Right, have a look at this. As you may have seen in my previous blog, the next class of Sussex Jazz Guitar School will focus on creative practicing and how to approach learning to solo over the changes of a new tune using a variety of methods. First up, here’s the tune!
It’s the Jazz Standard – “I’ll remember April”. I’ve chosen this tune in particular because it contains a number of harmonic traits which would be useful to identify and work on. As with all jazz standards, you will find small variations of the chords depending on where you look in Real Books, I Real B apps etc.. but what is important is the road map of the tune and the over all harmonic layout. For example you may see this tune in books as a bar of GMaj7 then a bar of G6. This is basically the same chord as it functions as a I chord. So I’m going to list the standard basic changes to the tune here below..(% means same chord as previous bar)
Gmaj7 % % %
Gmin7 % % %
Amin7 D7 Bmin7 E7
Amin7 D7 Gmaj7 %
Cmin7 F7 Bbmaj7 %
Cmin7 F7 Bbmaj7 %
Amin7 D7 Gmaj7 %
F#m7 B7 Emaj7 D7
Gmaj7 % % %
Gmin7 % % %
Amin7 D7 Bmin7 E7
Amin7 D7 Gmaj7
Here’s the chart from the Real Book… Notice the m7b5 chords, the G7 on bar 12 and other variations which we’ll discuss in class. But for now concentrate on the chart above if you want to understand and play the changes easier.
This lesson will focus on getting through the complex chord changes and key centers of a tune. By all means, learn the above melody and we will address this in class. But the October class (using a different tune) will look more in depth at chord melody guitar playing.
Try and make sense of what is happening in the tune, spotting II,V,I’s and key changes.
Try and memorize the chord changes but also print out a copy of the Real Book chords (or use iphone app – ireal b) for reference in class.
Also try and revise the scale positions from one of my previous videos as we will be looking at how to solo through key changes without jumping around all over the guitar neck, ie smooth key transition within specific points of the guitar neck. Here’s the vid…
See you on the 28th Sept 11am!!!!
