline (line between bars)	Barline
Measure	Bar
Fermata	Hold, pause, fermata