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Karla Yazmin Teran Huerta

Professor Edmiston

ENGL 107

18 April 2017

21st Centurys Jazz Sheet Music for Piano

Jazz is a genre of music that has roots of African-American community, it became

more common in New Orleans which is believed the place in which it was first made

(Stewart, 2017). Jazz is a form of music that has been practiced throughout the years all

around the world. Also, Jazz is a type of music that helps musicians to represent their

emotions and what they are feeling.

It is well known that Jazz can be written in sheet music that guide the musicians to

play different songs. Sheet music is a form of music notation that uses musical symbols to

represent melodies (Wikipedia, 2017). Nowadays, sheet music is very important in Jazz

because it helps the musicians to learn new music or music that is being made in this

century. Sheet music are very important to produce Jazz music, they are used in different

types of instruments such as trumpet, trombone, clarinet, saxophones, flute, vibraphone,

piano, organ, guitar, bass, drums, and violin (Berendt, 2009). This analysis of the 21st

Centurys Jazz Sheet Music for Piano includes the format that is used to write them and

how it helps musicians to read melodies that authors wrote to communicate through sheet

music.

How sheet music work, what is their function?

Jazz is about personal, unique expressions (Tanner, 2001). The author of the

Jazz book, Tanner, stated how Jazz is something that is personal to the musicians.

Musicians can express themselves through the music and let the audience know how they
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are feeling about something. That is the main reason why sheet music has a function of

representing what the musicians want to represent. Also, sheet music is a guide for

musicians to play a song or melody that was composed for other musicians or themselves.

How can someone understand sheet music?

Comprehending sheet music requires a special form of literacy: the ability to read

music notation (Wikipedia, 2017). It is important to understand that sheet music is another

type of written language, it represents sounds. This new type of language happens when the

musician plays is reading the music sheet and playing what he is reading. That is the main

reason why people must learn how to read sheet music to be able to understand music

notations on the paper. Also, learning how to read sheet music can take more than 3 years

or it can take just a few months. One of the most well known ways to understand sheet

music is going to a music school for some music classes.

Components of sheet music.

Sheet music is composed from different elements. They should have the title of the

song, ledger lines, clefs, key signature, staff, time signature and tempo mark. All these

elements will help the musicians to understand what they have to play in order to

accomplish the goal which is to produce the sound that the author wrote in the sheet music.

Below are three different sheet music made in the 21st century. All of them are Jazz music

and have these elements mentioned. Ledger lines which are equally spaced lines that tell

the musician what notes to play, clefs are the symbols derived form letters that represent

reference pitches indicating which notes correspond to each line and space, a key signature

is a symbol that is located on the staff which are the five lines in the sheet music, a time

signature helps the musician how long does each note has to last, and the tempo marks how

fast does the musician has to play it.

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It is shown how important is the music notation in this genre, almost 70% of the

sheet music is composed of these symbols. The music notation is playing a main role in this

genre, this gives the most important part which is the melody. Another important aspect that

its seen in all the samples above is the name of the song. Also, all of them follow a pattern

using black and white colors, it can help to get a more attention from the reader. These
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three samples of sheet music are a visual image of what Jazz musicians see when they are

playing an instrument. Additionally, the context of each of the sheet music is important

when it is written, understanding the context in which the sheet music was writing will give

a better understanding of the melody, why the melody was made and its significance.

Why are all these elements important?

It is important to understand that all these elements of a sheet music are as

important as all the ingredients to make a gorgeous food. It is important to think about how

it will work if it doesnt have one of these components, probably impossible. All these

components make the genre more and more effective. The name of the song gives a context

to the reader that will lead to the understanding of what the author is trying to say. Just

imagine the name of the song presented on the paper, Jazz Waltz. Waltz is defined as a

type of dance that includes a repeating movement of three steps, or a piece of music written

for this style of dancing (Cambridge University Press, 2017). If the audience of sheet

music understand the meaning of the song it will give them a better understanding of what

does the song mean. Another important aspect to take into account are all the symbols in

the sheet music, each of them have a significance that will help the musician to reproduce

the song exactly as the author wanted to hear it while he was writing it.

Importance of sheet music in the 21st century.

One of the most important aspect to consider when talking about sheet music is that

they serve as a way of communication. This is because the author communicates his

emotions through the music. Another important aspect is that jazz sheet music can be used

in different settings such as schools, concerts, and recitals. These are the main reasons for

why sheet music has endured for hundreds of years.

Relating everything on this paper

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In this paper, it was mentioned how musicians use sheet music when they are

playing an instrument. It was mentioned that sheet music is a written form of musical

notation that communicates the feelings of the author. Also, musicians were mentioned as

people who read the sheet music and reproduce it, but it is important to understand that

nowadays and specially in Jazz, sheet music is no being followed from the beginning to the

end of the melody. Nowadays, Jazz musicians are improvising in the middle of a melody.

The improvisation of a song happens when the musicians dont follow the melody written

by the author, instead they have a lapse of 3 to 10 minutes to play something that they want

to play, they are improvising. This is an important insight from this paper. Even thought

that sheet music serves to being followed by musicians, it is no more important to follow it

when the jazz band have such times of improvisation.

Works Cited

Meixner, Kevin. "The Basics of Reading Music." ReadSheetMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr.

2017. <http://readsheetmusic.info/readingmusic.shtml>.

Stewart, Jack, Michael White, John Hasse, Bruce Raeburn, Ellis Marsalis, and Joan Brown.

"Jazz Origins in New Orleans." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the

Interior, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

<https://www.nps.gov/jazz/learn/historyculture/history_early.htm>.

Tilden, Eric. "Parts of Sheet Music." EHow. Leaf Group, 01 Sept. 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.ehow.com/about_5376053_parts-sheet-music.html>.

University Press, Cambrige. "Definition of "waltz" - English Dictionary." Waltz Definition

in the Cambridge English Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/waltz>.
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Wikipedia. "Jazz." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Apr. 2017. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz>.

Wikipedia. "Sheet Music." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Apr. 2017. Web. 18 Apr.

2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_music>.

Tanner, Paul, David W. Megill, and Maurice Gerow. Jazz. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001.

Print.

Berendt, Joachim-Ernst, and Gunther Huesmann. The Jazz Book from Ragtime to the

21st Century. Chicago, IL: Hill, 2009. Print.

Kutnowski, Martin. Whimsical Kite. Digital image. JWpepper. N.p., n.d. Web.

<https://www.jwpepper.com/Contemporary-Collage-Music-of-the-21st-Century-

No.-1-Book-No.-1/10042869.item#/submit>.

Whittaker, Anthony. Jazz Waltz. Digital image. Free-scores. N.p., n.d. Web.

<http://www.free-scores.com/boutique/digital-sheet-music.php?search=Anthony

%20Whittaker&ordrepar=best>.

Lawry, Chris. The Blue Hour. Digital image. Free-scores. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.free-

scores.com/boutique/digital-sheet-music.php?search=Chris

%20Lawry&ordrepar=best>.