Jazz Characteristics

Generally consists of one of two major characteristics
- swing
- improvisation
  - more on these in a bit…
Other common characteristics
- a steady beat
- off-beat (back-beat) accents (syncopation)
  - vs. classical and contemporary music
- rising and falling (wave-like) contour/melody

Swing

It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing. — Duke Ellington

Describes a spirited, dance-like feeling
In terms of performance, it is how the note rhythms are played
- second, shorter note is more heavily accented
  - “doo bah”
Not to be confused with the Swing movement in Jazz

straight vs. swing

Improvisation

One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you? –Bix Beiderbecke

What improvisation is:
- composition on the fly
- spontaneous playing
- a product of practicing and listening
- freedom within the form
- never the same
What improv is not:
- written down
- ideas played out of thin air
- only variations of the melody
  - though it can be

Lester Young, “Just You, Just Me” (1943)

When you hit a wrong note it’s the next note that makes it good or bad. — Miles Davis

a.k.a. ad lib, jam, cut
How do Jazz musicians improvise?
- we lie
  - if we make a mistake, we do it with bravado
  - we move gracefully away from the mistake
- we cheat
  - in blues-based music, the blues scale can be used over the entire chorus
  - common tones can be found amongst chord changes
  - chords can be grouped together
- we steal
  - borrow ideas from other musicians
    - called quoting
  - reuse our own ideas
  - play variations on the melody