An Alternative List ofMusical Definitionsfor Jazz Musicians |
Click on a picture and see what you get.
Arrangement - Coming to an agreement with other musicians about the way you have organised a piece of music.
Baritone - Colourful Welsh island
Bongo - French for 'Good To Go'.
Can-Can - Musician's reassuring mantra.
Capriccio – A quick coffee.
Cha Cha - Tea for two.
Chamber Music – Music of convenience.
Chart - Musical notation to help musicians guage how far a tune is 'cool' or 'hot'
Concussion Idiophone - Knockout performance by a drummer beating together two items of percussion.
Da Capo - Ruthless bandleader who makes offers you can't refuse.
Drone - Jazz played robotically rather than by a musician
e.g. as in 'Flying Home (by remote control)' or Angel Eyes in the Skies.
Free Jazz - Music that it doesn’t cost you any money to listen to.2
Galliard - Similar to a slim guitar player / pianist.
Grave - Where musicians go to decompose.
Gregorian Chant – Impatient Gregory Porter Fans.
Harmonic - Mouth Organ with a note missing.
Harmony - Payment to a band after a gig
Head Arrangement - Creative mind over matter
Hymn - Sexist term applied to a piece of religious music. Similarly the word 'Amen' is used rather than 'Awomen'.
a Lick - Using a Mouth Organ
Mancando - Jazz chauvinism. 3
Metronome – Busker of short stature on the Paris Metro.1
Modulation - Mad about Lambrettas, Paul Weller and The Jam.
picture by Justin Bua
Modulate - A young pretentious vegan jazz musician who arrives late to rehearsals wearing the suit from the night before.2
Nachtmusik - Term used by people who don't understand jazz. (as in: 'That's Nachtmusik!')
Obbligato - Student or Manager's fees.
Oboe - Wandering musician of no fixed abode.
One Step - Predecessor of Hip-Hop
Orchestration – a musical arrangement cut off in its prime.
Ostinato - a tomato eaten during the jazz flute solo
at the beginning of the Austin Powers movie.2
Overture - Passing from one soloist to another.
Perpetuum Mobile - People who don't turn their phones off during a gig.
Piped Music – Music indigenous to the Scottish Highlands and Dagenham.1
Pitch - Making a case to a club owner to book your band.
Pulse - Way of telling whether the audience is still awake / alive.
Quadrille - Strange dance where participants get thrown out to sea with lobsters.
Quaver – Stage fright.1
Relative major and minor - Sister in the Salvation Army and brother who plays with the colliery brass band.
Rubato – Music for a foot massage.
Runs – after effects of a vindaloo.1
Sackbut - Bags' Groove (sometimes played by an early form of trombone).
Sforzando - Tune dedicated to Zando
Singspiel - Rap
Solo - A note by a single instrument or voice as far down the register as possible.
Sonic Harmonic - Hedgehog with a mouth organ
Soprano - Gangster's girlfriend who wants to be a singer.
Spinet - Skill acquired by DJs
Subdominant – Masochist.1
Suite - Praise for a solo or a piece of music.
Super Tonic - A tonic that comes with the gin already in it.
Tarantella - A singing spider
Timbre - A warning cry best heeded when walking in the vicinity of lumberjacks. 3
Tre Corde - The basis of rock 'n' roll.3
Tremolo - Member of Brian Poole's band.
Triad – booking agency operating from Chinatown.1
Trill - Birdsong effect or an exciting piece of Irish improvisation.
Triple Tonguing - A Trio of Mouth Organs
Tuba - Instrument for playing Roots music
Xylophone – Small toy musical instrument often given as gifts to children who show their appreciation by playing it constantly, over and over, all day long; see also ‘drums’.
Yerba Buena – Spanish for ‘Good Grass’.1
If you would like to add to our list of definitions for jazz musicians please contact us.
1 - With thanks to Ron Rubin
2 - With thanks to Andrew Linham.
3 - With thanks to Dave Simms.
Other pages you might find of interest :
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