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Test your basic knowledge |
Music
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
performing-arts
,
music
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
Timbre
Rock 'n' Roll
sound
Boogie Woogie
2. One of the most common structures that Tin Pan Alley composers used to organize their melodic and harmonic material. This structure would be found in the refrain of a verse-refrain song.
Janis Joplin
Reverb
AABA form
Form
3. African American composer and pianist; the best-known composer of ragtime music. Between 1895 and 1915 - Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime repertoire and helped popularize the style through his piano arrangements - published as shee
Scott Joplin
Bridge
Cole Porter
Cakewalk
4. Dubbed the 'first tycoon of teen -' his studio production techniques are known as the 'wall of sound' because of his utilization of dense orchestrations - multiple instruments - and heavy reverb.
Cover version
AABA form
Phil Spector
Beach Boys
5. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Diana Ross
Sheet music
Motown
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
6. Singer - songwriter - and harmonica player who achieved some success with his R&B band - Little Junior's Blue Flames; recorded 'Mystery Train' for Sam Phillips's Sun label.
Arranger
Herman Parker
Phil Spector
A cappella
7. Early rock 'n' roll guitarist - singer - and songwriter from the country/rockabilly side of rock 'n' roll. Killed tragically at the age of twenty-two in a plane crash.
Buddy Holly
Banjo
AABA form
Disc Jockeys
8. Black female vocal group who were featured artists with Motown Records in the 1960s. Their song 'You Can't Hurry Love' was a Number One hit in 1966.
Ballad
cadence
The Supremes
Electronic recording
9. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Diana Ross
Glenn Miller
Major/Minor
Bridge
10. The B section of AABA song form found in the refrain of a Tin Pan Alley song. The bridge presents new material: a new melody - chord changes - and lyrics.
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Polyphonic
Bridge
Paul Whiteman
11. Trombonist and bandleader; formed his own band in 1937. Miller developed a peppy - clean-sounding style that appealed to small-town Midwestern people as well as to the big-city - East and West Coast constituency.
Nashville sound
Glenn Miller
Acoustic recording
Aretha Franklin
12. The musical pattern created by parts being played or sung together
Texture
Paul Whiteman
Phil Spector
Beat
13. A memorable musical phrase or riff.
Tin Pan Alley
Hook
Timbre
Rockabilly
14. The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic measure in music.
Louis Armstrong
Beat
Duke Ellington
Banjo
15. A guitarist and inventor - designed his own eight-track tape recorder and began in 1948 to release a series of popular recordings featuring his own playing - overdubbed to sound like an ensemble of six or more guitars.
Cole Porter
Verse
AABA form
Les Paul
16. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
The Rolling Stones
Big Band
Countrypolitan
Blues
17. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
Form
Melody
A cappella
ASCAP
18. White rockabilly singer and pianist.
George Gershwin
Buddy Holly
Jerry Lee Lewis
AABA form
19. Technique that involves the use of nonsense syllables as a vehicle for wordless vocal improvisation.
ASCAP
Scat singing
Diana Ross
Dick Clark
20. Country music style involving polished arrangements and a sophisticated approach to vocal presentation. The recordings of Patsy Cline were among the most important manifestations of the Nashville sound.
Electric Guitar
Standards
Dick Clark
Nashville sound
21. Process for recording sound in the pre-microphone era. Performers projected into a huge megaphone.
Chuck Berry
Acoustic recording
The Supremes
Rockabilly
22. The son of an immigrant leatherworker - did much to bridge the gulf between art music and popular music. Studied European classical music but also spent a great deal of time listening to jazz musicians in New York City. Wrote Porgy and Bess (1935) -
Reverb
Cole Porter
George Gershwin
Buddy Holly
23. A technique used by opera singers that emphasizes breath control - a fluid and relaxed voice - and the use of subtle variations in pitch and rhythmic phrasing for dramatic effect.
Frank Sinatra
Bel canto
Buddy Holly
Chorus
24. A guitar whose sound comes chiefly from electro-magnetic amplification The pioneer of electric blues guitar was Aaron T-Bone Walker - whose urban blues recordings just after World War II were extremely popular - Les Paul created
Chuck Berry
Electric Guitar
Tin Pan Alley
Janis Joplin
25. The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and the ways they are combined.
Ballad
Tin Pan Alley
Form
A cappella
26. Known as 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll -' the biggest star to come from the country side of the music world. Born in Tupelo - Mississippi - made his first recordings in Memphis at Sun Records - and later recorded for RCA and became a Hollywood film star
R&B
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Polyphonic
Elvis Presley
27. The leader and guiding spirit of the Beach Boys during their first decade. He wrote and produced many of the Beach Boys' biggest hits - including 'Good Vibrations.'
Phil Spector
The Supremes
Brian Wilson
Rock 'n' Roll
28. A short musical passage
Dick Clark
phrase
A cappella
Aretha Franklin
29. Africanized version of the European quadrille (a kind of square dance). The cakewalk was developed by slaves as a parody of the 'refined' dance movements of the white slave owners
12-bar Blues
Cakewalk
Producer
Standards
30. Born in New Orleans; a cornetist and singer - he established certain core features of jazz - particularly its rhythmic drive and its emphasis on solo instrumental virtuosity. Armstrong also profoundly influenced the development of mainstream popular
George Gershwin
Louis Armstrong
Crooning
Texture
31. Black female vocal group who were featured artists with Motown Records in the 1960s. Their song 'You Can't Hurry Love' was a Number One hit in 1966.
The Supremes
Ballad
Bessie Smith
Lyrics
32. Beat - meter - syncopation
A cappella
Cover version
Form
Rhythm
33. Clarinetist and popular band leader; known as the 'King of Swing.' His popularity and the success of his band helped establish the swing era in the early 1930s. He was the first white bandleader to hire black musicians in his band
AABA form
soul music
Benny Goodman
Hank Williams
34. A technique used by opera singers that emphasizes breath control - a fluid and relaxed voice - and the use of subtle variations in pitch and rhythmic phrasing for dramatic effect.
Acoustic recording
Cover version
Bel canto
Elvis Presley
35. A theme that is elaborated on in a piece of music
motive
Disc Jockeys
Paul Whiteman
Les Paul
36. Born into a wealthy family in Indiana; studied classical music at Yale - Harvard - and the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Cole Porter
Banjo
Countrypolitan
Irving Berlin
37. Musical texture with interlocking melodies and rhythms.
Chorus
Banjo
Polyphonic
Ray Charles
38. Nickname for a stretch of 28th Street in New York City where music publishers had their offices—a dense hive of small rooms with pianos where composers and 'song pluggers' produced and promoted popular songs. The term - which evoked the clanging soun
Tin Pan Alley
Janis Joplin
Dick Clark
Arranger
39. The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic measure in music.
Beat
Hank Williams
Elvis Presley
Scott Joplin
40. Style of folk music that grew in popularity in the burgeoning New York folk scene during the 1960s. It included artists such as Bob Dylan.
motive
Minstrel Show
urban folk
The Supremes
41. Played records and provided entertaining patter on the radio.
Les Paul
George Gershwin
Disc Jockeys
Ray Charles
42. Vigorous form of country and western music informed by the rhythms of black R&B and electric blues. Exemplified by artists such as Carl Perkins and the young Elvis Presley.
Syncopation
Elvis Presley
Lyrics
Rockabilly
43. A guitarist and inventor - designed his own eight-track tape recorder and began in 1948 to release a series of popular recordings featuring his own playing - overdubbed to sound like an ensemble of six or more guitars.
Timbre
Jerry Lee Lewis
Les Paul
Tin Pan Alley
44. A version of a previously recorded performance; often an adaptation of the original's style and sensibility - and usually aimed at cashing in on its success.
Cover version
Dick Clark
Hank Williams
Disc Jockeys
45. The most significant single figure to emerge in country music during the immediate post-World War II period. Williams wrote and sang many songs in the course of his brief career that were enormously popular with country audiences at the time; between
Janis Joplin
Bessie Smith
Race Records
Hank Williams
46. Founder of Motown Records.
Les Paul
Crooning
The Supremes
Berry Gordy - Jr.
47. A recurrent rhythmical series
cadence
Boogie Woogie
Scat singing
A cappella
48. Host of the popular teen-oriented television show American Bandstand
Dick Clark
Disc Jockeys
R&B
Patsy Cline
49. A short musical passage
Beat
ASCAP
phrase
Hook
50. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Syncopation
Jerry Lee Lewis
'The twist'
Aretha Franklin