Definitions
Articulation: Articulation refers to the musical performance technique that affects the transition or continuity on a single note, or between multiple notes or sounds.
Cadence: A cadence (Latin cadentia, "a falling") is, a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of resolution (finality or pause). A harmonic cadence is a progression of (at least) two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music. A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic rhythmic pattern that indicates the end of a phrase. Cadences give phrases a distinctive ending that can, for example, indicate whether the piece is to continue or has concluded.
Dynamics: Dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity). The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics. Dynamics are relative and do not refer to specific volume levels.
Fingering: Fingering is the choice of which fingers and hand positions to use when playing certain musical instruments. Fingering typically changes throughout a piece; the challenge of choosing good fingering for a piece is to make the hand movements as comfortable as possible without changing hand position too often.
Intonation: Intonation, in music, is a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously.
Melody: A melody, also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively, the term can include successions of other musical elements such as tonal color. It may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment. A line or part need not be a foreground melody. Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a composition in various forms. Melodies may also be described by their melodic motion or the pitches or the intervals between pitches (predominantly conjunct or disjunct or with further restrictions), pitch range, tension and release, continuity and coherence, cadence, and shape.
Musical Technique: Musical technique is the ability of instrumental and vocal musicians to exert optimal control of their instruments or vocal cords in order to produce the precise musical effects they desire. Improving one's technique generally entails practicing exercises that improve one's muscular sensitivity and agility. Technique is independent of musicality.
Musicality: Musicality is "sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music" or "the quality or state of being musical", and is used to refer to specific if vaguely defined qualities in pieces and/or genres of music, such as melodiousness and harmoniousness. These definitions are somewhat hampered by the difficulty of defining music, but, colloquially, "music" is often contrasted with noise and randomness. A person considered musical has the ability to perceive and reproduce differences in aspects of music including pitch, rhythm and harmony (see: ear training)
Pizzacato: Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument.
Position: Position is the relative location of the hand on the instrument's neck, indicated by ordinal numbers (e.g., 3rd). Fingering, independent of position, is indicated by numbers, 1-4, and string is indicated by Roman numerals, I-IV. Different positions on the same string are reached through shifting.
Shifting: Shifting, or a shift, is a movement of the fingers of the left hand from one position to another on the same string. Position is indicated through ordinal numbers (e.g., 3rd). Strings may be indicated through Roman numerals, I-IV, and fingering may be indicated through numbers, 1-4. When done skillfully shifting avoids string noise.
Timbre: Timbre also known as tone color or tone quality from psychoacoustics, is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the perception of timbre include spectrum and envelope.
Tonality: Tonality is a musical system in which pitches or chords are arranged so as to induce a hierarchy of perceived stabilities and attractions. The pitch or chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic. Tonality was the predominant musical system in the European tradition of classical music from the late 1500s until early in the 20th century, and remains almost entirely the basis of popular music
Attribution
* These defintions were taken, with some modifications, from the Wikipedia article with the same name as the defintion (as of December 27, 2014) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.