 |
 |
| Baroque | Jazz |
Similarities |
|
| Music with roots in dance | Music with roots in dance |
| Something like a groove Is created through beat stress And release | Creates and maintains a groove using beat stress and release |
| Uses a bass line to organize Rhythm and harmony | Bass lines organize rhythmic groove and harmony |
| Utilizes improvisation | Utilizes improvisation |
Differences |
|
| Heavily reliant on strong beat stress and on-beat stress. Syncopation is used for humorous effect and to momentarily create new meters. | Heavily reliant on weak beat stress and off-beat stress. What non jazz musicians would call extreme syncopation is actually more like complete displacement of the beat. |
| Improvisation is used mainly to decorate simple melodic structures. | Improvisation is not decorative but integral to the music. Jazz players use improvisation to develop a personal voice that expresses their musical personality. |
| Harmonies are quite simple, using only triads and seventh chords | Harmonic content is quite complex, utilizing upper chord extensions, alterations, and substitutions. |
| Dissonance results from cross voicing in dense webs of counterpoint | Dissonance is an important aspect of harmonic and melodic structure. |