eaned with keys or metal objects (Ward 8-10).
             Like their African composition, the slaves' music would be filled with syncopation, or when the accentuation comes off the beat. If someone is beating a measure of 1-2-3-4, he/she hits beat 3 a bit before or after its place. The music was also additive, where the players added many lines of rhythm at once, each one entering above the other in an asymmetrical fashion.
             The slaves used the diatonic scale, or the notes A through G on piano keyboards with the flats and sharps in between. However, they also added other sounds, unlike the more structured European music they heard. The diatonic was played in a major or minor scale depending on the final sound desired by the composer. These offbeat sounds are indicative of jazz. The blues scale, which was an offshoot of the African diatonic scale, combines both the major and minor scales (Morgan).
             Also unlike its European counterpart, the slaves' music was spontaneous and improvised due to the environment in which it was played. In addition, it also used call-and-response, where the listeners repeat a line that the leader sings. Call-and-response is still heard in churches throughout the U.S. in gospel music (ibid).
             The music called jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. In his book Jazz Anecdotes, Bill Crow suggests several possible sources for the word "jazz." He states that some linguists have detected roots of the word in Africa, Arabia, or in the French verb "jaser," which means "to chatter." Other scholars speculate that the word was first derived from a co
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