![]() Play the root of each chord as a bassist would.While you are learning to play the themes, or immediately afterwards, try to memorise the chord sequence. Studying themes takes time and effort, but it develops musicality, musical ear and melodic sense, as well as mastery of styles. This is a careless and irresponsible attitude: a badly played theme creates uncertainty in the bandmates, annoyance in the audience, and ultimately undermines the improvisation that will follow. Have you ever heard a classical pianist play a Bach fugue with the notes 'more or less right'? Many aspiring jazz musicians do just that, playing themes loosely while waiting for the time to come to improvise. Studying music requires patience, and love. Recognising this kind of situation is very useful, as it will make it easier for you to remember the themes. For example, the jazz song All the Things You Are, which is not the simplest from a harmonic point of view, has a melody that almost always insists on the 3rd of each chord. For this you need to have some basic knowledge of functional harmony, so that you can recognise the most common formulas when they occur in a piece.įinally, iyou should also analyse the melody and try to find recurring and repetitive elements in it. Then try to analyse the harmony, recognising the simplest formulas: cadences, modulations, symmetries. This should not come as a surprise because improvisation is difficult enough in itself, so a repertoire that at least in form was logical and repetitive prevailed. From this point of view, the jazz repertoire is very simple and predictable. Analyse the pieces you are studyingįirst of all try to analyse the structure of the pieces: many pieces respect simple formulas such as AABA, ABAC, AABC, lasting 32 measures. Among female voices, I recommend Ella Fitzgerald's famous Songbook. In particular, I recommend the interpretations of Frank Sinatra, who often changed the rhythm of the phrases but rarely altered the pitch of the sounds. Singers are usually more respectful of the original melody, if only because they have to recite the words and cannot therefore distort the metrics too much. Listen to the original versions of the pieces, and for the repertoire of standards listen to the sung versions. Playing jazz is also and above all about reinterpreting pieces in a new and original way, so trying to learn pieces by listening to recent interpretations is not a good idea. ![]() However, it is not enough to listen to jazz in general, you will have to do targeted listening. If you want to memorise and remember a large number of jazz standards over time, listening is a phase that you absolutely cannot neglect. Although simpler than more recent pieces, many pieces from these eras are masterpieces which all jazz musicians have dealt with. We call the classical period the 1920s, when jazz became popular, and the swing period the 1930s, the era of the big dance orchestras. Inevitably, many harmonic formulas are repeated similarly in several songs and this will help you not only to memorise the pieces more easily, but also to better understand the repertoire of the classical or swing period. Authors such as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hart, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter etc. These pieces are simpler, have singable melody and predictable harmonic progression that are easy to remember. ![]() To begin with, I recommend choosing pieces from the classical or swing period. If you want to learn many jazz standards by heart, you have to plan a special study that consists of several steps: choosing the song, listening to historical recordings, analysing the harmony, studying the melody and finally reviewing - maintaining the repertoire. In order to learn 100 jazz standards by heart, I propose a selection of songs divided into four groups, in progressive order of difficulty. Learning jazz tunes by heart is also and above all about getting to know the language, assimilating the stylistic elements typical of each era. ![]() Studying the repertoire has a practical purpose, taking part in jam sessions without having to constantly say 'I don't know this one'. Playing many jazz standards by heart is essential for those who want to play jazz.
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