What Makes Up This Genre? #3 Jazz

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

Hello, and welcome to the third installment of my musical series: What Makes Up This Genre.

 

 

Jazz

 

 

Summary/Subgenres

 

Coltrane, Davis, Armstrong, Parker...these are just some of the most famous names in the genre of jazz. Jazz has been around since the early 1930s, when ragtime, it's predecessor was at it's peak. When the year 1900 came about, the Romantic Period of music officially ended. Musicians were now entering a new age of music, where there was much freedom and less rules to adhere by, in comparison to the baroque and classical periods. Nathaniel Dett, one of the first African American composers introduced a new "swinging" style of piano music, which he borrowed the lively tone from the early folk music. Another composer known as Claude Debussy was one of the first pioneers in the genre of ragtime. Ragtime was a very upbeat style of music, with much accented rhythms and uneven beats. "Hello My Baby" is a very well known ragtime piece, which some say was modeled off Debussy's piece "Le Petit Negre". As the years passed, a new genre started to take over ragtime, jazz. 

 

In the 1910s, jazz started to become very popular among large groups of instruments, mainly brass instruments. This is why large jazz bands of today have mostly brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones. Later, when the saxophone was invented, it was added. 

 

There are many different subgenres of jazz, which explains the major influence it had in the world. 

 

Jazz Waltz: The waltz originated in Europe. However, once jazz reached the European regions, it quickly became a norm, and soon enough, it had combined itself with the waltz. Jazz Waltz by default is in 3/4 time. This means that there are 3 beats in a measure and every quarter note gets 1 beat. Alternatively, Jazz Waltz can be timed in 6/8, where there are 6 beats to a measure and the eighth note gets one beat. 

 

Big Band: Hence the name says, a large band of mainly brass and saxophones play jazz. Big band is known for it's massive sound and big accents. In addition to single musicians getting their own solos, a soli is performed. A soli is when a group performs their own solos at once. It may seem like chaos, but if done right, one can hear a distinguishing sound. Alternatively, a group solo is performed. Unlike a soli, a group solo is when the group performs the same solo all at once. 

 

Dixieland: Dixieland is an older form of jazz. It's roots were taken from ragtime. It was considered the earliest form of jazz. One of the most popular songs "When The Saints Go Marching In", is often heard in this style. In comparison to the standard swing, Dixieland is faster in tempo.

 

Blues: The Blues is one of the simplest forms of jazz. It comprises of a simple progression. This will be discussed later.

 

Latin Jazz: Because Jazz had become very popular throughout the world, it had spread to Spanish and Latin cultures. Latin jazz is mostly straight. Straight means no swing. A swing rhythm contains a triplet, that omits the second note. A triplet is a group of three notes that is counted on a single beat. It is counted like: "1 and a 2 and a...". Omitting the "and" will give us the swing: 1 - a - 2 - a...".

 

These are only a few. Others include Cool Jazz, Fox Trot, Hard Bop and Boogie-Woogie.

 

 

Instruments and Sound

 

One of the biggest characteristics of jazz is it's heavy use of brass instruments. This is what gives jazz it's bright edge. However, not all jazz is bright. Orchestral instruments, such as the Clarinet have been used in jazz bands. The sound of the clarinet can be both mellow and bright, depending on where one's mouth is on the reed. Clarinets and saxophones are reed instruments. The reed is the part of the instrument that helps the instrument make sound. Without it, nothing is heard but wind. When the player blows on the reed of a clarinet or saxophone, this causes the reed to vibrate producing a sound. It is different for brass instruments, since they don't require reeds. However, it does require the mouth to be in a certain position. Often, teachers instruct their students to make a face like they've tasted something sour, then blow out like a spitting sound. 

 

The guitar is also heavily used in jazz. For solo music, acoustic guitars are quite common, but in a group, people prefer electric guitars for better sound. For jazz, some guitarists may use distortion, but due to the fact that it can become very heavy, most guitarists turned to overdrive. Overdrive is an effect that amplifies the signal close to edge of being clipped to give it a light grindy sound. Guitarists often reserve this effect for only solos. Alternatively, guitarists use what is called a clean boost, which increases the brightness and volume of the sound without affecting gain. In music, gain is a specific volume control that can lead to overdrive and distortion territory. Musicians are often heard saying "I play this with low gain." or "I like my guitar at with high gain for this song". 

 

In terms of low end, an upright or electric bass is present. To stay with tradition, people prefer upright basses due to their hollow and thick sound. On the other hand, people have now switched to the electric bass, which gives a fatter sound depending on what amp is used. In some jazz bands a fretless bass is used. A fretless bass has no frets. A fret is a part of a guitar or bass guitar used for finger positioning. Frets also give a guitar or bass a thicker sound. Fretless basses are thinner in sounding, and a benefit of a fretless bass is that it is easier to slide. You may hear fretless basses more in the latin side of jazz than fretted basses. Alternatively, acoustic upright bass players fit their basses with pickups, which enables them to connect to an amplifier to get a louder and bigger sound. 

 

The piano, in jazz is perhaps the most versatile instrument. Due to its long range, it is able to offer a variety of tones and sounds. It is also able to perform solo pieces. In jazz concerts, a grand piano is used. A grand piano is a type of piano that is long in length. Alternatively, upright pianos are used. An upright piano is smaller than a grand piano. It's strings are vertically placed instead of horizontal, like a grand piano. Electric pianos are often used. An electric piano, unlike a standard acoustic piano, is known for it's bell-like tone produced by circuits inside. It uses oscillators to produce the sound.

 

Now that we've got all the instruments and sounds, let's move on to the most important part of jazz...

 

Song Formats and Chord Progressions

 

There are many different forms of jazz, and each form gives a unique sound and aspect to the genre. Nonetheless, the most basic form of jazz is The Blues. 

 

The Blues as a form has a very specific chord progression. In addition to the specific chord progression, it also has a specific mode. A mode in music is a variation of a scale. When you play a standard scale, regardless of it having sharps or flats, you can play the same pattern of notes starting from a different note. 

Above is a standard C major scale. Now watch what happens if we play the same scale...but starting from the note G. 

Notice how there are no sharps or flats. This is what the blues progression is based off of. The mixolydian mode is comprised of a flat-7th, and the blues is based off of 7th chords. 

 

So now that we've got that cleared, let's move on to the actual progression:

 

I---IV---I---I---IV---IV---I---I---V---IV---I---V---

 

The progression above is based off of scale degrees. If you don't know what these symbols mean, you can visit this thread here to learn about them: https://mlpforums.com/topic/136619-chords-progressions-modulations-a-guide-to-composing-music/

 

As shown above, the progression lasts for the entire piece. One of the most famous blues pieces is known as "C Jam Blues" written by Duke Ellington, a huge pioneer in jazz. 

 

 

Moving outside of the blues, jazz has a form known as A-B-A. There are longer longer versions of this form like these listed:

 

A-B-C-A

 

A-B-A-C-A

 

A-B-A-B-C-A

 

Each of these formats can come with unique progressions, where the chords can reach beyond a 7th. When counting beyond an octave, musicians use 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. 

 

A perfect example of A-B-A form of jazz is the legendary Jeepers Creepers by Louis Armstrong:

 

 

So that's the basic forms of jazz. To finish up, here is some other important information. 

 

Miscillanous Information

 

In jazz, there are many ways to end a phrase or song. One of them is to use a ii-V-I progression. Sometimes, this can be faked out into what is known as a ii-V mountain climb. The ii-V mountain climb is an instance where upon arrival to the V, the progression moves to the iii and peaks at the VI⁷. Now some of you may be thinking "Where did that VII⁷ come from?" Well, if you look at the circle of 5ths, you will see that A is the V of D, which is why the 7th is present. After the peak, the player repeats the ii-V progression resolving to the I. The ii-V mountain climb is mainly present when the band or player is performing a tag. A tag is a repeated line usually found at the end of a song. You can find a tag at the end of this version of "Jingle Bell Rock" (Yes I am still in the holiday spirit )

 

 

Well, hope this guide to the world of jazz helps everyone. Stay tuned for the next installment of this series!