Word 1 of 10: TURNAROUND
Use the arrow keys to move between letters. Press Enter or Space on the first letter of a word, then again on the last letter. Press Escape to cancel.
A few of the words
- BEBOP
- Bebop emerged in New York City in the early 1940s, pushing jazz toward faster tempos and complex harmonies, and demanding a new, virtuosic approach to improvisation.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
- TURNAROUND
- A turnaround is the short chord progression at the end of a chorus that loops the music back to the top, the seam where one improvised idea ends and the next begins.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
- TRADE
- Trading fours, swapping four-bar improvisations back and forth, is one of jazz's great rituals, a musical duel and a dialogue all at once.Find this word in the grid to read its note.
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jazz improvisation word search
The Art of Improvisation: a free online word search
Jazz improvisation word search, playable online right now, where BEBOP and VAMP are waiting in the grid just as unrehearsed as the real thing.
About The Art of Improvisation
Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue in 1959 with almost no rehearsal, handing the band sketches of scales and a few chords and trusting them with the rest. That's modal jazz at its plainest: a player improvises over a single mode for sixteen bars or more, where bebop had them racing through a new chord every beat or two. Either way, the tune on the chart is only a starting point, and the solo that comes out of it exists once and then it's gone.
How to play
- 1Find a word.Tap its first letter, then tap along to its last. The trail fills in and finishes itself when it spells a word. Or press the first letter and drag.
- 2Words run in straight lines.Across and down, and on the harder difficulties diagonally and backwards.
- 3It marks itself.Each word you find takes on its own soft color on the grid and is crossed off the list.
- 4Choose a difficulty.The level you pick sets those directions and how much the word list helps, never the grid size. Tap the A buttons at the top to enlarge the letters, or pinch the grid.

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