This is a list ofjazz and popular music terms that are likely to be encountered in printed popular music songbooks, fake books and vocal scores, big band scores, jazz, and rock concert reviews, and album liner notes. This glossary includes terms for musical instruments, playing or singing techniques, amplifiers, effects units, sound reinforcement equipment, and recording gear and techniques which are widely used in jazz and popular music. Most of the terms are in English, but in some cases, terms from other languages are encountered.
A section accordion acid rock ad libitum alt, alt dom, or altered dominant altissimo alto amp analog arpeggio arrangement performing in Toronto in 1974 art rock Artist and Repertoire as is autotune axe
B
B B-3 B-Section back-beat backmasking ballad bark barre chord or bar chord bass bassline beat bend concerts, huge dance nightclubs where house music is played, and rave-type events. bin or bass bin binary bird's eye bleeding, bleed, or bleed-through block chords blow boogie bootleg blues blue note board bomb break bridge broken chord brushes bubbles
C
cabinet cadence call and response capo changes channel chicken pickin' chops chord chorus chromatic scale clam clavinet clean clean channel click track clipping organs like the Hammond organ. clonewheel or clonewheel organ coda colosseum ending combo comp comp tickets compressor Condenser microphone or condenser mic cover or cover tune crossfader crossover crunch cut time
D
dead Decibel demo desk DI or DI unit digital signal processing double-time feel doubling downtuned or detuned dragging drive drop drop 1 DSP dry dynamics DX-7
E
ear candy effects unit encore engineer
F
fader fakebook faking fall falsetto feedback fiddle fill flat foldback football forte or fortepiano fortissimo fortississimo Front of House fuzz bass FX
G
ghostwriter gig gliss groupie
H
half-time feel harmony vocals or harmony parts harp harpsichord homophony head honky-tonk hook horn horn section house band
lay out lead lead bass leading note Leslie line line in line out
M
marcato master measure mezzo forte mezzo piano Mic MIDI mixdown monitor monitor mix Model D, a Moog synthesizer which was produced from 1971 to 1984. Moog synthesizer
N
natural neck noodling notch filter note-for-note solo
O
octave octave pedal ohm organ trio ostinato outside
P
PA system P-bass pad pedal pedalboard pedale pedal point performance art pianissimo piano piano-vocal score pickup or pick-up pickup group or pickup band pizzicato portamento poseur power chord producer
sample or sampling scratch segue sell out semitone session musician, session player, or session man shake sharp shred sidefills sideman or sidemen sibilance sign sit in skins slapping or slap bass snake solid-state solo break solo soli soprano standard tuning stompbox stage piano Stratocaster Surf Ballroom subwoofer sweetening sweet spot syncopation
T
tablature tacet take tech Tele tempo tenor ticky tack tight sound timbre time track trainwreck or train wreck transcription or note-for-note solo tribute band tremolo tube amplifier or valve amplifier tubs tuner turnaround
U
unison utility player
V
vamp vamp till cue vanity record 'verb virtuoso vocal score or piano-vocal score voicing VU meter
W
wah-wah pedal walking bass wall of sound weekend warrior whammy bar woodshed
