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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. Technique that involves the use of nonsense syllables as a vehicle for wordless vocal improvisation.
A cappella
Glenn Miller
Scat singing
Chorus
2. The words of a song.
Les Paul
The Beatles
Lyrics
motive
3. Usually sets up a dramatic context or emotional tone. Although verses were the most important part of nineteenth-century popular songs - they were regarded as mere introductions by the 1920s - and today the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs are infrequen
Gene Autry
Motown
Verse
sound
4. Behind-the-scenes role at a record company. Can be responsible for booking time in the recording studio - hiring backup singers and instrumentalists - assisting with the engineering process - and imprinting the characteristic sound of the finished re
Major/Minor
Ethel Merman
Producer
Banjo
5. A short musical passage
phrase
Payola
Bluegrass
Race Records
6. A British rock group who cultivated an image as 'bad boys' in deliberate contrast to the friendly public image projected by the Beatles.
James Brown
Lyricist
The Rolling Stones
Rockabilly
7. Four- or five-stringed instrument with a membrane stretched over a wooden or metal hoop that is strummed or plucked. It was developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. The banjo was used in the music of the
AABA form
Disc Jockeys
Banjo
Motown
8. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
Hook
Timbre
Bob Dylan
Texture
9. The word derives from the African American term 'to rag -' meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting melodic accents onto the offbeats (a technique known as syncopation). Ragtime music emerged in the 1880s - its popularity peaking in the decade
Harmony
Scott Joplin
Ragtime
Chuck Berry
10. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Motown
Reverb
Hank Williams
Countrypolitan
11. The 'Godfather of Soul.' He was known for his acrobatic physicality and remarkable charisma on stage. No other single musician has proven to be as influential on the sound and style of black music as James Brown.
Refrain
Verse
James Brown
Lyricist
12. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
Beat
A cappella
phrase
Benny Goodman
13. The scale systems central to Western music; a series of pitches organized in a specific order of whole- and half-step intervals. The major scale can give music a feeling of openness and brightness - whereas a minor scale can give music the feeling of
Texture
A cappella
Electric Guitar
Major/Minor
14. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Diana Ross
Timbre
Frank Sinatra
Disc Jockeys
15. Host of the popular teen-oriented television show American Bandstand
Cover version
Dick Clark
A cappella
Harmony
16. In the verse-refrain song - the refrain is the 'main part' of the song - usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
Refrain
Diana Ross
Disc Jockeys
Standards
17. 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
Arranger
Electric Guitar
Motown
Disc Jockeys
18. Brilliantly clever and articulate lyricist and songwriter - fine rock 'n' roll vocal stylist - and pioneering electric guitarist. One of the first black musicians to consciously forge his own R&B styles for appeal to the mass market. Also known for h
Tempo
Chuck Berry
Melody
Reverb
19. Bandleader for the most successful dance orchestra of the 1920s. He billed himself as the 'King of Jazz -' widened the market for jazz-based dance music - and paved the way for the Swing Era.
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Paul Whiteman
Buddy Holly
Arranger
20. Musical texture with interlocking melodies and rhythms.
Race Records
sound
Polyphonic
Rhythm
21. African American musical style rooted in R&B and gospel that became popular during the 1960s.
Race Records
soul music
Gene Autry
Texture
22. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Concept album
Ray Charles
Patsy Cline
Polyphonic
23. A short musical passage
Chorus
Cover version
motive
phrase
24. A British rock group who cultivated an image as 'bad boys' in deliberate contrast to the friendly public image projected by the Beatles.
Bob Dylan
Patsy Cline
ASCAP
The Rolling Stones
25. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Big Band
Electric Guitar
Cakewalk
James Brown
26. 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.
Phil Spector
Glenn Miller
Payola
Major/Minor
27. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
A cappella
Dick Clark
urban folk
Scat singing
28. Bandleader for the most successful dance orchestra of the 1920s. He billed himself as the 'King of Jazz -' widened the market for jazz-based dance music - and paved the way for the Swing Era.
Minstrel Show
Paul Whiteman
Arranger
Rhythm
29. African American musical style rooted in R&B and gospel that became popular during the 1960s.
Ray Charles
soul music
Dick Clark
Strophic
30. Called the 'Empress of the Blues -' She was born in Chattanooga - Tennessee - and performed in traveling shows and vaudeville before embarking on a recording career with Columbia Records. Her recordings include W. C. Handy's 'St. Louis Blues' and Irv
soul music
Bessie Smith
Harmony
Lyricist
31. 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.
Les Paul
urban folk
Acoustic recording
Texture
32. A style of singing made possible by the invention of the microphone. It involves an intimate approach to vocal timbre.
Arranger
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Crooning
Beach Boys
33. Introduced as a commercial and marketing term in the mid-1950s for the purpose of identifying a new target audience for musical products. Encompassed a variety of styles and artists from R&B - country - and pop music.
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34. 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
Boogie Woogie
Standards
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Cakewalk
35. 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.
Irving Berlin
soul music
Polyphonic
The Supremes
36. A type of song in which a series of verses telling a story - often about a historical event or personal tragedy - are sung to a repeating melody (this sort of musical form is called strophic).
Dick Clark
Ballad
AABA form
Motown
37. Developed in 1925 using a new device - the microphone. Electric recording converts sounds into electrical signals.
Electronic recording
Nashville sound
Sheet music
Bessie Smith
38. At the age of twenty-one - introduced 'I Got Rhythm' in the stage show Girl Crazy written by George Gershwin.
Ballad
Ethel Merman
Duke Ellington
Texture
39. The first successful singing cowboy; born in Texas - He was a successful film star and a popular country and western musician. Helped establish the 'western' component of country and western music. Developed a style designed to reach out to a broader
Chuck Berry
The Beatles
Beach Boys
Gene Autry
40. Chord - consonance - dissonance
Harmony
Rockabilly
The Beatles
Duke Ellington
41. Known as the 'Genius of Soul'; songwriter - arranger - keyboard player - and vocalist fluent in R&B - jazz - and mainstream pop.
Scott Joplin
Disc Jockeys
Ray Charles
Frank Sinatra
42. Describes a song where the stanzas are all sung to the same music
Strophic
George Gershwin
Bridge
Ray Charles
43. At the age of twenty-one - introduced 'I Got Rhythm' in the stage show Girl Crazy written by George Gershwin.
Ragtime
Ethel Merman
ASCAP
Lyricist
44. Popularly known as the 'Mother of the Blues -' was the first of the great women blues singers and had a direct influence on Bessie Smith.
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45. Born in Hoboken New Jersey into a working-class Italian family. His singing style combined the crooning style of Bing Crosby with the bel canto technique of Italian opera.
Frank Sinatra
Irving Berlin
R&B
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
46. Illegal practice - common throughout the music industry - of paying bribes to radio disc jockeys to get certain artists' records played more frequently.
Les Paul
Race Records
Ethel Merman
Payola
47. Founded in 1914 in an attempt to force all business establishments that featured live music to pay fees ('royalties') for the public use of music.
Chuck Berry
Glenn Miller
ASCAP
soul music
48. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
Lyrics
Ethel Merman
Timbre
Tempo
49. 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.
Timbre
Glenn Miller
Paul Whiteman
Irving Berlin
50. Four- or five-stringed instrument with a membrane stretched over a wooden or metal hoop that is strummed or plucked. It was developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. The banjo was used in the music of the
Ethel Merman
Banjo
ASCAP
motive