System for learning 300 tunes?

[JazzIsGood]

Played a gig yesterday and the Bruce Foreman lesson helped a lot. Someone called a tune I just learned recently, but not in the usual key. I was able to transpose it on the fly with no issue. I have not really been able to do this before, or at least have not attempted it. I did 90% of the gig with no charts and this is coming along great.

[Bop Head]

This stuff was just stuff that everyone picked up back in the days when there were lots of gigs. Working players of that gen just knew this stuff.

These days people are taught this info as a way to learn tunes. Originally I get the impression that the knowledge came from learning lots of tunes.[...]

I am aware of this.

How To Learn A Tune | Hal Galper

"I began my first semester at Berklee in 1955. I estimate that by 1960 I knew 1,000 tunes without the paper. Knowing so many tunes affords one a unique perspective that may be impossible for the contemporary student to acquire. Firstly; today’s commercial gigs are generally “Top 40” tunes and not part of the standard jazz musicians repertoire. Secondly; only after you’ve learned 1,000 tunes do you realize that there are really only about 20 song forms and every tune is a combination of segments of these 20 forms. This overview made it easier to learn (internalize) any new tune. Thirdly; the current proliferation of original music makes this overview more difficult to achieve."

[...] The main English language books that spring to mind are Harmony with Lego Bricks (Cork) and Hearin’ the Changes (Coker)

I know Cork's (and Elliot's) as well as Coker's books on the topic and IMHO Baudoin's work is much more systematic and exactly describing the "segments" Galper is speaking of. I really recommend taking a look into it (IIRC, Christian, you do not like French "grilles harmoniques" very much -- which I myself find very practical for memorizing tunes BTW, maybe my visual memory. Baudoin uses them to depict the "transformations harmoniques" so that is something you would have to bring yourself to look at.)

[Christian Miller]

I was joking because that Tears chart looked so out there. I don’t mind grilles.

The ones that spiral around like that are kind of crazy looking tho and hard for me to read (I’m not used to them.)

One thing I would is that not only chords but melodic frameworks have a degree of modularity to them. There are well known examples - guide tone melodies on cycle 4 progressions but there are loads of other ones too.

The focus on chord progressions can also mean other familial resemblances are overlooked. The ‘lament’ bass and melody combo is incredibly common in jazz rep but can be harmonised several different ways ….

it would be nice to put together a book about that sometime… maybe …