Musical directions
From allegro to ritardando
Qardbox is a free flashcard app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with no ads and with your data staying yours. It costs nothing, asks for no account and shows no ads, and your own cards stay unlimited. That is a promise.
You can always create as many flashcards as you like, free of charge.
This deck costs you nothing. You get 94 flashcards, sorted into 5 categories and with notes that add to them. You start out learning instead of typing, and whatever you find missing later you add yourself.
- Cards
- 94
- Categories
- 5
- Price
- free
Free, no account, no ads
What is in this deck
With this deck you learn 47 Italian performance markings: tempo, dynamics, articulation and expression, asked both ways.
There is an Italian word above the staff, and you just keep playing. Ritardando or rallentando, portato or tenuto: the differences are not in the notation, you have to know them.
47 markings in both directions: from the word to the meaning and from the meaning back to the word.
For Italian speakers this is not a vocabulary trainer: the Italian text gives the musical sense, not the dictionary one.
The categories decide what comes up: start with “Articulation” alone and add the rest when you are ready.
What you learn
- 47 markings from largo to prestissimo
- Tempo, dynamics, articulation and expression
- Naming the words, not just recognising them
The categories
5 categories sort the 94 cards. You can filter by category and take on what is due right now.
- Articulation
- Dynamics
- Expression
- Form and repeats
- Tempo
What you get
Here are three of the 94 cards that are in this deck.
Question
What does largo mean?
Answer
Broad, very slow
Note
In everyday Italian largo means broad or wide; many Italian squares are called Largo. The metronome shows roughly 40 to 60 beats per minute.
Question
Which marking means: broad, very slow?
Answer
largo
Note
In everyday Italian largo means broad or wide; many Italian squares are called Largo. The metronome shows roughly 40 to 60 beats per minute.
Question
How is grave to be played?
Answer
Heavy and very slow
Note
In everyday Italian grave means serious or grave, as of an illness. As the slowest tempo marking it lies around 20 to 40 beats per minute.
Learning with Qardbox
You see a card, you think, you turn it over and say whether you knew it. A round asks nothing more of you, and how the app works out the next date from that is on the page about FSRS-6.
What sits comes back less often, what wobbles comes back soon. You set a daily goal, and when nothing is due the app tells you exactly that instead of inventing work for you. How a round goes is shown on the learning page.
Everything stays on your device. No account, no sign-up, no ads. After the purchase the deck sits in your library like any other subject and can be studied, reordered and extended just like your own.
What it costs, and what it doesn’t
Qardbox itself costs nothing, and it stays that way. Every function is there from the start, with no subscription, no ads and no tiers; what that rests on is on the page about what it costs.
Your own cards stay unlimited, and decks from friends or from the family you read in without a limit, from a file as well. You do not need this deck in order to learn with Qardbox.
This deck costs nothing. Its 94 cards are checked and save you the work you would otherwise have.
Common questions
Do I have to pay for Qardbox?
No. The app is free, with no subscription and no ads, and every function is there. This deck is free too; some other ready-made decks cost a little, once.
Could I make these cards myself?
Yes, without limit and for free. You can type them, import a file or take over cards from friends. This deck only saves you the work.
How many cards are in Musical directions?
94 cards, sorted into 5 categories.
Do I need a connection to study?
Only to download the deck. After that it lives on your device and you study offline. There is no account, and you sign in nowhere.
Which devices does this run on?
On iPhone and iPad from iOS 26, and on Apple Watch. One purchase covers the family through Family Sharing.
Is there a Qardbox for Android?
No. Qardbox is there for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, not for Android and not in a browser.
Other decks that go with this one
Get started
Get Qardbox, look at the deck in the store and decide there. The app is free whether you take this deck or not.
Free on the App Store, no account.