Timbre

• Definition
• Instrumentation of Jazz
• Extended Effects

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

Definition

The timbre of an instrument is the type of sound it makes. For instance, a trumpet and saxophone have different timbres, even when they are playing exactly the same notes. That is how you can tell the difference between them, just by listening to them. For example, here is a trumpet and a saxophone playing the same passage:

The player has an effect on this as well. Here are two saxophonists playing the same passage. It should be easy to tell them apart simply by their sound:

The sound of the instruments used to produce a piece of music is the first thing we hear when we listen to it, so to some degree timbre is largely responsible for our initial reaction to music. Furthermore, most styles of music have their own characteristic sound, due to the types of instruments used and the way they are typically played. The sound of the symphony orchestra is part of the sound of classical music, the sound of the guitar is part of the sound of flamenco, and the amplified and often deliberately distorted sound of the electric guitar is part of the sound of rock. In jazz, the instrumentation of the typical group has changed over time, but there are some common elements that can be considered part of the sound of jazz.

Instrumentation of Jazz

Jazz was a product of the meeting of African and European cultures in the American south. As a result, it inherited some of the instruments commonly used in these cultures. The instruments seen most commonly in traditional jazz were the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, string bass, banjo, piano, and drums. Usually a group would have either a tuba or a bass but not both; the same is true of banjo and piano, although it was not as unusual to see both in an ensemble. In any case, this instrumentation could produce a well-balanced sound - the banjo, piano, tuba, bass, and drums providing the rhythmic pulse, the banjo, piano, tuba, and bass additionally providing harmonic foundation, and the other wind instruments providing melody and additional harmony. The range of pitch, from the lowest notes of the tuba to the highest of the clarinet or trumpet, provided a rich sound. The players would often be improvising independent melodic lines simultaneously; the resultant counterpoint gave the music an even fuller sound than would otherwise be achieved. Here is an example of the sound of a traditional jazz ensemble:

While jazz has been primarily an instrumental music, singers have always had a place in the music as well. Singing in jazz was derived primarily from the blues, and early jazz singers typically used the same type of speaking or shouting tone, as opposed to the more song-like vocal quality associated with other types of music:

Other jazz singers sang in a more lyrical manner:

In addition, some vocalists would try to imitate instrumental sounds with their voices, using nonsense syllables or sounds rather than lyrics while singing. This is known as scat:

By the swing era, jazz ensembles began to favor the combination of piano, bass, and drums as the so-called "rhythm section". The use of counterpoint among the horns became much less common; instead one instrument would typically solo over accompaniment provided by the rhythm section. Also, the sound of the saxophone became to be most associated with jazz, at least as important as the trumpet. The trombone and clarinet continued to be used, but not as prominently. The banjo and tuba were reduced to novelty status for the most part. By the bebop era, the basic group timbre had changed due to these factors. The following example demonstrates the sound of a typical post-bebop jazz quartet:

Many bandleaders chose to write and arrange music for larger ensembles. While the instrumentation of the ensembles was originally unique to each band, eventually, a standardized big band took shape in which there are 15-20 musicians divided into sections of like instruments. The standard big band contains a trumpet section, a trombone section, and a saxophone section, as well as a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Each section generally acts as a unit, with anywhere from two to six musicians either playing in unison, or playing parallel lines - melodies or riffs with the same rhythms but differing in pitch. The leading role usually shifts from section to section over the course of a piece, with the other sections providing background riffs. Here is an example of a big band:

The composition of the typical ensemble in modern jazz has not changed much from the bebop era, although groups of more unusual instrumentation are not uncommon. For example, the following example may be the only ensemble that uses the particular instrumentation of cello, vibraphone, and guitar:

Even when more traditional instrumental is used, however, there are elements in the music that can affect the overall timbre of the group. One such factor is free improvisation, which may include collective free improvisation. In this music, there may often be no rhythm section providing a constant rhythmic pulse or harmonic framework for improvisation. If piano, bass, or drums are present, they may be acting as equal contributors rather than as a rhythm section. The complexity of the resultant counterpoint, combined with the lack of familiar harmonic or rhythmic reference points, can lead to a wild, raucous sound:

This need not be so, however. Musicians may choose to strive for a more sparse, atmospheric sound; in this case, lack of a rhythm section can help the music maintain a floating quality:

Extended Effects

Throughout the history of jazz, with the changes in typical instrumentation of ensembles and roles within those ensembles, one thing that has remained constant is the tendency of jazz instrumentalists to want to alter the sounds of their instruments. This is often done to give the music a more vocal quality. Trumpet and trombone players may use an assortment of different mutes to muffle and distort the sound of their instruments:

Wind instrument players also may manipulate their instruments or their embouchures in other ways to produce other effects such as vibrato, shakes, bent pitches, falls, splats, and growls:

While pianists cannot control their sounds so easily, they can still use effects such as percussive clusters, and they can reach inside the instrument to muffle or pluck the strings:

These techniques are sometimes called extended effects. In addition, the advent of electronic sound effects has opened a whole new world of sounds. Many jazz purists decry this use of technology, but in many respects it is just an extension of the continual search for new sounds that has fascinated jazz musicians from the very beginning.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Timbre