Tag Archives: how to play autumn leaves

Autumn Leaves Chords – 5 Useful ways to unlock Extensions

How you add extensions and color to the Autumn Leaves Chords is a big part of the sound of Jazz Harmony. In this video I am going to go over 5 different sets of chords ranging from a very basic Drop2 set via a various extensions and alterations to a spacy modal harmonization.

When checking out the possiblities for adding and changing the chords it is practical to use a chord progression that you already know and have in your ears. In that way it doesn’t become only theory but you can also relate it to a song you already know.

In the lesson I am going to use the first 8 bars of Autumn Leaves and I have 5 different variations of the chords on this song that you can use to explore what is possible and of course also directly start using in your playing.

#1 The Song and the Drop2 voicings

When you are checking out a jazz standard like Autumn Leaves it is a good idea to just go through it with a basic drop2 voicings. The Drop2 voicings are anyway very useful for any type of jazz comping so you should check them out. You can check out the How To Play Jazz Chords Study guide

The voicing set using only drop2 chords and no extensions is shown here below in Example 1.

#2 Adding Basic Extensions

Now that we have a basic set of chords to work with we can start adding extensions to them.

The basic rule is that you can work with when adding extensions to chord voicings are:

  1. The 9th replaces the root
  2. The 13th replaces the 5th

With these two concepts it is easy to add an extension to a chord and putting it in there won’t change the core part of the chord which is covered with the 3rd and 7th.

In the first version I used a higher Bbmaj7 voicing. Mainly to avoid having a b9 interval in the chord which is not so great for that chord. Now that I am exchanging the root for the 9th the b9 (between A and Bb) is gone and I can use the lower version of the Bb and Eb chords.

On the Am7(b5) we can’t really us a 9th since the Bb is not the greatest extension on an Aø chord. In this case I am using an 11th and I am using it instead of the 3rd. This can work sometimes, but won’t always workout for a lot of chords. In this case the b5 combined with the 11th will still make it a clear m7b5 sound.

#3 Adding several extensions to the chords

The next logical step is to start using two extensions for each chord. Which is what I am doing here below.

The Cm7 is turned into a Cm7(9,11). The 9th is replacing the root, and the 11th is replacing the 5th. In a minor chord the 13th doesn’t work well with this m7 chord, but using the note below the 5th is a viable option.

The F7 is turned into a 13b9 which is from the diminished scale. 

The Bb chord uses the rules above to add a 9th and a 13th. The Ebmaj7 stays with a 9th.

On the Aø I have now added a 9th. The 9th is implying another scale on this chord. The first choice would be G minor, but now with the B in there it is coming out of C melodic minor.

The D7 is analtered chord adding b9 and alterering the 5th to a b5.

On the tonic chord I am using a GmMaj7 with an added maj6th which really drives home the melodic minor sound.

The final G7 is coming out of the altered scale and is derived from the original G7 voicing. 

#4 Autumn Leaves Chords: Other Sounds and voicing types

Sometimes another way of adding different sounds is not to add more notes to the chords but instead to opt for certain voicings that have a characteristic sound. The last two examples use this quite a lot.

The first Cm7 is voiced as an Bb triad over an Eb which has a distinct sound with the  second interval between the Eb and the F.

On the Bbmaj7 the  sounds is tweaked a bit by adding a #11 instead of the 5th. For the rest the 9th is added.

The Aø the sound is again A Locrian nat. 2 (or C mel minor) The voicing has a 9th instead of the root and an 11th instead of the 3rd. You could see it as an Ebmaj7(#5)

The D7(#9b5) is constructed similar to the rules above.

Another example of the GmMaj7 where I am using a Drop2 voicng but now using the minor 2nd between the root and the maj7th to color the sound.

With the G7alt voicing it is clear how this sound is really closely related to it’s tri tone substitute: Db7.

#5 The Spacy Herbie Hancock meets Brad Mehldau Jam

The final version is more a modal treatment of the chords. The focus is completely changed here. When harmonizing in a modal way the priority is not helping the chord to function but just to give it an interesting sound.

The Cm7 is now with an added 13th which really ruins its function: To delay the A (the 13th that is now in the chord). The F7 altered that follows compensates the harmonic movement with altereations.

On The Bbmaj7 chord is an incomplete chord, which here means that it has no 3rd. It does contain the 7th, 13th and #11. The Ebmaj7 is left untouched to change up the pace a bit.

The cadence to Gm is reharmonized with a tritone substitution to Eb7 D7 instead of Aø D7. The two dominants are then embellished by adding the II chord as well: Bbm7 Eb7 Aø D7. To add even more sounds I have turned the Aø into a Am7(9) which is essentially borrowing it from G Major rather than G minor.

With the tonic chord I also added another more colorful sound: Gm6(9#11) this chord is coming out of D harmonic minor and is really just meant as a surprising sound on the Gm chord.

The final G7 is a G7(#9) which is using a Bb triad over a B. This is coming out of the diminished scale.

The Chord Diagrams

If you prefer to check out the chord diagrams you can reference this chart:

Content:

0:00 Intro

0:58 Drop2 voicings

1:26 Ex 1 Basic Drop2 voicings

3:42 Ex 2 Adding Extensions + basic rules

7:07 Ex 3 More Extensions + advanced rules

9:51 Ex 4 Advanced Sounds

13:09 Ex 5 Modal Harmonization (Herbie Hancocks Playground)

18:06 A few thoughts on comping

18:57 Do you have a great approach for working with chord extensions?

Learn, Listen and Experiment

The best way to integrate these things is to try and play through them and relate them Autumn Leaves. But also try to incorporate them into your own playing and combine it with what you play already. It is always good to keep experimenting.

Finding more ideas on Autumn Leaves

If you are looking for more ideas and examples on Autumn Leaves then check out this WebStore lesson with 5 choruses of examples:

Autumn Leaves Comping – Lesson

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Autumn Leaves Chords – 3 ways to add colors and extensions

Autumn Leaves Chords – Chord Diagrams

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Easy Autumn Leaves Chord Melody and Quick How-to-Play!

Autumn Leaves is a great song to get starting playing easy chord melody arrangements on guitar. This famous jazz standard is both a great melody and a fairly easy option to play an easy chord melody.

In this lesson I will go over a chord melody arrangement of Autumn Leaves that I made. arrangement. The chords I am using are for the biggest part simple 3-note voicings called shell-voicings and I have also included some exercises to check those out.

You can scroll down and download the PDF of the Arrangement at the end of the page.

Autumn Leaves – The Song and the Chord Melody Arrangement

The key that I am using for Autumn Leaves in this arrangement is G minor. This is not the key from the real book, but it is the most common key for performing the song. The form of Autumn Leaves is AAB where A is 8 bars and B is 16 bars, so it is a 32 bar form.

The arrangement is using call-response to also allow the chords to add some groove to. This also allows for using the melody in the lower octave that often sounds a little fuller.

Learning some useful Shell-voicings for the song

To learn the chord melody we need some chords to play with the melody. The melody of Autumn Leaves is mostly a pick-up with followed by a single long note on the heavy bar. You can think of the first phrase as an example. This makes it easy to add chords while the long note is sounding.

Most of the chords that I use here are shell voicings, so it is a good idea to check those out in G minor.

In the exercises below I have the diatonic chords of G minor first  with the root on the E string and then with the root on the A string. For each exercise I start with the lowest possible chord and then move up one octave.

Chord Melody – It’s about the melody!

The first place to start with chord melody is learning the melody! In fact, it would be a more appropriate name if we turned it around: Melody Chord. This is because we are playing the melody and adding the chords, not the other way around (hopefully).

In example 3, here below. I have written out the melody for the first 8 bars of the song. It is written out in the places where I want to play the melody so that I can easily fit chords under it.

Really knowing the melody well and being comfortable moving it around the neck is essential when you start making your own chord melody arrangements (which should be 20 minutes after checking out this lesson…).

Autumn Leaves Chord Melody arrangement – The A-part

The A part of this song has the same structure for all phrases: a pickup and a long note. This means that the chords can be paired together and played in between the phrases.

In that way the chord pairs become: Cm7-F7, Bbmaj7-Ebmaj7, Aø-D7 and a final Gm6 chord.

When I am playing the melody I end on a note that is included in the chord and I make sure to use a fingering where I can add the chord while sustaining that note. In this case that is as much a technical as it is a musical consideration.

As you see above I use a “real” tonic minor chord so a Gm6 which is of course also what is suggested in the original composition (and the famous Miles Davis/Cannonball Adderly version as well)

The B part

The second half of the song is a bit more complicated. Of course, the melody has to change a bit not to become boring so in the B part, there are other melodic patterns.

In the first bar of there is no room to add a chord until the 4th beat which forces a change in the pattern and the rhythm of the chords. The next 6 bars again allows for adding the chords between phrases.

On the 9th bar of the B part the melody takes up the entire bar and I add the shell voicing under it. This first yields a complete Drop3 voicing for the Aø and then the basic shell voicing.

There is no chord under the D7 and the chord is inserted on beat 3.

The faster moving progression that follows: Gm7 C7 Fm7 Bb7 is harmonized first with a drop3 Gm7 voicing and for the rest shell voicings. This makes it impossible to sustain the melody, but it still works.

The last cadence has an Eb6 with the 6th in the melody and on the last D7 the melody is so low that I chose not to have any chords at all. Since the melody is moving all the time that is not much of a problem, and as I already said: The Melody is more important!

This is a blueprint for your own chord melody arrangements

I hope you can have fun playing through my arrangement and start to make it your own with variations and changes to the chords!

For me, the most fun part of chord melody is making your own arrangements! I think you should start trying to figure out how to do so as fast as possible. You can play other peoples arrangements as well, but there is no reason why you should not be creative with your own harmonizations and voicings!

Learning to solo on Autumn Leaves is of course also a part of playing it as a Jazz Guitarist. One approach to this using the arpeggios of the song is covered in this lesson: Autumn Leaves with Arpeggios

How To Make Your Own Chord Melody Arrangements!

You can learn to make your own chord melody arrangements, and it is not even that difficult.

This lesson will help you:

  • Learn How To Make your own Chord Melody Arrangments
  • Work through a structured path to develop your playing
  • Easy to play and not relying on you knowing thousands of chords.

Chord Melody Survival Kit

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