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Everything on Second Chorus, organised by topic.
Jazz Listening
- Bebop vs Cool Jazz: Listen Before Labeling — Compare bebop and cool jazz through specific recordings, not stereotypes.
- How to Listen to Jazz Without Chasing Every Note — Listen to jazz by finding the pulse, remembering the opening melody, and following one instrument through a section.
- Jazz Club Etiquette: Listen Without Freezing Up — Good jazz club etiquette includes checking venue rules, arriving with time to settle, limiting conversation and screen distraction, respecting staff and…
- Jazz Fusion: Follow the Electric Conversation — Jazz fusion combines improvisation and ensemble interaction with electric instruments, amplified textures, and groove languages.
- Jazz Improvisation Explained as Live Composition — Jazz improvisation is live composition within shared conditions such as tune, form, harmony, pulse, style, and ensemble cues.
- Jazz Song Form: Keep Your Place in the Tune — Jazz song form is the repeating section and harmonic map beneath the melody and solos.
- Modal Jazz: Listen for Space Inside the Harmony — Modal jazz often gives improvisers extended tonal or modal areas instead of rapidly changing functional harmony.
- Twelve-Bar Blues in Jazz: Hear the Form Turn — Hear twelve-bar blues in jazz as three broad four-measure phrases: an opening home area, a middle departure often associated with subdominant motion, and…
- What Is a Jazz Standard? A Shared Songbook — A jazz standard is a composition widely known and repeatedly performed within jazz repertory.
- What Is Swing in Jazz? Follow the Shared Pulse — Swing is a coordinated time feel shaped by subdivision, articulation, accents, note placement, and ensemble interaction around a steady pulse.
Instruments & Ensemble
- Big Band Sections: Hear the Orchestra in Layers — A jazz big band commonly groups saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section.
- Choose a First Jazz Instrument That Fits Your Life — Choose a first jazz instrument by balancing sound, physical fit, space, transport, maintenance, total cost, instruction, and ensemble access.
- Double Bass in Jazz: Follow the Line Underneath — Double bass in jazz connects harmonic direction, pulse, and melody.
- Jazz Drums: Follow the Ride Cymbal Conversation — The ride cymbal often provides a clear layer of jazz pulse, but its attacks and lingering wash vary constantly.
- Jazz Guitar Comping: Chords That Leave Room — Jazz guitar comping uses chord placement, voicing size, note length, register, fills, and silence to respond to an ensemble.
- Jazz Saxophone Family: Hear Each Register — The common jazz saxophone family runs from higher soprano through alto and tenor to lower baritone.
- Jazz Trumpet: Listen for Attack, Air, and Shape — Listen to jazz trumpet for attack, tone, breath-shaped phrasing, register, note endings, mute color, and changing ensemble roles.
- Jazz Piano Trio Roles: Three Players, Moving Jobs — In a jazz piano trio, piano, double bass, and drums exchange melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and structural roles.
- Vibraphone in Jazz: Hear the Notes Glow and Fade — Vibraphone in jazz combines mallet attack with resonating metal bars, pedal-controlled damping, and an optional motor-driven pulsing effect.