Glossary of Jazz Terms

A Section: The first section of a tune, typically 8 bars; Jazz terms for the main theme.

AABA: The most common form in pop music. Typical of songs by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, etc. See Song Form.

Alteration: The raising or lowering of a tone by a half-step, from its diatonic value in a chord. In Jazz usage, the fifth and ninth may be raised (augmented) or lowered (diminished); the fourth (or eleventh) may be augmented; the thirteenth may be diminished. The expression 'diminished seventh' is used solely as the name of a chord. Of course, in general music theory, any interval may be augmented or diminished.

Altered scale: The dominant 7th scale with a lowered 9th, raised 9th, raised 11th, no fifth, and lowered 13th, along with the usual root, 3rd and 7th. So-called because every possible alteration has been made.

Augmented: Raised by a half-step. See 'Alteration'.

Augmented 7th (+7): A dominant 7th chord with a raised 5th added. The name is misleading because it is not the 7th that is augmented.

Axe: Jazz terms for one's instrument. Even said of the voice.

B Section: Same as bridge.

Back-beat: Beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time, particularly when they are strongly accented. A term more used in rock 'n roll.

Ballad: A slow tune. Ballad playing is replete with its own idiomatic devices.

Bebop: The style of Jazz developed by young players in the early 40s, particularly Parker, Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian and Bud Powell. Small groups were favored, and simple standard tunes or just their chord progressions were used as springboards for rapid, many-noted improvisations using long, irregular, syncopated phrasing. Improv was based on chordal harmony rather than the tune. The higher intervals of the chords (9th, 11th and 13th) were emphasized in improv and in piano chord voicings, and alterations were used more freely than before, especially the flatted 5th & augmented 11th. The ground beat was moved from the bass drum to the ride cymbal and the string bass, and the rhythmic feel is more flowing and subtle than before. Instrumental virtuosity was stressed, while tone quality became more restrained, less obviously 'expressive'.

Block Chords: A style of piano playing, developed by Milt Buckner and George Shearing, with both hands 'locked' together, playing chords in parallel with the melody, usually in fairly close position. It is a technical procedure requiring much practice, and can sound dated if the harmonies are not advanced enough. Also called locked hands.

Blow: The Jazz term for 'improvise.' It has a more mystical aura. Also, simply to play an instrument.

Blowing changes: The chords of a tune, particularly those intended specifically for improvising which may vary somewhat from the changes of the head. Sometimes written on a separate page.

Blues: (1) A form normally consisting of 12 bars, staying in one key and moving to IV at bar 5. (2) A melodic style, with typical associated harmonies, using certain 'blues scales', riffs and grace notes. (3) A musical genre, ancestral to Jazz and part of it. (4) A feeling that is said to inform all of Jazz.

Boogie (boogie-woogie): A style of piano playing very popular in the thirties. Blues, with continuous repeated eighth note patterns in the left hand and exciting but often stereotyped blues riffs and figures in the right hand.

Break: A transitional passage in which a soloist plays unaccompanied.

Bridge: The contrasting middle section of a tune, especially the 'B' section of an AABA song form. Traditionally, the bridge goes into a different key, often a remote key. Thelonious Monk once remarked that the function of a bridge is 'to make the outside sound good'.

Broken time: A way of playing in which the beat is not stated explicitly. Irregular, improvised syncopation. Especially applied to bass and drum playing.

Cadence: A key-establishing chord progression, generally following the circle of fifths. A turnaround is one example of a cadence. Sometimes a whole section of a tune can be an extended cadence. In understanding the harmonic structure of a tune, it's important to see which chords are connected to which others in cadences.

CESH: Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony, a foolish Jazz term used in some textbooks. The use of moving inner voices to give propulsion to a chord that lasts for a while.

Changes: (1) The chords of a tune. 'Playing' or 'running' the changes means using suitable scales, etc., over each given chord of the tune. Determining the exact changes to use is a big part of preparing a tune for performance. (2) Rhythm Changes (q.v.) for short.

Channel: An old term for the bridge.

Chase: Two soloists, such as the trumpet and sax, taking alternating 4-bar phrases (or 8, or 2). See Trading 4s.

Chart: (1) Any musical score. (2) A special type of score, used by Jazz musicians. Only the melody line, words (if any) and chord symbols are given. Clef, key signature and meter are given once only, at the beginning. The standards of musical notation and calligraphy are low. Details are often scanty or inaccurate, which encourages the musician to amend and elaborate the chart for his own purposes. Every Jazz musician has his own book of miscellaneous charts. Also see "Lead Sheet".

Circle of Fifths: Diagram depicting the relationship among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys. In Jazz, useful in predicting the potential of harmonic direction.

Chops: Technical ability, to execute music physically and to negotiate chord changes. Distinct from the capacity to have good ideas, to phrase effectively and build a solo.

Chord: The harmony at a given moment. Loosely, a group of 3 or more notes played together. Strictly, a chord is the basic unit of harmony, regarded abstractly as having a given root and specifying some other tones at certain intervals from the root, without regard to the actual voicing of the notes on the piano (see Voicing and Scale).

Chord tones: The root, third, fifth and seventh of a chord, as opposed to extensions.

Chromatic: Pertaining to or derived from the chromatic scale, which includes all 12 tones to the octave. Chromatic harmony is a vague term referring either to the use of many altered tones in the chord, or to the use of chromatic root-movement in between the given chords.

Chorus: One complete cycle of a tune, one time through from top to bottom.

Close voicing: One in which the chord tones are bunched together, generally within an octave range.

Coda: (1) A portion of a tune which seems like a tail, or extra measures, added to the last A section. It is repeated for every chorus, however. (2) An ending for a tune, used only once after the final chorus. There is often confusion in written charts as to whether a coda is 'every time' or 'out-chorus only'. Some charts, to save space, are written so that the tune appears to have a coda, but it's really just a normal part of the tune.

Cool: The style of the early 50s, taken up by many white musicians and popular on college campuses. The basis was bebop, but the fastest tempos were not used and the sound was quiet and understated. Miles Davis was one of the main originators.

Counting off: Giving the tempo and meter by counting aloud.

Cross-rhythm: A passage in which a different meter is temporarily expressed or implied, while the prevailing meter continues underneath (see meter). Not particularly a Jazz term, but cross-rhythms are universal in Jazz performance. In ballad playing, for example, there is commonly a triplet-quarter-note rhythm that implicitly continues through the 4/4 meter and is "tapped-into" from time to time.

Crush: On the piano, a half-step played simultaneously.