5 Reasons You Fail To Learn Jazz Standards And Simple Ways To Fix Them

A huge part of Learning Jazz is to learn Jazz Standards since the style is really built from this repertoire, but it there are a few things that you want to get right!

✅Jazz Beginner - 5 Myths That Waste Your Time:

✅5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice

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Content:
00:00 Intro
00:13 The Song Is Too Difficult
01:46 Learn The Melody
03:41 Learn To Play The Chords
04:10 Think In Blocks Of Chords
04:50 Have The Material Within Reach
05:26 The Most Important Music Theory And How It Helps You Play Better
05:35 Like the video? Check out my Patreon page!

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My name is Jens Larsen, Danish Jazz Guitarist, and Educator. The videos on this channel will help you explore and enjoy Jazz. Some of it is how to play jazz guitar, but other videos are more on Music Theory like Jazz Chords or advice on how to practice and learn Jazz, on guitar or any other instrument.

The videos are mostly jazz guitar lessons, but also music theory, analysis of songs and videos on jazz guitars.

My Gear:

[JensLarsen]

👉How did you learn the first Jazz standard? Share any tips or horror stories!
✅Jazz Beginner - 5 Myths That Waste Your Time:
✅5 Jazz Guitar Tips That Will Save You Years Of Practice:

[darrenschiminski]

My professor told me nobody has ever been criticized for playing too much melody. Recently I've experimented with learning the melody, play the melody with a metronome for one chorus, on the second chorus embellish the melody, on the third chorus a little more embellishment, etc.

[herculesrockefeller]

If you haven't seen Rick Beato's interview with Tommy Emmanuel yet, you have to watch it.
Tommy stresses being able to play the melody simply and plainly before you even begin to embark on embellishments. The interview is a class in itself on how to learn to play a song and develop it.

[lonegroover]

Blue Bossa was a big morale booster for me, it's still a kick to play through the changes in that. Days of Wine and Roses, not so much

[captainkoo]

My first tune was Girl From Ipanema. I chose this because I like the song, thus it was easier to stay motivated.
Plus there was the Astrud Gilberto version to play along with.

[JazzGuitarScrapbook]

Without wanting to downplay the content, the editing and humour in these videos is getting better and better….

[piotrbalmusic]

I am guilty of it too... I did even worse... hahaha... I started with Donna Lee in very slow tempo. While I was able to bring the song into fast tempo (in a long long time), I had no idea how to solo over it. I lost sooo much time. Now, I am starting to learn improvisation with one chord only, then another, then a few chords. In other words, there is no need for me to rush into Donna Lee before I learn simple things.

[livegroove]

Something I found to be very helpful when learning melodies. *Most Jazz standards are originally songs with lyrics. Listen to versions of the songs being sung instead of being played by instruments. When I was learning Polka Dots and Moonbeams, reading the notes just wasn't clicking. I just couldn't hear the melody in my head by reading notes of the sheet music. So I listened to all different versions by Wes, Parker, Miles Davis, but finally I came across an old version of it being sung by, believe it or not, Anthony Perkins (aka Norman Bates, Phycho) Once I heard the phrasing with actual words, the melody made much more sense. So, now that's a sort of routine for me. Listen to the standards being sung. Just a thought.

[innocentoctave]

This is really good practical advice for a beginner, regardless of genre. Improvisers in particular can be too caught up in the feeling that the melody is something you get out of the way in the head in order to get to the improvisation.

[rsavage]

I always get some thing from each of your videos. “5 reasons you fail to learn jazz” is one of my favorites. Just to get permission to learn melodies is a relief. I work on learning progressions all the time. Going from one cord to another on, say, a C scale, connecting each of the cords, etc. but just to build up Melodie’s for awhile is just terrific for me. Thanks, Jens.

[ralph_s]

I'm currently learning autumn leaves starting with the melody. It is a challenge, because I always learned songs from books or tabs. Also listening to Frank Sinatra is great for learning the melody because usually most Jazz players add too many embellishments.

[AdamLevyGuitar]

"The melody is the song." Amen, Jens!

[throckmortensnivel]

Another thing one can do is to learn to sing the song. Playing the simplest chord accompaniment while singing the melody is great training for your ear. You don't need a great voice, but you should learn to hit the notes. As I used to say to my students, music is like baseball. If you can't hit the pitches, you're not in the game. I was having trouble with "All The Things You Are", which has a few modulations, but listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing it, then doing the same myself really helped. And, of course, another great video, Mr. Larsen! You are my "go to" teacher on You Tube.

[frankvaleron]

I tend to feel that with Wayne Shorter too :) I love his music, but I haven't a notion why the chords are sequenced as they are. Standard analytical approaches don't stand up. The great thing is though, when you listen to how easily he flows over them, you wouldn't guess they are "difficult" tunes

[williambennett]

Exactly what I needed to hear at this point in my study of standards and advise I will definitely use. Great lesson again Jens.

[sergicabedo]

Dude, your videos are brilliant. I follow you for years, never dissapointed. Thanks for everything!

[JazzRockswithAdam]

Those are some really hard things to get across to someone in a video. But man, I don’t think it can’t get much better than that. Nice job! I struggle any getting my point across visually on top of talking and demonstrating. I’m getting better though!

[ericjtomsky]

Wow me and my guitar teacher are working through cycling different inversions through blue bossa right now! I definitely hear what you mean-- don't bite off more then you can chew so you can fully digest what it is you're playing slowly

[JazzRockswithAdam]

Those are some really hard things t get across to someone in a video. But man, I don’t think it can’t get much better than that. Nice job! I struggle any getting my point across visually on top of talking and demonstrating. I’m getting better though!

[jdnepari]

Excellent high level view that provides lots of actionable suggestions you can tailor to your learning process. I've used Autumn Leaves as a good jazz tune with a simple progression that allows me to move relatively easily between chords, melody, and improv. But your ideas have now given me a whole new perspective on what I can be doing with this tune.