歌謠是文學的源頭，亦為藝術的濫觴；歌謠再經藝術加工所形成的小調，二者更常被戲曲、曲藝劇種及民間樂種所吸收運用。歷朝歷代的表演藝術，莫不與「歌謠小調」結合。本文，擬就其名稱來源、內涵及其定義，作一界定與釐清。自一般辭典、專業辭書與近代前輩時賢之命義與用法，加以考察，得出先秦以迄清代，歷朝歷代都出現「歌謠」相關名稱，可見其生命力之豐富與強韌，可隨時代與地域不同而不斷地變化，包括：樂、聲、風、清商、清樂、清商樂、歌謠、民歌、山歌、曲子、小曲、俗曲、俚曲、調、時調、時曲等。而其所指內容，都不出代代傳承，由村夫農婦、市井小民順口歌唱而來。其不協宮調的簡短曲調，以人聲所創造出來的音樂，有時徒歌，也有加上樂器伴奏的；其聲情、詞情真切，毫不矯揉造作。至城市興起，從鄉間傳入都市，由職業藝人以樂器伴奏並藉唱本傳唱；其詞曲富於變化，卻大多維持著原形的短小歌曲樣貌。而「小調」自「歌謠」旁出，成為其中的一支；民國以後，二者也各自被廣為運用。縱使歌謠、小調名義紛雜，卻可從其命名方式、歌詞形式、樂曲結構、歌唱形式、傳唱方式與藝術特質等方面觀察以釐清其分野。至於論說「歌謠小調」之共性，運用於戲曲小戲中，如歌子戲的歌謠小調之從中生發其獨特性，則筆者另以專文論述。

The traditional ballads are the source of Chinese literatures and the fountainhead of arts. Then ballads refined with art process into tunes, both of them often been absorbed and used into different kinds of traditional Chinese drama. For generations, performing arts cannot help but to unite with ballads and tunes. In this article, I would like to clarify and make the systematization from the source of how they were named, meaning and definition. From the research of normal dictionary to professional dictionary and predecessors' used methods for recent years, we could find that the related name of tunes kept showing up since the pre-Qin imperial dynasty to Ching dynasty, can be found almost all the dynasty. It shows that the tunes are rich of vitality and toughness that able to evolve with different times and areas, including music(yue/樂), sound song(sheng/聲), feng-song(feng/ 風), Qing Shang(qing-shang/清商), Qing music(qing-yue/清樂), Qing Shang music(qing-shang-yue/清商樂), ballad(ge-yau/歌謠), folk song(min-ge/民歌), folk song in mountain villages(shan-ge/山歌), tune(qu-tz/曲子), small tune(shiau-qu/小 曲), country song(su-qu/俗曲), local song(li-qu/俚曲), melody(diau/調), popular melody(shi-diau/時調) and popular tune(shi-qu/時曲) etc. Besides, the story of all of them are able to sing very easily so that could pass on by local farmers and normal city residents. Those short and not strict tunes, made by human voice, could not only be cappella but also accompany with instruments, are sincere in both voice and lyrics. With the risen of the city, these tunes spread into city from countryside, and then started to perform by professional artists with instruments and libretto, their lyrics and melody kept their original short pattern and became changeable at the same time. From this period time, tunes started to separate and grow on their own from ballads and became one of the independent branches, after the Republic of China was established, both of tunes and ballads were used widely in individual way. Although tunes and ballads' name and meaning are miscellaneous, we can still observe and divide them by the way how to name them, the type of the lyrics, the structure of music, the pattern of perform, the mode of singing and propagation and the artistic features. Besides, when it comes to the argument of the common characteristics of ballads and tunes which usually happened in local traditional Chinese drama, such as the unique tunes came from the Gezi opera, will be discussed in another thesis.