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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. 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
Timbre
Tin Pan Alley
James Brown
Elvis Presley
2. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Elvis Presley
Motown
Cakewalk
Big Band
3. 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.
Electric Guitar
James Brown
Les Paul
Phil Spector
4. 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.
AABA form
Scat singing
Harmony
Les Paul
5. Born into a wealthy family in Indiana; studied classical music at Yale - Harvard - and the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Cole Porter
Tin Pan Alley
'The twist'
Motown
6. Vocal singing without instrumental accompaniment.
Scott Joplin
Paul Whiteman
Diana Ross
A cappella
7. 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
Blues
Janis Joplin
Electronic recording
8. The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and the ways they are combined.
Bridge
Producer
Form
Bel canto
9. Pianist - composer - arranger - and bandleader; widely regarded as one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century. As a composer and arranger - he devised unusual musical forms - combined instruments in unusual ways - and creat
Standards
Duke Ellington
Melody
Glenn Miller
10. Chord - consonance - dissonance
cadence
Brian Wilson
Harmony
sound
11. Musical texture with interlocking melodies and rhythms.
Hook
Polyphonic
Hook
Scat singing
12. 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
Phil Spector
phrase
Banjo
Chorus
13. Teen-oriented rock 'n' roll song using a twelve-bar blues structure; it celebrated a simple - hip-swiveling dance step.
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14. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Scott Joplin
Texture
Syncopation
Ray Charles
15. 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.
cadence
Boogie Woogie
Buddy Holly
Minstrel Show
16. A person who writes the words for songs
Strophic
Lyricist
Hook
Verse
17. 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.
Glenn Miller
AABA form
Patsy Cline
ASCAP
18. Motive - phrase - cadence
Ballad
Sheet music
Rockabilly
Melody
19. The most successful white blues singer of the 1960s. Born in Port Arthur - Texas - Joplin came to San Francisco in the mid-1960s and joined a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Verse
Benny Goodman
Janis Joplin
Texture
20. '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.
Ragtime
Lyrics
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Aretha Franklin
21. The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic measure in music.
Motown
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Beat
Minstrel Show
22. Beat - meter - syncopation
Hook
Standards
Rhythm
Tin Pan Alley
23. 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.
Dick Clark
Bridge
Paul Whiteman
Lyricist
24. 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
Polyphonic
Benny Goodman
Form
Gene Autry
25. 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
Bessie Smith
Sheet music
Scat singing
Cover version
26. Blues written by professional songwriters and performed by professional female blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
Classic blues
Big Band
Dick Clark
Blues
27. 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) -
Payola
Hank Williams
Ethel Merman
George Gershwin
28. The lead singer for the Supremes. After leaving the Supremes in 1970 - she became a successful solo artist.
Diana Ross
Bluegrass
Nashville sound
Hank Williams
29. Known as the 'Genius of Soul'; songwriter - arranger - keyboard player - and vocalist fluent in R&B - jazz - and mainstream pop.
Form
Big Band
Ray Charles
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
30. The quality of a sound - sometimes called 'tone color.'
Lyrics
Verse
Acoustic recording
Timbre
31. 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.
Electronic recording
James Brown
Irving Berlin
sound
32. Rock group from Liverpool - England - who dominated American popular music during the mid-1960s and started the 'British Invasion.' The band included John Lennon and George Harrison on lead and rhythm guitars and vocals - Paul McCartney on bass and v
The Beatles
Ethel Merman
Refrain
James Brown
33. 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
Bluegrass
A cappella
Gene Autry
Race Records
34. Technique that involves the use of nonsense syllables as a vehicle for wordless vocal improvisation.
Aretha Franklin
Scat singing
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Hank Williams
35. African American musical style rooted in R&B and gospel that became popular during the 1960s.
Sheet music
Gene Autry
soul music
sound
36. African American musical genre that emerged after World War II. Consisted of a loose cluster of styles derived from black musical traditions - characterized by energetic and hard-swinging rhythms. At first performed exclusively by black musicians for
Melody
The Rolling Stones
Rhythm
R&B
37. Pianist - composer - arranger - and bandleader; widely regarded as one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century. As a composer and arranger - he devised unusual musical forms - combined instruments in unusual ways - and creat
Jerry Lee Lewis
Duke Ellington
Motown
Rockabilly
38. 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.
Duke Ellington
Rhythm
Aretha Franklin
Herman Parker
39. 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.'
ASCAP
Bluegrass
Brian Wilson
Cover version
40. Describes a song where the stanzas are all sung to the same music
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Strophic
Reverb
Duke Ellington
41. White rockabilly singer and pianist.
The Rolling Stones
James Brown
Duke Ellington
Jerry Lee Lewis
42. In the verse-refrain song - the refrain is the 'main part' of the song - usually constructed in AABA or ABAC form.
Nashville sound
Texture
Minstrel Show
Refrain
43. A person who adapts (or arranges) the melody and chords to songs to exploit the capabilities and instrumental resources of a particular musical ensemble.
Arranger
A cappella
phrase
George Gershwin
44. 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).
Bridge
Les Paul
Form
Ballad
45. A person who writes the words for songs
Ray Charles
Hook
Texture
Lyricist
46. Process for recording sound in the pre-microphone era. Performers projected into a huge megaphone.
Bel canto
Janis Joplin
Acoustic recording
Bluegrass
47. Played records and provided entertaining patter on the radio.
Disc Jockeys
Diana Ross
Polyphonic
Cover version
48. Illegal practice - common throughout the music industry - of paying bribes to radio disc jockeys to get certain artists' records played more frequently.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Frank Sinatra
Patsy Cline
Payola
49. 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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50. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Rock 'n' Roll
Standards
Big Band
The Beatles