word-request
In Portuguese, instrumental music is the version of a piece of music without a singer's voice.
Is this the same term in English? I don't know if there is a specific word because, for example, when searching about the music transcript we need to search for lyrics.
The usual term when I was in school was scratch paper—scraps of paper you "scratch out" calculations and notes on, to be discarded after results have been fair-copied into your exam answer or essay.
A working paper is usually either a) a report on a "work-in-progress" or b) a "working" version of a paper which is still in development and not yet ready for submission or publication.
The traditional term in textual criticism for an author's manuscript draft, often full of strikethroughs, insertions and corrections, is foul papers, from which a "clean" version or fair copy is made.
The most common ways to say that someone is good at remembering things include:
He has a good memory.
She has an excellent memory.
Adjectives such as "mindful" are rarely good substitutes.
"Mindful" means keeping something in mind, and is almost always followed by a description of the thing:
He is mindful of his obligations. (= He is aware of his obliations.)
"Attentive" means either that someone listens well (for example, in class) or that they pay attention to particular things:
She is attentive to the nuances of what people say.
"Retentive" most often describes memory rather than a person ("she has a retentive memory"), but ODO also gives this example:
She's very retentive of any facts about the culture, especially about the language.
Best Answer
Yes, a vocal song can have an instrumental version, in which the lyrics are missing. Instrumental can mean two things:
Incidentally, some people insist a "song" must have vocals. These people use the word "piece" to refer to a song without singing, which is traditional and etymologically correct. In common use, people use "song" to refer to instrumental songs as well.
How is this relevant? If you're talking about an instrumental metal group or the instrumental version of a pop song, people say "instrumental song"; if you're talking about classical music with no singing, people usually say "piece".
A "backing track" is a track without all the instruments for a musician to play over, which is somewhat different. A guitarist may have a backing track consisting of bass and drums that they play over.