Jazz Standards 101 – Autumn Leaves
Online course + printable PDF eBook (243 pages) | Tabs, notation, audio & backing tracks | Instant access | Works on all devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, Apple, Linux, and Android
Autumn Leaves is more than just a beautiful jazz standard. It is also one of the best ways to start learning jazz guitar. Its clear harmony, strong melody, and classic chord progressions make it one of the most widely played tunes in jazz. This song is a great way to understand how jazz music works.
In this course, you’ll use Autumn Leaves as a guide to learn the key elements of jazz guitar and improvisation.
As you dive into this classic tune, you’ll learn that it covers many fundamental aspects of jazz music, making it the perfect starting point for your journey into the world of jazz guitar.
What will you learn in this course?
- Harmony - You'll begin by exploring the music theory behind Autumn Leaves, covering ideas like substitution, secondary dominants, and modal interchange.
- Melody - You'll learn to play the song's melody, starting with the basics and then gradually adding ways to make it more engaging.
- Chords - You'll start with simple chords and work your way up to more complex ones, learning shell chords, drop chords, and common chord patterns. This will help you play the song's harmony effectively.
- Eva Cassidy's Twist - Take a closer look at Eva Cassidy's beautiful version of Autumn Leaves and learn how to play her unique chord arrangement.
- Chord Melody Arrangements - You'll discover how to play Autumn Leaves as a solo guitar piece, beginning with a simple arrangement and moving up to the advanced style of Barney Kessel.
- Arpeggio Studies - You'll explore arpeggios, breaking them down in a way that's easy to understand. You will learn various arpeggio patterns and substitutions to bring more variety to your playing.
- Scale Studies - Explore the scales that work well with Autumn Leaves and practice exercises to make them second nature.
- Solo Studies - You'll work on a solo study designed to boost your improvisation skills, using classic jazz guitar patterns and vocabulary.
- Real-life Examples - You'll pick up ideas and the musical language from jazz legends such as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Jim Hall, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and Paul Desmond. Learn from their techniques and borrow their musical language.
- And more!
What You Get With Jazz Standards 101 - Autumn Leaves
- Learn to play and improvise over Autumn Leaves with a clear, step-by-step approach that builds your confidence.
- Get lifetime access to the online course, where you can ask questions, add bookmarks, and play both video and audio.
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Download a PDF (243 pages) that you can print for easy reference.
- Watch video examples online or download them, and adjust the tempo to suit your practice.
- Listen to 63 audio examples online or download them, with tempo controls to help you practice at your own pace.
- Practice with 12 backing tracks, available online or for download, and adjust the tempo as needed.
- Follow along with standard notation and guitar tabs, complete with helpful annotations.
- Access Guitar Pro 8 files for every example in the course.
20 reviews for Jazz Standards 101 – Autumn Leaves
Paul Blagbrough (verified owner) –
I’m pretty new to guitar and very new to jazz guitar. I stated to learn this song a year ago from this site’s free tab sheet. I was enjoying it but wanted to really dig into the song. The information provided is very good but due to my lack of knowledge some of it is above my head. I’m sure as I progress with guitar it will become more useful as well. Definitely worth the price and I really enjoy the format of the course.
David Alcalá Martínez (verified owner) –
Hola a todos!! Si te quieres adentrar en la guitarra jazz, este es tu libro, explicaciones sencillas que funcionan muy bien y grandes ideas de cómo improvisar o utilizar escalas y arpegios, poco a poco y progresivamente, a parte de la posibilidad de tenerlo de por vida y hacer todo tipo de preguntas y cuestiones, conocimientos que podrás aplicar a cualquier standart de jazz o cualquier música, un gran trabajo. Gracias Dirk!!
cesar valente (verified owner) –
Un cours exceptionnel et didactique. Bravo et merci Dirk !
Robert Crook (verified owner) –
Just purchased this course and it looks really informative. I have 2 other courses and I know I won’t be disappointed. I have learned more from his courses than I have on Truefire.
Claude Légaré (verified owner) –
Excellent cours! Allant des études d’arpèges aux formes d’accords en passant par l’analyse harmonique. Bravo très intéressant!
Miquel (verified owner) –
This is an excellent course to learn the principles of jazz harmony. And it’s also fun, because it allows you to find your own variations in improvisation. Thank you!
Bobi –
The course created by Dirk is really phenomenal, I think it is well thought out and the methodology that Dirk uses is top of the line. It’s not just one song, you’ll learn with the help of it so much and there is a lot of material. It is presented in a form so that all the potential answers are already there, as good as Dirk’s site is, this method is even better. You get tablature, videos and mp3s and everything is designed in step by step that it’s easy to follow.
It’s nice to see which scale is used in which part, with detailed explanation, the same goes for the arpeggios, and the theory is explained in an easy to understand and clear way, and the best of all is that you can easily apply everything tomorrow in your playing. I would recommend this course, as well as other courses made by Dirk, to anyone who cannot travel to the jazz academy or cannot enroll in one.
Moreover, if you like jazz but also you like some other styles of playing, still you can learn a lot about phrases, theory, implementation of scales and arpeggios. In the end there are about 10 solos in the style of the best jazz musicians.
I’ve seen a fair number of jazz books and a some methods in my life but this is really the best. I know it’s an old rule that you need a professor in order to study a jazz guitar, but this method is designed so that you can learn by yourself at a pace that suits you, and Dirk is always there to help. For me, this is a dream come true and I feel like I’m going to a real jazz academy, that all the secrets are one click away in the comfort of my home.
I respect all the authors and their efforts, but this here is something special and it’s really better than anything you can find, so thank you maestro Dirk for creating this method !
Jeff Pratt (verified owner) –
Brilliantly organized course! It is great fun to both learn to play the beautiful Autumn Leaves standard, AND, methodically learn to see and appreciate the depth and wonder of jazz music. Fantastic!
MATTHEW DEROSBY (verified owner) –
Excellent course!! I love the included tab and chord charts with finger placement – so helpful!!
Massimo Monetti –
Excellent course!