LISTENING FORM

LISTENING FORM

Title of Cut: ___________________ Title/Leader of Recording: ____________________________

Date of Recording: ______________ Record Label and No.: _______________________________

Number of times listened to: ______

MACRO LEVEL

A. Personnel/Instrumentation: _____________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

B. General Character: 1. Overall Mood: a. Major/bright: b. Minor/dark: 2. Consonant/relaxed or

dissonant/tension; c. Key:__________ 3. Prevailing divisions/subdivisions of beat: a. even (latin/rock): b.

Uneven (swing); Meter: ____________; General Style: (swing, bebop, Dixieland, free, post bop, fusion,

latin, other: _______________________).

C. Form: 1. Strophic, or repeated choruses. if so, what is the form: a. 12 bar blues; b. 32 bar song (AABA,

ABAB, ABCD, other ________); 2. Open-ended or through composed (non strophic): a. Vamp tune; b.

harmonically static (modal); 3. Asymmetrical (uneven phrase lengths, if so what are

they:________________). 4. Free Form

D. Format/Arrangement: 1. Theme and Variations: "Head" –solos- "Head"; a. introduction, interlude,

type of ending: tag (how long? ___________), extension, return to intro, other: ____________________

2. More elaborate form design: Describe: __________________________________________________

3. Collective Improvisation: Describe: ____________________________________________________

MIDDLE LEVEL

Soloists: 1. Individual sound and use of register (describe the qualities of each) ____________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

2. Number of Choruses played by each: ______________________________________________________

3. Expressive devices employed (bending pitches, scoops, glissandi, doits, fall-offs, etc.) describe:_______

______________________________________________________________________________________

Coloring of Tone (growls, flutter tongue, mutes, etc.) describe: ___________________________________

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Use of vibrato (slow/wide, fast/narrow, etc.) describe: __________________________________________

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Articulations (legato tongue, hard tongue, off beat tonguing, etc.) describe: _________________________

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Rhythmic devices: a. repeated notes (false or vent fingerings): b. double timing; c. time feel (playing on

top, behind, or ahead of the beat): dramatic devices: use of high register: b. use of long sustained tones to

create tensions: c. use of rapid flourishes of notes:_____________________________________________

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On a separate sheet graph the general contour of each solo.

Rhythm Section: 1. Does the rhythm section play an accompanimental/subbordinate role to the soloist or

more of an equal/agressive role? Describe: _________________________________________________

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2. Do the chording instruments play all the time or do they lay out at times? Do they play together most of

the time or do they alternate? Describe: _____________________________________________________

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3. In what ways do the rhythm section members interact with or support the soloist and vice versa? ______

______________________________________________________________________________________

4. Describe devices employed by the rhythm section: a. double-time: b. double-time feel: c. stop-time: d.

pedal points. Describe: ___________________________________________________________________

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MICRO LEVEL

The vehicle (tune) 1. Harmonic progression: a. ii-V7, ii-V7-I progressions (try to sing chordal roots): b.

complex chord colors: c. unusual root movements. 2. Melody: a. based on a specific scale: b. based on

chord progression: c. other ____________________________________(try to sing a portion of the

melody) 3. Unusual features _______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

Improvisation approach of the soloist: 1. Embellishment (Can you hear references to and decorations of

the original melody?): a. ornamentation (turns, glisses, grace notes): b. rhythmic/octave displacement, etc:

2.Improvisation (does the soloist abandon the original melody and improvise a new one?) a.

Vertical/harmonic approach (change running, use of guide tones): b. horizontal/melodic approach (use of

chord-scales, motivic development techniques): c. combination ( vertical and harmonic approaches) 3.

Quoting (does the soloist incorporate fragments of well known melodies into the solo). 4. Phrasing

(antecedent/consequent, phrasing against the grain).

Structural Coherence 1. Does the solo make any sense or does it seem unrelated and chaotic? Why or

why not? Does the slolist (s) tell a story? Is there a conversational character to the solo(s)?