So how can you play jazz standards at jam sessions and gigs even if you've never heard them before
well today i'm sharing with you my top tips for recognizing chord progressions coming up a very
valuable skill is being able to recognize chord progressions not only so that you can learn jazz
standards by ear but also in case you happen not to know a tune on a jam session or gig
you're able to pick up those chord progressions relatively quickly and as for myself personally as
long as the jazz standard has traditional harmony i'm able to pick up on the chord progressions in
the first one to two times through the form so if you want to develop this skill here's
how i would go about doing it now tip number one is to memorize jazz standards with roman
numeral analysis so this doesn't really have so much to do with hearing chords just yet however
this is really critical because when we're hearing chord progressions and recognizing them we want to
be able to put a name to what they are so that we can intellectually understand what they are
so for example taking a look here at autumn leaves very classic tune that everybody should know how
to play we see that we have two five one chord progressions so understanding what two five one
chord progressions are understanding the diatonic series how we get the sixth chord of a key center
what the minor keys are and what chords are in the minor keys are all very important we also have
this minor 2 5 1 and just simply understanding what those are helps us to be able to put a name
to the sounds that we're actually hearing so the first step really is if you aren't familiar
with roman numeral analysis as it goes to chord progressions start getting familiar with that and
understanding what they are because that's going to be really pivotal for you to be connecting that
ear to brain ratio now tip number two and possibly one of the most important tips i can give you
is to learn as many jazz standards as possible as long as you're learning new jazz standards
you're starting to recognize the sounds of common chord progressions because spoiler a lot of jazz
standards have similar chord progressions and similar harmonic movements so once you learn
one jazz standard the next jazz standard you're likely to encounter similar chord progressions
within them and the idea when we're trying to recognize chord progressions isn't that we're
able to pinpoint what each chord is individually but rather holistically are able to recognize the
general sounds of chord progressions so take a look at this jazz standard called my shining
hour which we studied recently in our inner circle membership now one thing that i really like about
this tune is that it goes to the four chord in the bridge so it's in the key of e flat major
okay so lots of one six two five chord progressions up here at the top and
then we eventually get to the bridge where it goes
but the sound of two to 5 to 1 to a flat major which is a 2 5 to the 4 chord in e flat major
is a really definitive sound that happens a lot in jazz standards
so if my ear can start recognizing the sound of the e-flat tonality going to
the iv chord that means technically any other jazz standard where i hear that movement
i'll be able to start recognizing that sound simply by exposing myself to a jazz standard
like my shining hour that has this harmonic movement so this tip is really important
keep learning as many jazz standards as possible and by the way if you need help learning jazz
standards go check out my absolutely free guide it's called learn jazz standards the smart way
go to learnjazzstandardsthesmartway.com and i'll send that to you now tip number three is to start
transposing jazz standards so again this isn't as much in the ear realm as training our ears as it
is starting to train our ability to intellectually understand what the chord progressions mean that
we are hearing so for example if we look back at autumn leaves again we know that it starts with
a 2 5 1 chord progression in b flat major but if i wanted to play autumn leaves in a different key
such as e flat major i would have to know what are the 2 and the 5 and the 1 in e flat major
they're actually f minor 7 b flat 7 and e flat 7 and then over here i have to know what is the iv
chord in e flat major we know that it's e flat and b flat but what is it in e flat well it's a flat
and the 2 5 to the g minor what is that in e flat well it's actually a 2 5 to c minor so d minor 7
flat 5 g 7 to c minor and why is it important to know all this well a it's really good for your
ears to be able to hear these chord progressions in different keys other than the one you're
learning them in but b if you were to go to a jam session and someone calls a song you don't know
if you ask them first what is the key of the tune that you're playing that now gives you the context
to relate to what the chords you're hearing are and putting actual names to those chords so you
can learn them on the spot so start transposing different jazz standards into different keys even
if it's just one other key and this will really help you in the long run now tip number four is to
use the trial and error method for learning chord progressions by ear so obviously the stuff we've
talked about just in these last three tips are big picture stuff to be doing that ultimately are
going to best help you to learn chord progressions by ear but we also have to get into the trenches
and do the dirty work and this is where the trial and error method comes in which is exactly what
it sounds like you're going to have to just start listening to chord progressions of jazz standards
and just trying to figure out on your instrument no matter what you play what the notes are or what
the chord qualities are so for example let's take a look at this mystery chord progression
obviously we can't see what the chords are at all and we're just gonna have to be listening
to something by ear so let's take a listen to what this mystery chord progression sounds like
okay so what i would do right from the very beginning is just go ahead and play from the
very first note and try to figure out what the bass player is playing so let me play it
okay i'm gonna try to find that on my instrument okay this note is a c natural now the bass player
isn't always playing the roots on the beginning of the chords but oftentimes
it's at least coming back to the root so in this case i feel like the bass player is really
hanging out on this so i know that the first chord is c at least c now let's keep listening
okay the next note is a g now again i'm doing this very quickly for the sake of
this video but it may take you many many times to do this if you've never
done it before for me i'm a little bit quicker so that's a g so so far we have c
g okay that's the pitch the bass player played okay so it's another c so we have c for four beats
we have a g for two beats and we have a c for another two b's so let's keep listening
okay bull bull was the note i heard the bass player play
so that note is f f natural okay so we have a c we have a g we have a c and now we have an
f natural and i know there's one more chord so let's listen to it one more time
that's a b flat again i'm going through this very quickly this might take you more time so don't be
discouraged so so far we have c for four beats g and c for two beats and then f for four beats
and then b-flat so now that we know what the base notes are our goal now is to figure out what the
chord qualities are now this can get a little bit tricky what you really want to do again is just
trial and error so let's listen to the first chord and really to pay attention to the piano this time
okay i heard the sound of the piano what i would do is you could just arpeggiate if you're playing
a sax or a trump or whatever or you can play the chords if you're a guitar player like me but i
would go through the five different qualities of seventh chords major dominant seven minor seven
half diminished and fully diminished and see which one fits so again listening to the first chord
okay i'm gonna play a c major seven and honestly that actually sounds like it fits to me
in fact it sounds like that right
so i think it's a c major seven now if i wanted to clarify that i could try playing a c minor seven
that didn't match what the piano player was playing so i'm gonna conclude that i think
it's likely that this is a c major seven then we can keep going through this process
just to speed up this process i found out that this is a c major seven and then a g minor seven
c seven f major seven and b flat seven okay so that's actually a one two five two
four we talked about that right with my shining hour and then a 4 of f it's the b flat 7 okay so
again that's the roman numeral analysis now also playing into my trial and error method now tip
number five could help you if you're really not good with hearing what chord qualities sound like
and that is to do interval and chord fundamentals ear training fundamentals so this could be
as simple as just playing a note like this and asking yourself to sing what the seventh is so
okay that's the seventh or here's this note what's the third
duh okay that's the third or when we go to chord training fundamentals core to
your training fundamentals we could play an entire chord okay so what's the seventh
okay that's the seventh it's a flat seven because it's a dominant seventh chord so working on this
over time whether it be with ear training apps or different courses for ear training like we
have in our inner circle membership this can be the helpful fundamental basic tools that
can help be building blocks now for me personally if i would really focus on any one of these tips
obviously the one for me is keep learning jazz standards and associating roman numerals to the
sounds that you're hearing and that way over time you're just going to start recognizing the sounds
of the chord progressions as a whole not as individual chords and this is the fastest way
to start being able to play instant jazz standards even if you've never heard them
before now by the way if you want to watch another video where i actually go through the trial and
error method on a mystery chord progression even more in depth check out the video on the screen
right now that's going to be a really good one to further get this idea of how we can really
figure out how to hear chord progressions by year all right that's off today's video
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