Jazz Standards are the songs you need to know to learn to play Jazz. I always say “Learn Jazz – Make Music” in my videos and the Jazz Standards are the songs that play when you make that music.
This video is a list of 50 Standards that are really useful to have in your repertoire. I have split them up in some different categories because that is practical for when you are playing. You don’t want to play 5 medium swing songs in F major next to each other in a set, you might find yourself playing the wrong theme at the end (true story!) Having variation in a set is very useful.
Learning Jazz Standards is essential to learning jazz, in fact learning the repertoire is everything with any genre of music. There are of course many ways to go about this, but since it is important and you want to learn a lot of songs then it is also useful to do this in an efficient way.
The first time I started to learn a Jazz Standard it took me about two months, and there are better ways to do that how I did it. And that is what this video is about.
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I say it all the time: Learn Jazz – Make Music, and to do that you need to know some songs, so in this video, I am going to go over 10 jazz standards that you want in your repertoire and are great places to start learning jazz. This is In terms of playing changes and knowing all the chords and scale but also about the form that you want to know which is going to make it easier to learn more complicated standards.
When talking about the songs I will try to reference great versions of them, and also talk about whether this song may be a good place to start for you if you are looking for songs to learn.
If you already know a lot of songs and have some other suggestions for this list then let me know about that in the comments to this video. Sharing information like that is really useful for everybody checking it out! I’ll talk about the first standards I learned later in the video, none of those are on the list.
If you want to check out some of the important progressions that make up Jazz Standards then check out this video: Chord Progressions as Building Blocks
Want to learn how to analyze standards? Then see how I do that in this playlist of videos on Jazz Standards and music theory: How To Analyze Jazz Standards
Get a PDF of the list
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If you want to download a Free E-book of 15 II Valt I licks then subscribe to my newsletter:
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Learning Jazz Standards is an important part of learning jazz. To yet again quote Peter Bernstein: “Learn the song and let the song teach you.” It is important to learn songs as a part of learning Jazz or Jazz Guitar. You want to have progressions where you can use and improve your skills as an improviser. In fact, learning Jazz Standards is also important for being able to play with other people and going to jam sessions.
In this video, I am going to show you how you can use the songs you already know to make it easier to learn new songs. I will also give you some examples of why it is great to think in functions and chord progressions rather than just each individual chord. The way I demonstrate this is by analyzing some jazz standards lead sheets These things are very much connected and also a huge help in learning songs. It is also important to use the music theory that you learn and benefit from analyzing jazz standards.
Content:
0:00 Intro 0:57 Efficient Music Theory 1:20 Improve the way you learn songs 1:58 Analyzing 5 Jazz Standards 2:06 Understanding the Form 2:12 The Blues Form Comparison 2:37 Learning Standards By Ear 2:43 Using The Form when transcribing 3:32 Thinking in Functions – How it helps 4:20 Thinking in Smaller Progressions as Building Blocks 4:44 Song #1 There Will Never Be Another You 4:52 The Basic Form 5:21 Main Analysis 8:38 Learn Jazz Songs, not Steely Dan, Coldplay etc. 8:58 Song #2 It Could Happen To You 13:42 Song #3 But Not For Me 15:44 Conclusion: Analysis side by side 17:06 Other Common Forms in Jazz 18:18 Song #3 Out Of Nowhere 18:42 A Double Diminished Chord! 19:50 More #IVish than German and Augmented 22:51 Out of Nowhere compared to the previous songs. 23:58 Song #4 Just Friends 27:50 Think “Top Down” when learning songs. 28:19 Think in Functions not only Chords 29:19 Like The Video? Check out my Patreon Page
Using Reharmonization in Solo
When you can analyze and understand a chord progression you also have the freedom to start changing the chords and create some really cool surprising melodies.
The PDF with examples for this video is available through Patreon. You can check out my Patreon Page here: https://www.patreon.com/jenslarsen
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If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
