So what jazz standards can you get super bluesy in your jazz solos well today i'm going to teach you
four of those tunes that you need to know 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
on this channel we do a lot of jazz theory jazz improv tutorials as well as jazz standard deep
dives like in today's video so make sure you subscribe and hit that bell notification button
to never miss out on anything going on here everybody loves to play some jazz blues and
of course outside of just playing jazz blues's themselves there are certain jazz standards that
i find tend to lend themself more to bluesy playing than others so i'm going to show you
a few jazz standards that i think really lend themselves to the blues and do stick around to
the very end of the video because i'm going to be giving away something free that will really help
you learn these jazz standards super effectively the first jazz standard is doxy by sonny rollins
now doxy is actually a tune that really shares a lot of commonalities with the blues in the first
place the biggest part being that it actually is made up of completely dominant seventh chords so
the one chord in this case borrows from blues harmony making it just a dominant seventh chord
and notice that it just kind of cycles through dominant seventh chords to the sixth chord to the
two chord which is even a dominant seven chord the five back to the one and very notably the bridge
also borrows from blues harmony so you have the one chord here in bar nine which of course goes to
this four chord the e flat seven and to the e diminished seventh which is a really common
thing in jazz blues so already it's kind of a form that is similar to the blues so obviously
this lends you lots of opportunities to play super bluesy language and while you obviously
want to be playing the chord changes as well using minor pentatonics major
pentatonics and quote-unquote blues scales is something that is completely acceptable to do
over top of this tune jazz standard number two is in a mellow tone by duke ellington
now in a metal low tone it doesn't necessarily have a blues harmony built into it however
there's lots of opportunities to superimpose the blues over top of it so for example we start here
with this dominant two chord in which you can play lots of b flat bluesy stuff right it goes from a
two b flat seven to an e flat seven to an a flat even though this a flat is major
you can actually superimpose a lot of minor pentatonic stuff over top of it as well and
truly every single time i see a major one chord i'm really playing lots of major pentatonic stuff
and even minor pentatonic stuff to really brighten it up and make it bluesy now near the end of the
tune in bar 25 we have this d flat 7 which is the iv chord which then goes to the sharp 4 diminished
which is obviously boring directly from blue's harmony and even when you listen to the melody
of in a mellow tone you hear that they are really honing in on that bluesy element there especially
because we're boring from that blues harmony so in a mellow tone great tune if you want to
superimpose blue stuff over top of it jaz center number three is on the sunny side of the street
now on the sunny side of the street is one of those tunes that is just super swinging
and infectiously happy it's at a good medium slow tempo and so it's just one of those tunes
that we can easily apply blues harmony and blues language over top of so for example in bar five
i really love super imposing minor pentatonic stuff over top of the
six chord and really using that as an opportunity to play something bluesy but you can also play
lots of major pentatonic kinds of things on top of the major one chord as that's also another good
opportunity to outline some of that stuff keep in mind of course that the major pentatonic
c major pentatonic and a minor pentatonic are essentially the same scale because they're coming
out of relative keys so you can know that that is actually a tonal center and a choice of notes
that you can really capitalize on throughout this entire tune now before i go over the last one let
me know in the show notes or in the comments down below which jazz standards do you think
lend themselves really nicely to the blues and playing bluesy lines in bluesy language of course
that does not include a jazz blues itself let me know would love to hear your thoughts
now georgia on my mind is one of those ballads that just has
that natural instinct to play bluesy stuff and in fact you can play very simple lines over top
of this tune and it will sound really good and in some cases it's even better to place simple bluesy
lines over top of it now the opportunities that i look to play blues is when we get to
this six chord the d minor seventh chord this tune is in f major this is a really great opportunity
to play lots of d minor bluesy stuff and of course as always over top of any of the major
one chords you can play major pentatonic things but i even like to sometimes in the resolutions
play the minor pentatonic over the f major seven because it just
super imposes that blues harmony over top of it so this is another great jazz standard where looking
for those opportunities to play blues will just add so much soul especially if you combine it with
playing the chord changes and even bebop lines as well now if you need any help learning these tunes
that i've gone over in this video today it can be really helpful to have a step-by-step process
for learning them by ear without sheet music so do make sure you get my free guide called learn
jazz standards the smart way you can get that at learnjazzstandardsthesmartway.com but i'll also go
ahead and leave that on the screen as well so that you can download that right away there i
also have linked up on the screen a great video that goes over an additional 10 jazz standards
that i think are really good ones that are often called on jam sessions so if you like to check
out that list do check that out on the video on the screen right now all right that's all
for today's video make sure you like this video if you found it valuable make sure you subscribe hit
that bell notification button and we'll look forward to seeing you in the next one cheers