Learning Jazz Standards

Question by Karl
(Boston, MA, USA)

"First of all, thank you Marc-Andre, for this website.

I am trying to learn a repertoire of standards, as I think it is essential part of being a jazz musician. For me it is proving to be one of the most difficult things, not just because it will involve a lot of memorization, but because I am so unsure of the 'proper' way to play them.

What I am asking is, how do I choose what fret position to play the melody on? As we all know, there are numerous positions/modes to play a melody on the guitar, unlike on the piano. When I learn melodies on the guitar, I want to feel confident I am approaching them in a smart way.

Should the melody move from position to position when the chord changes? What about key changes? Should I try to play the notes on the higher (G,B,E) strings? How much should I rely on a fake book as far as memorizing goes?

Thanks for any answers you may have, and any other pointers for learning standards."

M-A's Answer:

Karl,

You are absolutely right, building a decent repertoire of jazz standards is essential for all jazz musicians. But let me reassure you right away: it won't be that difficult.  

It doesn't involve a tremendous amount of memorization or require you to figure out "the right way" each time. It's the opposite. There's little or no memorization and the standards should "play themselves" so to speak. Let's see why.

1. Internalize the Song

Alright, let me ask you this: How much actual practice/work did you put into internalizing Happy Birthday? How about The Star Spangled Banner? Do you have to concentrate very hard each time you sing those tunes (and look in the fakebook), or do they just come out naturally?

That is exactly what you want to do with standards: listen and then try to imitate what you hear. DO NOT fall in the trap of browsing through fakebooks, trying to memorize a bunch of tunes you've never even heard .

The "memorization" you're talking about starts with deep listening. I highly recommend simple and straight-ahead recordings of jazz standards by singers such as Chet Baker. Chet's always a great point of reference. (I learned many standards from him)

In brief, you don't have to memorize tunes, you just have to know them. Before even attempting to play something on your guitar, that "next song" you're learning should feel like Happy Birthday : sing it convincingly and learn the lyrics if possible. 

That will make all the difference in the world... the standards will "play themselves" the same way Happy Birthday "sings itself" each time there's a cake and candles lying around!!!

2. Proper Fingerings (Melody)

Let's keep Happy Birthday as our main example here. Go ahead and play it on your guitar right now and sing along to your playing.

Good? Still fumbling on some notes? Try again, this time find a good fingering and stick to it. Got it? Make sure your fingerings for Happy Birthday are rock-solid before reading the next paragraph.

Good! Play it once again. Only this time you will let go of your fingers (don't even look) and focus all your attention on sound.  If it sounds like it "should", you're done. If not, figure out a new set of fingerings and try again.

By sounding like it "should" I mean: sounding like you expect it to sound, in the deep memories of your ears. (See the cake? Smell the candles?!)

...back to jazz standards now.

Guitar fingerings for jazz standards are not necessarily related to positions, frets or strings. It should be clear to you by now. Here's what matters the most: it has to 1- sound good. 2- make sense for you.  Remember: sound comes first.

The process we used on Happy Birthday is applicable to any song you want to play on the guitar. Focus on the sound of the melody (you should hear it in your head) and play how you feel it. 

There are exceptions, of course, where some fingerings are better than others. Playing bebop heads is a good example. That would be the topic of an entirely different article, though!

3. Memorize the Chord Changes

I guess this is where most people hit a brick wall. "Oh my god! This tune has at least 23 different chords. How am I gonna know which one comes after the next?" (and so on...) Much like the melody in the previous step, memorizing chord changes for jazz standards is not about "brain memory" : it's about hearing and listening.

Playing the bass part (root notes) is the very first thing to do. After that, you should try to sing the melody while playing the bass notes simultaneously. Forget about the chord qualities (maj, min, dom7, etc.) for now.

Think of the root movement as another melody...only this time, it's the "bass melody", the foundation of the piece. Of course, if you can, sing the roots while you play the melody on the guitar.

Betcha didn't think of that! (-:

Only after you can really hear the melody and root motion can you start to apply chord qualities and "go intellectual" on the tune. The next logical step would be to make an harmonic analysis : relationship of each chord to the tonic (or "key of the moment") through roman numerals, secondary dominants, modulations, etc.

That, also, could be the topic of an entirely different article. For the time being, I highly recommend Jerry Coker's Hearin' the Changes . That book outlines most (if not all) of the common traits found in chord progressions in jazz standards and much more...

Re: Fakebooks

To wrap it all up, learning jazz standards is all about ears, not fingers! You can, but don't have to, use fake books. I find them useful because they often indicate what key a song is most often played in and some performance notes from famous jazz recordings. (I really like the New Real Book series.)

Remember though that the fakebook is only a reference. Work with the chart for a while and dismiss it... the thing you should keep doing is listening to a good recording of the tune!  

So, when you're jamming or gigging (or recording...) leave the fakebook on the shelf. (Please!) There's nothing worse than four jazz musicians reading on a stage... and no musical interaction!

There are exceptions here again. I personally rely heavily on charts during Christmas time. We sometimes have to play 30 holiday tunes every night (arranged in a jazz style). There's no way I can memorize all that if I don't play them year round.  (-:

Play your tunes often, they'll stick with you.

Finally, remember that the more tunes you learn, the easier it gets. Jazz standards have melodic and harmonic "recurring formulas" all over them. See Hearin' the Changes .

I hope this can be helpful to you Karl,

Practice Well.

Marc-Andre Seguin

PS
Use your ears and you will be able to "wing" standards by ear once in a while. Try it now : turn on the radio and jam with a jazz station. One my mentors, the great saxophonist Dave Turner, does that on a daily basis!

From the editor: This page was edited on 09/12/19 to update syntax, format for mobile, created numbered headers, and update tags.

Old Comments for Learning Jazz Standards

Dec 13, 2011

Some Additional Homework
by: Anonymous

Actually making myself PLAY all the roots is helpful. Then all the 3rds (gotta know which ones are major and minor), 5ths (use b5 if it is a II half-diminished), 7ths (is it Major or dominant?). You get the idea. Then, you add approach notes that are static with regard to your target note. (For example, say you're playing all the 3rd in 'Stella'. Your first target pitch is a G - the minor third of the openning Emb5 - your second pitch is C# - the Maj. 3rd of the A7 chord: so you could approach those tones from a half-step below by playing F#, G, C, C#; and then intensifying the challenge by playing the tone a half-step down AND a half-step above before the target note itself - so, F# G# G-natural, C D C#). This sounds vaguely masochistic, I know. But I gotta tell you it has made my ear 100% more reliable, and was taught to me by the great jazz teacher Jerry Bergonzi.

Nov 14, 2011
PLAYING MELODIES IN POSITION
by: PHIL ROBERTS

a VERY EFFECTIVE WAY TO APPROACH MELODY LEARNING IS ONE I TEACH TO MY STUDENTS AND IT IS TOTALLY LOGICAL AND EASY. MY RESEARCH HAS PROVEN THAT MANY MELODIES IN THE REAL BOOK ENCOMPASS AN INTERVAL OF A MAJOR 10TH C/D FOR EXAMPLE WHICH CAN BE PLAYED IN APPROPRIATE 4 FRET/ 4 FINGER POSITIONS ON THE FINGERBOARD WHICH ALSO CORRESPOND TO THE CAGED PARADIGM. THIS IS ACTUALLY A BLATANTLY SIMPLE WAY TO APPROACH MELODY PLAYING BY LOCATING THE LOWEST NOTE AND THE HIGHEST NOTE (AHA) IN THE PIECE AND RUNNING THE SCALE IN A COMFORTABLE 4FRET / 4 FINGER POSITION. I HAVE FOUND ALMOST ALWAYS THAT "A BEST WAY" TO PLAY A MELODY DOES EXIST SOMEWHERE,IT REVEALS ITSELF BEAUTIFULLY LIKE A DANCE, AND YOU HAVE TO FIND IT NATURALLY YOURSELF. MOST LEARNING IS REALLY SELF DISCOVERY ON THIS SEEMINGLY COMPLICATED INSTRUMENT. THE GENIUS IS TO MAKE THE COMPLICATED SIMPLE.
HOPE THIS HELPS,
PHIL ROBERTS

Sep 15, 2011
learning standards
by: Anonymous

I used to use the "learn the root notes" method years ago when learning rock and pop tunes.

Thanks for pulling all this together!

Nov 05, 2010
Learning the Jazz Standards
by: Jazzpup

Thank you so much for the procedure you have provided. It has been quite helpful in how I will learn the tunes from now on.

I too have been struggling to put a repertoire of performable jazz tunes together; also feeling really overwhelmed by the amount of'memorization'that I thought would be involved. So for the longest time I've spent all my time on technique whilst effortlessly procrastinating on repertoire building...increasingly feeling bad about myself. After all what is a musician/singer without a song.

Your procedure has made it more accessible...thank you, thank you, thank you...so much. I'm actually learning 'April in Paris' and 'All the things you are'...starting with the melody...learning it "inside out" and deconstructing the chords just the way you've described...I'm already starting to feel better about myself 'cos I'm actually learning the tunes!!

YOU ARE A FANTASTIC TEACHER!

Sincerely
Jazzpup
Canada

May 23, 2010
Learning Jazz Standards
by: Larry

Great reply Marc. Thank you.

Nov 20, 2009
From the original poster
by: Karl

Wow! What a response! Thank you very much Marc-A!

Yes, I've been listening to a compilation that I made of 50 (of the most popular) jazz standards. I consider it my homework before actually picking up the guitar and trying to play them.

Thanks again for all the information you've given me (and others hopefully)!
karl