Music Corner

A music genre that sprang up in the early Twentieth century within the African-American community came into existence known as jazz. The slaves brought from Africa, brought along with them their rich musical culture. In the usa, these slaves learned to experience European instruments like the violin and incorporated them within their type of playing. Many African-Americans played pianos in bars to earn their livelihoods after the abolition of slavery. Places like New Orleans were a hot bed for musicians playing their jazz instruments to produce new sounds. The most common jazz instruments are the saxophone and the piano.

Jazz Instruments List

Jazz music has evolved over the ages and it has seen the inclusion of numerous instruments in this genre of music. There are different styles of playing jazz, and the instruments used depends on the design and style. Jazz music is played with a mix of musical instruments, plus some of these jazz instruments names are:

Trumpet
A brass instrument with three valves, it’s played by blowing air to the mouth piece. The ball player can press the valves to change the pitch. Some of the famous jazz trumpet players include Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong.

Double Bass
A double bass is large stringed instrument, resembling a big violin, with a hollow wooden body with four metal strings. Many bass players make use of a wooden bow threaded with horse hair to play melodies, however, many would rather use their fingers to pluck the strings.

Saxophone
Popularly known as the ‘Sax,’ the saxophone is really a brass instrument that is played by blowing air right into a reed fitted in the mouthpiece. It is extremely similar to the clarinet, and Charlie Parker is one of the most well-known saxophone players of all time.

Drum Set
Drums have been an integral part of African music influence, as well as play a vital role in a Jazz band. In jazz, the percussion is played in a different style and the drum set has got the snare drum, the bass drum, and the cymbal. One of the great exponents of jazz drumming was Arthur Blakey, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Trombone
Known as the descendant of the trumpet, this brass instrument is played by vibrating the lips on the mouthpiece and pushing the slide to create music. A brief history from the trombone can be traced back to the renaissance era in the 16th century. It is usually took part in the bass clef though some accomplished musicians play high notes in the treble clef too.

Clarinet
A member from the woodwind family of musical instruments, the clarinet is really a hollow cylindrical instrument, made from either plastic, ivory, wood, or metal. The reed is made of synthetic material and is connected to the mouthpiece, that the player blows on to make music. There are lots of famous clarinet players, and something of them was Benny Goodman.

Piano
In jazz, the piano is easily the most popular instrument. The piano keyboard’s 188 keys allow it to adapt to variations of playing piano music. It may be played as accompaniment or like a solo instrument. The piano was adopted by African-American jazz musicians to create ragtime. Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist who was known for his innovative type of playing this instrument.

Even though this is not a conclusive list of jazz instruments, these are the most common jazz instruments used. Traditional jazz ensembles were played while using bass, the brass, and the keyboard instruments, nevertheless the modern style has seen the inclusion of almost all the modern European musical instruments.