Overview
This section will introduce you to the musical elements that are common to much of the music we call jazz. We will look at jazz from a theoretical perspective and examine three essential features of the music to see how they contribute to this remarkable art form. In addition, we will look at how the unique swing feeling of jazz is achieved.
We will also get a first glimpse at the blues. To appreciate jazz and blues more fully, it’s good to know how the unique sounds of blues originated, and how those sounds were absorbed into jazz. This section also covers some of the defining characteristics of blues music, and some of the differences between blues and jazz.
Objectives
Upon completion of this part of the lesson, you will be able to do the following:
- Identify three essential features of jazz
- Define improvisation
- Describe the swing feeling of jazz
- Identify the musical components that create a swing feeling in jazz
- Define swing eighth-note
- Define syncopation
- Define polyrhythm
- Identify how African Americans contributed to the development of jazz
- Describe the blue note
- Describe pitch bending
- Define harmony
- Define chord
- Define chorus
- Describe how tonality is relevant to jazz
Chords
Three or more notes sounding together create a chordThree or more notes sounded together.. For example, the C major chord consists of three notes: C-E-G. It is the result of stacking thirds on top of the note C (note that both C-E and E-G are intervals of a third). Because the chord is built on C, we call C the root of the chord. E is the third of the chord because it is separated from the root by a third. Similarly, we call G the fifth of the chord because we count five notes from C to G.
The C major chord is a classic example of a triadA chord in which each note is separated from the next by a third.: a chord in which each note is separated from the next by an interval of a third. The triadic chord is one of the fundamental building blocks of Western music harmony. Let's listen to the C major triadic chord played simultaneously, and then consecutively.
Blues Chords 01
Just as we can build a chord on the note C, we can build chords on each of the other notes of the scale. In Western harmony, the three most important harmonic scale degrees are the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale. We use Roman numerals to designate these chords: I, IV, and V.
| Chord | Root | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I | C | C-E-G |
| IV | F | F-A-C |
| V | G | G-B-D |
Listen to what these three chords sound like in relation to one another.
Blues Chords 02
