Musical terms and lingo
Aeolian - The sixth mode of the major scale, also known as the natural minor scale.
Alteration (aka altered note) - The b9, #9, #11, b5, #5, b13 of a chord.
Altered mode - The seventh mode of the melodic minor scale.
"Avoid" note - A note from a scale of a chord that sound dissonant when held against the chord. The term usually refers to the 4th of the major chord and the 11th of the dominant chord.
Bag (aka bag of tricks) - A jazz musician's repertoire of links, patterns, and so on, often used in proprietary form, as in "Jackie's bag."
Ballad - Slow tune.
Bebop - The revolutionary style of jazz that evolved in the early 1940s.
Blowing choruses - The choruses of a tune that are improvised.
Break - Break typically occur at the beginning of a solo. The soloist plays alone as the rest of the band lays out, usually for 2, 4 or 8 bars. One of the greatest is Lee Morgan's break at the beginning of his solo on John Coltrane's "Locomotion" on Coltrane's album Blue Train.
Bridge - The "B" section of a tune, usually on an AABA or ABA tune. Sometimes called the "channel."
Cadenza - An improvised rubato ending of indeterminate length, played by the soloist while the rhythm section lays out.
Changes - The chords to a tune.
Channel - Same as bridge, see bridge.
Chart - Arrangement, lead sheet.
Chops - Technique.
Chorus - Once through a tune.
Circle of fourths (aka cyrcle of fourths) - A circular arrangement of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. When viewed counterclockwise, each note is a 4th higher than the preceding note. When viewed clockwise, each note is a 4th lower that the preceding note. See also cyrcle of fifths.
Clave (pronounced "clah-vay") - A two - bar rhythmic pattern that almost all Afro-Cuban music is based upon.
Common tones - Notes that are found in the chords and/or scales of two or more consecutive chords.
Cyrcle of fifths (aka circle of fifths) - A circular arrangement of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. When viewed counterclockwise, each note is a 5th lower than the preceding note. When viewed clockwise, each note is a 5th higher that the preceding note. See also cyrcle of fourths.
Deceptive cadence - A V chord resolving someplace other than down 5th.
Diatonic - Chords with a particular key. C, D-7, Esusb9, F#4, G7 and Gsus are diatonic to the key of C.
Diminished scale - A scale altering half steps and whole steps or vice versa.
Dorian mode - The second mode of the major scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Double diminished chord - Two diminished 7th chords played at the same time by a pianist, an eight-note chord including all the notes of a diminished scale.
Double time - Change of tempo to one that's twice as fast, the changes also moving twice as fast.
Double time feeling - Changing the tempo to one that is twice as fast, but with the changes still moving at a speed of the original tempo.
Eights (or "trade eights") - Two or more players, each in turn trading eight-bar improvisations, usually for one or two more choruses after a regular solo.
Enharmonics - Two different spelled notes that are the same, such as Cb an B, D# an Eb, or F# and Gb.
Extensions - The 9th, 11th, and 13th (also known as 6th) of a chord.
Fake book - A book of standards and jazz originals, usually consisting of just the melody and chord symbols, so-called because because improvising used to be called "faking."
Finger memory - The internalized memory of what a chord, lick, pattern, and so on, feels like (a term used mainly by pianist, but applicable to all instruments).
Form - See song form.
Fours (or "trade fours") - Two or more players, each in turn trading four-bar improvisations, usually for one or more choruses after the regular solos.
Free (or "play free") - Improvise, usually without chord changes or a pre-set form.
From the top - Take the tune from the beginning.
Funky - Earthly, soulful, visceral, unintellectual.
Gig - A musical job, be it at a club, party, festival or record date.
Groove - The "lock" between members of a rhythm section playing well together.
Half-diminished - (1) A minor 7th chord with a flat 5th; (2) the chord built off the sixth mode of the melodic minor scale; (3) the chord built off the seventh mode of the major scale.
Head - (1) The composed melody and changes of a tune; (2) a tune composed by a jazz musician based on the changes to a standard; (3) the first time through the melody of a tune, before the solos begin.
Interlude - A section of a tune, usually played between the head and the solos, or between the soloists.
Interval - The space between two notes.
In the pocket - When the music is rhythmically in a groove.
Intro - An introductory section before tune is played, often improvised.
Ionian mode - The first mode of the major scale.
Jam session (also "to jam") - Informal gathering of jazz musicians playing together.
Kicks - Specific rhythmic hits played by the rhythm section.
Latin jazz - A fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban music.
Lay back - Relax; play on the backside of the beat.
Lay out - Don't play.
Lead sheet - A sheet of music usually containing just the melody and the chords symbols of a tune.
Left hand voicings - Rootless voicings for the left hand, originally developed by pianist Red Garland, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly.
Lick - An improvised phrase that has entered the everyday language of jazz, often used descriptively, as in "a Joe Henderson lick."
Locrian mode - The seventh mode of the major scale.
Lydian augmented mode - The third mode of the melodic minor scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Lydian dominant mode - The fourth mode of the major scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Lydian mode - The fourth mode of the major scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Minor major mode - The first mode of the melodic minor scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Minor II-V-I - A II-V-I progression in a minor key, as in Dm7b5, G7alt, C-.
Mixolydian mode - The fifth mode of the major scale.
Mode - A seven-note scale created by staring on any of the seven notes of the major or melodic minor scale.
Natural minor scale - See Aeolian.
Original - A tune written by a member of a band, often part of a bandstand announcement, as in "we'd like to play an original tune by..."
Out chorus (or) "out head" - The last time through the melody of a tune.
Outside - Playing notes not in the changes (and assuming that they sound good, unlike "wrong notes").
Parallelism - Chords or chord voicings moving in parallel motion.
Parent scale - The scale from which a mode is derived.
Pedal (or) pedal point - A note, usually in the bass, which remains the same, over which a chord, or series of chords, is played.
Phrygian mode - The third mode of the major scale; also the chord derived from that mode.
Polychord - Two or more chords played at the same time.
Politonality - Playing in more than one key at the same time.
Refrain - Don't play (just kidding).
"Rhythm" changes - Chord changes based on George Gershwin's tune "I've Got Rhythm."
Riff - Repeated horn figure, often played behind a solo.
"Right on it" - No intro; start playing right on the head.
Rubato - Playing out of tempo.
Sequence - A phrase, or motif, repeated at a different pitch. The repeated phrase doesn't necessarily have to have the exact same interval structure, but generally has the same shape as the original motif.
'shed - See woodshed.
Shout chorus - A specially arranged chorus, usually played between the last solo and the out chorus.
Sit in, sitting - When a musician who is not a member of a regular band joins the band to play.
Slash chord - (1) A triad played over a note in the bass other than the root; (2) a 7th chord played over a note in the bass not in the chord; (3) a triad played on top of another triad. See also polychord.
Solo, soloing - Improvise though a tune.
Solos - Improvised section of a tune.
Song from - The organization of letter names given to different sections of a tune (usually in a eight-bar segments), as in "AABA," "ABA," and so forth.
Standard - A tune popular with jazz musicians, usually but not always, composed by a non-jazz songwriter (George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and so on). Many of Bill Strayhorn's songs are also considered standards.
Stop-time - Usually occurring during a sole, the rhythm section plays only the first beat of every two, or four bars. Occasionally a stop-time figure will have two or more kicks. One of the greatest stop-time solos is by Sonny Rollins on Vincent Youmans' "I Know That You Know" on Dizzy Gillespie-Sonny Stitt-Sonny Rollins album Sonny Side Up.
Straight ahead - Play with a swing feel.
Straight 8ths - Play with a rhythmically even feeling, without swinging in the traditional sense. Most Latin music is played this way.
Stroll - A solo section, where on the soloist's cue, the pianist, or the entire rhythm section, lays out for awhile. See lay out.
Substitute chord - A chord that substitutes for the original chord.
Sub chord - A dominant 7th chord in which the 4th does not act like an "avoid" note.
Susb9 chord - A sus chord derived from either the Phrygian mode of the major scale or the second mode of the melodic minor scale.
Swing era - Jazz of the 1930s.
Tag - An improvised section at the end of the out chorus, often repeated indefinitely.
Take it out - A signal from the band leader to play the out head.
Tonic minor chord - A minor chord not functioning as a II chord, but as a "minor I."
Top - The beginning of a tune.
Train wreck - When everything goes off track; someone forgets to take a repeat, or skips the bridge, or turns the time around, and so on.
Tritone - The interval composed of three whole steps, most significantly occurring between the 3rd and 7th of a dominant 7th chord.
Tritone substitution - A V chord substitution for another V chord a tritone away. Both chords shape the same 3rd and 7th, which are also tritone apart.
Tritone substitution II-V - A II-V progression substitution for a V chord a tritone away, or for the II-V progression a tritone away.
Turnaround - A chord progression occurring (1) at the end of a repeated section of a tune, leading back to the repeat; (2) at the end of a tune, leading back to the top.
Up - Fast tempo.
Vamp - (1) A rhythm section ostinato figure; (2) a short, repeated chorus sequence.
"Vamp 'til cue" - Keep repeating a vamp until the cue to go on.
Verse - A specially composed introduction to a ballad, often played or sung rubato. The verse to Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" is a prime example.
Voicing - An arrangement of the notes of a chord, usually for piano or guitar, often in other that root position.
Whole-tone scale - A scale made up entirely of whole steps.
Woodshed (also 'shed) - To shut oneself up, away from the world, and practice long and hard, as in "going into the woodshed."
"You'll hear it" - When the musician who called the tune sometimes says to another musician who's not sure of the changes.