Download Jazz Glossary

Jazz Glossary
Bebop: A jazz style requiring virtuosic technique, including fast tempos and complex
harmonies.
Big band: A jazz style popular in the 1920s and 1930s in which the pieces were generally
written for a large ensemble to be played in dance halls.
Blue note: a ‘bent’ note between the minor and major third. In the blues scale the third,
fifth & seventh degree of the scale are flattened to create the blue notes, for example a
blues scale in the key of C major; C D Eb F Gb A Bb C.
Changes: The chord sequence in a jazz song that the solo is based / improvised on.
Chromatic: Notes that do not belong in the key of the music for example in the key of C
major the note C# would be considered as chromatic.
Comping: Abbreviation of ‘Accompanying’. Comping describes the chords & rhythms played by
the keyboard and guitar players that support the improvised solo or melody line.
Frontline: Solo instruments in a jazz ensemble that would play the improvised solos or
melody line. Instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet or clarinet would be frontline
instruments.
Head: The main melody of a jazz song generally played at the beginning of the song.
Improvisation: Making a melody/solo up on the spot. In some instances improvised solos
could be based on a chord sequence or previous melody.
Modal Jazz: A jazz style in which the soloists base their solos one modes instead of the
chord changes.
Mordent: An ornament where a single note is to be played with a single rapid alternation with
the note above or below.
Upper Mordent
Lower Mordent
New Orleans Jazz: One of the first recognised jazz styles, originating in New Orleans.
Ragtime: Music characterised by a syncopated melodic line and regularly accented
accompaniment.
Swing: Development of Big Band Jazz. The term is also used to describe a particular type of
rhythmic ‘groove’ desirable in Jazz Music.
Syncopation: When the off beats are emphasised. This can be the 2nd and 4th beats instead
of 1st and 3rd beats or it can be the second half of the beat itself.
Trill: An ornament consisting of rapid alternations between the written note and the note
above it.
Voicing: term used to describe the placing of notes in a chord usually from lowest to highest.
The terms root, third and fifth would be used.
Fifth
Third
Root