Jazz: The Story of America's Music
Like Duolingo, but for Jazz: The Story of America's Music. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
Free during early access · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Jazz: The Story of America's Music
- New Orleans' diverse population
- Congo Square
- Work songs leader-and-group structure
- Call-and-response in jazz
- The role of Congo Square in cultural preservation
- Why New Orleans' unique social structure allowed jazz to flourish
- The structural influence of work songs on jazz
- The connection between the end of the Civil War and instrument availability
- African rhythms preceded the development of spirituals in America
- The blues emerged as a distinct secular form before merging into jazz
- The blues introduced 'blue notes' (bent pitches) to jazz
- The blues provided a framework for personal expression and struggle
- The evolution from spirituals and blues to early jazz
- The specific musical characteristics the blues contributed to jazz
- New Orleans' location on the Mississippi River facilitated trade and cultural exchange
- New Orleans' unique social structure
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Jazz: The Story of America's Music the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Imagine walking through 19th-century New Orleans; which group of people formed the unique cultural mix that birthed jazz?
Get it right to open this lesson and 87 more in the app.
Where Jazz: The Story of America's Music takes you
Travel through time to discover how a mix of cultures in New Orleans created a brand new sound. Learn to hear the secrets of improvisation and meet the legends who changed music forever.
- 1
The Birth of a New Sound
- Where Jazz Started
- Mixing Different Cultures
- The Rhythm of the Streets
- Early Instruments and Bands
- 2
How Jazz Works
- Making It Up as You Go
- Keeping the Beat
- Call and Response
- The Blue Notes
- How to Listen to a Solo
- The Role of the Piano
- 3
The Era of Big Bands
- Music for Dancing
- Leading a Large Group
- The Famous Ballrooms
- 4
The Great Soloists
- The King of the Trumpet
- Singing Without Words
- The First Ladies of Song
- Saxophone Giants
- Piano Masters
- 5
Modern Jazz and Beyond
- Fast and Complex Sounds
- Cool and Relaxed Styles
- Mixing Jazz with Rock
- Jazz Around the World Today
5 sections · 22 units · 88 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Jazz: The Story of America's Music is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Jazz: The Story of America's Music today.
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