What tunes/licks do you teach?

[Jazzerbone]

I searched all around the forum for this and I didn't find much so here goes...

What licks/tunes do you teach your students? What are the ones that keep them engaged and excited about playing?

I'm not asking for any techniques, just strictly tunes and licks. I'm mostly asking for things appropriate for less experienced students, but all is welcome.

Disclaimer: I am aware of the importance of teaching technique and excercises. This is a specifically directed thread.

[phippsyg]

Excellent idea for a thread. Am interested to hear responses to this as I need some fresh ideas!

I like to teach a tune in relation to a concept, I'll list some and add the focus of the lesson.


Major Scale-ABC
Scale degrees/passing tones- The Joker, Stand By Me
Scale degrees/passing-Soul To squeeze (RHCP)
Playing melodically- Something (Beatles)
Syncopation- Brick House, Just the two of us
Triads-Ob La Di, Anasthesia

These are some of the tunes I teach of the top of my head. Later on I break lessons down into styles and teach tunes like-
Sir Duke, Heard through grapevine, Whats goin on, Red Baron, Power, Bach Prelude in C, Lopsy Lu, Teen Town, Continuum-and a whole heap more.
These are off the top of my head, thought I would contribute whilst waiting to steal other peoples ideas!!!!

[JimmyM]

I start off with basics like "All The Things You Are," "All Of Me," and "Autumn Leaves" because they're so good for learning many different things with theory and chord subs, yet they're not too hard to grasp for even beginners. From there, I'll just pick out random tunes from the Real Book and examine them as the student progresses. If a student has a particular song they need help with, I'll help them, but I usually don't assign rock or pop songs. I will give them rock or pop songs for reading practice, but I don't go through it in detail like I do songs from the Real Book.

And though I like to keep students interested, I don't think it benefits them in the least to teach them rock and pop songs just because they want to learn them. I try to teach them how to figure them out on their own, and I save teaching time for actual teaching. But they're not going to learn a thing if I just teach them how to play Foo Fighters songs. That's memorization, not musical knowledge.

[murph.vienna]

i recommend the real books too.

have you met miss jones (std) - chording, walking, chromatic approaches
fly me to the moon (sinatra) - same
girl from ipanema (sinatra / gilberto) - groove, syncopes
peel me a grape (krall) - note lenght and equality
moon over bourbon street (sting) - creative chording / substitutes
dream a little dream (beautiful south) - syncopes with differing note lengths
autumn leaves (mercer) - chords, tapping triads, substitutes
let's work (prince) - timing
hair (larry graham) - bad-ass syncopes
all about us (brazilian girls) - timing, groove
it ain't over till it's over (kravitz)

[jimbob]

The majority of my students are 12-16 years old so I teach some Rock/Pop to keep the student interested, to show what simple theory is involved, pocket playing, song structure, how to work with the drums in a Rock context and ear training. House of the Rising Sun is one of the first songs I teach. Rock is the most popular music style so I can't ignore it but I try not to lean into that style too much as my job is to make them into bassplayers. I run through the Real Book as well. Autumn Leaves is usually the first. Funk is Brick House or I Feel Good by James Brown.

For teaching Melodies, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is great. A tounge in cheak Barney Theme/Yankee Doodle Dandy. Seasonal Melodies like Frosty the Snowman, Here comes Santa Clause for Christmas, Danny Boy, When Irish Eyes are Smiling for St Pats day, Take Me Out To the Ball Game for Baseball Season, are really popular with my students believe it or not. They actually practice them!