Improvisation
not written down,Happens when a musician decides what to play while they are playing it
Ragtime
an african american style named for its ragged or syncopated rhythms
Scott Joplin
One of the best known ragtime composers. (Ex.”maple leaf rag”)
Tin Pan Alley
Where music players used to live in new york between 5th St. and Broadway
Irving Berlin
One of the most important jewish american songwritters of the tin pan alley era (ex. “Alexanders Rag time band” and “god bless america”)
chord
three or more notes played together
syncopated rhythms
“ragged” melodys played by the pianist right hand or the main melody played by the banjo of the band
front line
principle solo instruments played in early hot bands (Ex.trupmet,clarient,trombone)
rhythm section
is a general term for the instruments in any band that keep beat and play the chords (ex. banjo,guitar,piano)
solo breaks
when individual intrumentalist featured alone
Swing
bands played jazz-related music, idividuals were allowed to improvise solos in a jazz style, butbands were bigger and improvation time was limited
arrangements
carefully planned music bands played for swing dance rhythms
walking bass
swing bassits created a much smoother effect by “walking” from note to note by playing a new note on every beat and occasionally between the beats to create a rhythmic flow
Comping
the left hand(or both hands) could play chords on or between beats and not play bass notes at all
Gleen Miller
trombonist of one of the most popular swing bands (Gleen Miller Band)( in movies “sun valley serenade” and “orchestra wives”)
Crooning
style of singing, developed in a way of using a microphone, men softened their natural singing voice into a smooth gentle one
overdubbing
to enhance music already recorded, abtainable only not live(ex. Elvis’ “heartbreak hotel”)
Alan Freed
one to help bring both blues and rock music to the white teens through radio
backbeat
accents on the second and fourth of each four-beat bar
griots
oral poets who tell the history of their leaders
call and response
leader sings a phrase and the group sings a copy version
field holler
worker who sings about the task required of them
work songs
singing during slave work
signifying
having double meaning to a text
country blues
earliest blues styles of the south,blues was an integral part of the peoples lives
delta
written from the mississippi delta, lyrics expressed lives the singers really lived
bottlenecks
tubes of glass used to make a specific sound with the guitar strings
blue notes
bending the pitches of notes
pentatonic scales
five-tone note that influenced blues notes
bebop
when the lowered fifth sclae degree becomes a blues note
string bending
pushing or pulling a string to loosen or tighten a string to lower or raise the pitch in a blues note
12 bar blues
12 bar song in the structure of: AAB
beat subdivisions
slow and uneven beats created to relax a feeling
Robert Johnson
country blues singer/guitarist(“cross road blues”)
polyrhythm
more than 1 rhythm
Classic blues
women singing in 12 bar form
Bessie smith
classic blues singer (“Lost your head blues”)
Urban Blues
played by groups of intruments including a rhythm section and solo instruments
BB king
blues writter influencing on my many rock guitarist(3 O’clock blues)
Chicago Blues
blues styles combined with swing jazz influences developed in Chicago
Phil and Leonard Chess
owned and ran Chess Recording Studios in Chicago/provided country blues artist with a more urban style
Muddy Waters’
stage name for McKinely Morganfield (“Rollin Stone”)
Blues harp
Harmonica
break
when instruments stopped playing during a vocal line and continued on the second,third and fourth
rhythm and blues
ryhthmatic dance music in which every 2nd and 4th beat was accented in each bar
Louis Jordan
played in various large jazz bands and made his own band “Louis Jordan and His Tympnay Five”/influenced jump blues
Bo Diddley
Sang “say man”, “bo Diddley”, and “im a man”
Boogie Woogie
spirited and rhythmic piano style created by african americans in the south
riffs
short beats of melodies
Spiritual
religious folk songs
melisma
notes both above and below the melody note, dramatically delaying the note
Soul Stirrers
Group that influenced other gospel groups
falsettos
higher than standards tenor range and generally somewhat breathy in tone quality
Sam Cook
a rock singer and writer popular in the late 50’s
Edwin Hawkins Singers
recorded gospel songs “oh happy day”
orioles
group from baltimore “crying of the chapel”
cover
rerecording
Chords
an afraican american vocal group “sh-boom”
crew cuts
covered Chords song “sh-boom”
doo-wop progression
same basic progression at about the same progression at about the same rhythmic rate, reason why so many doowop songs sounded simular
drifters
memebers known to drift from group to group, never stayed in one group through entire career “honey love”
western swing
music played by fiddle and guitar barn dance bands
triadic
simple 3 chord notes with no added 7ths
Jimmy Rodgers
“father of country music”, distinctive vocal style described as “blue yodeling”
Hank Willaims Sr.
“ill never get out of this world alive”
Johnny Cash
“cry,cry,cry”