Musicpedia

Jargon talk ye? Let’s help you out with that…

#
Music ~ A derivative of Love.

A

Ad-libs ~ Vocal effects, similar to scatting that are used in Hip-hop used to reference an artist’s signature and/or to emphasize a verse.

B

Breakdown ~ The part of a song whereby various instruments have solo parts called breaks. This may take the form of all instruments playing the verse together, and then several or all instruments individually repeating the verse as solo parts.

Bar ~ A measurement for the number of beats in a song.

C
Cover ~ A new performance or recording by someone other than the original artist or composer of a previously recorded, commercially released song.

F

Flow ~ A term used in Hip-hop music that is used to describe the interaction between the rhythm and rhyme structure within the lyrics.

Funk ~ A blend of genres such as jazz, soul and rhythm and blues with dance as its essence.

H

Hook ~ A section of a song that is used to grab a listener’s attention. It can comprise of brief riffs, phrases and even the chorus.

K
Kwaito ~ A form of house that emerged from Johannesburg, during the 1990s the features the usage of African sounds and samples.

Kwela ~ A pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.

M

Marabi ~  An early form of keyboard style South African jazz that had a musical link to American jazz, ragtime and blues. It was infamously played in shebeens, and during weekend-long slumyard parties.

Malombo ~ A legendary jazz group is based in Mamelodi, led by the multi-instrumentalists Duze Mahlobo and the late Philip Tabane (1934 – 2018).

O
Orchestra ~ A group of instrumentalists, especially one combining string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections and playing music.

P

Percussion ~ Musical instruments that are played through physical actions such as striking and shaking either by hands, sticks or beaters.

R
Remastered ~ Changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic.

Riff ~ A short repeated phrase in popular music and jazz, typically used as an introduction or refrain in a song.

S
Sampling ~ the reuse of a portion of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise rhythm, melody, speech, or other sounds.

Synths ~ Short for “Synthesizer” is a piano like electronic instrument that generates audio signals.

V
Vocal percussion ~ The art of creating sounds with one’s mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument.