Jazz Songs Keep People's Inner Balance

1624 Words4 Pages

In contemporary society, people live their lives at a faster rate than ever before. Therefore, people need a balance and an outlet to help them keep healthy in their personal and social daily life. Jazz provides a medium for people to balance themselves. It balances the individuals and groups, with its lyrics, tempo and performers.
The lyrics of jazz songs keep people’s inner balance. Among the various characteristics of jazz lyrics, simplicity is one of the most important. Unlike other kinds of music with complicated lyrics, jazz songs have short lyrics. Usually they repeat similar patterns of sentences. For the blues (a category of jazz) lyrics, "each line of the lyrics has five (penta) accented syllables that alternate with unaccented syllables …show more content…

When people listen to music, they look for an outlet for their inner emotions. In other words, they are seeking relaxation. Sloboda (once a professor of psychology at Keele University) argues that "Expectancy mechanisms also exist among music listeners in a different sense: people expect music to be a change agent in the sense that it will alter their psychological state and relax them when they are anxious or stressed" (qtd. in Yehuda 87). When the audiences listen to music, they hope to put their stressed emotion down and change into an upbeat one. They hope to find a medium to let out their pressure in life and to relax, so music would be the best choice. Jazz works as an effective tool in catharsis since it releases the anxiety and stress that builds up in people and clears out the negative …show more content…

At least five different instruments are used to compose a jazz song, and each of them differs from the others. The combination of these instruments creates a comfortable atmosphere. “It remains that classical music and all forms of jazz are rich with variety in both ensemble size and instrumental combinations” (Stephans 90). Jazz drums first and foremost manifest this variety. To play all the beats in a jazz song, a whole set of drums participates in the composition: crash cymbals, a bass drum, a snare drum, a Hi-Hat cymbal, a floor tom and tom toms. Slaughter's photo demonstrates the general number and positions of a whole set of jazz drums. Drums as well as other instruments create harmony in the melody. Stephans also asserts that both small groups and large ensembles in jazz have wonderful acoustics (91-111). Thus, either kind of ensemble sizes can deliver high quality performances to satisfy the audiences’ need for

Open Document