There are some jazz standards that are so commonly called at jam sessions that you cannot get away
with not knowing them so today i'm going over 10 jazz standards from beginner to advanced coming up
what's up brent here from learn jazz standards real musicians just like you learn how to play
jazz all while shortening the learning curve no matter what instrument you play here on the
channel we do jazz theory tips we do jazz improv tips as well as jazz standards tutorials like in
today's video so make sure you subscribe and hit the bell notification button so you never miss
out on anything going on now one of the main reasons people are afraid to go to jazz jam
sessions or even just play with a friend is just not knowing jazz standards so my goal in today's
video is to help you know 10 jazz standards that are really common no matter where you live some
point they're going to be called so these are absolutely non-negotiable have to know these
tunes so really pay attention here we're going to go from beginner so more easy to more advanced a
little bit more complicated of jazz standards in that order and make sure you stick around to the
very end because i'm going to share with you an important resource for learning jazz standards
the right way so that you never forget them and you can feel very confident playing over these
10 jazz standards so without further ado let's do this the first jazz standard is autumn leaves
autumn leaves is one of the first jazz standards i suggest people look into
because it deals with two very important things one the two five one chord progression you have
major two five one chord progressions and you also have minor two five one chord progressions as well
as another important concept that comes up time and time again in jazz standards which is relative
keys you have the relative major key or the parent major in the case of autumn leaves as well
as the relative minor key now this is important because this is going to come up all the time in
jazz standards so understanding what relative keys are is really important i call this jazz
standard a gateway jazz standard that can really pay dividends if you learn this help you with all
kinds of other ones in the future the second jazz standard is called so what by miles davis
now so what is a great introduction to what we call modal jazz modal tunes meaning that we're
basing most of our improvisation off of the modes of the major scale and there's not necessarily one
parent key center now and so what there's only two chords there's only d minor seven and there's only
e flat minor seven and while that may seem easy at first there's actually a challenge with trying
to figure out how to make our solos interesting just playing over those two chords nevertheless
this is one tune that is fairly easy to play and a great one to introduce ourselves into modal jazz
which will come up in other standards as well the third jazz standard is called blue bossa
now one common genre within jazz that we play is bossa nova brazilian music of course but this is
going to come up all the time and blue boss says what i would call kind of the most basic baseline
introduction to bossa nova as well as some important harmonic concepts like the minor 2
5 1 and the movement to the iv chord which is all based out of the minor blues now the other
interesting thing about this tune is that during the quote-unquote bridge it goes to a different
key center altogether that's non-diatonic d-flat major which is really interesting and kind of
gives a little taste into how jazz doesn't always play within the parent key center diatonic realm
and while this tune isn't really called often in my circles it is a really basic tune that
everybody should have some basic understanding of the fourth chat standard is all of me now obvious
where things start getting just a little bit more complicated see we start in c major but then we go
to this strange e7 now this e7 can be analyzed a bunch of different ways i like to think of it as
the two dominant seven in d minor because of some of the other chords like tonicizing the d minor
right here with the a7 which is a really important concept within jazz called secondary dominance so
this introduction to secondary dominance and turning diatonic chords like the three chord
into dominant seventh chords is something that's going to come up in jazz standards all the time
so all of me one of these tunes where it's going to be called so often that if you don't know this
one you're going gonna be sitting out quite a bit the fifth jazz standard is it could happen to you
now it could happen to you takes everything up to the next level in the secondary dominant realm
we start in e flat major which is the parent key center and then we have a diatonic chord
like f minor seven however it's being tonicized by taking a minor two five one and targeting that
f minor seven so this happens quite a bit for example we have a two five of three here in bar
four that doesn't resolve but that is something else that happens as well is non-resolutions
to key centers that are actually trying to be tonicized so a lot of interesting things there
as well as some modal modulation like borrowing from the four minor key instead of the major key
so it could happen to you is one that will come up a lot it's also a really infectious
and fun song to improvise over the sixth jazz standard is just friends
now just friends is a really interesting song because it actually starts on the four chord which
kind of gives it this feeling like that's the key center but then we go into a c minor as if we're
borrowing from the parallel minor it's a two five c minor seven to f seven but it actually resolves
to the one chord in bar five g major seven being the parent key center now it's also a
really interesting introduction to what we call chromatic two fives or also we like to call
them sidestep two fives basically instead of just landing right on the two chord here a minor seven
we're actually sidestepping it with a b flat minor seven to e flat seven and then landing on
the a minor seven so this is something that also happens quite a bit in jazz taking just friends up
a little bit of level on the advanced scale the seventh jazz standard is days of wine and roses
now days of wine and roses and just friends i would say are kind of similar in difficulty level
but an interesting thing that happens here in bar 2 is this flat 7 tritone sub of 6 which is delayed
kind of really strange movement but it all kind of comes out of the minor blues kind of this flat
seven here targeting the g minor seven in a very bluesy kind of way now days of wine and roses is
one of those tunes that i would say is one of the more common of all jam session tunes so you really
want to know this one and make sure you know it in several different keys because sometimes
it's actually called in other keys as well the eighth jazz standard is on green dolphin street
on green dolphin street is a little bit more complicated to solo over
because you have these two chords where you have the one major seventh chord
following the c minor seven so a trip to the parallel minor hanging out for just two bars
each so it's kind of interesting to try to find ideas over stagnant chords like that and then
you have this interesting thing we have a d7 and a d-flat major 7 and a c major 7 as a turnaround
so that d-flat major 7 which is the flat 2 major 7 is actually something that you will see come
up in jazz standards as well sometimes it's actually even fun to end a tune on the flat
2 major 7 which is kind of a cool interesting tip now this is also a tune that changes the
key center so during the bridge we actually go to e-flat major which is particularly nice and
then there's some really interesting kind of turnarounds getting out at the end of the tune
with the b minor seven flat five e seven a minor seven and a walk down in the bass to the f sharp
minor seven flat five and the b7 flat nine so just all in in general really interesting tune a little
bit more difficult but also really commonly called the ninth jazz standard is all the things you are
now all the things you are is one of my personal favorite jam session tunes ever because it's
really fun to improvise over but what makes it such a challenging tune is actually because there
are five different key centers that we're working through so the first key center is a flat major
the second key center is c major the third key center is e flat major the fourth one is g major
and finally the fifth one is e major so there's a lot of key centers going on here so understanding
harmonically how this tune works is actually incredibly useful so be sure to really dive deep
into this tune when you learn it and understand the chords and how they work now before we go
over the last jazz standard i would love to hear from you in the show notes or the comments below
what jazz standards do you think are the most common jazz standards to learn that you should
know that everyone should know that you cannot absolutely go without so i'd love to hear what
your thoughts are in other jazz standards that you would add to my list of 10. now last but not
least is our most difficult jazz standard on my list and that is stella by starlight
now the funny thing about stellabar starlight is even though it is totally not a beginner
jazz standard at all i would actually highly recommend beginners do learn it
strictly from the standpoint that it is such an important one that everybody calls
and wants to play so you have to know style by starlight now it is challenging but even
though it can be frustrating to learn if you're more on the beginner's side
uh it is one of those tunes that if you get challenged you will grow quite a bit from it
now there's so much i could say about stella by starlight the chord changes the functionality all
the different harmonic analysis of it but we'll skip that because that would take an entire other
episode video to really go through all that so we'll skip it for now but know that this
is an important one to learn and to really dive deep into but speaking of stellar by starlight
actually do have a video on that so i'm going to pop up on the screen right now a full-on analysis
of stella by starlight so if you are interested in learning more about how that tune works go
ahead and click the video on the screen now by the way in order to learn these jazz standards
well and effectively and not waste your time and end up forgetting them in the end do check out
my free learn jazz standards the smart way guide this guide is really helpful for getting a simple
five step process for learning jazz standards so you really know them super super well so check
that out at learnjazzstandardsthesmartway.com and also leave that on the screen right now
for you to check out now if you like this video found it valuable please
smash that like button of course subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers