Is anyone familiar with these jazz symbols?

[deirpg]

A new student of mine brought some music in that she needs to learn for school.  I don't have much experience with jazz music, and some of these symbols are pretty new for me.

I'm not sure if I can explain these well, but here goes:
- instead of a group of notes being played at the same time, it looks like a line on an angle with a stem. (Some of them don't have stems too.) (I can scan these and send them to someone if they know anything about jazz music.)
- In an empty bar, instead of a whole rest, I see something that looks like a diagonal line with a dot on top and a dot underneath.
- The next symbol is a diagonal (almost horizontal) line with a line at the left side going vertically and a line at the right side going vertically. On top there is a 3 written. The only thing I can think of this is that there is to be nothing played for 3 full bars.

Anyway, I would appreciate any help on this!

Thanks,

D

[BoliverAllmon]

A new student of mine brought some music in that she needs to learn for school.  I don't have much experience with jazz music, and some of these symbols are pretty new for me.

I'm not sure if I can explain these well, but here goes:
- instead of a group of notes being played at the same time, it looks like a line on an angle with a stem. (Some of them don't have stems too.) (I can scan these and send them to someone if they know anything about jazz music.)
- In an empty bar, instead of a whole rest, I see something that looks like a diagonal line with a dot on top and a dot underneath.
- The next symbol is a diagonal (almost horizontal) line with a line at the left side going vertically and a line at the right side going vertically. On top there is a 3 written. The only thing I can think of this is that there is to be nothing played for 3 full bars.

Anyway, I would appreciate any help on this!

Thanks,

D

the second symbol means repeat the previous measure.

you are correct on the third symbol.

I think I need to see a scanned photo of the first symbol though.

boliver

[deirpg]

Wonderful, BoliverAllmon.  Maybe I'll try to scan it.  Would it be okay if I emailed you with the document?

D

[BoliverAllmon]

yeah no problem

boliverallmon@pianomail.net

[deirpg]

Just emailing you now.  Unfortunately, the document is a little large.  Hopefully it sends ok.

D

[deirpg]

No, it's not going to work - too big.

Thanks anyway. 

D

[Brian Healey]

The first symbol you mentioned is a rhythm slash. You play the given chord with the rhythm indicated by the slash. Often times, exact chord voicings are not important to a jazz chart, so you will see just chord symbols with slashes providing the rhythm. In a case where there are stemless slashes, it means that there are no important rhythmic elements during that section and to just "comp," or improvise an accompaniment. Hope that helps.


Peace,
Bri

[earl]

deirpg:

To add to Brian's answer you may also see the rhythm slashes with flags and beams representing 8th and 16th notes, etc. As Brian mentioned the specific rhythm is to be played with the chord voicing of the performer's choice. Most often this specific notation is seen in written arrangements of big bands and other ensembles. The arranger wants the pianist to play a specific rhythm, usually in sync with the horn section or other players.

Earl