Dynamics Music Chart

The site contains an interactive chart that allows you to experience and listen to the contrast in musical dynamics. It can be navigated using your mouse to click on visuals or by pressing keys on your computer keyboard. This helps you understand relationship between dynamic markings and how they sound.

A ladder of dynamic bars is shown on the main section running from very soft to very loud. These corresponds to typical Italian markings such as forte and piano. Longer bars sounds louder. Short bars use cooler colors to represent softer playing levels, while taller bars use warmer colors to correspond to louder sounds. Simply click on a bar to play a tone at that dynamic level. The change of colour and height provide an immediate visual clue to the relative volume of note.

How to Use This Site

Below is main ladder but with a grid of gradually increasing and accent buttons. This allow you to explore dynamic change as opposed to just static dynamics. By choosing a crescendo button you get to hear the volume swell up; choose diminuendo and you get to see it fade away. Other options includes sudden accents such as a strong emphasis that brings a sharp punch into a single note. Each card plays short phrase to demonstrate effect in action.

Between the accent grid and the ladder is another horizontal meter bar indicating how loudly it’s being played. As volume rises, the fill moves from left-to-right giving you instant feedback about level of sound. Below the meter are word that describe the chosen dynamic in plain English. It tells you exactly what is being asked for and helps you make connection between symbol and its meaning.

At the very bottom there’s a master volume slider that determines how loud or soft the widget will sound. It doesn’t alter the dynamic range, just height of the ceiling. Moving the slider up or down will raise or lower overall volume. This is useful if you find sounds too quiet for where you’re playing them or too loud for your headphones.

At the top, the help button shows a concise reference guide to all Italian musical terms used in this widget. If you want to remind yourself what each abbreviation means then this is for you.

If you’re not comfortabley with a mouse, then keyboard navigation works too. By pressing Tab, you’ll be able to jump from one interactive element to another and place your cursor on it. When a card or a bar has been highlighted in this way, hitting either the Space bar or Enter will play sound. It means you can easily hop around various dynamics without having to click accurately.

There’s also a full-screen button which maximizes chart to take up your entire monitor so you get a better picture of how levels relate visually. It is useful if you want to spend some time examining this closer.

To hear what each step sounds like, try playing gradually down the ladder from top to bottom. Feel the difference between the shift in volume from soft to medium-soft as opposed to the one from medium-loud to loud. Compare the accent cards and notice which changes a single note as opposed to one that holds throughout. Experiment with the master volume to determine your own comfortable listening level in your space.

The idea is to develop a naturaly understanding of how these markings impact expression. Once you have done that, click on a couple of bars to see what level of volume it has. If there are some Italian words that confuse you then consult the help guide. Spend some time exploring each one so you can be sure you know how dynamics operate in real life.

You should of had fun playing around with all these visuals and sounds the site offers.