
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 |