How would you explain Jazz to a deaf person?

Question

I'm deaf. ok, so here is your opportunity. Here is what I know of music. Different types of music has different types of structure/form. I've been told that Jazz has no fixed form, but in that case, how can it be music? Sounds like chaos to me, (If you get my drift!!)

Answer 1

Jazz is pretty random and has little structure to it. Picture a group of people playing instruments and dropping in and out whenever they feel like it and you have Jazz. Piano starts playing then the bass drops in a few notes and then stops piano keeps playing and then in comes the trumpet and drums. Drums drop out and.......etc. Half the thing about Jazz is watching what the other musicians are doing so you know when to change or when you think you should start or stop playing. Jazz can be beautiful or terrible depending on the jam session.

Answer 2

Sometimes, jazz is a shared chaos. It's the sharing (giving/taking) that makes it work.

I have actually been to great jazz shows and said " a deaf person would enjoy this". I said that because of the facial and body language of the musicians playing. They are all separate and together at the same time. Most of all, they are letting loose. Just go to a show and sit close to the musicians.

Another description for you is the paintings of Jackson Pollock. If I remember correctly, he listens to jazz and paints from that inspiration. His artwork is on the back cover of the classic free jazz album by Ornette Coleman called Free Jazz. The art looks just like the sound of the album.

Answer 3

There is a constant rhythm over which the jazz is played. Rules have to be adhered to in some way, such as playing notes that mostly go don't clash, keeping basic time and repeating drum and bass patterns to keep the mood the same.

Over this, musicians may improvise with notes and rhythm.

Its like a cake: you need to stck to the recipe for the main part, but when you put icing on you can make whatever patterns you like.

I don't really like Jazz though. You certainly can't dance to it.

Answer 4

Jazz does have a structure. Whereas classical and folk music often have a four count-structure as a base and emphasize the first count, jazz emphasizes the second and fourth count. On top of that whole improvisations are being played. The improv's can be so intricate that non-jazz-listeners can easily become confused. It's like high math.

Answer 5

If you suspect that the person you are with shares many of the same emotions with you - and i feel strongly that that would be the true case - then you could speak about the emotions evoked by those colors and sounds. That seems simplistic but I truely believe it's that simple. High school biology taught me that lost physical abilities like the ability to see and hear are rather adequately replaced by the strengthening of other senses. Riding the Storm Out provided a very good description of this. The most fun would to be to find out what the blind or deaf person already senses about those things. I was married to a man with a degree of autism and it was always astounding to me at how close he was, just in a different way. Thankfully, he had the introspection and vocabulary to share it with me.

Answer 6

I'd explain Jazz to a deaf person in the same way I'd explain it to someone who can hear.

It's crap. Not all Jazz is free form, as soon as you record it then you loose the spontaneity, but the Jazz that is can sometimes result in a good piece of music, but most of the time it's just a big mess.

Imagine throwing paint at a canvas. 99.999% of the time - all you'll get is a mess, but once in a blue moon, you'll get something that looks 'nice'. You'll never get a masterpiece or a portrait, but it will be pleasing to look at, and that's Jazz...

Answer 7

Funny, but a lot of HEARING people think that jazz is chaos too! LOL Jazz is eclectic, intense, sometimes fragmented and scattered, sometimes deep and smooth and mellow.It can be like your most hectic day, with appointments and deadlines and excitement over the evening's events all rolled into a melody. Other times it's serene, and easy, like expensive chocolate, dissolving on your tongue and melting down your throat...

Answer 8

I'd say it sounds like a painting by Miro looks. Or Paul Klee. Thats Modern jazz.
Trad jazz is more structured, though still abstract. More Elmer the elephant

Answer 9

My musical mind (more than jazz) first goes to Beethoven who, when deaf in later life, composed some of his best works by feeling through his fingers the vibrations of his piano.

I also notice that some deaf people have learned to dance in sympathy to the bodily-sensed beats from bass instruments and drums.

If you can observe such sensations in yourself, you will readily distinguish between many musical forms.

Answer 10

Jazz is best described, at least to me, as your own thought process... with every epiphany and the thoughts leading up to it, and even those thoughts when you stray away from the main train of thought.
There is rhyme and reason, but of the soul, and might not mathematically coherent. Jazz is extremely complicated with chords known to be pretty much owned by the genre itself, ie. "those are jazz chords!".