jazz music mixed together blues music with european music. some black composers such as scott joplin were writing music called ragtime, which had a very different rhythm from standard european music, but used notes that were similar to some european music. ragtime was a big influence on early jazz, called dixieland jazz. jazz musicians used instruments such as the trumpet, saxophone, and clarinet were used for the tunes (melodies), drums for percussion and plucked double bass, piano, banjo and guitar for the background rhythm (rhythmic section). jazz is usually improvised: the players make up (invent) the music as they play. even though jazz musicians are making up the music, jazz music still has rules; the musicians play a series of chords (groups of notes) in order.