7th Grade Jazz Terms

1) Blues form - a twelve-measure jazz form with a specific pattern of chords or harmonies.

2) Call and response - a musical “conversation,” when one player answers another.

3)Collective improvisation - all the players improvising together at the same time, one of defining characteristics of jazz

4) Improvisation - to make up the music in the moment of performance, usually by playing with the elements of a theme or form that a composer has written down.

5) Ragtime - An American style of musical composition employing syncopation and other raggin’ effects.

6) Riff - a repeated phrase in jazz.

7) Soul - playing with a warmth and expressiveness intended to make listeners feel as good as possible.

8) Swing - the basic ground rhythm of jazz; usually walking the bass and riding the cymbal.

9) Scat - a method of singing using nonsense words to try to sound like a musical instrument, made famous by Ella Fitzgerald

10) Blues note - In jazz and blues, a blue note (also "bent" note) is a note sung or played at slightly lower pitch than the major scale for expressive purpose.

11) Walking bass - a style of bass accompaniment or line, common in baroque music and jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, similar to the regular alteration of feet while walking.