Ray Reach Director of Student Jazz Programs Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame I. A Methodology for Learning Jazz

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1 Ray Reach Director of Student Jazz Programs Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame I. A Methodology for Learning Jazz A. Listen! Listen! Listen! - Start by developing a collection of jazz recordings by master players. B. Develop a repertoire of Popular Standards and Jazz Standards. 1. First, memorize a repertoire of about 30 tunes, in the standard key. 2. Once you have memorized all 30 tunes in the standard key, learn to play them by ear in all 12 keys. C. Make sure that the 30 tunes in your repertoire cover a good cross section of styles, forms and tempi: 1. Swing 2. Bossa Nova 3. Samba 4. Ballad 5. Rhumba 6. Funk D. To learn to play (and improvise) Jazz, you must develop a vocabulary of melodic and harmonic ideas. To do this, you must practice things which add to your melodic vocabulary and develop your ability to improvise music by ear: 1. Memorize melodies and learn to play them in all keys. 2. Memorize common chord progressions and learn to identify them quickly. 3. Practice and memorize jazz paterns from books such as Paterns For Jazz (by Jerry Greene, Jerry Coker, Gary Campbell, and Jimmy Casale), or Paterns For Improvisation (by Oliver Nelson). These books are available at 3. Transcribe and memorize solos by master players. Listen to the recording and write down the solo, then memorize it.

2 II. Common Forms Played in Jazz How To Learn To Play Jazz Page 2 A. 12-bar Blues 1. Blues evolved from the melding of Ragtime and the Negro Field Holler 2. Form dictated by the lyrics- a rhymed cuplet in iambic pentameter. 3. The element of call and response 4. Form: aab 5. Basic Chord Progressions: I-IV-V or I-VI-II-V-I 6. More sophisticated chord progresions: Bird Blues or Charlie Parker Blues bar Blues Tunes a. C Jam Blues (Duke Ellington) b. Route 66 (Bobby Troupe) c. Bag s Groove(Milt Jackson) d. Bilie s Bounce (Charlie Parker) e. Bloomdido (Charlie Parker) B. 32-bar Popular Song Form 1. Typical Form: aaba 2. B Section often caled the Bridge Bar Tunes a. Take The A Train (Billy Strayhorn) b. Satin Doll (Duke Ellington) c. Our Love Is Here To Stay (George and Ira Gershwin) d. Georgia (Hoagy Carmichael) e. All The Things You Are (Jerome Kern) C. Rhythm Changes 1. Chord Progresion of I Got Rhythm, by George and Ira Gershwin bar Popular Song Form 3. Many other tunes are based on Rhythm Changes, such as: a. 52nd Street Theme (Thelonious Monk) b. Jeep Is Jumpin (Duke Elington) c. Rhythm-a-ning (Thelonious Monk) d. Oleo (Sonny Rollins) e. Lester Leaps in (Lester Young) f. Straighten Up and Fly Right (Nat Cole) g. Red Cross (Charlie Parker). III. How To Learn A Tune A. Start by memorizing the melody in the standard key. 1. Take note that the sheet music version of the melody is not always the best source. 2. Sometimes a better source is a reliable fake book, or a good recorded version of the tune. 3. Often, the sheet music version is too straight and rhythmicaly

3 Page 3 boring. This is when consulting a good recording helps. 4. Never learn a jazz tune solely from a sheet music version. Always consult a good recording for style and nuance. B. Next, memorize the roots (bass notes) of the chord progression. Again, consulting a good recording helps here. C. After memorizing the roots of the chords, play them in sequence, adding the thirds of each chord: root - third - root -third, etc. D. Next, add the fifths of each chord, then the sevenths, gradually speeding up the tempo until you can arpeggiate the entire chord progression, in eighth notes, at a rapid tempo without a pause or a slip. E. Use this procedure for every tune you learn. IV. Develop your ear by singing and playing using the number system A. Learn tunes by the number, using a number that corresponds to each note in the major scale. For instance, in the C major scale, 1 is C, 2 is D, 3 is E, 4 is F, and so forth. B. Thus, the Blues Scale based on C would appear as follows: C - 1 Eb - Flat 3 F - 4 Gb - Flat 5 G - 5 Bb - Flat 7 C. Make sure that you really hear every note you play. Sing the line, then play it. If you can t sing it, you re realy not hearing it. V. Standard Tunes - What are they? A. The staple repertoire of the Jazz musician is mostly drawn from two Categories: the Popular Standard and the Jazz Standard. B. What is a Popular Standard? 1. According to Wikipedia.com: Traditional pop or Classic pop or Standards music denotes, in general, Western (and particularly American) popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll, and its offshoots, as the dominant commercial music of the United States and Western culture. The terms pop standards or (where relevant) American standards are used to denote the most popular and enduring songs from this style of music. 2. Classic pop embraces the song output of the Broadway and

4 Page 4 Hollywood show tune writers from approximately World War I to the 1950s, such as Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Johnny Mercer, Dorothy Fields, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and a host of others. The works of these songwriters and composers are usually considered part of the canon known as the "Great American Songbook". C. What is a Jazz Standard? 1. According to Wikipedia.com: A jazz standard is a jazz tune that is held in continuing esteem and which is widely known, performed, and recorded among jazz musicians as part of the jazz musical repertoire. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be "jazz standards" changes over time. 2. Moreover, there are different jazz standards for the different musical styles and subgenres that make up jazz, such as swing, bebop, and fusion. In many cases, songs that have become jazz standards were not originaly composed by a jazz musician. 3. Instead, they were used as the foundation for jazz arrangements, reharmonization, or improvisation by jazz performers or Composers. 4. Nevertheles, the songs commonly included in jazz fake books (books containing the melodies and chords to jazz songs) and those that have been widely recorded are a rough guide to the list of jazz Standards. 5. Many jazz standards have a long history, and they are based on old popular tunes, Broadway or musical selections, or old recordings of famous bands from the Great American Songbook. 6. In some cases, the version of a song that becomes a jazz standard is a reharmonized or altered version of the original song. 7. Jazz musicians also include a wide range of 1950s and 1960s Bebop and Hard Bop tunes in their standards. 8. The development of a repertoire of jazz standards has created a shortlist of songs that are widely known by jazz musicians from diferent countries and jazz subgenre traditions. 9. This shortlist makes it easier for jazz musicians to flesh out their song list for performances, or improvise over in familiar chord changes during jam sesions with musicians that they have just met. 10. As wel, the jazz standard repertoire is often performed by working Musicians who play in bars, lounges, and supper clubs.

5 Page 5 D. Three elements shared by all Standards (Pop and Jazz) 1. A compelling melody 2. A compeling bas line, the second melody of the piece 3. A compelling lyric E. To become a Standard, a piece must: 1. First, become known, or popular, with a mas number of people 2. Second, continue to be performed by musicians, even after the initial popularity has faded