Basic Bardic (Music) Skills
HL Marcello Fornarius
marcello.fornarius@gmail.com
For Alpine Scholar, Feb 14 2026 in Tymberhaven
This class is not necessarily intended to be “Intro to SCA Bardic,” tho I can answer those types of questions as well. This class is intended to provide information about bardic skills to enhance your performance. I am a music teacher in my modern life, so I will focus on music skills, but I can also provide feedback and/or connections for spoken word and other types of bardic performances.
Depending on attendance, we may go thru some of these sections in more or less detail as desired by participants:
Music vocabulary
Music Notation (modern and historical) bring an instrument if you want to try things out!
Instrument specific skills (strings, recorder)
Ensemble skills for playing with others (ex: at dances)
Performance/presentation skills
Vocabulary
Accidentals: sharps ♯ and flats ♭
Cadence: a cadence is the end of a musical phrase, (cadential is the adjective descriptor to describe things that happen particularly at cadences)
Barline: separates measures (aka bars) visually
Beat: the steady pulse for a given piece
Clef: at the beginning of the line to indicate a particular note on the staff for pitch orientation
Consonance: interval that is considered harmonious/blending
Dissonance: interval that is considered clashing
Interval: distance between two notes
Key: refers to which note is the important note, usually starts and almost always ends on this note, modern concept that starts to emerge in very late period
Key Signature: the sharps ♯ or flats ♭ at the beginning of a piece of music that indicate which ones will be used consistently
Leading tone: the 7th note of the major scale, or other half step in some cases
Measure: one iteration of a meter’s pattern
Meter: repeating pattern of stress/unstressed beats
Mode: a collection of pitches that has a defined range and particular ending pitch - different from keys in usage and very common in period
Musica ficta: “fictional notes,” the practice of using accidentals that are not written in the music in certain melodic situations
Rhythm: describes shorter and longer durations of sounds
Scale: stepwise collection of notes in a key
Solfege: used to indicate relative position within a scale
Staff: the horizontal lines where music notes are placed to indicate specific pitches
Time signature: indicates the visual representation of the meter
Triad: a chord or collection of notes with the intervals in between the notes being 3rds
Music Notation
Modern
5 line staff, often in treble and bass clef
(print your own for free at https://www.blanksheetmusic.net/ )
Parts that happen at the same time are presented concurrently
Using keys, key signatures
Using time signatures to indicate how many notes should appear in between barlines
Last row of examples is alto clef, used today by violas, but very common in medieval scores
Medieval notation
number of lines in the staff varies
Usually a C clef like alto clef, but can have different placement on the staff for different ranges
Key signature uncommon
Accidentals not always shown because of the practice of musica ficta
Multiple parts are not presented concurrently
Before 1300 notation did not indicate rhythm reliably
Even after rhythmic notation emerged, barlines are uncommon
Ensemble Skills
Using chords to play with a melody on a chord instrument (guitar) or not chord instrument
When in doubt, play the name of the chord
The name of the key will be the primary chord - modes are similar, but weirder
Each key or mode will have a few chords that occur the most
Most chords we use are triads, constructed on 3rds
Major and minor chords have different constructions
Practice following multiple lines visually
Steady rhythm very important
Listening and adjusting to others
Communicating with and following dancers
Performance Skills
Stage presence
Vocal projection (singing or speaking)
Memorization tactics
Court/filler performance needs