Jazz Piano for Classical Players

Appendix: Jazz terms

A plain-English glossary of the terms used in this course.

Reading and form

Term	Meaning
Lead sheet	A one-page chart with just the melody and chord symbols. What jazz players read instead of a full score.
Chord symbol	A short name for a chord, such as Dm7 or G13, written above the melody.
Real Book	A collection of lead sheets for jazz standards. Use the licensed Hal Leonard editions.
Standard	A well-known tune that jazz musicians are expected to know, often a 1920s to 1950s popular song.
Head	The tune’s melody, played at the start and end of a performance.
Chorus	One time through the tune’s whole form. Solos are measured in choruses.
Form	The structure of the tune, such as 32 bars in AABA or 12-bar blues.
Turnaround	A short chord sequence at the end of a section that leads back to the start.
Vamp	A short chord pattern repeated as long as needed, often for intros and endings.
Tag	Repeating the last few bars, usually a ii-V, before finally ending.
Changes	The chord sequence of a tune. “Do you know the changes?”
Contrafact	A new melody written over an existing tune’s chord sequence.
Circle of fifths	The twelve keys arranged in a wheel, each a 5th from the next. Anticlockwise is the direction of a ii-V-I.

Chords and voicings

Term	Meaning
Seventh chord	A four-note chord: a triad plus a 7th. The basic unit of jazz harmony.
Dominant 7	A major triad plus a flat 7th (C7 = C E G Bb). The V chord in a key.
Half-diminished	A minor 7 chord with a flat 5 (Cm7b5, Cø). The ii chord in a minor key.
Extension	A note above the 7th: the 9th, 11th or 13th.
Alteration	A raised or lowered 5th or 9th on a dominant chord (b9, #9, b5, #5).
Altered dominant	A dominant 7 chord with alterations, often written 7alt.
Sus chord	A chord with the 4th in place of the 3rd.
Voicing	The choice and order of notes you play for a chord.
Shell voicing	Just the root, 3rd and 7th.
Rootless voicing	A four-note voicing without the root, built from the 3rd, 7th, 9th and 5th or 13th.
A and B forms	The two positions of a rootless voicing: 3rd at the bottom (A) or 7th at the bottom (B).
Guide tones	The 3rd and 7th of each chord. They define the harmony and move by small steps.
Upper structure	A triad played in the right hand over a left hand shell to create extensions.
Quartal voicing	A chord built from stacked fourths instead of thirds.
So What voicing	Three fourths and a major third stacked (E A D G B on Dm7), from Miles Davis’s “So What”.
Block chords	Melody doubled in both hands with a chord filled in between, moving with the tune. Also called locked hands.

Progressions and substitutions

Term	Meaning
ii-V-I	The minor 7, dominant 7, major 7 progression built on the 2nd, 5th and 1st notes of a key. The core of jazz harmony.
Minor ii-V-i	The same in a minor key: half-diminished, dominant (often b9), minor.
Tritone substitution	Replacing a dominant 7 with the dominant 7 three whole steps away (Db7 for G7).
Side-slipping	Playing a chord a half step away from the target, then sliding into it.
Voice leading	Moving each note of one chord to the nearest note of the next.

Rhythm and playing

Term	Meaning
Swing	The long-short eighth-note feel of jazz, with the groove on beats 2 and 4.
Comping	Playing chords rhythmically to accompany a melody or soloist.
Charleston	A comping rhythm: beat 1 and the “and” of 2.
Anticipation	Playing the next chord half a beat early, on the “and” of 4.
Ghost note	A note played so lightly it’s barely heard.
Lay back	Playing slightly behind the beat for a relaxed feel.
Stride	A left hand style alternating low bass notes and mid-range chords.
Ride pattern	The drummer’s “ding, ding-a, ding, ding-a” swing rhythm on the ride cymbal.
Feathering	Playing the bass drum very softly on every beat, felt more than heard.
Bossa nova	A Brazilian style from the late 1950s with straight eighths and a gentle, syncopated feel.
Triplet grid	A drum machine pattern with 3 steps per beat, used to program swing exactly.

Improvising

Term	Meaning
Improvise	Make up music on the spot over the tune’s changes.
Chord tone	The 1st, 3rd, 5th or 7th of the current chord.
Approach note	A note a half step (or whole step) next to a target note, played just before it.
Enclosure	Approaching a target note from above and below before landing on it.
Bebop scale	A scale with an added chromatic passing note, so chord tones fall on the beat.
Blues scale	Minor pentatonic plus the flat 5 (F Ab Bb B C Eb).
Blue note	The flattened 3rd, 5th or 7th that gives the blues its sound.
Pentatonic	A five-note scale with no half steps.
Lick	A short, reusable melodic phrase.
The Lick	A specific, much-used (and much-joked-about) jazz phrase: D E F G E C D.
Vocabulary	The licks and phrases a player has absorbed from listening.
Transcribe	Learn a solo or voicing by ear from a recording.
Play-along	A backing track (or app such as iReal Pro) for practising with a band.
Sit in	Join a band on stage for a tune or two, usually at a jam session.
Scat	Improvising with the voice on nonsense syllables.