Glossary of Jazz Terms

Pattern: A pre-planned melodic figure, repeated at different pitch levels. Something played automatically by the fingers without much thought. Reliance on patterns is the hallmark of a weak player.

Pedal: A bass line that stays mainly on one note (or its octaves) under several changes of harmony. Also pedal-point. The most typical situation is when a dominant pedal (bass on V) underlies a turnaround progression like I - VI - ii - V. The root of the I chord can also act as a pedal.

Pentatonic: Pertaining to scales of 5 notes to the octave, in particular 1-2-3-5-6 of the major scale. Pentatonic melodies are typical of much indigenous music around the world, and these scales are also an important part of the modern Jazz sound. Pentatonic melodies and patterns were especially typical of Jazz and fusion in the seventies.

Pickup: A phrase beginning that comes before the beginning of the first bar. A pickup can be one note or a longer phrase.

Pocket: In the pocket means perfectly in time, especially bass playing that is 'in the center' of the beat (rather than slightly leading or dragging the beat).

Polytonality: The use of two different keys simultaneously. Despite much loose talk, true polytonality is rare. Upper structures (q.v.) and outside playing do not usually qualify because there is always a strong single underlying tonality.

Progression: A definite series of chords, forming a passage with some harmonic unity or dramatic meaning. One speaks of the progressions that crop up repeatedly in different tunes, and studies how to negotiate them. Chords in progressions are labelled with Roman numerals (I, II, etc.) while scale degrees, and upper structures (q.v.), are labelled with arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.).

Quality: The character of a chord given by its third, fifth, and seventh. The qualities are major, dominant, minor, tonic minor, half-diminished and diminished. In theory augmented major and augmented (dominant) would also be 'qualities' but they are usually just considered alterations.

Quartal: Based on fourths. Chords built up of fourths were, famously, developed by McCoy Tyner in the John Coltrane Quartet in the 60s.

Quote: A snatch of some other well-known tune thrown into a solo. A good quote is unexpected, incongruous and yet seems to fit perfectly. Some quotes are cliches, as 'Grand Canyon Suite' in 'All the Things You Are'.

Remote key: A key distant on the circle of fifths from the original one, such as E major compared to C major.

Riff: (1) A relatively simple, catchy repeated phrase. May be played behind a soloist or as part of a head. Often in a bluesy style. Riff tunes are made up of riffs, characteristic of the black bands of the 30s. (2) A pre-packaged phrase used by an improviser when he can't think of anything else, especially one which is especially catchy.

Root: The fundamental pitch on which a chord is based, from which the chord takes its name, and to which the other tones of the chord are referred to intervallically the third, seventh, and so on, regardless of their actual intervallic relationship in an actual keyboard voicing. Note that the root is often absent in Jazz piano, both in voicings and in r.h. patterns and lines. This avoidance of the obvious is part of the character of Jazz.

Rhythm Changes: The chords to 'I Got Rhythm' (Gershwin), somewhat modified and simplified. Many Jazz tunes use these changes and every player must know them. There are several variations.

Rhythm Section: The piano, bass and drums in a combo, those who play throughout the tune, behind the soloists. Might also include guitar or vibes, or there might be no piano.

Run: A rapid descending, or ascending, usually right-hand passage on the piano in the form of a continuous scale, or a scale with variations.

Scale: (1) A selection of tones in the octave, arranged in ascending or descending order, usually but not always using intervals of half- or whole-steps, and using the same notes in every successive octave. One tone is usually thought of as being the root, but it need not be the first note played. Most scales have 5, 6, 7 or 8 notes to the octave but any number from 2 to 12 is possible. (2) The same group of tones regarded abstractly as a 'pool' of available notes. In this sense, scale really means the same as chord. There is a maxim: 'Scales are chords and chords are scales.' (3) A section of melody in the form of a scale.

Shed: Short for Woodshed, to practice diligently.

Shell: A two-note structure in the left hand, consisting of the root and one other note, usually the 7th, the 3rd or 10th, or the 6th. A simple, open left-hand style, used by Bud Powell and many of his imitators and followers.

Shout chorus: A special, complete, through-composed chorus played just before the final out-chorus. Used in classic (20s) Jazz, some bebop, and a few modern compositions, such as Wayne Shorter's This Is For Albert.

Side-slipping: To play a passage, a melody or chord, a half-step up or down from its expected place or in relation to the given harmony.

Sideman: Any member of a band or small group other than the leader.

Solo: Any one player's improvisation over one or more choruses of the tune (occasionally, especially in ballads, less than one chorus). A sharp distinction is made between soloing, and playing the head.

Song form: A musical form with two contrasting themes A and B, thus-- A (8 bars); A repeated; B (8 bars); A repeated. The three A's have slightly different endings (turnarounds). Another common form may be called song form also, ABAB' (the second B starting like the first but ending differently). Most older standards are in song form.

Stand: The bandstand or stage.

Standard: A tune universally accepted and played by many Jazz musicians. Many standards are tin pan alley and Broadway songs from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Others are strictly Jazz compositions. A professional Jazz musician is expected to know many, many standards.

Stop time: A rhythm where certain beats aren't played, e.g. 1 2 3 (rest) 1 2 3 (rest).

Straight 8s: With equal, even 8th notes. Same as 'Latin'.

Stride: The typical piano style of the 30s, tending towards virtuosity. The left hand plays alternating low-register bass notes (or octaves, fifths or tenths) and middle register rootless voicings, giving an 'oom-pah' effect, interspersed with step-wise parallel tenths. The right hand often employs busy runs, arpeggios and octaves or full chords. Suggestions of stride remain in the technique of many of today's players.

Stroll: Omit the piano. A soloist (playing a horn) strolls when he plays for a time with bass and drums only (or maybe the pianist strolls outside to have a smoke).

Substitution: A chord put in the place of a different chord. A substitution can be made throughout a tune, or just ad lib at a particular moment. Usually the operative idea is that the root of the chord is changed, while the other voices are common to both chords. Typical examples bII7 for V7, and iii for I.

Swing: (1) The style of the 30s, when the big band was the dominant form of Jazz. The style implies certain types of harmony (use of added 6ths rather than 7ths in major and minor chords, of un-embellished diminished chords, frequent use of the augmented 5th and little use of the augmented 11th, etc.) and a rhythmic organization that states the beat explicitly, puts more weight on 1 and 3 and tends to obey the bar-line phrasing. (2) A rhythmic manner, unique to Jazz, in which the first of a pair of written 8th notes is played longer than the second, even twice as long, while the second tends to receive a slight accent, though the distribution of accents is irregular and syncopated. (The degree of this effect depends on the overall tempo, and is modified by the requirements of expression and phrasing.) (3) As a direction in a chart, played with a swing feel, as opposed to latin. (4) A mysterious, unexplainable quality in any music, but especially Jazz, which makes one 'feel that shit all up in your body' (Miles Davis).

Syncopation: The process of displacing 'expected' beats by anticipation or delay of one-half a beat. The natural melodic accent which would fall, in 'square' music, on the beat, is thus heard on the off-beat. This adds a flavor of ambiguity as to where the beat is (not an actual ambiguity, only a flavor).