In Classical Music, What Are “Clams,” “Footballs,” “Hairpins,” and “Axes”?

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. Here’s a question for you.

In what profession would you hear your colleagues talking about the following things? Clams, footballs, hairpins, and axes.

Web design. I don’t know.

Well, maybe. I don’t know.

What? What is that?

Well, actually, I should have said it’s a musical question because this is all slang used by classical musicians.

Oh, really?

A clam?

Yeah, a clam is a missed note, you know, when you’re doing a run and you miss the note.

A football is a whole note, you know, because it looks like a whole note on the page.

Very good.

That makes sense.

Hair pins?

I don’t know.

Those are crescendo and decrescendo marks.

They’re a little wavy, right?

Well, they’re like little arrows.

All of V’s, long V’s.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Turned sideways.

They look sort of like hair pins.

And an axe, as you know.

Is your guitar.

Is your guitar.

Or your instrument in general.

Exactly.

Exactly. Classical musicians use acts for any kind of instrument. Isn’t that great?

These are great. These are stupendous.

Yeah, we got these from people on our Facebook page who added a lot of them.

And one that I like from Kyle Hayes, who actually started the discussion on Facebook, is a rather sexy musical term.

Oh, hello.

You know what a bisectional is?

I don’t know. What is it?

Somebody who plays more than one instrument, so they’re either in the horn section or the wind section.

How do they move that fast between sections?

I think it’s for different performances.

Oh, I see.

I was thinking of a quick change artist.

Anyway, we love slang from your workplace.

We’d love to hear more of it or any other questions you have about language, observations about grammar, disputes you might have with your sweetie about how to pronounce a word.

We love it all.

Call us 877-929-9673 or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.