Autumn Leaves Solo Guitar Pdf Books

Autumn Leaves is a great way to start improvising following the harmony because it’s a well known tune and it still covers a lot of important cadences in a key. In this lesson Iw will go over a set of arpeggios in one position, some exercises, target notes and strategies for making solos where you can hear the harmony in the improvisation. About Autumn Leaves In this lesson I have chosen to work on Autumn Leaves in the key of G minor.

Jul 8, 2015 - 4 min - Uploaded by Rich SeversonLearn this great 32 bar, Rich Severson crafted solo to the jazz standard Autumn Leaves.

You will find a few versions in the key of E minor since it is printed in that key in the old Realbook, but the most common key is G minor. The two main cadences in the song are II V I cadences, one to the major tonic (Bb) and one to the minor tonic (Gm). In this way you cover two of the most important harmonic movements in this key. Learning the song Besides knowing the arpeggios and the chords by heart you need to know the melody of the song you want to improvise on. In the end the melody is more important because the harmony may vary from version to version but the melody will stay the same.

In this lesson (and for copyright reasons) I can’t go over the melody, but if you want some hints on how to do this you could check out this Q&A video where I talk about that: The form of Autumn leaves is a bit uncommon for jazz since it is AAB where the B is 16 bars and the 8 bars. A good place to start is to just play the chords of the song.

In example 1 I have written out chord voicings for the song. In the example I am using the material that I went over in the lesson. Since a lot of the examples I am using are over the whole form I am playing them a bit fast in the video.

You can always go back and check or even play them at a slower speed if you have a place that is hard to follow. I ended up doing it like this because the video otherwise would be much too long. The Arppegios I have written out the arpeggios in the 6th position of the neck. If you think in Bb major this is a very common Bb major scale position so you probably know it already. Example 2 has the arppegios of the different chords written out. If you count the chords you’ll see that we have 10 different chords. Since the goal of this lesson is to improvise fluently with well connected melodies using the arpeggios, I have written out all the arpeggios around the 6th position. Shifting up and down the neck is going to make it much more difficult to play logical melodies and almost impossible to do some of the exercises.

Practising the arpeggios First you should probably try to become familiar with the arpeggios in example 2 and then as fast as possible try to start using them on the song. Students often forget how important it is to practice using what you’ve learnt.

Besides just practising each arpeggio it is a very good idea to work on playing the arpeggios in different patterns. Playing them in groups of 3 or 4 notes, skipping notes etc are good ways to get more flexible with the arpeggio. You need the flexibility when you start improvising, and keep in mind that it is about flexibility and overview not about speed when working on this, so there’s no real need to play it fast. The first exercise is to just play through the song with the arpeggios from example 2 in a one octave version. This will not only help practising the arpeggios but also build your sense of the form of the song and help you hear the chords moving and when they change. I tried to take the highest octave available of each arpeggios because that is probably the register you’ll need the most when you solo so you might as well start by working on a good overview of that. Connecting the arpeggios The next exercise is a very good way to gain a strong overview of the arpeggios and chords.

It is also helping you to develop your ability to think ahead. The idea is to start playing the arpeggios over the progression and then when ever the chord changes to continue the movement with the note that is the closest in the next arpeggio. It’s quite tricky to get started with but very rewarding when you start getting the freedom while improvising. When you start this then you probably don’t need to work on the whole form in the beginning. In example 4 I have written out the example I play in the video in rubato.

In the video you can hear me pointing out whenever I change. In the video I also demonstrate this on the first 8 bars and start in a different octave.

As I talk about in the video it is about the proces not about the notes in this case so you should vary where you start in the arppegio to keep challenging yourself and your knowledge of the arpeggios in this position. Putting it all together in improvising As I demonstrate in the video the thinking behind making harmony clear in a solo line is to target certain notes of the strong beats (in this case the 1).

The idea is that a strong and logical sounding line will be a line that has the direction towards a clear target note. I also discuss this way of making melodies in another lesson that you can check: You will notice in the solo I improvise in the video that I am not too concerned with target notes unless the chord is changing. The first target notes I’d suggest you use is in the song is the 3rd of each chord.

There are two advantages to this. It very clearly targets the color of the chord and it also connects what you play with the melody since a lot of the sustained notes in the melody are in fact the 3rd of the chord.

In example 6 I have written out the 3rds of each chord played over the root of the chord. Making lines with the arpeggios Now that we have arpeggios and target notes for each of the chords we can start to work on coming up with lines over the song. The way you start working on this is probably to practice rubato to make a line from one chord to the next.

In example 7 I have shown a simple Cm7 melody that leads from Cm7 to F7. In the video I also take the next step from working in rubato and demonstrate 8 bars in time as written out in example 8.

I hope you can use the arpeggios and techniques I went over here to get started playing strong clear lines over Autumn Leaves. If you want to take this a step further then you can check out the WebStore lesson with a 50 minute video lesson I made on a 4 chorus solo. It goes over some basic ideas as shown hear and continues to more complicated concepts like reharmonization and different scale choices. If you want to study the examples I went over in the lesson you can of course also download them as a pdf here below: If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics or how I can make the lessons better then please feel free to leave on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you want to hear.

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Introduction Why did we choose this as our first JGL Jazz Standard? A few reasons – it was the most commonly asked for standard in recent surveys, it was the 2nd jazz tune I learned at school (‘Sugar’, a minor- blues tune, was the first!), it is easy to learn the melody and chords and it has a great underlying chord progression for soloing over.

I am a big fan of research – luckily for us jazzers, researching usually just means ‘listening to’ and ‘reading a bit about’ the subject. Find renditions of your favorite guitarists playing each tune you want to learn; read about the history of the song on Wikipedia; learn the lyric and see how different instruments or vocalists have approached the tune; find different versions, arrangements and instrumentations.

While this may be time consuming, Autumn Leaves is quite possibly the easiest standard in the world to find info on and versions of, literally every major jazz artist has performed and recorded this at some time in their career. Some of my favorite versions are here (in no particular order): Hopefully at the time you read this these links are still working. Even though I mentioned that these are in no particular order, the ultimate version for me is the indomitable pianist Bill Evans and his Trio (the first link) with their take on ‘Portrait in Jazz’: Incredible interplay in the bass solo(s), great arrangement of the head, incredible themes in Evan’s solo, just a wonderful version. I LOVE how Evans, Motian (drums) and LeFaro interact, how they touch the ‘hits’ or ‘shots’ in the head and how there is a constant banter between piano and bass. It is special to me also because when I was a kid learning this tune, I would sit and listen (repetitively) to this version with a good friend of mine (and now great pianist living and working out of Japan) – I think I had it memorized and could sing along to this version before I even attempted to learn it So; find something you love and the rest is easy!

Method We have been very method-minded with our Jazz Standards, because we believe it is the easiest way to learn (step-by-step) and also because it makes learning more approachable. You could think ‘I can do this ‘chunk’ of practice / these specific exercises today, tomorrow I’ll work on the chords’ – rather than ‘there’s so much to go over here it’s insurmountable!’. It is not so overwhelming once broken down into smaller, learnable bits of examples and exercises. My advice is to watch the tutorial video with printed out PDF’s of the material; keeping in mind your playing level and how much time you have to practice at each session. Always try to get the entire way through one idea or example or section.

Make a log or tick off each lesson / exercise as you go and make notes on the PDF’s or leave comments and questions in the Forum section. Also, try and be routine-like when you do practice, a little each day can be very valuable and you’re much more focused if it is also the same time of day for each session. Step 1 – Melody Always learn the melody first, be able to sing it and learn the lyrics if applicable. Because this is the composers take on the chord progression, because learning the melody and lyric often creates a better feel for the rhythmic and harmonic movement going on in the melody (jazzers often call the melody the ‘Head’) and because this in turn means you don’t get lost when comping or soloing, which often happens when a beginning player is learning a new tune. If you can sing the melody, you will find it easier to learn on to your instrument, and you can use the melody as a platform to springboard into improvised ideas.

Tips: • Learn the melody in one position only at first. ONE fingering. Trying to learn it in multiple positions increases the amount of practice you need by double for each additional position, resulting in no clear idea of where the melody sits under your fingers. • I would usually choose either a high or a low register, with preference given to the higher register because it will ‘cut through’ when playing in an ensemble / solo when voiced at a higher pitch. • Learn it sitting along the chords where possible. Try to see where the chords pass by and look for chord tones. This happens in almost all of the first 8 bars of Autumn Leaves, where the melody hits the 3rd of the chord played directly after.

Voice the melody line around the chord. • Once the first ‘position’ is mastered (i.e.

You are playing it fluently and accurately), you may wish to learn a second position. This may be an octave lower or higher, it may be one that contains embellished notes or rhythms, as taken from your favorite versions. Step 2 – Chords I find that guitarists often learn the chords to a tune first, then go back and learn the melody. I sometimes learned only the chords to a tune when I was younger, because I was a slow note-sight- reader and we didn’t have YouTube or the internet to find copies of tunes. If we didn’t have a version on CD or cassette we had to learn by reading a lead sheet and for me the chords always came faster than the notes.

I was also very anxious to get to the most exciting bit – which was the soloing-over-the-chords part! This approach lead me to one important conclusion – memorize the changes by heart – this makes soloing over the tune much easier! Tips: • Memorize the changes by heart! • Work out 7th chord voicings that have the bass note and guide tones only, in the chord (as per the video). • Find simple extensions (9ths) and voice these on top of the bass note and guide tone chords. • Keep the rhythm SIMPLE, STRONG and CLEAR when comping. Remember that unless you are playing a chord solo, you are generally playing more foundational than ‘floundering’ around – lay down the time, keep it solid and let the lead instrument or soloist hear the changes.

• Memorize the changes by heart. Did I write that already? Step 3 – Improvising We will cover ONE FEATURE concept in depth (and sometimes one or two supplementary concepts that support it) on each JGL Jazz Standard video lesson. All examples of this lesson’s feature concept ‘The dominant diminished’ are clearly explained on the video – exact fingerings can be obtained by watching the video(s) and as usual, excerpts of musical passages are all tabbed and notated in PDF. Feature concept: ‘The Dominant Diminished’ This is where we place a dominant 7th chord with a flattened 9th a perfect 4th below our destination major or minor chord (in the bar directly before it) and then place a diminished 7th arpeggio a semitone above the root of the dominant chord. The purpose of the dominant diminished is to create a more leading sound towards a resolve chord.

For example: In Example 1 below, a Gma7 is the destination chord in bar3. On bar 2 we place a D7 chord (there is already one there as part of the progression, so we are not substituting new harmony at this point). Note how the top note of these 3 chord voicings goes from E in bar 1, to D in bar 2 and then again D in bar 3. We then superimpose a 7(b9) over this chord to impart a more leading sound towards the Gma7 – it now becomes a D7(b9), which is a D7 chord (notes D, F#, A and C) with an added Eb (i.e. The flattened ninth degree of D) note.

See Example 2: This introduced chord now contains an Eb note, – this ‘leads’ towards the note D which is the 5th of the Gma7 chord. Note how the top note of these 3 chord voicings goes from E in bar 1, to Eb in bar 2 and then down to rest on D in bar 3 – a much stronger leading sound. It also now contains a ‘diminished chord and a diminished arpeggio’ based off either the flattened 9th degree of the D7 chord and / or the 3rd, 5th and flattened 7th degrees also. Note that the chord tones for the D7(b9) are: D, F#, A, C and Eb – and that this is just another way of naming an Eb dim7 chord over a D bass note! Ptv Drama Serial Beti Full Download. (see lesson 14 on 7th chords for more info); Example 3: Example 3 contains some voicings for guitar for the diminished 7th chord, in bar 4. Example 4 shows us a common way of playing the diminished chord as an arpeggio (with the notes sounded individually). Note that all four chords are the SAME chord.

Learn many positions of this arpeggio; it is a great way to lead into resolve chords of both major and minor chord types. QUICK TIPS FOR FINDING AND APPLYING THE DOMINANT DIMINISHED: • Define the resolve chord (major or minor type). • Define the dominant 7th chord a perfect 4th below the resolve chord. • Alter the dominant chord to a 7(b9).

• Play a diminished 7th arpeggio based of the note a semitone above the root of the 7(b9) chord. Seem to be having the same problem as some of the others Dixon, and while I hate to even ask, and I can muddle thru and get the melody, I’m sure you encourage proper ear training, I value the ability to check such as it is. Anyhow Ill check back, and continue to use the vast material base you have to offer here. I’m not really a jazz guy but I took a few semesters of music college and we had to learn standards, having just come back from a lengthy break from the instrument learning a few standards, or relearning as the cases is with Autumn Leaves, seems a good place to start I am working on my fundamentals etc(lol) and just trying to get my ear back in shape. My ears never been all that great in the first place, to be honest. Anyhow, love the site, and really appreciate people who take the time, and have the inclination to offer free music lessons of any sort, I just want to make sure you know that.