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Deek

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Posted

I just went to a local Jazz Jam, and I played some tunes up on stage, but i didn't know any of the tunes that they played! Mostly, they were playing jazz standards. I have a real book, but no one else brings up music. They just do it from memory. How am I able to play in this situation? Memorize the chord changes? How do I increase the amount of songs i can play?

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Posted

The syme way you get to carnegie hall ;)

Ok, not too helpful

Standards books (real/fake) are a big help - just getting familiar with the tunes

having a good grasp of theory helps... by "theory" I don't just mean concentrate on the "what scale do I use to solo over these chords" question that guitar players tend to have a fetish for[insert Pauls standard rant here]
, more helpful in this situation will be studying the cadence..."If I had this chord and then this chord came...what's likely to be next?"
This will help you fake it - you "kind of" know a piece or are picking up a piece as you go

Posted

Learning tunes it just a matter of playing them often and playing them with other people often. Going to jam sessions like that is a great way to test your memory on tunes. Don't worry about having to use a book for now since you're just starting at it, but pick a couple of tunes you like and work on them and make them 'your tunes'. Then, when you go to the jam sessions and they ask you 'what do you want to play?' you can call these and work on playing them from memory. The jam session is a place for experimentation, so don't worry if you make a few errors. Also, jam sessions are great because you get an idea what tunes everyone commonly plays, so it narrows down the selection in the Real Book pretty quickly to focus on.

As for actually memorizing them, I find playing them in a couple of different ways helps. Comping through it from memory, soloing through it from memory, walking a bassline from memory (I'm also a bassist so it's a given I work on this one). I'm still working on it, and it's been slow for me, but I'm up to about 4-5 tunes I can do without thinking about. This will also help your improv as you're not reading changes anymore, but playing over something more familiar than writting on a piece of paper.

Also, when you memorize, make sure you memorize the tune also by function. For example, Autumn Leaves is commonly played in both Em and Gm, so I worked on learning it like this:

A - Major: ii V I IV, relative minor: ii V i, repeat
B - minor ii V i, major ii V I IV, minor ii V i... then go down in half steps... minor: bVI V i back to the top

The way you actually do it will probably be slightly different, but the point is that I learned it in a way that's not locked into just 1 key. I can transpose this song to any key if I need to (with varying degrees of success of course ;) ) So if I'm up there and someone says "Let's play Autumn Leaves in Fm" I can do that.

Also, the more you memorize tunes, the easier it becomes to memorize more. Once I finally memorized Autumn Leaves and All the Things You Are, suddenly I found it was a lot easier and quicker to memorize the tunes I worked on after that.

So bottom line, just keep at it, and keep playing out.

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Posted

OK guys, thanks for the help and inspiration. I think the main thing is just knowing what tunes to play. Having a 500 page real book is great, but it's like trying to choose a chocolate bar at a candy store! You don't know which one to try. I guess I'll just keep on doing what I am doing and ask people what songs they like to play. Then, learn them. And as Paul said, learn to "fake it"

Thanks again :D

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Posted

I have found that the best way to work tunes is to learn them one album at a time. Pick a CD you like and learn all the tunes off of it before moving to the next CD. Start simple, like one of the Miles Davis albums on Prestige or one of the Monk albums. Don't pick an album with tempos you can't handle (like Giant Steps, for instance).

You will never really learn a tune until you can hear it.

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Posted

Continue to go back to that session. You'll begin recognizing certain songs that are played each week.

I wouldn't attempt to learn every jazz standard just to sit in on that one session, at least not yet.

Sessions are wonderful opportunities to interact musically with other people. A session happens in one space at one time. The songs that will be played may be based on one recorded interpretation or may have evolved into something unique to that group of musicians. Listen and learn, my friend. If you don't know a song, don't play along. Ask someone for the key or the name of the tune. It should be a social event.

If it isn't being run that way, then look for a different session.

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