First songs to learn.

Jazzaferri · May 2013

Sweet Sue is a good one once you have Minor Swing down. It is quite simple but the progression is one of the basic building blocks and the melody is very simple. All of Me is a great suggestion as well for a second tune. Do whichever you like more first but do them both.

kw3rd · June 2013

Okay this is getting frustrating.

Since the consensus seems to be Minor Swing is a good first song to learn I started looking for the appropriate grilles, backing tracks, arpeggios, and chord shapes. However, it seems no two versions are the same. One version has Am Dm E7, one has Am6 Dm6 E7, another has Am Dm and Bdim, and yet another has Am Dm E7 Bb7 and F7!

Where to start? Which is traditional? If I was going to jam session and wanted to sit in which is the one I'd most likely run into?

Thanks in advance.

Mitch · August 2013

Listen to the 1937 version of minor Swing, basically it is the second version you quoted, with them m 6 chords.
F7 is used at the very end of the grille just to add a kick and go for a new chorus.

But you'll see there are a lot of slight variations to do, that's what jazz and impro (even in the pompe) are all about.

jimvence · August 2013

kw3rd wrote:

Okay this is getting frustrating. Since the consensus seems to be Minor Swing is a good first song to learn I started looking for the appropriate grilles, backing tracks, arpeggios, and chord shapes. However, it seems no two versions are the same. One version has Am Dm E7, one has Am6 Dm6 E7, another has Am Dm and Bdim, and yet another has Am Dm E7 Bb7 and F7!

Where to start? Which is traditional? If I was going to jam session and wanted to sit in which is the one I'd most likely run into?

Thanks in advance.

Those versions represent the same chord progressions, and represent some basic jazz theory structures (chord extensions, substitutions, ornamentation).

Am Dm E7 -- Is plain old 1-4-5 format, (a minor 1-4-5 in this case). Minor 1 and 4, Dominant 5 (E7).

Am chord consists of the triad A-C-E (1 b3 and 5). Am6 adds a natural 6th, or F#. So you can play Am6 or other color tones that you extend. When playing rhythm, it is ok to switch between Am triads, and Am6 to change up the harmony.

The chord progression on the last few bars of the form go E7 to Bb7. You sometimes see it as just "E7" though. This is based on what is known as a "flat-five" substitution, where a dominant chord (E7) has a cousin chord six half-steps (or a flatted fifth) away. Typically in a jam session, some people play E7 Bb7 to the 1937 recording version, some stay on E7.

Bdiminshed is another substitution for E7. E7 notes are E G# B D . Bdim notes are B D F G#. They share the two important notes (G# and D).

I think the F7 may be written as an ornament, a half step jump-up to F7 and back down to E7. I'd have to see it ;0)

Passacaglia · August 2013

Kw, I'm going to throw out advice I've been given often, but until recently kept saying, "yeah, but" in my mind....in the hope of devising the perfect plan that would yield the richest fruit in learning this style...would set me up well for future learning, would yield a kind of paradigmatic rhythm or progression or voicing or whatever.

The advice was, play what you like.

As simplistic as that sounds, I now believe it's the very heart of learning all this stuff. If it's a "hard tune," so be it - so it takes longer to learn. But you love it, so you'll stick it out. I think Denis says somewhere among his DVDs, don't play something because you read somewhere this is what you "should" play if (starting out, wanting to move to another plateau, etc.). Play what you like.

I've found the pursuit of some kind of optimal, pedagogical list, leads to burnout. I'm speaking absolutely personally...just saying, for me (particularly because I always tend to want a kind of neat, enclosed answer), that road wasn't very useful. It's taken awhile (I'm still very much a baby....I have nothing on most folks here in experience and skill), but I only now feel like I'm starting to fall in love again with what got me going in the first place.