Intro to Jazz Chapters 1-2

9/14/25

Which of the following is a kind of mute commonly used in jazz?

Plunger and Harmon (a and c only)

Which cymbal actually consists of two cymbals, mounted on a pole, that can be brought together by using a foot pedal?

High-hat

Timbre variation can be produced by

A subtle shift in pitch and changing the sound of the instrument (a and c only)

What is an octave?

The interval on a piano from any key to the next key, above or below, of the same letter name

Each chord is named after its bottom note, also known as the

Root

When two melodies are played at the same time, the texture is

Polyphonic

A typical rhythm section in a jazz ensemble is comprised of

Drums, piano, guitar, and bass

In jazz terminology, “changes” refers to

Harmony

The major scale contains

Whole steps and half steps (a and c only)

“Tempo” refers to a music’s

Speed

In African (and African American) music, there are always at least two rhythmic layers going on at the same time.

True

The most common meter used in jazz is

Duple

A measure (or bar)

Is a group of pulses (beats)

Playing pitches with a great deal of flexibility, sliding through infinitesimal fractions of a step for expressive purposes, is known as

Variable intonation (a and c only)

The speed of the music’s pulse is determined by the

Tempo

What part of human anatomy can be used as an analogue to musical rhythm?

Your heartbeat and your breath (a and c only)

A cornet is

A version of the trumpet with a mellower timbre and deep mouthpiece

is when musicians create music on the spur of the moment.

Improvising

A _ is a slim, cylindrical reed instrument that produces a thin, occasionally shrill sound.

Clarinet

Blowing intensely into a saxophone to produce a cluster of pitches is known as

Multiphonics

A dissonance is

Unstable harmony that demands resolution toward a consonance

Playing the white keys on a piano consecutively from one C to the next C will produce a scale.

Major

A harmony consisting of three or more different pitches is called a

Triad

Timbre is(are)

The sound quality or “tone color” of an instrument

The chromatic scale is made up of ____ notes.

12

The backbeat beat falls on which beats of the measure?

Two and four

The blues scale is best described as a scale that is

Somewhere between major and minor

Which instruments in the jazz ensemble are responsible for keeping time?

The string bass and the drummer’s ride cymbal (a and c only)

is the simultaneous sounding of pitches.

Harmony

On some instruments, timbre can be varied by using

Mutes

Which are common reed instruments in jazz?

Alto and tenor saxophone

When a trombone uses a slide to glide seamlessly from one note to another, it is known as

A glissando

In addition to playing the roots to the harmonies, the string bass also

Provides an underlying rhythmic foundation and maintains a pedal tone (a and c only)

Which of the following is a set of two drums, mounted on a stand, that are played with sticks instead of hands?

Timbales

What instrument belongs in a rhythm section?

Piano and guitar (a and c only)

The grouping of pulses (beats) into patterns of two, three, or more per bar is known as

Meter

When jazz bassists pluck the strings with their fingers, that technique is called

Pizzicato

The simultaneous use of contrasting rhythms is known as

Polyrhythm

Which are common brass instruments in jazz?

Trumpet and trombone

In addition to drumsticks, a drummer often uses

Wire brushes and mallets (a and c only)

The section known as the chorus

Has a fixed rhythmic length and harmonic progression (and is a repeated rhythmic cycle) (a and c only)

The contrasting B section in pop song form is known as

The bridge

A composed four-bar section, heard in the middle of a tune, that “launches” the soloist into a new chorus is known as

A send-off riff

What pattern of chord changes is used in the twelve-bar blues form?

I I I I IV IV I I V V I I

“Rhythm changes” refers to

The chord progression to “I Got Rhythm.”

In African music, improvisation happens within a repeated

Rhythmic cycle

What do jazz artists mean by “comping”?

A pianist plays chords in a rhythmically unpredictable manner

In twelve-bar blues form,

Each twelve-bar cycle is called a chorus (and the overall chord progression is the same) (a and c only)

Pop songs were originally written as a verse followed by a refrain. Musicians typically

Drop the verse, repeating the refrain as a cycle

The first and last choruses of a performance are usually a composed section known as the

Head

Thirty-two-bar pop song form is made up of

Four eight-bar phrases

A turnaround is

Chords played in the last few bars of a chorus, leading on to the next

In a jazz ensemble, the “ride pattern” is played by

The drummer

A short improvised passage by a drummer is known as

A fill

Which instrumentalist might drop “bombs” during a performance?

Drummer

A repeated fragment of melody is known as a

Riff

A solo based on a single scale is known as

Modal improvisation

In the rhythm section, “comping” is performed by

The pianist

Which chords or harmonies are used in the twelve-bar blues?

I, IV, and V

A break is an interruption of texture by texture.

Homophonic; monophonic