Jazz techniques: Scat singing, Ballad, Free improvisation, Syncopation, Polyrhythm, Blue note, Musical improvisation, Jazz scale, Coltrane changes, Jazz standard, Groove, Jazz waltz, Jazz chord, Swung note, Jazz harmony, Impro-Visor, Turnaround

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 53. Chapters: Scat singing, Ballad, Free improvisation, Syncopation, Polyrhythm, Blue note, Musical improvisation, Jazz scale, Coltrane changes, Jazz standard, Groove, Jazz waltz, Jazz chord, Swung note, Jazz harmony, Impro-Visor, Turnaround, Jam session, Head, Swing, Call and response, Spanish Tinge, Block chord, Lead sheet, Jazz improvisation, So What chord, Tadd Dameron turnaround, Gravity roll, Vocalese, Four note group, Cutting contest, Harmolodics, Borrowed chord progression, Outside, Avoid tone, Montgomery-Ward bridge, Shirt-tail ending. Excerpt: Musical improvisation (also known as Musical Extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians. Thus, musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical music. Because improvisation is a performative act and depends on instrumental technique, improvisation is a skill. There are musicians who have never improvised and other musicians who have devoted their entire lives to improvisation. Throughout the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, improvisation was a highly valued skill. Francesco Landini, Adrian Willaert, Diego Ortiz, Frescobaldi, J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and many other famous composers and musicians were known especially for their improvisational skills. Improvisation might have played an important role in the monophonic period. The earliest treatises on polyphony, such as the Musica enchiriadis (ninth century), make plain that added parts were improvised for centuries before the first notated examples. However, it was only in the fifteenth century that theorists began making a hard distinction between improvised and written music. Many classical forms contained sections for improvisation, such as the cadenza in concertos, or the preludes to some keyboard suites by Bach and Handel, which consist of elaborations of a progression of chords, which performers are to use as the basis for their improvisation. Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach all belonged to a tradition of solo keyboard improvisation that was not limited to variations, but included the concerto form, typically with moving voices in both hands, occasionally exploring fugue. Although melodic improvisation was an important factor in European music from the earliest times, the first detailed information on improvisation technique ap