My notes for a music group presentation.

#My Background

• Not classically trained
  • Self taught instrument (gutiar, keyboard)
• Nerd into music theory
  • Schoenberg
  • Mark Levine
  • ...
• Played fingerstyle guitar
• Wrote songs with DAW
• Had average ear training
  • Can transcribe and ok with most pop songs
    • major modes (lydian, dorian)
    • commmon secondary 251
  • Unfamiliar with jazz languages (almost all other modes)
    • Harmonic minor / Melodic minor / Whole tone / Diminished / Augmented / Bebop x
• Stopped playing since graduation (still listen to music heavily tho)
• Started again in 2024

#Why learning Jazz

All Roads Lead to Jazz.

Joke aside, what are the common paths?

#Music paths and What is Jazz

(Very opinionated personal view. Obviously, these paths are not entirely orthogonal)

• Pop / Rock / Modern path

  • Audience focused
    • Songwriting
    • Production
    • Performance
    • Style (techniques)
  • Modern elements
    • Sound design: Synth / Effects / Tone / Guitar padel
    • Rhythm: Math rock, odd meters etc
    • ...

• Jazz path

  • Improvisation / Ensemble / Jam
  • Ear training
  • Language: Phrasing(thinking) / Grooves (Swing) / Extended harmony / Modes
  • History (Sub genres: Bebop / Fusion / Free Jazz...)

• Classical path

  • Techniques
  • Sight reading (and theory?)
  • History (Repertoire and Interpretation)
  • Orchestration

#Personal Reasons

• Learning music as a language
  • Input: discern, understand notes
  • Out: respond music with music
  • Improvisation: spontaneous
• Shocked by the fact, most classical instrumentalists
  • Plays and sight reads effortlessly
  • But has zero music in head

#Where and how to start

Luckly, this is a well established domain:

• Shared language(Jazz Standards, later on this)
• Resources: Books / YouTube videos
• Follow the genre / artists

To answer common questions:

• What key to play?
• What chord to play?
• What song to play?

Here is my attempt to them:

#Find common chord / key to play

This might be meaningless for instruments like guitar

First, let's see some aggregated stats:

#Most common keys

• C, F, G both commonly played in Pop and Jazz
• Eb, Ab, Bb are also common in Jazz
• D, E, A common guitar/Pop keys are barely played

#Most common chord types

• Jazz is all about tension and release
  • Not surprised dominant chord is the most used
• Jazz is all about minor / major 251
  • Dominant, Minor, Major, Half diminished are the fundamentals

#Most common dominant chords

This can be pretty much inferred from the Most common keys.

• The most common key is F, thus:
• The most common dominant: C(5)
• The most common major: F(1)
• The most common minor: G(2)

#Most common minor 7th chords

#Most common major 7th chords

#Find songs to play

Before finding songs, what does it mean to play Jazz?

Suppose we are playing Blue Bossa:

1. metadata: what year / what key / what style / time signature
2. strucutre: what form? e.g. AABA ABAC
3. progressions in each section: | 6m7 - 2m7 (57) | 7h7 37 6m - | 1m 47 7bM7 - | 7h7 37 6m - |
4. breakdown into primitives:

• major 251: common
• minor 736: common
• key changes
  • connect parallel major minor(147b)
  • pivot between 7bM7(7b 2 4 6) and 7h7(7 2 4 6): similar usage in All the things you are

5. take a note on primitives and practice them

#Common Progressions in Jazz

Jazz Standards is about progressions

After analyzing many standards, here is the summary:

• Single chord vamp (major / minor ...)
  • Apply things from How to Phrasing section
• 251:
  • major
  • minor
  • backdoor 47b1: Misty
• 4 bar progressions: Isn't She Lovely, Just the two of us
  • 1625 / 6251 / ...
    • 3625 / 4536 / 456
  • 6415 / 1564 ...
  • 4321
  • 6543
  • ...
• 8 bar progressions and variations
  • JPop 4536251
  • Major descending bassline / line cliche
    • Canon and variation: 1 5(or 3m, 1M7) 6m 3(or 1, 5) 4 1(or 3m, 6m, 4M7) 2 5
    • 1645 with 251: 1(73)6(5m1)451
  • Minor descending bassline
    • Hotel california: 6m 3/5# 5 2/4# 4 1/3 2m 37
    • Stairway to Heaven: 6m 6mM9/5# 1/5 2/4# 4M7 5/7 6
    • My funny valentine
• 12 bar blues
• 2 chord vamp (practice mode languages, also related to triad pair concept)
  • major modes
    • lydian: 1 2/1
    • dorian: 1m 4
    • mixo: 1 7b
  • harmonic major modes
    • harmonic major: 1 4m
    • mixob2
  • harmonic minor modes
    • phrygian dominant
  • melodic minor all modes
  • whole tone / diminished / augmented
  • bebop scales (barry harris)
• modulations
  • tritone sub
  • borrowed chords / secondary 251s
    • 736: relative minor: Autumn leaves
    • 5m14: 4th: Sunny
    • 4m / 2m7b5 -> 1
  • parallel minor major: My Favorite Things
  • pivot
    • 251drops, 251->1m47b: How high the moon
    • M7 -> h7: All the things you are
    • D7 -> m7: Donna Lee
  • ...

Use the Jazz Finder below to discover more...

#Find songs by chord progressions

Data source: 1382 standards from iReal Pro(https://github.com/mikeoliphant/JazzStandards)

#Ultimate Jazz Standards

Standards that includes all the key Jazz progressions:

• All The Things You Are (251 and key changes)
• Stella by Starlight (different 251s, backdoor)
• There Will Never Be Another You (different 251s, backdoor)
• Oleo (Rhythm Change)
• Cherokee (251s, backdoor, 251drops(whole step down modulation))
• (Any suggestions?)

#How to Phrasing

Everyone plays the same progression differently.

Other than accumulating and navigating the chord changes, it's also about how you phrase the same change;

Here is list of ideas I collected:

• rhythm
  • common pattern
  • displacement
  • syncopation
  • modulation: metric modulation etc
  • shift accdental
• target note
  • chord tone
  • color note
• note decoration
  • single note
    • diatonic approach / passing note
    • chromatic note(344#5, 711#2, 7b71 e.g.)
    • double stops
    • multiple notes
    • chord arps
    • scale pattern(1234 e.g.)
    • enclosure
• chord substitution
  • upper structure(chord, penta)
    • e.g. joe pass plays Bb, Eb over Cm
  • tritone sub
  • interchange / borrowed
  • chord scale extension
  • modes
• chord voicing
  • chord inversion
  • spread triads
  • quartal voicing
  • intervallic / random order
• chord scale phrasing
  • 9th 11th arp
  • sequence
  • triad pairs
  • barry harris
  • pat martino
  • tim miller 212
  • bach counterpoint
  • side slipping(play outside)
• motif
  • variation
  • repetition
  • sequence
• phrase structure
  • long short
  • interval sequence
• combination
  • target note + decoration / chord
  • long short
  • arp + sequence
  • ...
• licks breakdown
  • e.g. bp harm min(donna lee)

I don't really dig pentatonic / blues scale...

#Daily Routine

Here are my buckets, I pick one of them to practice:

• basics (1/3 time)
  • fingering: CAGED, Berklee system
  • fingerboard absolute note recognition (for sight playing)
  • chord arp / scale / patterns (see How to Phrasing section)
  • rhythm
• application (1/3 time)
  • play over chord vamps
  • learn licks
  • songs transcription (for ear training)
• projects (1/3 time)
  • learn big standards
  • write/arrange songs
  • research topics

#Takeaways

Jazz is about

• Ear: can you hear it
• Sing: can you respond to it
• Lifestyle/Routine: make it daily life
• Song: shared language and have something to present
• Mindset: a change in perspective is worth 80 iq

#Useful Websites

• Jazz Standard Sheets
• The Best Jazz Tutorial