Easy Jazz Standards for the utes (and old guy)...?

April in Paris - easy as pie

 

I'm going to point you to books of sheet music. Jazz Guitar Standards, Melbay cost $20 and has 20 songs in four different formats, for example; Lead sheet, chord melody solo, comping backup, and single line improvisation format for each of the 20 songs. One of those formats is going to fit your "group."

I'd suggest you go to a music store and pick out a book of songs you would like to play. What I would offer may not be what you would like to learn. Only takes a moment to look at the printed music to tell if it is easy or hard.

Some books in the $20 range have as many as 100 songs listed. Buying books of the songs you would like to play seems the best route to me.

Good luck.

 

Do yourself and the family a favor and get a copy of this book
The Real Easy Book - Vol. 1: Tunes for Beginning Improvisers | Sher Music Co.

 

Yep - get the real book - will have chord changes and melody lines for hundreds of standards. There are also on line versions that will allow you to transpose (or maybe the trumpet player can borrow a B flat version from his instructor - can also ask him for suggestions). Flip through it and see what songs you know from the title. If they continue to play jazz in the future, they will always need it.

Since you have been doing some blues, there are plenty of songs in there with blues changes, like All Blues. Maybe also some easier songs like Autumn Leaves.

 

This is the real book that most people use around here. You can get it in treble or bass clef. It is not always the best, but just about everyone uses it in high school, and it's still common in college. For tunes, try Autumn Leaves, So What, All Blues, Freddie Freeloader, All The Things You Are, C Jam Blues, Song For My Father, Body and Soul, St. Thomas, There Will Never Be Another You, Surrey With The Fringe On Top, and Take The A Train. That should give you a solid hour of music for a gig. And all of it is pretty simple. I think it is all in the book I linked.

 

Wow! With the exception of "Surrey With The Fringe" that is exactly the list of tunes I was going to recommend!!! Uncanny.

 

Straight No Chaser may have been my first Real Book head, also thinking Giant Steps and Autumn Leaves has already been mentioned.

 

Wouldn't you need both in the same key for a combo??

 

Depends. I prefer to just buy the treble cleff one, since I can read treble cleff. Most of the tunes are really easy to read, largely quarter notes in the middle of the staff. It's easier to share with the pianists/guitarists, and horn players that I play with can transpose my book easier that way. But you might depending on you situation.

 

Yeah, I need the Bass Clef for me then!!

Do you find most groups using C, Eb or Bb??

 

Buy the C edition. The Bb/Eb books are for trumpets and saxophones. The trumpet/saxophone is a transposing instrument. By that I mean that when a trumpet player plays his C, it sounds like our D. It's kind of confusing. Here's the wiki. The songs in the C edition aren't always in C, in fact most of them aren't. The C edition just means the book is written for non-transposing instruments like the piano, guitar, and bass.The Bb edition is for trumpet/tenor sax, and the Eb is for alto.

 

"April in Paris" and "Giant Steps" are probably not good choices for beginners.

 

:: looks at Real Book "Giant Steps ::

oh gosh you're right. How quickly memory goes

Facing page is The Girl From Impanema and everyone likes that.

(/me <3 playing bossa)

 

Find a bunch of Bossa Novas, Ballads, and Blues out of the real book. Then you can start to work in the rest.

 

Thanks for the explanations, that's helpful!!

 

My new understanding is that the Bass Clef version would be for a trombone player that reads BC.

He'd want the Bb version for Treble Clef.

As bass players, it appears we get the chord progression only, and the different flats and clefs are for "voice" arrangements.

I was hoping to find some suggested bass lines.