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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. Illegal practice - common throughout the music industry - of paying bribes to radio disc jockeys to get certain artists' records played more frequently.
The Supremes
Payola
Elvis Presley
Countrypolitan
2. The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic measure in music.
Beat
Minstrel Show
Gene Autry
Tin Pan Alley
3. The musical structure of a piece of music; its basic building blocks and the ways they are combined.
Lyricist
Blues
'The twist'
Form
4. Repeating section within a song - consisting of a fixed melody and lyrics repeated exactly - typically following one or more verses.
Chorus
cadence
Sheet music
Beach Boys
5. 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
Electric Guitar
George Gershwin
Countrypolitan
Timbre
6. Sophisticated approach to the vocal presentation and instrumental arrangement of country music; a fusion of 'country' and 'cosmopolitan.'
Countrypolitan
Blues
Motown
R&B
7. 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.
Bluegrass
12-bar Blues
Sheet music
Verse
8. A short musical passage
Phil Spector
Crooning
phrase
Timbre
9. The musical pattern created by parts being played or sung together
Cover version
Duke Ellington
Minstrel Show
Texture
10. 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
Janis Joplin
Cakewalk
Les Paul
Scott Joplin
11. Musical texture with interlocking melodies and rhythms.
Rock 'n' Roll
Polyphonic
Electronic recording
phrase
12. A musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat
Syncopation
Glenn Miller
Janis Joplin
Strophic
13. 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.
sound
Lyricist
The Supremes
Gene Autry
14. Country vocalist who scored crossover hits with songs such as 'I Fall to Pieces -' and 'Crazy -' both recorded in 1961.
Patsy Cline
urban folk
Paul Whiteman
Rhythm
15. '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.
soul music
sound
A cappella
Aretha Franklin
16. At the age of twenty-one - introduced 'I Got Rhythm' in the stage show Girl Crazy written by George Gershwin.
Scat singing
Ethel Merman
Lyrics
Gene Autry
17. The musical pattern created by parts being played or sung together
Ragtime
Texture
Verse
Frank Sinatra
18. Popular dance ensemble during the swing era - consisting of brass - reeds - and rhythm sections.
Ballad
Buddy Holly
Big Band
Frank Sinatra
19. 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.
Bridge
Les Paul
Melody
Herman Parker
20. 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.'
Cole Porter
Les Paul
Verse
Brian Wilson
21. White rockabilly singer and pianist.
Motown
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Jerry Lee Lewis
The Beatles
22. A recurrent rhythmical series
Beach Boys
cadence
Hank Williams
Classic blues
23. 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
Crooning
Bluegrass
Louis Armstrong
Bob Dylan
24. 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.
Form
Frank Sinatra
Verse
Lyricist
25. 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
Scat singing
urban folk
phrase
Duke Ellington
26. 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.
Countrypolitan
cadence
phrase
Bel canto
27. Chord - consonance - dissonance
The Beatles
phrase
Glenn Miller
Harmony
28. The principal medium for disseminating popular sings until the advent of recording in the 1890s.
Countrypolitan
Paul Whiteman
Sheet music
Duke Ellington
29. 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.
Tempo
soul music
Cover version
Big Band
30. 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
Chorus
Lyrics
Tin Pan Alley
Payola
31. Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners.
Arranger
Race Records
Elvis Presley
Ethel Merman
32. 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.
Scat singing
Glenn Miller
Elvis Presley
Ballad
33. 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.
Les Paul
Dick Clark
The Supremes
Classic blues
34. The underlying pulse of a song or piece of music; a unit of rhythmic measure in music.
Beat
Scott Joplin
Blues
Janis Joplin
35. Founder of Motown Records.
Berry Gordy - Jr.
Timbre
Rhythm
Aretha Franklin
36. 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
Producer
Melody
The Supremes
Buddy Holly
37. 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
Scat singing
Irving Berlin
Louis Armstrong
Jerry Lee Lewis
38. Chord - consonance - dissonance
Aretha Franklin
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
Harmony
Hook
39. Illegal practice - common throughout the music industry - of paying bribes to radio disc jockeys to get certain artists' records played more frequently.
Les Paul
Paul Whiteman
Irving Berlin
Payola
40. 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.
Scat singing
Les Paul
Cover version
cadence
41. 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
Duke Ellington
The Beatles
Glenn Miller
Countrypolitan
42. 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.
Ragtime
Producer
Blues
Buddy Holly
43. 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) -
Ballad
George Gershwin
Phil Spector
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey
44. A recurrent rhythmical series
Benny Goodman
cadence
Classic blues
Standards
45. The first form of musical and theatrical entertainment to be regarded by European audiences as distinctively American in character. Featured mainly white performers who artificially blackened their skin and carried out parodies of African American mu
Producer
Verse
Crooning
Minstrel Show
46. 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
AABA form
Blues
Louis Armstrong
47. Record company founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.
Benny Goodman
R&B
Motown
The Supremes
48. 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
Les Paul
Rock 'n' Roll
Standards
49. Generally recognized as the most productive - varied - and creative of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters. His professional songwriting career started before World War I and continued into the 1960s. His most famous songs include 'Alexander's Ragtime Band
Irving Berlin
Crooning
Standards
Disc Jockeys
50. 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.
Producer
Arranger
Les Paul
Herman Parker