How to "learn tunes" solo?

**rlrhett** · 04-07-2017, 02:05 PM

There is a lot of good advice on improving playing and musicianship by learning a lot of tunes. I see people claim to have a 300, 500, or even 1500 tune repertoire. I instinctively know that makes sense for becoming a better musician.

I mostly play and practice alone. I struggle centering my practice on "learning tunes". I would love to hear how people who play solo learn tunes.

What part are you learning? How do you improvise melodies when you are playing solo? How do you practice comping solo? How do you learn tunes you aren't familiar with? Do you stick with standards, or are you learning all kinds of tunes? What does it mean to "learn a tune" as a solo musician? Know the melody? Know the chord changes from a real book? Do you have to be able to play it as a solo arrangement to "know" the tune?

I short, I would love to hear how people approach this.

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**Takemitsu** · 04-07-2017, 02:34 PM

I have a little ditto looper. I memorize chord. I record a chorus or 2 of comping. Then I improvise on it. In the case of chord melody, not all tunes are appropriate.

**Veritas** · 04-07-2017, 03:17 PM

I suspect the best individual method depends on your goals and your current skill set. I focus on developing a reliable repertoire and that means learning a tune inside out. In some ways it depends on the tune and my familiarity with it at first go round. With a song like Misty or Autumn Leaves that I've heard hundreds of times the process is different than when learning a song I've never heard before.

In any case my approach is to listen to a couple of versions of the songs as performed by the masters. If I have the tune in my Fake Book, I take a look at that. If I intend to perform it with a vocal or a female vocalist, I determine the best keys and transpose if necessary. I always print out a lyric sheet. Then I record the song so I'll have 'rehearsal tracks' to use in practice.

I don't do as much direct transcription 'note-for-note' as I used to. I do use notation software to create a simple lead sheet of the melody and the chords with the lyrics. But when I do the recordings, I like to use the simple transcription of the chords as on the Learn Jazz Standards site with just the key signature and the chords per measure, especially for laying down rhythm tracks.

With songs that I am unfamiliar with at first, I start with a printed lyric sheet if appropriate and there is no sheet music already available. Then I just pencil in the chord changes by ear. In the end I create a simple notated lead sheet.

In terms of improvising over a song I know well, I try to play what I hear or better anticipate as complementary or in some cases identical to the melody, sometimes a contra-melody. Sometimes I sing as I play this part but often it is just evolving in my mind. I don't think about what I'm playing so much as listen to the music, though that does entail anticipating where the melody and chord structure are heading. I don't contemplate each individual note so much as anticipate the destination and trust my musicianship to take me there. Not every journey is a smooth one, however, ....

When playing a tune solo in chord melody style, I focus first and foremost on the melody and the rest follows from there, especially in a positional sense. Voice leading is king.

TH · 04-07-2017, 03:51 PM

I think it's never too early to find a playing and practice partner. There's a lot of good advice here and a lot of it pertains to your practice time. Finding a playing partner, especially one who you have things in common with, will really move things along a lot faster than time spent by yourself.
A partner can help you compare notes on how you play a melody, what you think about and very valuably, not allow you the luxury of letting your time get really sloppy. Sure there'll be train wrecks, but with work, you'll get better and with a sense of the other peripheral things you don't get alone... like having fun.
Just remember, everyone thinks they're not good enough to put everything together and play perfect in front of other people, but with a playing partner, you can work on individual phrases, just 4 measures if you want, and you can see how chords and melody go together.

Find harmonic phrases that describe common chord associations and just vamp them through, until you can really see how the melody goes together. Do ear training: One person plays a chord, the other plays a note, the chord person says what it is. That kind of thing.
If you work in small pieces, the whole tune will come easier.

I think there's an Aebersold volume, how to learn tunes, or something like that, and it does take common progressions and makes them into exercises. That's handy as solo practice, but as a duo, you can trade phrases back and forth and hone your listening and inspirational skills.

Take it slowly and get OFF BOOK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you're reading the chart or lead sheet, you don't know it at all.

Tunes that don't change key in the bridge or don't modulate are easier to keep you way in. But either way, pick something that you like because you're going to test your patience with that tune, live it and get sick of it, but it will teach you a lot.

At some point, a Rhythm Changes tune will be really helpful because there's so much within it.

Learn diatonic harmony, inside an out. Then make up your own head to it. Yes, write a contrafact. You'll learn SO much about you, melody, your instrument and music by doing this.

Diatonic harmony, then Dominant chords and resolution, then secondary dominants. If you don't know what these are, find out and become comfortable. They are the essential DNA of any tune you'll tackle and if you know the building blocks, learning a tune will be much more satisfying than a mere rote finger exercise.

Above all, be patient and keep small goals in mind.

You might learn a tune a week, start it slow, really slow, and increase the tempo each day. This will give you insight into the individual challenges of each tempo and the thought process needed at any speed.

Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, The Shadow Of Your Smile, good tunes to start you, but really, find a tune you relate to; something you REALLY want to play.

That can get you started,
Find a way to make it fun and keep a journal of your progress. Good luck

David

**emanresu** · 04-07-2017, 05:12 PM

Very nice topic. Goals, "inside out", musicianship etc

Learning a tune inside out... yes.. yes.. But in my experience (which is not enough at all btw) when spent a month learning the notorious "Stella" just by repeating comp or focusing on chord arps when soloing, I had no good results at all. Just in 1 key even. I still had to push myself to remember all what was going on there and occasionally could mess up a chord. I quit practicing for a summer(and that felt great

) because it seemed not possible to learn enough to become a jazzmaster. I picked up practicing at some point again, had my goals set lower and the frustration went a way.

Nowadays I still don't practice tunes enough yet (I will do that in some time very soon) but found a thing that helped a lot. Without caring about the chords and theory at all, I sung solos (with Aebersold's mostly. ) while driving to work and back. And when doing random stuff on my computer. So, when finally sat down and looked the chords up, I already knew how the tune sounded. Surprisingly that helps so much - knowing a tune before even starting to learn the harmony on guitar. Ppl say "listen" a lot but imo thats not enough. For my case anyway. I hope this method can help you. Because there is a lot of free time that can be put in a good use that way.

**TommyCorsica2** · 04-07-2017, 05:13 PM

I'm a chord melody player with aspirations for ensemble playing. I can read OK, not great. My jazz repertoire is up to about 20 songs. Takes me about two weeks to learn a song solid (if my family leaves me alone!):

Here's my method:
1. Keep a growing list of songs for your repertoire. Just songs you like and want to learn. Post the list prominently in your practice area so you can see it and be motivated by it.

2. Pick a song from that list.

3. Listen to a few different versions. This can get out of hand quickly, but usually I try to find a post-Bebop recording (for hipness) and a vocal version if it helps me remember a long melody.

4. Just sit down - without distractions - and learn the melody in single notes all the way through. Do Not Use Tab: Take the training wheels off and learn to read music. It's not hard.

TAKE A BREAK. LET THE MELODY IMPLANT IN YOUR BRAIN.

5. Second Round. Then I try to tastefully fit chords underneath using the Fake Book charts as a rough guide. (i know, Fake Books have their drawbacks but I don't have time to tease out the changes by ear and one must start somewhere.) This is totally trial and error. I'll start with vanilla chords but often I find I need extensions to get the melody note(s) on top and to make it sound hip. Once I settle on something that sounds nice to me, I will play it relentlessly until i am almost sick of hearing it.

6. Once i feel I know it well enough to play to an audience, it's moved into the Repertoire column of my list. Be honest with yourself: Can you really play the entire song with intros, outros, bridges, etc. from memory? If not, it's not yet part of your repertoire.

7. Then I will experiment with chord subs, reharmonization, backcycling, different chord qualities, arpeggio fills, etc.

8. When I have time, I will set up IRealB so that just drums and bass are playing (maybe vibes on very low) and i'll play as a trio and work on my improv and comping.

10. Once a week or so, I'll play through entire Repertoire. Keeps me from blanking on tricky parts or forgetting whole songs, which has happened to me... It Could Happen to You.

11. Pick an new song to learn. Repeat.

**John A.** · 04-07-2017, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by rlrhett

There is a lot of good advice on improving playing and musicianship by learning a lot of tunes. I see people claim to have a 300, 500, or even 1500 tune repertoire. I instinctively know that makes sense for becoming a better musician.

I mostly play and practice alone. I struggle centering my practice on "learning tunes". I would love to hear how people who play solo learn tunes.

What part are you learning? How do you improvise melodies when you are playing solo? How do you practice comping solo? How do you learn tunes you aren't familiar with? Do you stick with standards, or are you learning all kinds of tunes? What does it mean to "learn a tune" as a solo musician? Know the melody? Know the chord changes from a real book? Do you have to be able to play it as a solo arrangement to "know" the tune?

I short, I would love to hear how people approach this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is how my process generally goes

1. Learn the basic tune -- As others have said, I use some combination of fake book (lately Real Book pdf's on a tablet) + listening to a couple of versions of a song to get the changes and the melody [if I don't have a tune in my fake books, I'll also look for lead sheets online, and may actually even buy one.]. Listening to vocal versions helps. As part of this, I usually also try to work out a basic quasi-chord melody pass of the tune so that I can hear the harmony and melody in one go.

2. Shedding it -- I use back up tracks i find on youtube + irealpro, and I also just play the tune. Melody, comping, and soloing, and whatever chord-melody I can muster are all part of this. I don't think I've ever counted how many times it takes, but I do this until I can play the melody comfortably enough to play embellishments and mess with it, and until I can comp the changes without having to look at a reference.

3. Playing with other people -- this is the most important part, IMO. Also, sometimes this comes before actually learning a tune, e.g., at a jam somebody calls it, I look at ireal pro or the real book, and go! (I'm a crappy reader, so I usually can't get through the melody competently sight reading, but I can usually hear changes well enough to fake my way through a solo). Then when I get home I actually learn the tune, which of course no one ever calls again, unless I do ... In any event, I find I forget tunes if I don't play them with other people, plus playing with other people is the whole point.

John

**JazzinNY** · 04-07-2017, 07:42 PM

Just one comment about learning to comp, etc. -- I only recently started doing this: record the melody, and practice different comping rhythms against that.

If you don't have either a looper or an inexpensive digital recorder, I would say that's necessary equipment. Much better than backing tracks per se because it's so much more flexible.

**dingusmingus** · 04-07-2017, 09:47 PM

Bruce Forman is an incredible teacher, and has a great lesson on learning tunes--all applicable to just a guitar and a metronome.
Learning Tunes for Jazz Guitar - Bruce Forman - MMMC

Separately, I really use my looper a lot. I can record a chorus of comping to play the melody and to solo, or, as someone suggested, record the melody and practice comping.

**rpjazzguitar** · 04-08-2017, 01:50 AM

What has worked best is a lot of repetition. Years ago I had a weekly gig for about a year, playing Real Book tunes. I started out reading, but by the end of the year, I could play the gig without the book. I made a few mistakes.

Without a gig, I learn the chords in one key and then use Irealpro. I set it to change keys every chorus and I usually have to start at a slow enough tempo that I can think.

What I'm trying to do, which doesn't come easily to me, is to hear/feel the relationships so that my fingers gravitate to the right chord without conscious thought.

If that seems out of reach, can't you do it with a 12 bar blues? How about a jazz blues that goes to the VI7?

What about a tune you know really well?

My guess is that the wedding musicians of my NYC youth weren't thinking when they had to play some tune in four different keys so drunken guests could sing.

**matt.guitarteacher** · 04-08-2017, 06:49 AM

Originally Posted by rlrhett

There is a lot of good advice on improving playing and musicianship by learning a lot of tunes. I see people claim to have a 300, 500, or even 1500 tune repertoire. I instinctively know that makes sense for becoming a better musician.

I mostly play and practice alone. I struggle centering my practice on "learning tunes". I would love to hear how people who play solo learn tunes.

What part are you learning? How do you improvise melodies when you are playing solo? How do you practice comping solo? How do you learn tunes you aren't familiar with? Do you stick with standards, or are you learning all kinds of tunes? What does it mean to "learn a tune" as a solo musician? Know the melody? Know the chord changes from a real book? Do you have to be able to play it as a solo arrangement to "know" the tune?

I short, I would love to hear how people approach this.

I'd imagine we all basically PRACTICE alone. We LEARN tunes alone, for the most part.

So, I'm assuming you're asking more about how you practice and "learn tunes",..... with the specific goal of actually playing a solo performance (whether for yourself or others)? Methods for developing "solo performance" skills over tunes?

Is the question somewhat " how do you practice tunes differently if the goal is to perform solo, versus with a group?".

**rlrhett** · 04-08-2017, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher

I'd imagine we all basically PRACTICE alone. We LEARN tunes alone, for the most part.

So, I'm assuming you're asking more about how you practice and "learn tunes",..... with the specific goal of actually playing a solo performance (whether for yourself or others)? Methods for developing "solo performance" skills over tunes?

Is the question somewhat " how do you practice tunes differently if the goal is to perform solo, versus with a group?".

Not necessarily. My personal goals are to play solo and to be prepared for a jam. Developing a solo repertoire makes sense to me. I have to develop or learn solo arrangements. However, I had seen a lot of advice to "learn tunes" to know how to solo or comp in a group situation. I was really struggling with how to do that. How do I work out taking an improvised solo when I play alone? How do I learn to comp a song when I don't have a bassist/drummer or someone else taking a solo?

I am seeing a pattern of people using iReal or BIAB to play along with a "fake" jam session. I guess I need to look at that software and try to become more of a power user. I don't really know how to turn on "fake" improvised tracks and turn off the piano comping so I can practice comping, or doing the opposite of turning the piano back on and taking a chorus. I really don't know how to do that at a keystroke or midi foot switch, so that I can do it without stopping the track and switching over to a different backing track. The sounds are often very elevator, and I don't know how to dial in something that swings a bit or sounds in the least inspiring.

My brain hurts at the thought of having to really learn some software, but I guess once over that learning curve it will be a great resource.

**matt.guitarteacher** · 04-08-2017, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by rlrhett

Not necessarily. My personal goals are to play solo and to be prepared for a jam. Developing a solo repertoire makes sense to me. I have to develop or learn solo arrangements. However, I had seen a lot of advice to "learn tunes" to know how to solo or comp in a group situation. I was really struggling with how to do that. How do I work out taking an improvised solo when I play alone? How do I learn to comp a song when I don't have a bassist/drummer or someone else taking a solo?

I am seeing a pattern of people using iReal or BIAB to play along with a "fake" jam session. I guess I need to look at that software and try to become more of a power user. I don't really know how to turn on "fake" improvised tracks and turn off the piano comping so I can practice comping, or doing the opposite of turning the piano back on and taking a chorus. I really don't know how to do that at a keystroke or midi foot switch, so that I can do it without stopping the track and switching over to a different backing track. The sounds are often very elevator, and I don't know how to dial in something that swings a bit or sounds in the least inspiring.

My brain hurts at the thought of having to really learn some software, but I guess once over that learning curve it will be a great resource.

Take out an earbud and you have bass drums only:

**John A.** · 04-09-2017, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by rlrhett

Not necessarily. My personal goals are to play solo and to be prepared for a jam. Developing a solo repertoire makes sense to me. I have to develop or learn solo arrangements. However, I had seen a lot of advice to "learn tunes" to know how to solo or comp in a group situation. I was really struggling with how to do that. How do I work out taking an improvised solo when I play alone? How do I learn to comp a song when I don't have a bassist/drummer or someone else taking a solo?

I am seeing a pattern of people using iReal or BIAB to play along with a "fake" jam session. I guess I need to look at that software and try to become more of a power user. I don't really know how to turn on "fake" improvised tracks and turn off the piano comping so I can practice comping, or doing the opposite of turning the piano back on and taking a chorus. I really don't know how to do that at a keystroke or midi foot switch, so that I can do it without stopping the track and switching over to a different backing track. The sounds are often very elevator, and I don't know how to dial in something that swings a bit or sounds in the least inspiring.

My brain hurts at the thought of having to really learn some software, but I guess once over that learning curve it will be a great resource.

iRealpro has a little mixer built in. The little square toward the bottom of the screen with three lines in it pops it up. I
Then you just move the sliders to adjust the instrument volumes. Super easy. IRealpro has pretty much no learning curve. Download, import songs from the forum, play. I generally turn down the piano part.

john

**wzpgsr** · 04-09-2017, 11:01 PM

Check out Chris Whiteman's solo playing on YouTube. I think he posts here occasionally. I recently discovered him and his style is straightforward and perhaps deceptively simple. I have been struggling to play solo guitar and I'm always impressed when players can play a bit of melody, throw in some syncopated chord stabs, some bass, a bit of improv. I've watched Bruce Forman's video on solo playing and it is helpful too. I think part of my struggle is that I learned to play guitar with the understanding that there is lead guitar and there is rhythm guitar and both are separate and different. All these great solo jazz players demonstrate that this false, and they how to play the guitar more like a piano, and that's become my goal recently.

**rlrhett** · 04-09-2017, 11:13 PM

Yeah, Chris is how I want to play when I grow up! Love the posts he has done.

**Veritas** · 04-10-2017, 12:22 AM

Chris Whiteman is an excellent player who has truly honed his craft. He truly honors the melody and harmony of the songs, and he has a great sensitivity in terms of tone and touch.

**Jonah** · 04-10-2017, 06:35 AM

Not necessarily. My personal goals are to play solo and to be prepared for a jam. Developing a solo repertoire makes sense to me. I have to develop or learn solo arrangements. However, I had seen a lot of advice to "learn tunes" to know how to solo or comp in a group situation. I was really struggling with how to do that. How do I work out taking an improvised solo when I play alone? How do I learn to comp a song when I don't have a bassist/drummer or someone else taking a solo?

Solo guitar playing is a vast topic and you can do practically anything you want - to your skills and taste...

As per band...

Use backing tracks for improvising solos..

And record melody with backing drums or metronome (with a looper or whatever) and then practice comping.

Do not overcomplicate it in general... - that was my mistake! I always wanted to express myself completely - to stay at maximum creativity point, teh thing is when you show up with the band... you usually do not have enough experience to show it all immidiately even if it's worth what you have.. people also will not appreciate it if you cannot handle basic rythm timing or melody... maybe the most experienced will see that you have something behind it.. but it is better you'd prepare an intro into this world yourself.

you do not need so much to play in a band.

When you get into real band context most probably you'll get lost anyway - (I was.. you get recovered pretty soon if you keep playing in band regularily... but first shock is strong and it's not that you would expect usually...)
so in your practice routine you just should secure you can go through harmonic changes of a tune at needed tempo without loosing meter, tempo or harmony as a comper and improvizer in basic way.. that is it.

Stay creative of course... but most ptobably first time with a band or on jam - the creativity will be the last thing you think of...

My experience only of course...

**Veritas** · 04-10-2017, 06:50 AM

I think Jonah is right. Solo playing is a different animal than playing with a band. For one thing in the latter situation you are at the mercy of other individuals, but your role is more limited. Solo - you are the band. No one else to blame if things go South.

**rlrhett** · 04-10-2017, 10:53 AM

Thanks Jonah. I agree, solo playing the way Chris Whiteman does it is not really what we were talking about. Your suggestion to "learn tunes" for future band situations while practicing alone seems to match many people. iReal to work out some solo ideas over the changes, record yourself soloing over a backing track and then work out a comping arrangement using yourself as the solo artist.

Finally, I think it is good advice to not worry about learning 500 tunes inside and out. Having a reasonable familiarity is enough. In a band you have other players who can support you as you support them. Good advice!

**Alter** · 04-10-2017, 11:14 AM

The way i see it, the most difficult and time consuming part is to learn the music. Not to be able to play them, but to listen to all these jazz tunes enough so that you know how they go. So first, listen to the music a lot.

When actually learning a tune, first i learn the melody, on different positions and fingerings on the guitar. Then i learn the chords, playing them in guide tone voicings (bass and the 3-7 of the chord on the two middle strings only). Then i try to play a chord melody version of the tune, meaning, melody accompanied wiith the simple 3-7 voicings, with and without the bass.

Last thing, i transpose the tune to different keys. This is something i consider essential, cause it forces you to see and work on melody-chord relationships, and chord movement and intervals. By doing that you can reach a point where, if you know how a tune goes and you can sing it, you can play it.

**Veritas** · 04-10-2017, 01:13 PM

Once you actually "internalize" a well known (to you) standard, it's not like you forget it, especially if you can sing the melody. Of course, you might forget the lyrics more so than the harmony and melody. So once learned thoroughly, a song really becomes part of your repertoire, though one needs to repass these tunes on a regular basis to stay up to speed and be sharp. That is why I record my version of songs to rehearse over as my personal backing tracks. Not as an adjunct to live performance. I suppose working with BIAB would be another alternative. In an ideal world playing with other experienced and talented musicians would be great, but in reality that comes with a lot of psych warts and time issues.