"The Code" - A Glossary of Musician-Talk

[MathOfInsects]

I had consecutive gigs this past week where I was reminded how specific some of the language is that we musicians use amongst our own kind.

 

The first example came up during break at the first gig, when the bass player and I were talking about people/gigs we had in common. He mentioned a local corporate wedding band(s) and said, "One of my first months in town I sh*t the bed on a gig with them." I use "ate sh*t" for the same concept, but it was immediately clear what he meant, with no further explanation needed.

 

Sh*t the Bed = tank it. Play like wet turd. Play so bad, you cost yourself future gigs. Play so bad your children feel the existential genetic pain of being related to you.

See also: Eat/Ate Sh*t

 

The second example came the second night, with a drummer I'd never played with, though (like the bass-player) we had lots of people in common. First set ends, we're outside. He comes over, offers a fist, nods, and says, "That was tight. That was tight." In my circles, that's the highest praise available. I didn't mind hearing it a bit.

 

Tight/That Was Tight = "Approved." Highest praise.

 

ProfD mentioned "disrespectful." That means, greasy and bad (which means good). Some others having to do with how someone can play: For good musicians: "He can hang." "He plays." For bad ones: "JAG." That one's devastating. It means, "Just a guy."

 

What is in your super-secret decoder ring, your argot, the language you use amongst our kind? List it here, I'd be curious to see it.

 

[Threadslayer]

An obvious one is "That dude's a monster" i.e. a crazy good player.

 

re: "sh*t the bed". That one really isn't exclusively a musician's term. I heard a sales guy use that in a very stuffy business meeting the other day. This was a suits, ties, briefcases and printed agenda sort of meeting and it was completely inappropriate. There was an awkward silence and a quick pivot to a different topic.

[MathOfInsects]

An obvious one is "That dude's a monster" i.e. a crazy good player.

 

re: "sh*t the bed". That one really isn't exclusively a musician's term. I heard a sales guy use that in a very stuffy business meeting the other day. This was a suits, ties, briefcases and printed agenda sort of meeting and it was completely inappropriate. There was an awkward silence and a quick pivot to a different topic.

 

Hmmm, maybe it's the fact that it's completely "in the vernacular" that makes it part of the "code"? No awkward silences or questions of propriety would follow a musician saying it. It would be completely understood and unquestioned.

[OB Dave]

I have never actually heard sh*t the bed in a musical context but I have in many others. Probably most commonly on software projects: an uninitialized pointer or memory corruption will cause undefined behavior, and ultimately the processor will sh*t the bed.

 

In addition to a monster, an exceptionally proficient musician is said to be sick or a motherf****r.

 

A four on the floor is a 4/4 pop tune with kick drum on every quarter note instead of just 1 and 3.

 

[ksoper]

"A beautiful cat" = really nice person, lousy player.

 

 

[kelp]

clams = a mistake

 

"Oh, man, I had clams all over that solo."

[Polychrest]

Wood-shedding: spending time intensively practicing to improve your skills on a particular instrument.

 

Chops: what you hope to improve when wood-shedding.

 

Axe: the instrument you employ when working on your chops in the woodshed.

 

Shredding: playing long complex passages so quickly that you approach and sometimes cross the line that separates technical virtuosity from exhibitionistic wankery.

[CowboyNQ]

A few that are completely understood in my musical social circle.

 

-She's a great player: "She's killer"

-How we show we're impressed by someone else's playing to the point of awe: "Get f***ed" or "F*** off" or "They can f*** off", accompanied by an appreciative smile.

-Someone buys new gear, if we don't really know what it does: "that's cool!"

-Someone buys new gear, and we actually understand what it does: "that's awesome!"

-A chap who hangs around with the musicians and lifts heavy stuff: "drummer"

 

Something of an aside: One of the bands I'm in has been together since the mid 90's with almost zero lineup changes. As a result we have developed our own "code" language, as I suppose any tight-knit and somewhat insular group would do.

 

As an example: One day a few years back we all went to a very strange modern jazz reinterpretation of The Who's rock opera Tommy. It was an evening of total musical confusion at $90 per ticket, which left the audience exceptionally underwhelmed.

 

Off the back of that show, the word "Shcooby" entered our lexicon. This word originated as a representation of the scat singing we heard at the show, but over time has morphed into our harmless expletive of choice.

 

The other day I mucked up the piano intro to one of our songs. I was telling our bass player about it afterwards and he said, "I THOUGHT that intro sounded a bit shcooby!"

[ProfD]

Off the top of my head:

 

Fiyah (Fire)=Hot musicianship.

 

Crankin' or Killin'=Praise of the musician(s), band, an arrangement, etc.

 

Scrub or Local=Lousy musician.

 

Clean= Scrub with excellent gear.

 

I'll add more if anything else comes to mind.

[Adan]

How musicians say no to a gig: "that sounds great, I'll get back to you."

[Reezekeys]

Should anybody have doubts as to what the word "clam" might mean in a musical context, the audio linked here, up until about the 1:40 mark, will put them firmly to rest. Need I say that the following is absolutely, positively, most assuredly, extremely NOT SAFE FOR WORK:

 

(Do not click if naughty words offend you and those of you with beards, you're gonna have to shave them off! Now get off my bus!)

 

[video:youtube]

[Moonglow]

I heard that back in the day among jazz cats (theres another one) if someone was referred to as unreliable that meant he had a bad drug habit.

[richforman]

Short of being a "monster" and maybe more important in day to day operations, is the simple question of whether or not a musician can "cut it," or has at least the minimum required proficiency to fill the needed role on a gig ("on a gig" is another nice musicianly phrase!). To be honest, being and being known as a player who can cut it, is what I continually strive for.

[MuzikTeechur]

Musician words:

Cut it - able to hold down one's part

Monster - amazing player

Mother F*&^%$ - REALLY amazing player

Chops - literally, the mouth, but came up from "embouchure" which is the way the mouth is formed to play a wind instrument. Ability to play for long periods. Extended to non-winds

Gig - a job, a show, a date to play

Society Gig - a gig for more affluent clientele, such as a cocktail party or expensive function.

Function - A gig for an event such as a wedding or holiday party. Not as fun as a club gig but usually more lucrative.

Groove - when everything is synced and working well together.

Woodshed (or simply "shed") - spend some quality time working on a song or solo (from "you need to go to the woodshed")

Club - any venue which hosts a gig

Sideman - any person not the main attraction of the band or ensemble. Traditionally a sax or other solo player who would be off "to the side" until time to take a solo, sing, whatever.

Pipes - when a singer is particularly good (strong): "Man, that cat's got PIPES!"

Axe - your instrument

Killed (it) - when you've played really well

Cat - a good musician

Downbeat - when the band is scheduled to start playing

Load-in/Load-out: setting up, tearing down, schlepping stuff to the car (this is what you get paid for)

Schlep - endlessly carrying stuff to the car/van/truck. Usually involves at least one set of stairs and a snowstorm. Can sometimes be routed through a club's kitchen, back door, or fire exit.

 

[stoken6]

Pocket - the location or position of the groove (cf), where musicians are playing with a locked-in sense of time. To play "in the pocket" is to play with a high level of groove. Hence "deep pocket" and so on.

 

Forum taught me this:

Sub (US) or Dep (UK) - a substitute or stand-in musician employed when the original is unavaialble.

GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome, the desire to add to one's equipment, especially if seduced by a newly released item.

Tear down - the removal of equipment from the stage after a gig (cf). Antonymous to "set up" (cf).

 

To "motherf*&^%$" above, we should add "totally bad-a£@ed motherf*&^%$", as in "whatever you think about Snarky Puppy, Cory Henry's a ..."

 

I also liked "drum owner", as in "he's more a drum owner than a drummer, if you know what I mean".

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

 

[BenWaB3]

Should anybody have doubts as to what the word "clam" might mean in a musical context, the audio linked here, up until about the 1:40 mark, will put them firmly to rest. Need I say that the following is absolutely, positively, most assuredly, extremely NOT SAFE FOR WORK:

 

(Do not click if naughty words offend you and those of you with beards, you're gonna have to shave them off! Now get off my bus!)

 

[video:youtube]

 

Ah.....the famous (or infamous) Buddy Rich bus tapes. Brings to mind the old musical question: Q.- What do the Buddy Rich Band and a moose have in common? A.- The horns are in front & the asshole's in the back.

[Desert Rat]

Although not specific to musicians, the first time I heard "dialed in" was in reference to a performance that was flawless.

[kelp]

Bang - same as schlep (Damn, we gotta bang this gear up two flights of stairs!)

 

Day gig - day job (for us semi-pros and weekend warriors)

[SeaGtGruff]

A lot of the terms mentioned have pretty much become part of common parlance.

 

Anyway, I just made one up by combining two others:

 

"sh*t a bed of clams"

 

It means what you'd think, except that the combination isn't additive (sh*t the bed + clams) or multiplicative (sh*t the bed * clams), it's exponential (clams ^ sh*t the bed).

 

Example:

 

"Wow, we really sh*t a bed of clams during that last show."

 

"Yeah, it was epic. 20 years from now Rolling Stone will still be bringing it up."

 

And while I'm feeling creative, here's another one:

 

"pull off a Wakeman"

 

This is where everyone in the band is confused about what the opening number is going to be, so everyone is switching back and forth between different songs trying to hook up with everyone else, and the audience thinks it's a stunningly brilliant medley of hits.

[seanl]

 

 

Yard Sale = totally messing up, usually in a solo. "WTF was that, the dude just had a yard sale".

 

Comes from motorcycle road racing slang...."The dude had a yard sale on turn three" Wiped out on turn three, crashed bigly.

[El Lobo]

train wreck = the arrangement completely fell apart, musicians were playing the wrong chords, the singer didn't know the words, the ending totally crashed,

 

clam bake = lots of wrong notes all over the place.

[MathOfInsects]

"Big plate of cheese." I use this to describe the relative amount of "cheese" in a song or gig.

 

Cheese: Any music so devoid of soul and heart as to be unintentionally campy.

[TommyRude]

Awesome thread.

 

I have one; a Waygetter = a JAG, Scrub, Clean, and Beautiful Cat who regularly Sh*ts the Bed, and despite these mediocre talents manages to land some pretty good gigs.

 

[drawback]

I can't believe no one's mentioned their "bag" yet.

[kelp]

"deprecat" - when waygetter heavily self-depricates!

[roygBiv]

jazz cabbage, i.e. jazz cigarettes - oh wait, wrong Code.

[El Lobo]

get real - when a musician stops trying to make a living playing music and gets a day job. "I heard Joe got real and isn't gigging any more."

[retrokeys]

The Place aka The Zone-that rare circumstance when everything and everybody are working right and you can't help but smile.

[kelp]

"handle your business" - to correct some deficiency in your playing or personal life (including tardiness, bad attitude)

 

"Dude, that's the second time you had a yard sale on that solo. You've gotta handle your business."

[Mighty Ferguson]

In my band, the phrase "Jazz Odyssey" from Spinal Tap is frequently mentioned when one or more people go off the rails during a song. Also being a fairly self critical bunch, "stepped on my own dick" is heard pretty regularly after a solo too.