So I've been studying for four months and am getting so frustrated with some of the correct answers on my tests.


Many musicologists consider jazz the only purely American form of music. Others, however, argue that jazz is rooted in a history similar to that of America itself, a history of confluence.

The immigration of Europeans and the slave trade of West Africans to America resulted in a convergence of cultures, traditions, and art forms, including music. Jazz, first played in New Orleans in the early 1900s, borrowed heavily from the European musical scale and harmonic system. Jazz ensembles were built predominantly on European instruments, such as the trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and piano. The West African influence on jazz was manifested primarily in its performance. Scatting, a technique used by jazz vocalists to mimic the sounds of instruments, had its origin in West African vocal traditions. The emphasis on improvisation in jazz music, in addition to group participation, also came from West African music.

Proponents of the argument that jazz is purely American often point to its genesis in New Orleans as evidence for this perspective. The irony, however, is that the essence of America lies in the plurality of its roots. To deny the rich and complex history of jazz, and the true origins of the art form, is in effect denying the very aspects of the art form that make it undeniably American.

According to the passage, all of the following statements about jazz music are true EXCEPT:

a) Jazz music was first played in the twentieth century.
b) Jazz music was first played in New Orleans.
c) The instrumentation used in jazz music includes horns as well as stringed instruments.
d) Impromptu elements are a common characteristic of jazz performance.
e) There is disagreement among musicologists as to whether jazz music should be called an American art form.



The correct answer is "E" because, as explained my ManGMAT, there is a disagreement about whether it is "purely" an American art form. Furthermore, my selection "C" is incorrect because the piano is a stringed instrument. To me this is like when you ask someone in class for a pen and they say "No" and then they open their bag and have 50 pencils.

i'm with you, and i'm not with you. to wit:

* i'm with you that expecting students to know that piano = stringed instrument is unreasonable -- both because of the relative obscurity of that fact and because of its potential for eliciting endless shouting about cultural bias. that's a very good point.
BUT
* the nitpicky-ness of choice e is COMPLETELY typical of difficult gmat reading comprehension problems. you'll have to get used to it, as ultra-fine discrimination of detail is pretty much the only way to make a reading comp question 'difficult'. so your complaint about choice e, while understandable, falls on deaf ears with the gmat writers.

i will bring your complaint re: choice c to the attention of the powers that be.

Thanks for your response. I'm not sure if its just mangmat, but I have a lot of trouble with the intricate details with respect to verbal questions.

Verbal can get pretty intricate. As such, your first and best source should be OG. It's harder to mimic verbal questions (than math questions), so use OG as much as you can for verbal. (Though it is annoying that the book's explanations are sometimes... not so helpful.)