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Jazz Progressions to Start With?
- Thread starter Matthew_84
- Start date
I would look at this:
Alfred Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Volume 3: The ii/V7/I Progression
if you can master this book you’ll be set.
Enjoy the journey!
Alfred Jamey Aebersold Jazz, Volume 3: The ii/V7/I Progression
if you can master this book you’ll be set.
Enjoy the journey!
At Berklee, Autumn Leaves is referred to as Taught 'Em Keys
Great place to start. The advice to get the Real Book and work on tunes from there is good advice too.
Each standard you take on will be a study in itself. And don’t think after a week or two you are done with any particular tune. They all have potential for deep study. The teacher advice is solid but not absolutely necessary as there are a lot of online resources. I basically set out to do exactly what you are doing during covid. I had fits and starts. Been back at it more consistently as of late. I started with autumn leaves. Then moved to fly me to the moon. But never put down autumn leaves. I run the arpeggios ascending , descending from root. Root, 5, root, chromatic approach to next root. Start a chord on 3 or 5. I Practice 2 feel with roots, third or root 5 Etc. I have been bulling through it for a couple of months and it’s paying off. A variation of the jazz blues is also good. Not jazz but a good lesson in itself is goodbye yellow brick road. A study in 3rds connecting chords that move in 4ths. Vary the octaves and use thirds above and below. It’s a great bass line. I am starting to get tangible results so my advice is stick with it even when it gets tedious. It’s getting easy to get straight into new charts and improvise over changes using all the things I have been practicing ad nauseum.
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Another vote for Autumn Leaves. In addition to all the other attributes, it’s good for playing in two as well as walking.
Also, set a metronome, or playalong if you must, and walk blues until your arm falls off. Bb and F to start.
Also, set a metronome, or playalong if you must, and walk blues until your arm falls off. Bb and F to start.
Long, but may help. One of my old bread and butter papers on chord progressions. Progressions move the song along between rest, harmony, climax and then back to rest. A I-V7-I will work,,, But as you already know there are many ways of go...
First I have to identify the key and then from there I let some theory help me assume what the chord changes will be. To identify the key I have to find the tonal center of the song. I do that best on the piano, however, running the G string up the neck till what is happening in the song and what I'm doing on the fretboard come into sync will work -- look down at what note that happened on. That note should be, if I heard correctly, the I tonic chord's name. From that I assume the I, IV and V chords for this song. My ear picked out E as the tonal center so E-A-B is where I would start.
Most of the music you and I will run up on will be dirt simple stuff. So dirt simple = the structure chords. Structure chord are the I, IV and V chords in the key. So let's start here and get our ears used to those chords first. I think of them as being the movement chords. The I chord can move anywhere it wants to, but, returning to the I in the progression will loose any tension you have built up -- if you move to the tonic I chord. The IV chord is a sub-dominant chord and likes to move to the V dominant chord and the V likes to move to the I tonic chord. And those three chords contain every note in the tonic scale. So, one of them has a very good chance of harmonize the active melody at any one time. Point being the I, IV & V chord will move your progression along just fine. All the other chords add color and flavor, but, the good ole I-IV-V are your bread and butter chords. In a jamming circle you will do fine just relying on those three chords until you can pick out some of the minor color chords. This is where ear training really helps.
Right now bet on the I being the starting chord, it does not have to start the song or verse, it probably will end the song or verse -- you need the verse to resolve and end this thought so a new thought can start with the next verse. However you will see the following done quite a lot with the ending of a chorus - if it loops back the V will be the last chord in the chorus as V's like to move to I's - and if the I chord starts the next verse that V chord acting as a turn-a-round works great. The video I've listed below has the V chord as a turn-a-round chord leading back to the beginning to start over. All seven of the chords within one key are going to sound OK with every other chord of that same key so no one is going to come on stage and beat you around the head and face if you miss a chord change. Catch the right one in the next verse. If you get lost pounding the I chord till you find your place can work.
The I chord, which is the tonal center of the progression, will be used the most in the song and the IV will probably be the next most used chord in the song. The V will happen a couple of times per verse. Usually near the end of the second and forth line of the verse.
The ii, iii and vi add color or flavor. So, in our dirt simple song you probably will just have the I, IV and V chord in your song. There may be a ii or vi in your song, the iii or vii (m7b5) chord will probably not come up. Praise is the only thing I play that has iii, vi and vii's in it.
So? Try this, call up some videos of your favorite song. Assume the I chord will start. When you hear a chord change - yes this will take some time to develop - assume the I went to the IV chord. If the next chord goes back down scale - assume the I is now active. From the I if the song goes up scale assume you are back with the IV.
What about that V? Good luck with that. So you miss it catch it on the next verse... Really nothing bad is going to happen as every chord within the same key is going to sound OK with every other chord in that key. Right now be happy with OK.
The more you listen and the more you play the better you will be at picking out the correct chords. But, it will not happen unless you get started, make mistakes, pick your self off the floor, dust yourself off and try again.
I also play rhythm guitar so I can look at the rhythm guitars fretting hand and see what chord he is playing. If you think he knows what he is doing -- when he changes chords go along with him. If you do not play rhythm guitar get him to show you what the fingering looks like so you can assume the active chord.
Here is a backing track of the D Blues. Don't let the dominant sevens throw you, they are just I-IV-V with a dominant seven note added. Listen for the different sounds. Notice it's going to be I and IV with the V coming in the last line. This one will use the V as a turn-a-round.
The Blues is great for identifying the chords used, as the progression is predictable and easy to follow. In a jamming circle you may have the song called this way; "It's in G grab a 12 bar blues progression and hang on". Get the following into memory.
I-IV-I-I or perhaps I-I-I-I
IV-IV-I-I these pretty much stay the same.
V-IV-I-V for a turn-a-round or double I's to end.
OK now jazz. ii-V7-I with a iii-vi and m7b5 thrown in .
First I have to identify the key and then from there I let some theory help me assume what the chord changes will be. To identify the key I have to find the tonal center of the song. I do that best on the piano, however, running the G string up the neck till what is happening in the song and what I'm doing on the fretboard come into sync will work -- look down at what note that happened on. That note should be, if I heard correctly, the I tonic chord's name. From that I assume the I, IV and V chords for this song. My ear picked out E as the tonal center so E-A-B is where I would start.
Most of the music you and I will run up on will be dirt simple stuff. So dirt simple = the structure chords. Structure chord are the I, IV and V chords in the key. So let's start here and get our ears used to those chords first. I think of them as being the movement chords. The I chord can move anywhere it wants to, but, returning to the I in the progression will loose any tension you have built up -- if you move to the tonic I chord. The IV chord is a sub-dominant chord and likes to move to the V dominant chord and the V likes to move to the I tonic chord. And those three chords contain every note in the tonic scale. So, one of them has a very good chance of harmonize the active melody at any one time. Point being the I, IV & V chord will move your progression along just fine. All the other chords add color and flavor, but, the good ole I-IV-V are your bread and butter chords. In a jamming circle you will do fine just relying on those three chords until you can pick out some of the minor color chords. This is where ear training really helps.
Right now bet on the I being the starting chord, it does not have to start the song or verse, it probably will end the song or verse -- you need the verse to resolve and end this thought so a new thought can start with the next verse. However you will see the following done quite a lot with the ending of a chorus - if it loops back the V will be the last chord in the chorus as V's like to move to I's - and if the I chord starts the next verse that V chord acting as a turn-a-round works great. The video I've listed below has the V chord as a turn-a-round chord leading back to the beginning to start over. All seven of the chords within one key are going to sound OK with every other chord of that same key so no one is going to come on stage and beat you around the head and face if you miss a chord change. Catch the right one in the next verse. If you get lost pounding the I chord till you find your place can work.
The I chord, which is the tonal center of the progression, will be used the most in the song and the IV will probably be the next most used chord in the song. The V will happen a couple of times per verse. Usually near the end of the second and forth line of the verse.
The ii, iii and vi add color or flavor. So, in our dirt simple song you probably will just have the I, IV and V chord in your song. There may be a ii or vi in your song, the iii or vii (m7b5) chord will probably not come up. Praise is the only thing I play that has iii, vi and vii's in it.
So? Try this, call up some videos of your favorite song. Assume the I chord will start. When you hear a chord change - yes this will take some time to develop - assume the I went to the IV chord. If the next chord goes back down scale - assume the I is now active. From the I if the song goes up scale assume you are back with the IV.
What about that V? Good luck with that. So you miss it catch it on the next verse... Really nothing bad is going to happen as every chord within the same key is going to sound OK with every other chord in that key. Right now be happy with OK.
The more you listen and the more you play the better you will be at picking out the correct chords. But, it will not happen unless you get started, make mistakes, pick your self off the floor, dust yourself off and try again.
I also play rhythm guitar so I can look at the rhythm guitars fretting hand and see what chord he is playing. If you think he knows what he is doing -- when he changes chords go along with him. If you do not play rhythm guitar get him to show you what the fingering looks like so you can assume the active chord.
Here is a backing track of the D Blues. Don't let the dominant sevens throw you, they are just I-IV-V with a dominant seven note added. Listen for the different sounds. Notice it's going to be I and IV with the V coming in the last line. This one will use the V as a turn-a-round.
The Blues is great for identifying the chords used, as the progression is predictable and easy to follow. In a jamming circle you may have the song called this way; "It's in G grab a 12 bar blues progression and hang on". Get the following into memory.
I-IV-I-I or perhaps I-I-I-I
IV-IV-I-I these pretty much stay the same.
V-IV-I-V for a turn-a-round or double I's to end.
OK now jazz. ii-V7-I with a iii-vi and m7b5 thrown in .
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I listen to a lot of jazz, but I don't play jazz. Maybe it's because everyone uses Autumn Leaves as the first tune and the versions I've heard don't do it for me. Anyway, there are two clips I've taken to heart on the electric bass. This one, and Christian McBride's "Your Sound is Your Signature", which is really just a variation on this one.
Learn to get a sound on the instrument. Make it your own. Be consistent. That's what matters.
the teacher I studied with who really turned me into a solid jazz player used a pretty simple system that I went on to use with my own students since it's something that I know works, and none of the stuff I tried before it ever really worked for me.
In this method, the answer to the question "what progressions should I start with" would simply be answered with "the ones in standards". However, a big mistake that bassists make is to open up the book, look at the changes, and think that if they just pick out some tones that are related to those symbols, they'll be playing something hip. It's not enough though to just play notes that aren't "wrong", your aim is to actually play something that sounds good.
But what sounds good? The somewhat unsatisfying answer to this question is that to figure out what sounds good you have to look at which recordings people love and listen to those. If you don't also love that stuff, totally cool, there are lots of other styles of music that people can choose from.
If you _do_ find stuff you love, however, the next step is to absorb the set of phrases and uses of harmony into your own playing. People learn to be comedians by telling other peoples jokes. People learn to be actors and actresses by watching other peoples movies. And so on.
So circling back to the idea of studying progressions. For most of us, the act of playing jazz is going to consist largely of playing standards, and the standards we play most tend to be the ones that people love the most. There are a million different lists like this, top 50 standards, 100 standards every bassist should know, etc. The book is sorta such a list although its got a lot of random rarely called tunes in it as well. If you look at these top-100 lists and you analyze the changes, you start to notice that the standards fall into one of a handful of buckets.
* Tunes with Blues changes, Billie's, Mr. PC, etc.
* Tunes with Rhythm Changes, Oleo, Anthropology
* Ballads, Misty, Autumn in New York, etc.
* Bird tunes, Donna Lee, Ornithology, etc.
* Stuff with weird changes that still gets called a lot, Stablemates, Waltz for Debby, Monk tunes
If you look at the sheer volume of charts that fall into those first two buckets, it sorta gives you a clue which sets of changes warrant some extra study time, since if you can blow convincingly over major and minor blues and rhythm changes, a huge number of tunes are going to be available to you, and the common turnarounds and substitutions are just absolutely everywhere in them. Bird tunes are sorta the same way, they're all distinct but after you have a handful of them memorized, this thing magically happens where playing other bird tunes suddenly gets a lot easier because they will feel familiar to your ears and hands.
It's important to include the weird stuff in your diet though, but I think it's inefficient to start out noodling over like modal tunes or complicated charts if you haven't really internalized the more common changes, since you will draw a lot on your vocabulary from common changes when approaching a trickier tune.
Also I think it's a bad idea to think of starting jazz bass by studying progressions in isolation. You really need to treat those as one of several pieces of information that you have about a tune. For example, you are obviously going to play over a ii-V-I a million times, but as bassists we often identify those but don't play them literally, and instead think about what the _melody_ does over them and use that as a guide. Listening to stuff that is good will help you to form opinions about what really does sound good in a particular part of a specific tune; you can't just look at the chords in isolation and know what will sound good.
Anyway apologies for the length, this is a topic that is very dear to me since I've seen hundreds of bass players struggling to learn to walk be given advice to look at some book that talks about chord/scale relationships, and although its impossible not to absorb that kind of information when you learn to play jazz, I think it puts the cart before the horse by focusing on the theoretical aspects of walking bass ahead of the practical aspects of it. I struggled for decades to learn the wrong way before I got hooked up with some teachers who flipped the script and now I don't have those problems anymore.
Good luck and hope this helps!
In this method, the answer to the question "what progressions should I start with" would simply be answered with "the ones in standards". However, a big mistake that bassists make is to open up the book, look at the changes, and think that if they just pick out some tones that are related to those symbols, they'll be playing something hip. It's not enough though to just play notes that aren't "wrong", your aim is to actually play something that sounds good.
But what sounds good? The somewhat unsatisfying answer to this question is that to figure out what sounds good you have to look at which recordings people love and listen to those. If you don't also love that stuff, totally cool, there are lots of other styles of music that people can choose from.
If you _do_ find stuff you love, however, the next step is to absorb the set of phrases and uses of harmony into your own playing. People learn to be comedians by telling other peoples jokes. People learn to be actors and actresses by watching other peoples movies. And so on.
So circling back to the idea of studying progressions. For most of us, the act of playing jazz is going to consist largely of playing standards, and the standards we play most tend to be the ones that people love the most. There are a million different lists like this, top 50 standards, 100 standards every bassist should know, etc. The book is sorta such a list although its got a lot of random rarely called tunes in it as well. If you look at these top-100 lists and you analyze the changes, you start to notice that the standards fall into one of a handful of buckets.
* Tunes with Blues changes, Billie's, Mr. PC, etc.
* Tunes with Rhythm Changes, Oleo, Anthropology
* Ballads, Misty, Autumn in New York, etc.
* Bird tunes, Donna Lee, Ornithology, etc.
* Stuff with weird changes that still gets called a lot, Stablemates, Waltz for Debby, Monk tunes
If you look at the sheer volume of charts that fall into those first two buckets, it sorta gives you a clue which sets of changes warrant some extra study time, since if you can blow convincingly over major and minor blues and rhythm changes, a huge number of tunes are going to be available to you, and the common turnarounds and substitutions are just absolutely everywhere in them. Bird tunes are sorta the same way, they're all distinct but after you have a handful of them memorized, this thing magically happens where playing other bird tunes suddenly gets a lot easier because they will feel familiar to your ears and hands.
It's important to include the weird stuff in your diet though, but I think it's inefficient to start out noodling over like modal tunes or complicated charts if you haven't really internalized the more common changes, since you will draw a lot on your vocabulary from common changes when approaching a trickier tune.
Also I think it's a bad idea to think of starting jazz bass by studying progressions in isolation. You really need to treat those as one of several pieces of information that you have about a tune. For example, you are obviously going to play over a ii-V-I a million times, but as bassists we often identify those but don't play them literally, and instead think about what the _melody_ does over them and use that as a guide. Listening to stuff that is good will help you to form opinions about what really does sound good in a particular part of a specific tune; you can't just look at the chords in isolation and know what will sound good.
Anyway apologies for the length, this is a topic that is very dear to me since I've seen hundreds of bass players struggling to learn to walk be given advice to look at some book that talks about chord/scale relationships, and although its impossible not to absorb that kind of information when you learn to play jazz, I think it puts the cart before the horse by focusing on the theoretical aspects of walking bass ahead of the practical aspects of it. I struggled for decades to learn the wrong way before I got hooked up with some teachers who flipped the script and now I don't have those problems anymore.
Good luck and hope this helps!
