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Great list, Jake. Thanks. I really like "It Could Happen To You" and had it on my short list of Things To Get To, along with "Have You Met Miss Jones." For some reason, the tune of "Green Dolphin Street" won't stay in my head. Maybe I need to find an old, straight version to memorize as a starting point.
I made a copy of your list and saved it to my desktop. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.
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01-06-2011 07:06 AM
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This is a great resource. It lists jazz standards sorted by how many times they've been recorded:
Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals Contents
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Hi everyone,
I'm on school holidays now, so have plenty of time to practice guitar.
I haven't really been focusing on learning that many tunes, but rather getting a solid grip on the theory.
I need you to formulate me a list of 5 standards to learn in depth. I want ones that you'd be embarassed to turn up to a jam without knowing them
Nothing UBER difficult, but a bit of a challenge is cool.
Thanks in advance
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Alas, there are way more than five "must know" standards, but we all have to start somewhere. Here are five very popular standards to get you going - but not the only five:
Autumn Leaves
Sugar
Summertime
Tenor Madness
Watermelon Man
If you don't have a real book, you really should get one - either the paper ones like I have or an e-version. There are three volumes of the Hal Leonard set that I have, and Volume I is a good place to start. Depending on where you are at, you might want to start with the Jamey Aebersold Maiden Voyage book instead of or in addition to the real book. (Three of the tunes I mentioned are in Maiden Voyage.)
Good luck. A journey of a 1,000 miles starts with a single step.
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Thanks for the suggestions
I already know tenor madness and watermelon man, so that's cool.
I have the Warner brothers 'just jazz real book' which i got for my bday. Those Aebersold books sound good and I think my friend has that maiden voyage book, because he plays sax. I'll have to photocopy some of the songs out of it.
If there are any more, that would be good since I already know 2 of those.
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Originally Posted by the*doctor
Amazon.com: Vol. 54 Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings (Play- a-Long) (9781562240882): Mike Diliddo: Books
It was recommended to me when I first joined this forum and I got a lot out out of it. Very useable voicings and quite a bit of variety on each tune.
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I don't know anyting about the fake book that you have, so barring input from someone who knows better than me, I wouldn't run out and buy another one. However, I was not aware of the guitar version of Maiden Voyage that Jazzpunk mentioned, and it looks like it could be cool.
As for more standards, I think Blue Bossa and Blue Monk are fairly common. Some others that I personally like are A Day in the Life and When Sunny Gets Blue.
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hmm jam session...picking five that seem to get called the most...
all blues
autumn leaves
so what
watermelon man
there will never be another you
depends who you are playing with...
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Four
Anthropology/Oleo/Rhythm-a-ning/Any other Rhythm Changes head.
Tenor Madness/Straight No Chaser/Blue Monk/Any blues head
Solar
Have You Met Miss Jones
Another thing you could do is go to a jam session where you wanna start playing, don't play the first night, just go and watch. See what kind of tunes they're playing. Learn them for next week. Many places have songs that are "local" to the place, as in, they're called every single week.
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Thanks for these great reccomendations!
Since I already know a couple of the suggested songs, I've narrowed it down to:
1. Autumn Leaves
2. Blue Bossa (I haven't really looked at many songs like this)
3. So What
4. All Blues
5. Oleo (Could never play anthropology )
Are there any good recordings of these tunes that would be ideal to learn from, because I find I get too confused from all the ideas from the many versions of the songs.
Miles Davis has recordings of each of these songs except blue bossa, so I might check them out, Miles Davis is awesome
Or can you think of some better recordings to learn from?
Thanks...
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all the things you are
stella by starlight
autumn leaves (learn it it G minor)
green dolphin street (in Eb)
body and soul
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Footprints
Straight No Chaser
Killer Joe
Impressions
Lady Bird
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Find out what is "standard" in jams around where you live. It really does change from city to city.
Rhythm changes will cover many situations and contrafacts
All The Things has been big for a lot of places
Stella By Starlight is a swiss army knife of devices
Body And Soul will often be called for a ballad
Indiana or Donna Lee is worth learning 'cause somebody's gonna call it and in some places how you handle it is more important than your car or your weenie for self respect.
Lots more, but that's what I'd want for a jam and only 5 tunes. In the last category, weenie tunes, it used to be Cherokee, then it was Donna Lee, then Giant Steps. Each era has a tune they feel you should know as a "graduate piece" that grants a certain membership.
David
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I would stay away from the slower standards. No matter how much I play out, I notice people love any of the blues tunes they can dance to (watermelon man, etc,) Take 5 is usually a hit (even though it's not one of my favorite songs.), something like all of me or there will never be another you, and a cool bossa.
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I'd say: Autumn leaves, There will never be another you, The Days of wine and roses, Round midnight, Stella by starlight (a tough one)...
EDIT: Ah and off course I GOT RYTHM (pretty important because it is the base of all rythm changes)...Last edited by aniss1001; 01-13-2012 at 08:25 PM.
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Summertime
Autumn leaves
All of me
Love me or leave me
Fly me to the moon
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Blue bossa
Watermelon man
Take five
All the things you are
Girl from Ipanema
to name a top-5. I am sure there are vocal and non-vocal easy standards to start with
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What 3 standards would you recommend someone learn first?
Or, if you prefer, which 3 standards do you wish you had learned first?Last edited by GregMath; 08-15-2019 at 04:06 PM.
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Autumn Leaves would be a great first tune. It’s one of my warm up tunes. The harmony alternates between a ii-V-I in a major key and ii-V-I in the relative minor key. You’ll encounter ii-V-Is in nearly all American Songbook standards, so here you can practice both the major and minor forms. It’s a good one to learn to play in every key. Doing so helps you develop the habit of thinking of the tune in larger chunks—e.g., thinking ii-V-I to Bbmajor followed by ii-V-I to Gminor instead of memorizing chord by chord.
I Got Rhythm should be an early tune, but it may be a little complex for one of the first three. Countless jazz standards are based on its changes. It’s got I-iv-ii-V, a diminished 7th chord, and a sequence of dominant (7th) chords moving through the cycle of 5ths—which are basic building blocks of many jazz standards. Again, once you learn it in one key, try to learn to play it in any arbitrary key without a chart, thinking of the chart in “chunks” as I suggested above.
For practice, it’s usefully to loop over a short sequence of chords form either tune (e.g., the I iv ii V) and explore chord voicings or improvised melodies that work in that section.
Since the language of jazz was founded with the blues, I’d recommend learning to improvise in the jazz style over a classic jazz blues— C-Jam Blues would be a good choice. Play a classic version over and over and try to steal licks and chord voicings by ear. That’s how people used to learn jazz and it’s a good way. I’m old enough to remember repeatedly picking up phonograph needles and trying to put them back in the same spot!
After typing the above, I remembered this. Bruce Forman is great. Take his advice!
Originally Posted by dingusmingusLast edited by KirkP; 08-15-2019 at 05:09 PM.
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I'd pick "Full house" as 4th. Not so difficult and also if played the tune well and groovy, it gives lots of energy for.. at least 1 chorus of the solo.
With many standards, you play the head and then start kinda "building it up". Full House always has the kick first and you're already up there when the solo starts.
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Other good choices:
Summertime
Satin Doll
Blue Bossa
It's less important WHICH three than that you LEARN three. Any standard you learn is worth learning.
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For me it is
1. Any jazz blues say blues by 5 by miles
learn it by ear and learn to play through the changes ( not jazz guys but the best guidance I have come across this is Guthrie trap and josh smith talking about what they learnt from jazz guys is on you tube, then learn a couple of Ii v i licks and play them through the Ii v i of the jazz blues
Listen to some Stanley Turrentine and listen how simple he starts off and builds. Listen to miles on blues by 5, what is his first lick after the head, I bet you can learn that inside a minute
2 Blue Bossa
Cause use it is relatively easy to sound half decent with some c and f minor pentatonic stuff and then use your ii v licks from above for then section.
dont worry about the d half diminished just play f minor pentatonic
3 Autumn Leaves
asmentioned above now now you got major and minor Ii v i.
find a couple of licks and then jam on them until your fingers bleed.
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Don't go too complicated.
One of the first tunes I learned with a jazz hook was Kenny Loggins' version of "You Don't Know Me". It's a familiar tune, easy to play incorporating the melody into the chords, plus it leaves you room to put your own stuff into it.
A bossa nova is always nice. "One Note Samba" would fit the bill because it has beautiful chord changes over, shall we say, a pretty simple melody.
I recently incorporated "Alfie" into my repertoire, same key (Bb) that Dionne Warwick recorded it, same arrangement and same chords. It's really beautiful as a solo guitar tune. Again, not complicated but sounds like it.
Those would be my three. Maybe not standards in the strict sense, but close enough.
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Originally Posted by GregMath
All the things you are
The Girl from Ipanema
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Standards of standards
”All The Things You Are”
”Autumn Leaves”
”Stella By Starlight”
Otherwise, learn the standards that you think are most fun to play. ”On A Slow Boat To China”, ”Stompin' At The Savoy” and ”What’ll I Do” are some of my favorites. ”Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” is also very fun to play. It’s also important to find jazz guitarists that inspires you to play. Listen to different interpretations of the standard repertoire. Already at this point you have a good package of knowledge. Remember that everyone have their own musical taste so the list of standards varies a lot. Have fun while learning and playing!
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