Stop noodling with your axe and gimme a vamp on your doghouse, can you dig it?
To help translate this deliciously jazzed up sentence, drummer Brian Floody, a professional musician active in New York's jazz scene, graciously gave us this list of jazz-related words and their meanings:
| Axe | Any musical instrument |
| Box | Guitar |
| Tubs | Drums |
| Doghouse | Upright acoustic bass |
| Licorice Stick | Clarinet |
| Chops | A dual meaning: Technique, or for horn players, the spot where the horn meets their lips. |
| Woodshed | Practice (see Shed) |
| Shed | Both a verb and a noun for practice. For example: "I gotta get into the shed," or "I gotta go home and shed." |
| Lick | Signature musical phrase of a musician, as in "that's Louis Armstrong's lick" |
| Head | Melody of a song |
| Front | Band leader |
| Tag | Extra material in addition to a song's form |
| Dig | To really like something, as in "can you dig it" |
| Cut | A back and forth between two musicians playing the same instrument, as in "a cutting contest." Also refers to a track on a record. |
| Vamp | Section of music that's open ended |
| Changes | Changing the harmonic structure, how the cords move |
