What Tunes Should I Know?

Jeff's Home Page >> Jeff Helgesen's Clinic Notes >> What Tunes Should I Know?

This list, while admittedly long, is by no means exhaustive. Bands specializing in specific genres (e.g., "hot music", dixieland, latin jazz, bebop, and modern jazz) will likely have specialized lists from which they draw.

The following list will, however, serve you well for most jam sessions, commercial jazz gigs, etc.

Dedicate as many of these melodies and their chord changes to memory as possible. (Remember, the tunes will not always be called in the keys you expect, so practice them in more than one key to master them!)

Song Standards

The term "song standards" refers to pieces of music that were originally written for the popular idiom and have found their way into the jazz playlist. One example of this are pieces written for broadway shows.

Some of these tunes are more commonly called in commercial settings, while others are almost always called as tunes for improvisation.

Be-Bop Standards

Tunes written in the bebop era (not including blues and rhythm changes tunes):

Jazz Standards

The term "jazz standard" refers to tunes that were originally written as vehicles for improvisation (usually by jazz musicians, for jazz musicians). It is unusual for these pieces to have words (when they do, it's almost always the case that they were added after the fact by a vocalist who wanted to use it as a vocal vehicle).

Rhythm Tunes

A "rhythm tune" is a piece that is loosely based on the chord changs to the song standard "I Got Rhythm"; tunes which start on the ii7 chord (*) or start the brige going to the IV chord (**) are marked.

Blues

Ballads

Tunes originally recorded as ballads. Sometimes these pieces are played medium-up or even up-tempo.

Latin

Tunes that were originally recorded with a latin feel. Note that many song standards can be played with a latin rhythm.

Waltzes

Clinic Menu || Jeff's Home Page

Jeff Helgesen's Home Page | Clinic Notes | What Tunes Should I Know?
http://www.shout.net/~jmh/clinic/alt-fingerings.htm
Maintained by jeff.helgesen@gmail.com.
You are visitor counter since 4/23/2004.
Valid HTML 4.01! | Bobby WorldWide Approved AAA