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Most Important Tunes

 
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:28 pm    Post subject: Most Important Tunes Reply with quote

What are the most important tunes to know in jazz? It seems to me that the five most common tunes called out at jam sessions (in order) are:

a) swing blues
b) rhythm changes
c) Satin Doll
d)b) standard 12-bar blues
e) A Train
f) Modal tunes (So What, etc)

What has been your experience?
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4gcole



Joined: 10 Mar 2007
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's a few but it depends on your tastes...don't learn a tune if you don't like it.

1.All Of Me
2.All The Things You Are
3.Autumn Leaves
4.Billie’s Bounce
5.Blue Bossa
6.C Jam Blues
7.Four
8.Four On Six
9.Giant Steps
10.Girl From Ipanema
11.Green Dolphin St
12.Impressions
13.Lady Bird
14.Lazy Bird
15.Move
16.Ornithology
17.Rhythm Changes
18.Satin Doll
19.Scrapple From The Apple
20.Spain
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Don Mitchell



Joined: 14 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
Location: Portland, Oregon

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jerry Hahn, with whom I studied for a short time, created and ran the jazz guitar program at the University of Kansas at Witchita for a number of years. Much of the program was centered around this list of essential standards and classics of which he required his students to be able to:

play the melody
improvise a solo over the changes
comp the changes for him while he soloed
play the melody and ending
(all without referring to sheet music or lead sheet)

Here's the list:

A Foggy Day
A Night in Tunisia
All Blues
Angel Eyes
Autumn Leaves
Billies's Bounce
Blue Bossa
Bluesette
Body and Soul
Cherokee
Confirmation
Darn That Dream
Days of Wine and Roses
Dewey Square
Donna Lee
Doxy
Everything Happens to Me
Fly Me to the Moon
Four
Freedom Jazz Dance
Georgia on my Mind
Giant Steps
Girl from Ipanema
God Bless the Child
Green Dolphin Street
Groovin' High
Half Nelson
Have You met miss Jones
Here's That Rainy Day
I Can't Get Started
I Love You
I Should Care
I'll Remember April
Imagination
Impressions
Jordu
Joy Spring
Just Friends
(Our) Love is here to Stay
Maiden Voyage
Misty
Moonlight in Vermont
My Foolish Heart
My Funny Valentine
Now's the Time
Oleo
Ornithology
Polka Dots and Moonbeams
Recordame
'Round Midnight
Satin Doll
Scrapple from the Apple
(The) Shadow of your Smile
So What
Solar
Someday my Prince will Come
Song for my Father
Speak Low
Star Dust
Stella by Starlight
Straight no Chaser
Summertime
Take Five
Take the "A" Train
Tea for Two
There will never be Another You
Thriving From a Riff
Yardbird Suite
Yesterdays

Don
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Gorecki
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Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 238
Location: Glenwood, MD

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! Shocked

4gcole's list up front seems tangible but Don that list is huge!

But after looking it over it makes complete and total sense. I recognize all of those tunes and I honestly don't know most of them.

Most certainly puts a person in even the most abstract scenario’s quite prepared for just about anything. Awesome advice!
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Dave Illig



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 67
Location: Houston, TX

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most jazz players know well over a 1000 songs usually more like 2000-3000. I probably know about 400 these days. I have a long way to go.

I think learning tunes is a very big part of becoming a jazz guitarist. I get a lot of ideas from the heads. Great composers put their best harmonic ideas in their tunes.

Dave
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Mark
VM Coach


Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dave Illig wrote:
Most jazz players know well over a 1000 songs usually more like 2000-3000. I probably know about 400 these days. I have a long way to go.

I think learning tunes is a very big part of becoming a jazz guitarist. I get a lot of ideas from the heads. Great composers put their best harmonic ideas in their tunes.


Dave,

That's true. Unfortunately it's also one of the most daunting challenges to the average aspiring jazz guitarist, because most of those I meet simply aren't committed to becoming a full-blown mainstream jazz musician. However, they often do want the ability to be able to handle changes and fuse the acquired language with other genres, and you can definitely get to that skill level without knowing hundreds or thousands of standards. That's why my Swing Blues LBM course is subtitled Doorway to Jazz, because it puts the player in a position to make a larger jazz commitment down the road, or not.

On the other hand, as a composer the benefits of a vast repertoire has been invaluable to me, so I fully agree with what you say about what can be gleaned from those timeless heads and melodies.

With all due respect to Mr. Hahn's excellent group of "essential" standards (that Don provided), it's still a subjective list. If you have the core language from transcribing great jazz improvisers, I believe that you can get the potential command over those tunes and countless others by setting your goal to mastering the jazz player's blues and at least one 32-bar vehicle, like Rhythm Changes. For aspiring improvisers, this greatly reduces the mountain of endless standards to a more realistic, digestible goal.

I'll give you a case in point. Just 3-4 months ago one of my students asked me for my thoughts on improvising over Ray Noble's "Cherokee." Understand that it's not one of my favorite tunes and (truth be told) it had been literally years since I had performed it or even worked out on it, but I thought I'd take the challenge just to test my language ability over a tune that I wasn't even playing. I recorded one 64-bar chorus that came out decent enough that I've had many requests to transcribe it. To hear it, click here.

For what it's worth, everything in that one solo chorus represents licks and concepts derived from working on swing blues and Rhythm Changes, and I know that I can effectively apply that language to any of the other standards on that list as well. So can anyone else, because improv is a language thing, and that's why my dad could blow over a song he had never played before and make it sound as though he had been playing it for 20-30 years. All for now...

- Mark
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Brad Kinder



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Richmond, VA

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark wrote:
....However, they often do want the ability to be able to handle changes and fuse the acquired language with other genres, and you can definitely get to that skill level without knowing hundreds or thousands of standards. That's why my Swing Blues LBM course is subtitled Doorway to Jazz, because it puts the player in a position to make a larger jazz commitment down the road, or not.


Great post Mark! I'm exactly one of those you speak of. I'm just an R&B/blues player that wants to incorporate some jazz language into my playing and composing. I have no desire to do realbook type gigs or any of that stuff so I mostly just pick tunes that I really enjoy and that I'm inspired to learn. Some are standards... most aren't. I learn them as I get interested in them. After I'd spent a few years listening to all kinds of jazz styles, different artists, the essential standards etc.. I realized there's a lot of that material that I don't like so, for now, I just focus on what I do.
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Mark
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Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brad Kinder wrote:
Great post Mark! I'm exactly one of those you speak of. I'm just an R&B/blues player that wants to incorporate some jazz language into my playing and composing. I have no desire to do realbook type gigs or any of that stuff so I mostly just pick tunes that I really enjoy and that I'm inspired to learn. Some are standards... most aren't. I learn them as I get interested in them. After I'd spent a few years listening to all kinds of jazz styles, different artists, the essential standards etc.. I realized there's a lot of that material that I don't like so, for now, I just focus on what I do.


Brad,

I know what you mean, but please don't use the word "just" in referring to yourself as a blues player. We're cut from a similar cloth with respect to a mutual affinity for traditional blues and the related connection to jazz guitarists like Grant, Kenny, GB, and others. For my money, jazz minus the blues is music with no soul. And without naming names, if half of the established jazz guitarists out there had half of what you bring to the table on that front, they'd be twice as good and have twice the appeal to listeners in general. My main jazz mentor, Oscar Peterson, calls it the "one-two punch." People want to be emotionally moved, regardless of genre. That's the bottom line. All for now...

- Mark
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thaydon



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 80
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:11 pm    Post subject: it is a language thing Reply with quote

Quote:
So can anyone else, because improv is a language thing,
- Mark

mark,
thanks for your reply and the great solo on cherokee.

I am not half way through the swing blues lessons, but i had a similiar experience with what mark is talking about. now that i am playing jazz, i finally got to play with my father who has been playing jazz clarinet for over 50 years now. i sat in with his trio with fake book off to the side and they called tunes i had not played or worked on. i think i hung in there by using the jazz language i learned from LBM. that is what i have found so helpful with the LBM that i can practice the language and then apply it to "new situations".
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Brad Kinder



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Richmond, VA

PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark wrote:
Brad,I know what you mean, but please don't use the word "just" in referring to yourself as a blues player. We're cut from a similar cloth with respect to a mutual affinity for traditional blues and the related connection to jazz guitarists like Grant, Kenny, GB, and others......


Mark, Sorry I missed your reply and you're right. A poor choice of words on my part and no disrespect to myself, you or anyone was intended. I think my whole point was simply like you said, it's a subjective list. Learn what moves you!
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark Wrote:
Quote:
I believe that you can get the potential command over those tunes and countless others by setting your goal to mastering the jazz player's blues and at least one 32-bar vehicle, like Rhythm Changes."


Mark, could you please elaborate on why a 32-bar vehicle is important? I understand the importance of Swing Blues, which I think is that it trains the ear/brain to hear long and short two fives and movement in fourths. It covers a tremendous amount of jazz language.

Also, I understand that rhythm changes are important because there are a lot of tunes based on them, they have short two five langage and a bridge that moves in fourths. However, I've never really understood why so many players emphasize them beyond that. Am I missing something?
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Mark
VM Coach


Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

nylenny wrote:
Mark, could you please elaborate on why a 32-bar vehicle is important? I understand the importance of Swing Blues, which I think is that it trains the ear/brain to hear long and short two fives and movement in fourths. It covers a tremendous amount of jazz language.

Also, I understand that rhythm changes are important because there are a lot of tunes based on them, they have short two five langage and a bridge that moves in fourths. However, I've never really understood why so many players emphasize them beyond that. Am I missing something?


Lenny,

It's mainly a matter of commonality with regards to standard tunes, because historically the 32-bar progression is all over the place, typically in two formats: AABA (8-bar sections) and AB (16-bar sections).

Examples of AABA 32-bar tunes run the gamut from ballads like Misty, When Sunny Gets Blue, Willow Weep for Me, Angel Eyes, My Funny Valentine, Round Midnight, Georgia On My Mind, In A Sentimental Mood, God Bless the Child, etc, to swing classics like Satin Doll, Take the A Train, Perdido, etc, to bebop tunes that would include Scrapple the Apple, Yardbird Suite, Well You Needn't, Oleo, and many others. Then there are the modal jazz classics like So What and Impressions that share the same structure, as well as a large number of Jobim compositions, movie themes, and popular songs spanning decades that are too numerous to list.

AB 32-bar tunes are less common, but a few jazz-related examples would be Four, Donna Lee, Ornithology (How High the Moon), Groovin' High, Lyresto, All of Me, etc.

In between 12-bar blues and 32-bar standard progressions is the 16-bar vehicle, where the head is normally played twice (as in blues) before solos. Examples might include Blue Bossa, Sugar, Tune Up, Pent Up House, and Giant Steps, just to name a few.

All for now, but in closing let me just say that you're absolutely right about swing blues containing the critical language elements to successfully navigate jazz progressions. That's why the "Doorway to Jazz" subtitle of my popular Swing Blues course is right on the money, because that's how I became a competent jazz improviser.

- Mark
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Jokron



Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I turn to www.jazzstandards.com

Start from the top and work my way down the ranking list.

Learn head by heart
Learn chords with smooth voice leading
Arpeggios and scales over each chord
Improvise
If I don't like a tune I skip it and go to the next.

Jokron
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