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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. Founder of Motown Records.
Strophic
Producer
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Sheet music
2. 'The Queen of Soul -' she began singing gospel music at an early age and had several hit records with Atlantic - including 'Respect' in 1967 and 'Think' in 1968.
Producer
Aretha Franklin
Harmony
Berry Gordy - Jr.
3. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Benny Goodman
Timbre
Patsy Cline
AABA form
4. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
sound
Cakewalk
Big Band
Chuck Berry
5. Musical texture with interlocking melodies and rhythms.
Rockabilly
Polyphonic
Ballad
Bel canto
6. 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
Texture
soul music
Benny Goodman
Rock 'n' Roll
7. Beat - meter - syncopation
Beach Boys
Frank Sinatra
Ray Charles
Rhythm
8. A musical genre that emerged in black communities of the Deep South-especially the region from the Mississippi Delta to East Texas-sometime around the end of the nineteenth century
Brian Wilson
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Timbre
Blues
9. 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.
urban folk
Disc Jockeys
Ragtime
Classic blues
10. 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.
urban folk
Producer
Arranger
Les Paul
11. 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).
Cole Porter
Ballad
Big Band
sound
12. 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.
13. The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and the ways they are combined.
Verse
Form
Cakewalk
Electronic recording
14. Describes a song where the stanzas are all sung to the same music
Strophic
Ray Charles
Sheet music
Chorus
15. 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
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Hank Williams
Electric Guitar
Syncopation
16. 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.
Ethel Merman
Buddy Holly
Refrain
Cole Porter
17. Blues piano tradition that sprang up during the early twentieth century in the 'southwest territory' states of Texas - Arkansas - Missouri - and Oklahoma. In boogie-woogie performances - the pianist typically plays a repeated pattern with his left ha
Polyphonic
Aretha Franklin
Disc Jockeys
Boogie Woogie
18. Played records and provided entertaining patter on the radio.
soul music
Patsy Cline
Disc Jockeys
Payola
19. Motive - phrase - cadence
Rock 'n' Roll
Melody
Nashville sound
Glenn Miller
20. Pitched/unpitched - dynamic - timbre or tone color
Concept album
12-bar Blues
sound
cadence
21. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Polyphonic
'The twist'
Cover version
Motown
22. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Electronic recording
Diana Ross
urban folk
Crooning
23. Urban folk singer and songwriter; he took his stage name from his favorite poet - Dylan Thomas. His songs include hits such as 'Blowin' in the Wind -' 'Mr. Tambourine Man -' and 'Like a Rolling Stone.'
Melody
Banjo
Lyrics
Bob Dylan
24. Repeating section within a song - consisting of a fixed melody and lyrics repeated exactly - typically following one or more verses.
Lyricist
motive
Glenn Miller
Chorus
25. Blues written by professional songwriters and performed by professional female blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
Minstrel Show
urban folk
Rockabilly
Classic blues
26. 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.
Herman Parker
Bridge
Janis Joplin
Melody
27. Founder of Motown Records.
Electric Guitar
A cappella
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Scat singing
28. 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
Hank Williams
Polyphonic
Sheet music
cadence
29. Chord - consonance - dissonance
Disc Jockeys
R&B
cadence
Harmony
30. A person who writes the words for songs
Lyricist
Jerry Lee Lewis
Les Paul
Concept album
31. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Hank Williams
Ragtime
Patsy Cline
Elvis Presley
32. 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) -
Beach Boys
Phil Spector
George Gershwin
Patsy Cline
33. 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
motive
phrase
James Brown
Gene Autry
34. The standard form of a blues song: a twelve-bar structure made up of three phrases of four bars each; a basic three-chord pattern; and a three-line AAB text.
Buddy Holly
12-bar Blues
soul music
Lyricist
35. 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
R&B
James Brown
Boogie Woogie
Ragtime
36. 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.
Sheet music
Nashville sound
Benny Goodman
A cappella
37. 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
Benny Goodman
Beat
Form
Duke Ellington
38. 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
Bessie Smith
Major/Minor
Buddy Holly
Phil Spector
39. A style rooted in the venerable southern string band tradition. It combines the banjo - fiddle - mandolin - dobro - guitar - and acoustic bass with a vocal style often dubbed the 'high - lonesome sound.' The pioneer of bluegrass music was Bill Monroe
Major/Minor
Les Paul
Bluegrass
Diana Ross
40. In the verse-refrain song - the refrain is the 'main part' of the song - usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
Refrain
Major/Minor
cadence
The Supremes
41. Known as the 'Genius of Soul'; songwriter - arranger - keyboard player - and vocalist fluent in R&B - jazz - and mainstream pop.
Ray Charles
Motown
Elvis Presley
Texture
42. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Chuck Berry
Diana Ross
Herman Parker
Rhythm
43. Founded in California in 1961 - they popularized the 'California sound' in the early 1960s. Their hit songs included 'Surfin' Safari -' 'Surfer Girl -' 'California Girls -' 'Surfin' USA' and 'Good Vibrations.'
Les Paul
Disc Jockeys
Rockabilly
Beach Boys
44. A musical genre that emerged in black communities of the Deep South-especially the region from the Mississippi Delta to East Texas-sometime around the end of the nineteenth century
Bel canto
Blues
The Supremes
cadence
45. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Electric Guitar
George Gershwin
Syncopation
Bessie Smith
46. 'Time' in Italian; the rate at which a musical composition proceeds - regulated by the speed of the beats or pulse to which it is performed.
Tempo
motive
Polyphonic
Diana Ross
47. A memorable musical phrase or riff.
Strophic
Elvis Presley
Hook
phrase
48. 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.
Verse
Benny Goodman
Cover version
Les Paul
49. Developed in 1925 using a new device - the microphone. Electric recording converts sounds into electrical signals.
Electronic recording
Hank Williams
Rhythm
Jerry Lee Lewis
50. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
Refrain
The Beatles
Frank Sinatra
A cappella