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Music Vocab
Jazz, Pop, and Rock Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accidentals | used to lower or flatten a note to the next adjacent note(one half-step) to a non-diatonic note, or to raise of sharp a note in the same manner. |
| Antebellum | refers to the years leading up to the Civil War. |
| Backbeat | beats two and four of each measure. The backbeats are usually accented in swing rhythm. |
| Bar Measure | repeated groupings that beats are organized into. |
| Blue Notes | are the lowered or flattened notes of the flat scale. Eb, Gb, and Bb are blue notes and produce dissonance that gives blues the unique, mournful quality. |
| Blues Scale | is a six-note scale that eliminates the second and sixth scale notes and lowers, or flattens, the third and seventh notes. |
| Boogie-woogie | a style of music deeply rooted in the blues instead of evolving out of a ragtime, or a European tradition. |
| Cakewalk | originally performed by slave couples who used high kicking steps to imitate pretentious behavior of white folk. |
| Call and Response | a melodic phrase played or sung by one performer that is answered by another |
| Chord | the fundamental unit to create harmony; three or more notes played simultaneously. |
| Chord progression | the sequential order of the chords in a tune. In jazz, called "changes." |
| Chord symbols | notational representations of chords, or a kind of shorthand used to quickly communicate the harmonic content of a chord. |
| Club Onyx | a jazz club in NYC that was important in bop era. |
| Cutting contest | informal competitive duel where musicians try to outplay each other by playing with more creativity and originality. "Battle of the bands" |
| Diatonic | the notes from a specific key or scale and the harmony that is derived from those notes.. |
| Discriminatory Codes | New Orleans regulatory codes (Jim Crow laws) passed in the South. |
| Double Time | rhythmically twice as fast as the established tempo. |
| Downbeat | beat one of each measure |
| Embellishment Ornamentation | the improvised decoration of a melody |
| Fake Book | a book made up of tunes in lead sheet form |
| Front Line | refers to the early jazz bands and was made up of one or two cornets, one or two clarinets, and a trombone. |
| Gig | a jazz performance |
| Hot | adds a lot of drama by playing extra notes, playing high in range, or playing loud. |
| Cool | More laid-back and relaxed |
| Jazz Standard | a jazz or pop tune that is widely known by jazz musicians and is played often. "Someday my prince will come" |
| Jug Bands | consisted of fiddles and banjos, washboards and foot stomping. |
| Lead Sheet | a written down notation of a tune using only the melody and chord symbols. |
| Lyrical | a melody that is very singable or melodic. Played more by cool soloists |
| Minton's Playhouse | a jazz club in NYC that served as a gathering spot after hours for swing jazz musicians to perform the new style of bop |
| Pentatonic scale | a five note scale (1-2-3-5-6) commonly used in folk music from different cultures. |
| Phrasing | the combining of melodies with silence, or rests. |
| Polyphony | two or more melodies occurring simultaneously; a counterpoint |
| Polyrhythm | using two or more rhythms simultaneously |
| Professors | were highly paid piano players in The District. |
| Pulse | the fundamental beat driving the music that creates the tempo. |
| Ragging | the act of adding syncopated rhythms of ragtime to more traditional dance pieces. |
| Reharmonization | the process of inserting new chords into the existing chord progression of an established tune; chord substitution. Used by pianist Art Tatum in 1930's and bop musicians in 40's. |
| Rent parties | held near the end of the month where 15-25 cents were charged to help pay next month's rent. Most common in Harlem during 1920's. |
| Riff | short melodic phrase or melody, or a short phrase in an improvised solo. Syn: line, lick, or motif. |
| Sheet music | music that is notated and sold in loose sheet format. |
| Side man | a musician used in a live or recording ensemble that is not the leader and plays a specific part |
| Spanish tinge | what Jelly Roll Morton called it when he used the rhythms of the tango and other Spanish dances in his compositions. First was "New Orleas Bump," 1902 |
| Spiritual | music from the early black Christian church; generally consisted of Europeans hymns sung using African performance techniques such as call and response, increased rhythmic flexibility, improvisation, and hand clapping. |
| Stride piano | the loping left hand piano playing technique full of high energy. Produced some of the greatest piano masters in jazz history. |
| Syncopation | placing notes or accents off the beat or in unexpected places. |
| Tailgating | a style of trombone playing that makes use of dramatic slides from one note to another; glissandos. |
| Tempo | the speed of the music |
| Trading fours | technique of exchanging four-bar solos, usually between a soloist and a drummer |
| Vaudeville | a touring show of short comedy skits and musical acts, but without humor associated with slave life. Shows that white America was fascinated with black culture. |
| Vibrato | the technique of varying pitch up and down slightly to produce a waving sound; favored by wind and string players, and vocalists. |
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alenab
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