If you're just getting started with jazz but aren't sure exactly where to start you need
to learn these three Jazz standards first in order to ensure your success let's talk
about them before we talk three important Jazz standards you need to start with let's
first talk about what Jazz standards are and why they're important to learn in the first
place a jazz standard put simply is a song that is commonly played amongst Jazz musicians
it's part of a collection of repertoire that will be sure to be called at jazz Jam sessions
or gigs they could come from the Great American Songbook which are songs from old films and
Broadway shows adapted to a jazz setting or they could be original compositions from Jazz
musicians themselves I suppose it's obvious to say that they're important to learn because
they're the songs that we play in the genre of jazz but they're also important because
the Jazz standards will teach you everything you need to know about chord progressions
and how to go about improvising over them the more Jazz standards you learn the better
you're gonna get at playing jazz so the very first Jazz standard that you need to learn
is sunny moon for two foreign [Music]
so the reason you should learn Sunny moon for two first is because it is a 12 Bar jazz
blues and when it comes to playing jazz the most important song form to master is the
blues because the blues is really where Jazz comes from so taking a look at the chords
to Sunny moon for two which is in the key of B flat we see that we have a one chord
a four chord and then a five chord which is really the formula for any blues that you
could play Rock jazz or otherwise but in jazz we add a few extra changes in there that makes
it unique so we start with that B flat seven one chord we go to the IV chord and then we
go back to the one chord B flat seven then we go back to the four chord in bar five but
then we steal from a gospel trick here and we go to the sharp four diminished which is
e diminished seventh in this particular case before of course going back to the one chord
now the important thing to know is that the most important chord progression in jazz is
the two five one which happens right here at the end two five one and then Jazz will
do something special to connect those together so this G7 is actually a dominant six chord
that connects us to the two five one so once you understand these chord progressions automatically
you're gonna start unlocking Jazz Harmony and work on just 12 bars of really important
chords but another reason I recommend Sunny moon for two if you're just getting started
is because it's a very simple repetitive Melody [Music]
and it really just is that repeated over and over again which happens just to be walking
down a minor pentatonic scale a scale which many of us already know so that's Sunny moon
for two by Sunny Rollins Jazz standard number two is Autumn Leaves [Music]
[Music] Autumn Leaves is the perfect song for getting started first of all because it's
really repetitive both in the chord progressions but also in the melody even the theme kind
of just sort of repeats itself in different Keys
over and over and over again so there's not a ton of melodic content that has to be learned
here and by the way if you need some help learning Melodies to Jazz standards or really
any song by ear I highly recommend getting my free guide called learn jazz standards
the smart way I'll leave that down in the description down below but also if you take
a look at the chord progressions to Autumn Leaves it really is also super repetitive
and really we're dealing with two keys here B-flat major and G minor although the song
is actually in the key of G minor which introduces a really important Concept in jazz Harmony
called relative Keys we start in the relative major which is B-flat major and then we go
to What's called the parent minor which is G minor hence the color coding here blue for
the relative major and red for the parent minor and essentially Autumn Leaves just repeats
these same chords over and over again and what are the chords that are being used well
we have a two five one which I just mentioned is the most important chord progression in
all of jazz so once you learn the two five one and one key you can start learning it
in other keys and you're going to see it come up in many many many many many many other
Jazz standards but we also have a minor two five one in a minor key A minor seven flat
5 D7 to G minor seven [Music] so autumn leaves not only is a simple Melody to learn but it
is a perfect example of understanding major and minor two five ones and relative Keys
some very fundamental harmonic Concepts in jazz that you will certainly come across in
other Jazz standards so this one will give you a massive Advantage if you learn this
one and understand it fully Jazz standard number three is Oleo [Music]
[Music] now Oleo is a great example of the second most important song form that you need
to know for jazz which is called rhythm changes it's called rhythm changes because it's essentially
the chord changes to the Jazz standard called I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin but many other
Jazz musicians especially the beboppers like Charlie Parker wrote different Melodies over
top of the same changes therefore we call this chord structure Rhythm changes and Rhythm
changes also has the third most important chord progression in all of jazz which is
the one six two five chord progression which in B flat major in this case is B flat major
7 G7 C Minor 7 F7 which you might notice also has a 2 5 1 included in it and there's also
variations to a 1625 for example you could do a three six two five instead putting the
D minor seven G7 C minor seven F seven and then finally arriving at the B flat major
seven now you'll also notice in Rhythm changes that we have the same concept as in a jazz
blues we have this four chord followed by this sharp four diminished chord and though
Rhythm changes can be considered Advanced by some really if you look at it you just
need to memorize these first eight bars and then the second eight bars are almost entirely
identical then you have a b section which is also an important thing to understand about
jazz we have something called a cycle of major fourths so we actually start on the three
chord which is D7 and then we go to G7 which is a Dominic six chord then C7 A2 chord and
F7 a five chord but if you notice something they all cycle in fourths from d g is a fourth
away and from g c is a fourth away from c f is a fourth away and this is a pattern that
emerges all the time in jazz standards for example going back to Autumn Leaves and looking
at the 2-5 C Minor 7 F7 B flat major seven these chords also move in fourths and then
finally the last eight bars are just a repeat of the first two bars so while there are a
lot of chord changes and it can be a confusing at first you're really only mastering a few
chord progressions here that repeat themselves over and over and over again now admittedly
the melody to Oleo is a little bit more advanced and complicated but of course you could learn
any other Rhythm changes head if you would like including I got rhythm which is a little
bit of an easier Melody to memorize I like Oleo because it also introduces some syncopation
which is also an important rhythmic element to the style of jazz which could be good to
get right on learning with the melody to attune like Oleo so as you're learning these Jazz
standards obviously the question that's going to come to mind is how do I go about improvising
over these Jazz standards because ultimately that's probably the main reason why you want
to learn jazz standards is how to improvise over them so on the screen right now a video
called The Jazz improv explained I start from a very very basic level and build on up and
I think you'll find that helpful so click the video on the screen right now by the way
if you need help learning Jazz standards we actually do this every single month in my
inner circle membership so I'll leave a link to that in the description down below or a
button here up on the screen hope you found this video helpful if you did please give
it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers