Among jazz tunes, apart from the elements absorbed from European traditional music, white folk songs and pop songs, the most distinctive one is the "blues scale" (we will introduce the structure of this scale in the part about blues). Jazz harmony can be said to be completely based on traditional harmony, but it is more free to use various chords, and the main difference is also brought by blues chords.

Jazz is very distinctive in musical instruments and playing methods, which is completely different from traditional bands. Since the Jazz Age, saxophone has become one of the best-selling musical instruments. Trombone can play funny or grotesque glide that other brass instruments can't, so it causes a sensation in jazz bands; Trumpet is also a jazz musician's favorite instrument. The novel timbre produced by this instrument combining different mutes and several notes in the highest range has almost become a unique timbre feature of jazz. Piano, banjo, guitar and later electric guitar occupy an important position with their powerful ability to beat music and play chords. On the contrary, the most important stringed instruments in traditional bands (violin, viola and cello) play a relatively minor role; The rich timbre of the French horn is very attractive in the orchestra, but for the jazz band, its temperament is so tame that almost no one uses it. In an orchestra, every instrument tries to integrate the whole sound in tone and volume control, but in a jazz band, on the contrary, musicians try their best to make every instrument "stand up".

The organization of the band is very flexible, and the most basic part is two parts-rhythm group and melody group. In early jazz bands, the rhythm group consisted of bass, banjo and drums. Later, bass and banjo were gradually replaced by bass and guitar, and the piano was also added. In 1930s, a dance band appeared, which was called "Big Band" at that time. It consists of three parts: rhythm group, brass group and woodwind group. The musical instruments used in the rhythm group are still bass, guitar, piano and drum; The common compilation of copper tube group is three trumpets and two trombones, but this figure is not fixed; Woodwind bands usually consist of four or five saxophones, and everyone plays clarinet or other woodwind instruments. If the arrangement is five saxophones, it is usually two alto, two tenors and one alto. There is also a business band (sometimes called "Sweet" and "Hotel", etc. ), similar to the "big band", but saxophones are often all alto, and woodwind groups will use more other instruments (such as flute and oboe), sometimes with three or four violins. The sound of this band can often be heard on commercial tapes.