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On the "Guitar Wank" podcast, Bruce Forman and Scott Henderson discuss Bruce's list of 10 songs that a beginning jazz guitarist should learn. He says these teach you a lot about how the classic standards are put together, and everyone plays these, so they'll get you started for jam session, etc.
GuitarWank - episode 12 - April 4, 2016 ? GuitarWank
Here are the tunes, and the reasons he gives. No real surprises, but it's a cool list, and I enjoyed his explanations for what each tune teaches.
* Autumn Leaves--learn about the cycle
* Take the A Train--[didn't catch a reason, perhaps because it moves to II?]
* All The Things You Are--hard, but best example of how the cycle works, and a great form
* It Could Happen To You (or Ain't Misbehaving)--Chromatic ascending bass line
* There Will Never Be Another You--Backcycling to IV
* Honeysuckle Rose--ii-V-Is, and the classic bridge, highly quoted melody
* Satin Doll--everyone plays it, and a great study in ii-V-Is
* Green Dolphin--cool form, "triadic shift--C to Eb to D to Db)" also cool backcyling through relative minor
* Just Friends--starts on the IV, great melody, check out Parker with strings
* Stella by Starlight--hard, but everyone wants to play it, so you've got to know it.
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04-22-2016 10:48 AM
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Pretty hard to argue with those. If those are the first 10 tunes a player learns...man, they'll get a lot out of it.
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Guitar Wank! You'll get hairy palms!
Good list. Thanks for link.
My proudest possession as a teenager was a O.S. model Wankel engine. My non-aeromodelling mates used to have a chortle whenever I mentioned, "I have a Wankel in my satchel."Last edited by Jabberwocky; 04-22-2016 at 03:30 PM.
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04-22-2016, 11:50 AM #4destinytot Guest
Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
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Originally Posted by destinytot
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I read somewhere else that Bruce Forman calls this list (which varies from time to time) "mother tunes." If you can handle these, there's not much in the way of standards that'll throw you.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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dingusmingus,
Very enlightening & entertaining link; thank you!
Now, I've got to feel my way over to the guitar stand...
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I don't know all the tunes on this list (yet), but I know more of them than Scott Henderson, which surprises me. (Also, he's from West Palm Beach, which is my neck of the woods.)
By year's end, I want to know all these tunes. Melody, changes, and a few ways through them. ("Stella" is the one I don't know at all----I haven't even heard it much.)
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He's the guy with the grills, right?
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Don't forget his fun band he has with his wife Pinto Pammy called CowBop!
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A good list, but no blues on it. There ought to be a couple on the list, even if "Blues in Bb" and "Blues in F."
I have several of Forman's albums, including Cowbop's "California Swing," which is an excellent CD, much jazz and less western swing than I had anticipated.
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Right, add Tenor Madness to the list
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Originally Posted by Stuart Elliott
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Originally Posted by Stuart Elliott
Last edited by dingusmingus; 04-24-2016 at 08:10 AM.
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Originally Posted by Stuart Elliott
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4 of those songs are in Robert Conti's first DVD.
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Originally Posted by JazzinNY
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Great stuff, thanks for the link, I'll listen when I gety home. I am just becoming competent enough to think about learning a list of tunes well, but what about rhythm changes and all of its derivatives?
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bf always strikes me as the guy missing from the list of greats
his style is wonderfully straight ahead - and driving - and dare i say it (not really) - virile
no-one plays quite like him - but lots of people should
great player
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Originally Posted by plasticpigeon
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I have played with Bruce many times. We even recorded a few tunes together. If anyone is interested in hearing that PM me. I have a 5 tunes CD of us playing together. It is not available anywhere else.
Bruce knows thousands of tunes. Along with Howard Alden, he knows more tunes than anyone I have ever met. Bruce is also capable of learning a tune at lightspeed. If he hears a tune, even a fairly complex tune once, he is able to play it.
I gave Larry Coryell a copy of the CD I did with Bruce and it led to me playing with Larry. Larry told me that he is a big fan of Bruce's playing (as am I).
The ten tunes in the above list are all important tunes. IMO, if you cannot play those ten tunes without a chart, you should not be out playing in public. When we play out, we represent the music. Let's do it proudly.
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Here's a track Bruce recorded some years ago, "Chasin' the Blues."
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I can't fathom that website's name. Wank is not a particularly complimentary word over in the UK, does it mean something different in the US? They wank poetically on all things guitar! Do they mean wax poetically?
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Originally Posted by dingusmingus
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this is a cool list of tunes.
I don't know half of those tunes. I'll get around to learning them and a thousand others when I can.
Meanwhile, I'll play out as much as I can and I'll encourage every other aspiring musician to do the same.Last edited by Longways to Go; 05-21-2016 at 10:04 AM. Reason: too much wine! :)
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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It's a good list. One thing missing though is one tune with rhythm changes.
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i wish i could get some grils because i know loads of tunes
the more tunes i know the fewer grils seem to be interested in me
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mark - that vid doesn't work - i went on youtube to find it - and couldn't
any chance of a re-post? i'd like to hear some of his earlier stuffLast edited by Groyniad; 05-21-2016 at 04:04 AM.
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Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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It's a good list, but it is an old fashioned list.
Good to get started, but most players nowadays are going to want to play some more modern stuff too.
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Originally Posted by NoReply
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Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Or for that matter 50s jazz standards like Solar, Four, Airegin, etc.
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no ballads.
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Originally Posted by fritz jones
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Originally Posted by dingusmingus
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@Mark, what do you mean by "Triadic shifts"?
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Originally Posted by edh
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
Myself, I wouldn't really count Scott Henderson as a jazz guitarist. Which is not to say I don't think he's absolutely fantastic and a great improvisor. He obviously has a jazz influence in his playing.
If you spend most of your playing time on projects playing certain types of music such as originals, then your standards repertoire might well be to an extent forgotten or rusty even if you did know them to start off with.
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Here's a link to a podcast interview with Bruce Forman on "Learn Jazz Standards" (LJS). The interview starts at the 6 minute mark. Whole thing runs 44 minutes.
https://www.learnjazzstandards.com/b...eid=27cf8b040e
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Originally Posted by dingusmingus
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This list has been a Goldmine for me...
Not really a Jazz Guitar player, but working hard to be one when I grow up...
Before joining this forum I was only familiar with 3 or 4 of these wonderful tunes.
In fact, just heard the Herb Ellis version of It Could Happen to You...
1st time I have heard that song!! Don't shoot!!
So in the past couple of months (with forum assistance) I discovered tedgreene.com
which has PDF's for almost all 10.
Before stumbling on to this post I had been working on Ted's versions of Moon River and Satin Doll
and find Ted's chord melodies to be extremely satisfying and enjoyable to attempt to learn.
Also a shoutout to the Op who linked the Guitarwank podcast:
That joke about the Talking Dog had me peeing in my pants.
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Originally Posted by princeplanet
Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals Contents
Just for fun, here's another side of Bruce...
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Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
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Originally Posted by princeplanet
Autumn Leaves: There's a live version on youtube of Birelli playing this in D minor (great chord subs and lines) + Chet baker's version (PDF is about) has some fab bebop lines. oh and ofcourse Ahmad Jamal has a great latino version with George Coleman (Sax) doing some wicked lines !
Take the A Train : Gatemouth Brown's big band CD has a great Sax player blowing on that one. (yes I have transcribed)
All The Things You Are : there's at least 2 versions of Pass playing this out there (one at least transcribed off youtube)
Honeysuckle Rose: take a look at Oscar Peterson's live playing on this.. and see if you can play some of those chord vamps, + Pass has a version.
Satin Doll-- again Pass has a version (in a published book)
Green Dolphin : Not withstanding Miles brilliant cool lines on his version (+ Cannonbal !) there's a very laid back piano trio recording (Gene Harris on piano with the three sounds; Some very bluesy easy lines there ) p.s. try playing over it a la Funk style (there's a backing version on youtube in that style) much more interesting.
Just Friends : Martino and Pass recordings are great.
Stella : Benson, Tuck Andress, Diego Figueiredo all good.
sos about the other can't remember.
Last edited by jonbo; 06-07-2018 at 05:05 PM.
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i went to one jazz guitar workshop thing once - with jack wilkins
he kept asking the class for tunes and the only three anyone could ever come up with were
stella
autumn leaves
green dolphin st
i think if you know the bass lines, melody and chords of ten or so tunes (so you can play the melody with the bass and the melody with the chords) you know the music a lot better than many regular performers
something i really don't like about trying to say which ten tunes thoughLast edited by Groyniad; 06-07-2018 at 04:12 PM.
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Originally Posted by jonbo
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