Someday My Prince Will Come – Jazz Waltz

8.00

One of the most famous Jazz Waltzes in the American songbook. It is also a great interesting form with some beautiful harmony. This lesson is exploring how to improvise in 3/4. The main part of the lesson is a 4 chorus solo that I improvised and that is included as a transcription. The performance is in a friendly and groovy medium swing tempo and the key is Bb major.

Someday My Prince Will Come

The solo has two main parts, the first 2 choruses are improvised staying around the Bb major position in the 6th fret. This is a great way to build a very strong foundation for soloing over the form and really know how the harmony sounds. The second half is more free and demonstrating some different approaches and sounds in terms of both polyrhythms and reharmonizations. All of these ideas are explained in the accompanying article and annotated transcription. 

Description

One of the most famous Jazz Waltzes in the American songbook. It is also a great interesting form with some beautiful harmony. This lesson is exploring how to improvise in 3/4. The main part of the lesson is a 4 chorus solo that I improvised and that is included as a transcription. The performance is in a friendly and groovy medium swing tempo and the key is Bb major.

Someday My Prince Will Come

The solo has two main parts, the first 2 choruses are improvised staying around the Bb major position in the 6th fret. This is a great way to build a very strong foundation for soloing over the form and really know how the harmony sounds. The second half is more free and demonstrating some different approaches and sounds in terms of both polyrhythms and reharmonizations. All of these ideas are explained in the accompanying article and annotated transcription. 

4 Chorus solo + Annotated Transcription and Analysis

The 4 chorus solo transcription is my take on a melodic Jazz Waltz solo that will help you dig get used to playing natural flowing phrases in a 3/4 meter.  

The solo and transcription serves as a way to start soloing on Someday My Prince Will Come. The analysis of the solo in the annotated transcription also offers some general info on connecting phrases and making a longer story out of your improvisation. This is immediately applicable to the song and of course also to solos in general. To me these skills are as important as being able to follow the chord changes since it is the way to make a solo great and not only a bunch of “right notes” over the chords.

Exercises and Analysis

The transcription is provided as a basic transcription in PDF and GuitarPro 7. In addition to this I have included an annotated transcription.   With notes and remarks in the sheet music this clearly illustrates the different phrases with what is played and also how phrases interact with each other.

Topics Discussed

  • The Chords and Scales
  • How to solo on a Jazz Waltz
  • Different approaches for making phrases
  • Motifs, Call/Response
  • Basic Polyrhythms
  • Common Reharmonizations

Download Includes

  • Video performance
  • Annotated Transcription
  • 4 chorus Transcription PDF/GuitarPro7
  • 1 Chorus of Voicings
  • Performance mp3
  • Backing track mp3