As the tessitura of the left hand bass is lower, this detracts attention from the rhythmic pattern and becomes a riff and a repeated motive. It consists of two dotted rhythm within the space of 2 beats which definitely sets a “swing” and groove in the piece’s rhythmic mood.įrom the entry of the saxophone head, the left and right hand rhythmic beats of the piano is combined and played by the left hand only. However, the most effective groove in this piece is the leading anacrusis of the popular saxophone melody. As this offbeat note creates a dotted “swing” rhythm with the on-beat left hand bass, Desmond employs groove from the beginning of his piece. The first note of the piece, in the right hand of the piano, with a semiquaver that is played after a dotted quaver rest creates the first groove as instead of going on the beat or the regular quaver off-beat positions, Desmond has placed the note like a semiquaver in a crochet dotted rhythm. Groove can be found in various places in Take Five.

A piece is normally classified as having a groove when it includes a “swing” rhythm and is a term to describe the cohesive rhythmic 'feel' in a jazz context. This element can be linked the compositional device groove. An example of the rhythm can be found from Bar 1 with a semiquaver on edge of the 1st beat and short staccato crochet notes in beat 3 and 5. Rhythm is commonly associated as a regular, repeated pattern of sound varying the length of notes. With a slight emphasis on beat 1 and 4, this rhythm creates the base for the riff. The rhythm of the accompaniment is also a crucial element in the composition. The vamp always precedes the entry of the saxophone melody. This affects the solo part as their improvisation would be based on the two-chord vamp instead of the chorus section. A vamp is an accompaniment consisting of a succession of simple chords, in this case switching between E flat minor and B flat minor seventh chords. The tonic chord Im is played for the first four beats of the bar and the last bar is the special effect of a dominant seventh harmony variation, also being the extra differentiating beat to the ordinary 4/4 jazz pieces. The piece commences with the accompaniment playing Take Five’s special rhythm in a chord progression of Im to Vm7.

Take Five is written in the key of E flat minor. Another significant compositional device is the repeated two-chord vamp.

Take five piano