Autumn Leaves Arpeggio Study

I have high school age student that is getting ready to audition for a music performance scholarship at a small college in central Wisconsin.  He is auditioning with a guitar performance of several jazz standards.

One of these standards is the classic tunes Autumn Leaves, a tune by French composer Joseph Kosma from 1945.  The original lyrics were crafted by French poet Jacques Prévert and American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947.

I had previously posted a simple octave transcription of the melody in a recent post.

While Autumn Leaves is a fairly simple song, it offers a variety of choices and challenges for the beginning jazz guitarist and improviser.

When beginning to examine a piece for performance and/or study, there are several things that must be mastered.  First, the melody of the song must be learned.  Second, the student should examine the chord progression - often called chord changes, or just changes - and then analyze the changes from the perspective of first the accompanist and then the improvisor.   Odds are in most performances, you'll be called upon to do both.

Autumn Leaves Arpeggio Study (PDF)

The music I've attached to this post is an arpeggio study of the chord changes.  Before we break down the progression and analyze it, we'd better make sure we can play the tones in the chords themselves!   All instruments should be able to arpeggiate their way through the changes, and chording instruments, such as the piano and guitar, should also be able to play at least the simple form of the chords smoothly in a basic comping pattern.

I'll offer a few choruses of the chord changes as well as a detailed analysis of the harmony and techniques for approaching the solo in later posts.

This study is quite simple - merely a variety of arpeggiations of the changes that flow fairly smoothly.  The guitar tablature indicates a variety of common shapes for the basic chords in a number of positions and fingerings.  I hope you find some new positions or ideas that perhaps hadn't occurred to you yet.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions.

enjoy!

Picking Development Exercises for Beginning Guitar

This is some of the basic picking exercises that I start all my guitar students out with.  The goal is to warm up with this daily until picking with control and precision becomes automatic.  Use a metronome, and really focus on developing precise control in conjunction with the click.  When you are picking eighth notes, feel the difference in the emphasis on and off the beat and associate that with the upstroke (and the lifting of the foot as you tap!)

Guitar Picking Exercises PDF

Autumn Leaves Octave Melody for Guitar

This is a transcription of the melody of the jazz standard "Autumn Leaves" that I wrote out for a student.  The melody is transcribed in octaves and is meant to be played with the thumb, a la Wes Montgomery.

CORRECTED (all pages) link to PDF

Reading Rhythms, Level 1

It is important to be comfortable reading rhythms, whether in standard notation or tablature.  Practice reading these rhythms at a slow tempo.  Some of them become quite challenging at faster tempos.

I find it best to practice by tapping my foot to the main beat as I tap out the rhythm with my right hand.  If you are just getting started tapping and reading rhythms, count the rhythm out loud. Only say the beats you need to count, meaning a 4/4 measure consisting of:  Quarter Eighth Eighth Rest Eighth Quarter would be read as " 1 2 and 3 and 4"

 

Whole Half Quarter PDF
Eighth Quarter Half PDF

LH strength & finger independence exercises

Developing LH strength, independence and control is critical for the electric bassist.  These are some exercises that I wrote out for my beginning bass students.  I actually use all of these as part of my daily warmup.

 


PDF  PDF

Keep on grooving, friends.

Hello world.

And away we go.....