Dynamic is another word for volume how loud or quiet the music is. Questions on the dynamics may ask you to explain what is meant by a certain dynamic marking or symbol, or to describe the dynamics in a passage of music.
What does the dynamic marking pp mean?
Which of the following means to get quieter?
Which is louder: 'mezzo piano' or 'mezzo forte'?
Writing about how loud or soft the music is and how it changes
Just because this is obvious doesn’t mean you won’t get marks. You can just write about how the music is quite or loud, when the volume changes and whether it changes gradually or suddenly. (e.g. “The music starts very quiet then gets gradually louder before suddenly getting quiet again).
You also need to know the appropriate Italian terms:
| pp | pianissimo | very soft |
| p | Piano | Soft |
| mp | mezzo piano | medium soft |
| mf | mezzo forte | medium loud |
| f | Forte | Loud |
| ff | Fortissimo | very loud |
| cresc | Crescendo | getting louder |
| dim | Diminuendo | getting softer |
| sf | Sforzando | suddenly loud |