turnaround
A turnaround is a brief progression, usually lasting one or two bars, placed at the end of a section or chorus to steer the music back to the start. Its job is to avoid the static feeling of simply holding the home chord. A classic turnaround in C is I–vi–ii–V: Cmaj7–Am7–Dm7–G7, after which the tune […]
double bass
The double bass, also called upright bass, string bass or bass fiddle, is the largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the orchestral string family. It usually has four heavy strings tuned in fourths, E–A–D–G, sounding an octave below the cello, and the largest instruments approach six feet (about 1.8 metres) in length. Its ancestors date back […]
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a keyboard percussion instrument, invented around 1920, with tuned metal bars, usually aluminium, laid out like a piano keyboard and struck with soft mallets. A tuned tube hangs below each bar to amplify and sustain its note, and small electrically driven fans at the top of the tubes open and close them, […]
major seventh chord
A major seventh chord is a major triad with an added major seventh, the note one semitone below the octave. Cmaj7 is spelled C–E–G–B; Fmaj7 is F–A–C–E. Chord charts write it as Cmaj7, CM7 or with a triangle, CΔ7. The close distance between the seventh (B) and the root an octave higher (C) creates a […]
walking bass
A walking bass line moves in a steady stream of quarter notes, one on each beat of the bar, like footsteps. It is most often played on the double bass and is a cornerstone of swing and bebop. The line outlines the chords, usually landing on the root at the start of each new chord, […]
minor seventh chord
A minor seventh chord is a minor triad with a minor seventh on top, the note a whole tone below the octave. Cm7 is spelled C–E♭–G–B♭, and Dm7 (D–F–A–C) uses only the white keys of the piano, which makes it an easy chord to find. Chord symbols include Cm7, Cmin7 and C−7. Because none of […]
Wurlitzer electric piano
The Wurlitzer electric piano was produced by the American Wurlitzer company from 1954, when its first model went into production in North Tonawanda, New York, until the early 1980s. Instead of strings, each key drives a small hammer onto a flat steel reed; the vibrating reed forms part of an electrostatic pickup, based on an […]
muted trumpet
A mute is a device placed in or over the bell of a brass instrument to soften or change its tone. Jazz trumpeters use several kinds, including the straight mute, the cup mute and the plunger, but the most famous is the Harmon mute: a bulbous metal mute with a cork ring that seals the […]
pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale contains five different notes in each octave instead of the seven of the major and minor scales. The most widespread form has no semitones at all: the major pentatonic in C is C–D–E–G–A, and the same notes starting on A give the minor pentatonic, A–C–D–E–G. The five black keys of the piano […]
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes is an electric piano developed by Harold Rhodes (1910–2000), a Californian piano teacher who, while serving in the US Army Air Corps during the Second World War, built simple keyboard instruments for bedridden wounded soldiers. He later partnered with Leo Fender, and in 1965, after CBS bought Fender, the Fender Rhodes Electric Piano […]