There are many styles commonly used in classical music like Adagio, Andante, Alegro Moderato, Presto,… but here I’m focusing on some special Jazz music style signs like – swing, bossa nova and funk.

Swing

• Swing is a rhythmic style where the eight notes should be played as triplets.

Here are some examples of genres that are using swing rhythm: blues, country, jazz, foxtrot…For example:  Poutin – Ben Webster meets Oscar Peterson. How much practicing need to looks like happy and relaxed like Oscar Peterson when he is playing. The secret is to do what you love doing. As contrast of the waterfalls of notes by played by Oscar, Ben Webster is blowing soap balloons and we are seeing them in a million colors. Here we have, of course, an excellent rhythm section with – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and Tony Inzalaco on drums. Once, when you die and go to the heaven, if you’ve been good, this group will be playing in the Lounge of Paradise, while you’re waiting to meet all your friends and lovers from your past life…

Bossa Nova & Samba

• Bossa nova is a style in Brazilian music, which was developed and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s and is today one of the best-known Brazilian rhythms. Bossa nova means literally “new trend” or “new wave”. Samba combines different rhythmic patterns and its feel originating in former African slave communities. Samba’s emphasis on the second beat carries it through to bossa nova (to the degree that it is often notated in 2/4 time). A fusion of samba and jazz bacame bossa nova and that’s why has more complex melodies and harmonies than samba. The basic rhythm pattern is:

There are so many wonderful Bossa nova musicians but I will mention just the most important ones, like Antônio Carlos Jobim , João Gilberto , Luiz Bonfá, Gilberto Gil, Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Ivan Lins, Edu Lobo, Sérgio Mendes, Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Eliane Elias, Toquinho (Antônio Pecci Filho), Baden Powell de Aquino, João Donato, Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa, Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz, Tania Maria, Elis Regina, Vinicius de Moraes, Marcos Valle, Caetano Veloso, and many others.

For example: Desafinado – as sung by Gal Costa

Funk

• Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when African-American musicians created  rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Funk de-emphasizes  melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by electric bass and a drum part played by a drummer. Funk is  rhythmically base mostly on 16th pulse with many syncopations. The most known musicians of that style are James Brown, Chaka Khan, Marva Whitney, Lyn Collins, Brides of Funkenstein, Vicki Anderson, Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Joe Zawinul, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and many otheres. Here is one example: Winelight as played by Grover Washington:

Essential Components of Lead Sheets

• Chord Symbols
• Tempo
• Style
• Clef
• Key
• Time signature
• Lyrics
• Melody

Lead sheet notation generally means sheet music written out in single-line melody, and occasionally includes a harmony line or chord voicing. The melody might have dynamics and articulations noted, though many lead sheets don’t specify them. For example Softly as in a morning sunrise as played by Michael Brecker, tenor, Ulf Wakenius, guitar, Christian McBride, bass, Benny Green, piano, and Alvin Queen, drums,

Other notation that might appear in a lead sheet include:

• Road-maps
• Repeats and Arrangement Directions
• Slash Notation (Time slashes (////) with chord symbols written above to indicate solo sections)
• Ensemble Notation

Critical instrumental hooks, ensemble rhythmic concepts (stop time, or kicks), and repeated licks (often for the bass), might appear in smaller notation in a temporary second staff.