Musical discourse, as most of other genres of discourse, exists in tree forms i. e. professional, laymen’s and mixed types. The analysis shows the difference between professional and laymen’s types of musical discourse. The laymen’s discourse is predominating in the Internet. Another observation is deterioration of professional musical language among the younger generation. The authors consider the main types of musical terms – professional international ones as sforzando and terms derived from common words as root, key or third. Russian and English dictionary definitions of the terms are compared. The use of musical terms is illustrated by vivid examples. The general tendency is strong adaptation of musical texts to common readers and mass audiences with mi