Autumn leaves eva cassidy free sheet music tabs guitar pinterest music, sheet music and tab. Autumn leaves les feuilles mortes sheet music for piano solo by joseph kosma. Published by hal leonard digital sheet music. This month I present to you three versions of the famous jazz standard “Autumn Leaves.” “Autumn Leaves” is a tune that is heard on many instruments in many genres all over the world. Most people associate the song with the American jazz tradition as it is.
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About Autumn LeavesIn this lesson I have chosen to work on Autumn Leaves in the key of G minor. You will find a few versions in the key of E minor since it is printed in that key in the old Realbook, but the most common key is G minor.The two main cadences in the song are II V I cadences, one to the major tonic (Bb) and one to the minor tonic (Gm). In this way you cover two of the most important harmonic movements in this key. Learning the songBesides knowing the arpeggios and the chords by heart you need to know the melody of the song you want to improvise on. In the end the melody is more important because the harmony may vary from version to version but the melody will stay the same. In this lesson (and for copyright reasons) I can’t go over the melody, but if you want some hints on how to do this you could check out this Q&A video where I talk about that:The form of Autumn leaves is a bit uncommon for jazz since it is AAB where the B is 16 bars and the 8 bars. A good place to start is to just play the chords of the song.
In example 1 I have written out chord voicings for the song. In the example I am using the material that I went over in the lesson.
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Since a lot of the examples I am using are over the whole form I am playing them a bit fast in the video. You can always go back and check or even play them at a slower speed if you have a place that is hard to follow. I ended up doing it like this because the video otherwise would be much too long. The ArppegiosI have written out the arpeggios in the 6th position of the neck. If you think in Bb major this is a very common Bb major scale position so you probably know it already.Example 2 has the arppegios of the different chords written out. If you count the chords you’ll see that we have 10 different chords. Since the goal of this lesson is to improvise fluently with well connected melodies using the arpeggios, I have written out all the arpeggios around the 6th position.
Shifting up and down the neck is going to make it much more difficult to play logical melodies and almost impossible to do some of the exercises. Practising the arpeggiosFirst you should probably try to become familiar with the arpeggios in example 2 and then as fast as possible try to start using them on the song. Students often forget how important it is to practice using what you’ve learnt.Besides just practising each arpeggio it is a very good idea to work on playing the arpeggios in different patterns. Playing them in groups of 3 or 4 notes, skipping notes etc are good ways to get more flexible with the arpeggio.
You need the flexibility when you start improvising, and keep in mind that it is about flexibility and overview not about speed when working on this, so there’s no real need to play it fast.The first exercise is to just play through the song with the arpeggios from example 2 in a one octave version. This will not only help practising the arpeggios but also build your sense of the form of the song and help you hear the chords moving and when they change. I tried to take the highest octave available of each arpeggios because that is probably the register you’ll need the most when you solo so you might as well start by working on a good overview of that. Connecting the arpeggiosThe next exercise is a very good way to gain a strong overview of the arpeggios and chords. It is also helping you to develop your ability to think ahead. The idea is to start playing the arpeggios over the progression and then when ever the chord changes to continue the movement with the note that is the closest in the next arpeggio.
It’s quite tricky to get started with but very rewarding when you start getting the freedom while improvising.When you start this then you probably don’t need to work on the whole form in the beginning. In example 4 I have written out the example I play in the video in rubato.
In the video you can hear me pointing out whenever I change. Putting it all together in improvisingAs I demonstrate in the video the thinking behind making harmony clear in a solo line is to target certain notes of the strong beats (in this case the 1). The idea is that a strong and logical sounding line will be a line that has the direction towards a clear target note. I also discuss this way of making melodies in another lesson that you can check: You will notice in the solo I improvise in the video that I am not too concerned with target notes unless the chord is changing.The first target notes I’d suggest you use is in the song is the 3rd of each chord. There are two advantages to this. It very clearly targets the color of the chord and it also connects what you play with the melody since a lot of the sustained notes in the melody are in fact the 3rd of the chord.In example 6 I have written out the 3rds of each chord played over the root of the chord.
Get the PDF!You can also download the PDF of my examples here:Email AddressFirst NameLast Name Submit Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook GroupJoin 600+ Other Jazz Guitarists ?Join us in the Facebook Jazz Guitar Group Community: you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.Please subscribe to my and feel free to connect with me via, or to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.
Autumn Leaves is a great song to get starting playing easy chord melody arrangements on guitar. This famous jazz standard is both a great melody and a fairly easy option to play an easy chord melody.In this lesson I will go over a chord melody arrangement of Autumn Leaves that I made. The chords I am using are for the biggest part simple 3-note voicings called shell-voicings and I have also included some exercises to check those out.You can scroll down and download the PDF of the Arrangement at the end of the page. Autumn Leaves – The Song and the Chord Melody ArrangementThe key that I am using for Autumn Leaves in this arrangement is G minor. This is not the key from the real book, but it is the most common key for performing the song.
The form of Autumn Leaves is AAB where A is 8 bars and B is 16 bars, so it is a 32 bar form.The arrangement is using call-response to also allow the chords to add some groove to. This also allows for using the melody in the lower octave that often sounds a little fuller. Learning some useful Shell-voicings for the songTo learn the chord melody we need some chords to play with the melody. The melody of Autumn Leaves is mostly a pick-up with followed by a single long note on the heavy bar. You cna think of the first phrase as an example. This makes it easy to add chords while the long note is sounding.Most of the chords that I use here are shell voicings, so it is a good idea to check those out in G minor.In the exercises below I have the diatonic chords of G minor first with the root on the E string and then with the root on the A string.
For each exercise I start with the lowest possible chord and then move up one octave. Chord Melody – It’s about the melody!The first place to start with chord melody is learning the melody! In fact, it would be a more appropriate name if we turned it around: Melody Chord. This is because we are playing the melody and adding the chords, not the other way around (hopefully).In example 3, here below. I have written out the melody for the first 8 bars of the song. It is written out in the places where I want to play the melody so that I can easily fit chords under it.Really knowing the melody well and being comfortable moving it around the neck is essential when you start making your own chord melody arrangements (which should be 20 minutes after checking out this lesson).
This is a blueprint for your own chord melody arrangementsI hope you can have fun playing through my arrangement and start to make it your own with variations and changes to the chords!For me, the most fun part of chord melody is making your own arrangements! I think you should start trying to figure out how to do so as fast as possible.
You can play other peoples arrangements as well, but there is no reason why you should not be creative with your own harmonizations and voicings!Learning to solo on Autumn Leaves is of course also a part of playing it as a Jazz Guitarist. One approach to this using the arpeggios of the song is covered in this lesson: How To Make Your Own Chord Melody Arrangements!You can learn to make your own chord melody arrangements, and it is not even that difficult.This lesson will help you:. Learn How To Make your own Chord Melody Arrangments.
Work through a structured path to develop your playing. Easy to play and not relying on you knowing thousands of chords. Jazz Guitar Insiders Facebook GroupJoin 3000+ Other Jazz Guitarists ?Join us in the Facebook Jazz Guitar Group Community: Download the Free PDFYou can also download the PDF of my examples here by signing up for my mailing list:Email AddressFirst NameLast Name SubmitIf you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.Please subscribe to my and feel free to connect with me via, or to keep up to date with new lessons, concerts and releases.This entry was posted in, and tagged, on.
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