D'Addario Woodwinds Blog: Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Working on standard tunes;styles and analysis for study. Part 2..

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Working on standard tunes;styles and analysis for study.Part 2.

Here is Part 2 of....The styles and analysis blogs to help students of every level get a focus on developing repertoire.As I said- These tunes are necessary tunes and everybody’s repertoire… You should not be playing these tunes on a gig with an iPad or real book they should be memorized. These are common language tunes-tunes to have fun with. Plus they are the core of real jazz playing and fun.

Here is Part 2.

Tunes for Memorization

Anthropology	Charlie Parker	Summit Meeting at Birdland
Au Privave	Charlie Parker	Swedish Schnapps - The Genius of Charlie Parker
Blue Train	John Coltrane	Blue Train
Dig	Sonny Rollins	Dig
Donna Lee	Charlie Parker	Bird/ The Savoy Recordings
Just Friends	Charlie Parker	Charlie Parker with Strings
I'm Old Fashioned/ballad	John Coltrane	Blue Train
Nica's Dream	Hank Mobley	Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
On Green Dolphin Street	Cannonball Adderley	Jazz Track
Oleo	John Coltrane	Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Stompin' at the Savoy	Phil Woods	Legrand Jazz

Additional Tunes for Memorization...research these as I did the above. All of these and the tunes from last week's blog- YOU HAVE TO KNOW. Blue Monk; Confirmation; Dewey Square; Have You Met Miss Jones; I Got Rhythm; Just Friends; Lazy Bird; Ojos de Rojo; Star Eyes

Think on your feet. These are fun as I said a million times and a gateway to real playing.

From a harmony side- ‘Autumn Leaves’ by Joseph Kosma . I chose this tune because the harmony is great being mainly in one key which makes it easy to improvise over. I dig the way in which the chords circle using 4^th movements in a logical manner (i.e. Cm-F7-Bbma-Ebma etc).

Next " Stella". In addition, the tune has many great harmonic movements and modulations, using common jazz changes by resolving or sequencing through uncommon chords resulting harmonic underpinning is fantastic, with waves of tension heightened by the +7 chord at the bridge and the series of descending minor 2-5’s in the 4^th section.

‘All of Me’ which uses a simple but effective melody set against a long series of secondary dominant chords that move around and against the pitch axis (of C Major). Listening to Louis Armstrong’s version and anything he plays and sings gives me goose-bumps!

Last but not least- For now on, when you learn a new piece of music you need to analyze your tunes first.
Figure out what the important patterns are. How the melody relates to this too! Listen to the masters versions as I'm mentioning here- Play along with the CD.
A big part of learning how to play jazz is learning how to play standards.
And playing jazz means choosing repertoire from and studying the Great American Songbook.
As a teacher, I’m often asked which tunes a student should learn when starting their exploration of jazz.
In this set of blogs, you’ll learn standards that every musician should study.
These jazz standards cover a wide range of chord progressions and prepare you for your first, or next, jam session or gig.

These tunes should become 2ed nature to you. Learn the melody and be able to swing it without a band or play along.