Learning Standards

Building A Book
Everyone you run into is going to tell you to learn Tunes. I'm not going to be any different.
LEARN SOME TUNES!!
Okay I did that just for fun, however I'm being serious. Learning tunes is important and I am
no tune master by any streth the imagination but I know somewhere around !"" # !$" tunes
right now and feel inade%uate to the point that most of my pratie fous is on learning more
standard tunes right now, not only for their most obvious pratial appliations but for those in
my interest in &a'' (omposition. The )ore tunes you know, well the more tunes you an
play. *eople who are real book readers or only know +" tunes are limited in what their set
lists are going to be like day in and day out. ,nd yes, when I talk about knowing a tune, I'm
talking about memori'ation and not only memori'ation but Internali'ation of that piee of
musi.
I often listen to -eith &arrett reordings with his trio and am ama'ed at his ommand of these
piees. There is a man that knows a lot of tunes, and went bak to standards when they were
starting to %uite honestly beome passe in the ja'' annon. )ost people in the mid.late /"'s
were playing eletri musi and a lot of original musi. The 0tandards trio's disography is
not only impressive in it's number of reordings but the breadth of the standards hosen. The
0ame e1ists with other players espeially pianists who follow the more 23ill Evans4 shool of
playing. Evans' influene on &a'' as a whole annot be shorthanged by any means but he
ertainly had a way of playing standards in a way that made them memorable. 5e has plenty
of 2definitive4 versions of several &a'' standards, go to reordings that )usiians transribe
his hanges and lines from and this is really an important thing to us as )usiians looking for
material to play. If all I knew were +" tunes then I'd be pretty bored pretty fast. Even with the
!"" tunes I do know I forget what tunes I atually do know and out of those !"" maybe +" of
them are tunes I want to play all the time. 0o that's a +"6 ration. 0ay I knew +" tunes, then
maybe a do'en of them give or take would be tunes I really wanted to all on gigs7 )an I'd
be in trouble in a hurry.
Learning tunes has a learning urve. ,t the start, getting omfortable with learning and
beoming fluent on a tune an be frustrating and time onsuming. It used to take me a week
to learn a tune well enough so that I ould play the hanges, melody 8in ! otaves9 and
improvise without getting lost in the form of the tune. :ow, after years of study I an learn a
standard tune in a day unless it has a partiularly diffiult form or melody 8like a bebop head9.
5owever this isn't wholly do to just spending time on it, it was a system that I developed for
learning 0tandard tunes that allowed me to apply it %uikly and not only to be able to play that
tune in one key but in any key that I so desired. This was to me a huge advantage beause I
was doing a lot of work at points in time with ;oalists who seldom 8in my e1periene9
perform tunes in the given -eys that instrumentalists like to play them in. 3ut my ability to
transpose hanges easily and %uikly almost on the spot gave me a leg up on a lot of other
people who were looking for gigs and what not. I didn't have to read the ;oalist's hart like
they would, if he or she said 2,utumn Leaves, ( minor4 then it was not a problem for me to be
able to transpose it right then and there and not need to have a hart. )ost people where I
was were not so keen on being able to do that.
The other advantage to the system was that it taught me how to learn melodies and form to
the point that getting lost was now a thing of the past for me. This is something that plauges
most people when learning tunes, blowing the form, whih 2,4 setion am I on, was that the
bridge7 I forget the <
nd
ending on this tune7=
3e aware my friends that there is no set number of tunes you should know. 3ut be aware that
basially you should never stop learning tunes ever. The larger your book the more melodi
and harmoni material you an draw from. One of my favourite %uotes of all time omes from
the late great Tenor 0a1ophonist &oe 5enderson.
2>ou never met a guy that knew +"" tunes that ouldn't play74
,men &oe, ,men.
The Melody
There really are two types of )elodies that ome in the &a'' Tradition. )elodies from the
3ebop Tradition and those that are in that vein and those that are from the Lyrial Tradition.
3ebop type melodies and the tunes they spawned have omple1 melodies that re%uire a
tehnial approah to playing them. These tunes an be melodi in nature with some nie
singing passages to them, but often times they are angular and ?
th
note based that re%uire
signifiant time to work out on the instrument. Espeially beause these heads often were
written by 5orn players they an 2lay4 strangely on the @uitar. Aor e1ample, ertain parts of
the 3ridge on (onfirmation are really hard to pull off learly. @uitarists need to learn how to
ghost notes or at least develop a swift enough right hand 8sweep piking9 to be able to pull off
some of these bebop lines.
)elodies oming from the 2,merian 0ongbook4 were written with lyris and therefore written
to be sung before played by an instrument and therefore are easier to deal with. )ost people
don't learn 3ebop tunes in !< keys beause of the amount of work it would take to do it, and
beause some of these tunes present suh a signifiant hallenge themselves to play over
the hanges that people will only stray from the given -ey in order to offer themselves a
speifi hallenge to themselves and or their band mates. It would be a rare thing to have
someone all a tune like )oose the )oohe in anything but the normal key even though it is
only a Bhythm (hanges, beause people don't bother learning that melody in any other keys.
5owever, when it omes to regular Lyri standards being able to play in !< keys melody,
hanges and whatnot is an important skill to have.
The *ratial appliations of having tunes transposed is simple... @C0 8@ig with 0inger9.
;oalists hange keys of standards onstantly and only beause they may or may not be
limited by their instrument or sound, feel more omfortable singing everything within a ertain
register of keys. Thus the key of Eb might be no good for a singer and therefore has to sing I
5ear a Bhapsody in the key of ,b. Cho knows, it is a rap shoot. 5owever knowing how to
play something without reading is always the best option and therefore knowing how to
effetively transpose things is something worth learning to do.
,nother pratial appliation beyond singers is that we ourselves as @uitarists might want to
visit standards in other keys just to fit better on the guitar. E flat is a good e1ample of a key
on the @uitar that I personally find frustrating. It's diffiult to play in that key for me moreso
then a key like A or 3 flat. I prefer the lay of those keys. I like , minor over D minor et. 0o if
I want to play tunes for myself I an play them in any other key I want to. *lus this is great for
transposing standards to reate introdutions or just entire solo piees by yourself to get a
better lay of the guitar.
E1ampleE In , 0entimental )ood is in the key of D minor but with hit's melody it lays very
high on the guitar and needs more bass support. >ou ould tune your E string down to a low
D or you just ould play the whole thing down a $
th
and it will lay beautifully on the instrument
plus give you some nie open string options for hords.
Learning to transpose melodies for me was hallenging. 3ut I typially went with the proess
of understanding hord tone relationships and just straight up knowing the melody really really
really well. Learning Lyris was a big help, even if not knowing the entire horus it's good to
know the lyris to the start of eah setion as it re.enfores the interval relationships.
-nowing the Interval from the root for key parts of the tune will also help. Aor e1ample 2I Love
>ou4 has series of /ths in the melody. )y Aavourite part of that tune is on the bridge when it
goes up and up all the way to the / of a 2II4 minor hord 8more on that in a seond9.
*laying melodies in bo1es an work, espeially if your melody has a limited range. If you're
playing a tune that has a range of no more then an otave an be learned in a simple single
shape and learned in at least < otaves to help you get some more e1pressive options.
5owever, this way of learning a melody an stunt any sort of reative improv with the melody
in and of itself. 3e.areful when playing melodies that you don't just play it off the page. This
an sound pretty boring and unreative.
The Harmony
)emori'ation of the (hanges is probably for @uitarists the thing that we fous on the most
sine we only really get to play 5eads when we're in trio or say %uartets with *ianists. 0ure
sometimes other onditions apply but lets be honest, a lot of guitarists 8myself inluded9 know
the hanges to more tunes then we know the melodies to. I am working to fi1 that but for
e1ample no matter how many times I've played 2There Cill :ever 3e ,nother >ou4 I tend to
forget that melody somehow. Either I don't onnet with it or I just never get a hane to. The
(hanges, I know and don't worry about. It's a ombination of a system to learn the hanges
plus they're often times used to make ontraphats 8ompositions where the omposer takes
an e1isting tune and writes a new melody over the hanges9.
Early on most people just go with straight name reognition of hords and therefore learn the
tune in a very rigid and at the start limited fashion but they're able to get through it. Obviously
the more you play a tune the easier it gets just through repetition. I used to learn tunes like
this off of real books and lead sheets given to me. >ears ago I hanged and started to learn
through a proess of memori'ation of the funtional harmony of the tune. It helped my theory,
ear training and let me transpose everything to any key I want to.
&a'' 0tandards are often ombinations of lihe progressions that I'm sure you might already
be familiar with. II ; I or I ;I II ; or III ;I II ; et et. Through a proess of learning tunes
that way with a ombination of memori'ation of root movements you an learn a tune in any
key and in a way you won't forget. Aor e1ample, why don't we look at an old standby jam
tune, ,ll The Things >ou ,re.
If I were to learn the hanges to this tune by naming every hord individually I have to go..
Am/ 3bm/ Eb/ ,b)/ Db)/
Dm/ @/ ()/ ()/
(m/ Am/ 3b/ Eb)/ ,b)/
,m/b$ D/bF @)/ @)/
,m/ D/ @)/ @)/
AGm/b$ 3/bF E)/ (/H
Am/ 3bm/ Eb/ ,b)/
Db)/ Dbm/ (m/ 3dim/
3bm/ Eb/ ,b)/
wow that to me is a lot of information to remember. Chy not look at it like this...
The tune starts ;I II ; I I; in the 23ig -ey4 in this instane ,b. Then my I; hord's root moves
up a I step and beomes the II of a new II ; I in the key of III 8in this ase (major9
then it does it again up a perfet $
th
.
Then it does the 2,ll The Things >ou ,re4 3ridge 8e1plained later9. II ; I in the key of ;II 8@
major9. Then my root moves down a I step and beomes the II of a deeptive II ; I in the
key of G; 8E )ajor9
Then I am on my last !< bars. 0tarts the same way that my first + bars.
Then we have I; major then basially I; minor, down a I step minor down a I step
diminished then II ; I.
If you know your major sale hord funtions then this is a faster way to learn this tune.
,ll The Things >ou are is somewhat omple1 beause of it's form, lets look at a !< bar blue=
A/J 3b/J A/ J(m/ A/J
3b/ J3dim/J A/ J,m/ D/J
@m/ J(/J A/ D/ J@m/ (/J
Or look at it like....
I to I; bak to I then II ; to the I; hord. Boot up a I step diminished. I hord, then II ; to
the II hord 8@m/9 then ; and then a turn around bak to the top of the tune.
Obviously to understand this language you need to have an understanding of turn.a.rounds in
&a''. If you don't know what those are, you're behind and you need to get a theory book or a
teaher to teah you what they are. >ou'll need to know terms like
0ub.dominant or 3akdoor II ;
Deeptive II ;
,ll The Things >ou ,re 3ridge
I got Bhythm (hanges
I @ot Bhythm 3ridge
5oney 0ukle Bose 3ridge
(oltrane (hanges
Tri.Tone 0ubstitution
Giv half diminished adene.
:one of these are terribly diffiult to understand 8well (oltrane hanges an be sure9. 3ut
one you learn to reogni'e these things then you're going to bree'e through learning tunes=
Form
It's also really important to learn to reogni'e the form of a tune as %uikly and effetively as
possible. Take note of the , setions and 3 or ( 0etions. )any 0tandard tunes fall into
these sorts of Aorms
K< 3ars
,,3,
,,3,L
,3,(
,,3(
,3(D
0ome E1amples7
,utumn Leaves M , , 3 (
,ll The Things >ou ,re M , 3 ( D8or ,L9
Emily M , 3 , (
:ight and Day M ,,3
3ody and 0oul M ,,3,
There Cill :ever 3e ,nother >ou M ,3,(
0tella 3y 0tarlight M , 3 ( D
Ce typially look at ? bar hunks but it's not always so. ,ll The Things has a !< bar D setion
and ,lone Together has !+ bar , 0etions=
How To Practice Practically?
Chen I am learning a new tune I take myself through a memori'ation proess that helps
solidify the harmony as I outlined, )elody as outlined and form as outlined without prioriti'ing
one over the other and learn how to improvise over the tune at the same time.
I will selet a omfortable tempo for the tune and sit down with my metronome and start to
play the melody for ! hord, then omp the hanges for ! horus then improvise ! horus.
Then rinse and repeat. This way I don't get to blow again until I've worked myself through the
tune ompletely again. This is something I'll do for K" minutes maybe even an hour. I'll stop
when I make mistakes, fi1 them, work out fingerings for hallenging melodi passages and go
bak to the start of the yle again. ,s I progress through this I take the musi and throw it
away. Nsually by the end of the day I will have the tune memori'ed and an then start
working out speifi issues with the tune.
)any tunes out there have these speifi hallenges espeially when blowing over them.
0ome tunes have harmoni things in them with are either uni%ue for the tune or they have
things in them that re%uire speifi direted pratie. Diffiult passages need to be analy'ed
and thought about and attaked with lear and appropriate reahable goals. 5ere are some
ideas.
Eliminate or limit the problem. If you're having trouble finiding out what to play over a
set of hord hanges beause the hanges are happening fast then eliminate the
problem and pratie them rubato until you an find on the instrument how to onnet
the hanges. Then after you've mapped out the problem on the instrument and in your
brain add a tempo that is fair. 0tart working on it at a slower tempo and start to bump it
up.
If you find a *rogression that is odd, or strange that you've not ome aross you will
need to address this. The (hanes are many people have found the same thing a
problem and have solved it and then will be listening rather unonsiously to those
parts of tunes when other people play them. Transription of ideas by masters or just
really lose listening and study an yield ideas. Chat do I play over the , 0etions of
Cell you needn't with all those I step Dominant hords7 Cant the answer, go listen to
)onk play that tune. >ou'll find something.
0ometimes there are tunes you just have to 2Live Cith4 before you really an feel
omfortable with them. )emori'ation of a tune is not the same as being able to play a
tune. 0ome people might be able to memori'e the progression of @iant 0teps but just
annot say anything on those hanges for months or years later= It took Trane O
months of hardore shedding to be able to play that solo whih was, if you look at it
very formulai and lik based.... and totally awesome.
Transcrition o! Tunes
Don't beome a real book ripple. Learning tunes off reordings is vastly superior to learning
out of books. >ou an't e1pet to be able to speak a foreign language unless you go to the
soure and this applies to learning the language of &a'' as well. Ainding e1ellent reordings
of your favourite standards is step one. Arom there just start working on piking through it.
Beal 3ooks are a onveniene and yes I own my share of them.
:owadays when I find a tune I am really into I will learn it from reordings beause I want to
find variations on the tune. That's all these reordings are unless they're re harmoni'ed
signifiantly. Chat I want to have is a list of options on a tune for how I want to address it. I
also find that if you go and do the grunt work of transription of the tune you will internali'e it
muh more and seldom after that point forget how the tune goes, what the melody is played
like and what the harmony of the tune is.
The "ene!it o! Memori#ation
Every time I go to a gig and there's a jam session atmosphere to it 8meaning that it's just a
0tandard alling gig, no original musi9 and people are up there with Beal 3ooks I sometimes
feel bad. I bring books to gigs beause I don't know every tune, but in reality I seldom use
them. I don't want to play tunes that people need to read and no one really does. I an tell
when someone is reading just by listening to them playing on an audio trak beause there is
a ertain lak of freedom. I an now learn tunes on the band stand now and if I need the
musi I almost always have the hanges in my head by the time I take a solo. 3ut that's a
skill I've learned.
In a perfet world you'd not need to read on stage. 0o that would be an ideal goal.
)emori'ation of tunes frees up your brain to just go and play and not have to follow the notes
and hords on a page. This gives room for musiality and e1pression of your musial being
and not letting your intelletual self need so muh of your brain's B,). The more tunes you
know the better you are off in every way. Even knowing +" tunes is an e1ellent start.
0tart a list, don't be too ambitious about it at the start but go ahead and write a list of +" tunes
you think that you need to know. If you're unsure, every &a'' forum has some sort of top !""
list of tunes. @o ahead and pik +" out of there. Crite them down and depending on your
pratie time start working on them. )aybe ! a week. Then before the year is out you've
reahed your goal.
One sure fired way to make this work for you will be to get a tune buddy. Aind someone who
you play with and start on the tune list together and at the end of every week get together and
play the tune of the week plus the tune from the last < weeks without the book in front of you.
Then pik the ne1t tune. 3uddy systems are great. *lus before you know it you've got +"
tunes you two an go gig on=