Some people say that jazz has the best ballads except maybe Chicago Chicago has some good ballots
so let's talk about some tips for how you can play jazz ballads like a pro coming on up
so in order to play jazz you're definitely gonna have to learn some ballads and learn how to play
them well and while Jazz has a lot of different challenges such as the need to play at up tempos
fast tempos also the challenge of playing slow like in ballads is equally challenging
so tip number one is to categorize the chords so let's take a look at this Jazz ballad called
darn that dream which we actually studied in my inner circle membership it sounds like this
thank you
and the first thing that you're going to notice is there are a ton of chords in this Jazz ballad
I mean it's kind of a little bit dizzying when you look at this chord chart and since ballads
are moving very slowly they tend to have a lot of chords and a big challenge a lot of people
have is simply memorizing what those chords are so it's important that you learn to categorize chords
appropriately and not think of them as individual entities for example we see that we're in the key
of G major only one sharp and we actually start with the one chord which is G Major seven then we
go to a B flat minor seven E flat seven before arriving at this a minor seven which is the
two chord but the chords that I'm really paying attention to is again this G Major seven and this
a minor seventh chord and then looking forward this sixth chord right here which is the E minor
seven these are what I call resolution centers in harmony so then we look at a chord progression
like G Major seven going to a B flat minor seven flat seven arriving to an A minor seven versus
this looking like it has absolutely nothing to do with the key then we just start realizing that the
B flat minor seven E flat seven is like a two five that's leading into the a minor seven which is the
two chord in B flat major this B7 chord then all of a sudden doesn't look so strange because we
realize that it's actually the five chord of this E minor seven or we call this the five of six it
gives this tension and resolution kind of sound so by categorizing chords together and understanding
how the Harmony works in the first place you'll be able to memorize these so much easier and
ultimately able to play the songs a lot better now if you're kind of new to Jazz and Jazz Theory and
all this went way over your head not to worry at the very end of this video I'm going to share with
you a video that's really going to help you start to understand this a little bit better and how
to understand Jazz standards themselves so stick around to the very end tip number two is know the
authentic original Melody one big mistake I hear a lot of players do is they're really embellishing
the melody a lot or playing a lot of things around the melody simply because it's going by
very slowly but it comes apparent that they're not just embellishing the melody they don't actually
know the original Melody very well so in the case of darn that dream it sounds like this
foreign
just the vanilla plain Melody make sure you know that really well now a good tip if you're
having trouble figuring this out is look for Frank Sinatra or vocalist versions of the standard that
you're looking for oftentimes people like Frank Sinatra are seeing the melody perfectly straight
perfectly original exceptions to this would be like Billie Holiday Billie Holiday almost never
sings A Melody straight so don't use her as a resource although certainly use her as a resource
for how to express or embellish the melody and by the way if you want a really simple foolproof
process for how to learn the Melodies of jazz standards by ear I have a completely free guide
for that called learn jazz standards the smart way I'll leave you a link to that in the description
down below so you can have that for help tip number three is to use the melody to help build
your solo The Melody is what really identifies or gives identity your characteristic to the
Jazz standard or The Ballad you're listening to or playing so if you're to just start improvising
and ignore the melody altogether technically you're doing a slight disservice to this song
itself and missing out on a valuable opportunity to use the melody in your solos so since you know
the melody really well inside and out you can reference it or embellish it or come back to it
at any point in your improvisation so that you're hinting back to it it could go something like this
foreign
so you heard me hinting at the melody there every once in a while like for example I hit
the sharp 11 which is the melody note on the B7 going to the E minor seven and sometimes just
hit some of those themes in between some of the other lines and Melodies that I was
improvising so spend a lot of time practicing this going from just the very basic Melody and
slowly embellishing it and then improvising and quoting it and using it as a tool tip
number four is include smaller subdivisions while improvising one thing I sometimes coach my inner
circle members on when I hear them playing ballads is that I hear Too Much half notes
quarter notes and even whole notes while they're improvising it may sound something like this
thank you
so lots of space which is a good thing ultimately we want to build our solos
and not just go playing a bunch of notes out of the gate but we also
need some relief with some eighth notes some triplets and even some 16th notes like this
foreign
so adding the smaller subdivisions to break up the monotony of the larger ones is a good idea
and definitely listen to the pros because you're going to hear them doing this all of the time now
tip number five is a good tip especially for cordial players and comping instruments but
if you're a horn player don't tune this one out because you can also try to do this as well if you
have some experience on a secondary instrument and that would be to create chord Melodies now chord
Melody is simply playing the chords and the melody at the same time and for a comping instrument like
guitar piano it can be really helpful to make a connection between the chords and the melody and
what you're actually improvising so for example just sit down and create an arrangement like this
foreign
doesn't have to sound like an amazing Joe Pass or Bill Evans solo piano it's just the process of
experimenting and going through matching chords with the melody and seeing what you can figure
out about the Harmony in the melody together so whenever you're doing a ballot and you play one
of those instruments definitely consider doing that now tip number six is once again for the
comping instruments but important for others to hear as well which is do not over comp now
because it's going by so slowly the Temptation for piano players guitar players is to play a
lot of chords and play as many inversions and spicy chords as they can possibly get their
hands on but the problem when doing that is you can completely forget about what the solos is
actually playing completely forget about what the other musicians are actually doing and end
up creating a bunch of noise so what you want to be doing is listen for openings when a soloist
is playing listen for when it is appropriate for you to pump at all I once heard Benny Green The
Pianist in a concert literally not play at all for an entire chorus of a soloist and then the
second chorus when he started comping it was very sparse just a few chords every couple bars and he
built on it and gave more support as he felt it was warranted and that was one of the best
lessons I've ever heard in comping ever was You're simply there just to support The Soloist nothing
else really matters it's not about you playing a bunch of amazing luscious chord voicings although
those can be nice of course but when you're comping the pros are playing bows in such
a way that they're serving the music always uplifting it making it sound good and using
voicings and chords to a company not to steal the show so again I mentioned that ballads have a lot
of chords and sometimes they can be difficult to memorize but I have a video on the screen right
now that teaches you how to memorize chords to Jazz standards and some of the fundamentals in
here are going to be really helpful for you and set you up for Success so go ahead and click that
video on the screen right now don't forget my free guide learn jazz standards the smart way
which I'll leave in the description down below if you like this video make sure you give it a
thumbs up of course subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers