mortakye

I know that it is recomended to know as many of the standards as possible. Memorizing songs is something that I've never been good at, and trying to do better.
When you learn songs, do you learn the melody, like from a fake book, or do you learn the 1st trumpet part. If individual parts, what edition do you try to learn. Also, when you learn changes, what key do you learn them in?
Well, I hope this question makes sense, I don't feel like I'm expressing it very well.
Thanks,
Nate Banzhof

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Nate

Calicchio 1sZ/3rL

Purviance 4*D4

bostonjazz29

Hey Nate,
When your learning tunes you have to find out what works best for your learning style. You can either go to the real books for the melody or go to the recordings. Some people learn better from others teaching them the tune. I learned gone with the wind this way on a gig. Learn the melody first and the words if there are any ( this helps with phrasing ). When you are learning the changes learn them by number rather then by key. This way when your on the gig and someone calls Just Friends in E you know the changes start on the 4 chord. Listening all of the time will help with learning tunes as well. Listening is a huge part of practicing. If you want to learn a standard listen to everybody play it. Great post Nate.

Mike

TrumpetMD

Good advice from bostonjazz29. Just a couple more points.

To learn new songs, I use recordings with a fake book or I use the Jamey Aebersold CD's. I play the melody with the recordings several times, first with the lead sheet and then without it. I don't worry about harmony parts or a particular arrangement. I like bostonjazz29's suggestion of also learning the words -- I'll have to try that.

I learn the changes by practicing arpeggios and scales over each chord. For tough songs, I start with partial arpeggios and scales, and work my way up.

Jamey Aebersold has a free Jazz Handbook, which has a great section on learning and memorizing new tunes: Jazz Handbook: Jazzbooks.com.

In addition, you may want to check out the thread How do you practice improvisation? for more tips on learning to improvise over new songs, which is your goal when learning new songs.

Mike

veery715

IMO the absoloutely best way is to listen (over and over) to CDs of great singers. There are many -Sinatra, Ella, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughn, Etta James, Diana Krall, Mel Torme, Steve Tyrell, Stacey Kent, Susannah McCorkle, Jane Monheit, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, - this list is endless and no matter how long I made it I'd miss many. Go to your library, check your XM or TV music channels, YouTube (play through your stereo), etc

Sing and play along on your horn. Learn the words. Watch the Real Book changes while listening. Most of these tunes carry a lot of emotion (pain, sorrow, happiness). Try to identify with that. Immerse yourself and you will learn.

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bostonjazz29

Great reply TrumpetMD. I think its great that you are playing the arpeggios and scales over the chords to learn the changes. One thing I do and have my students do is play the pattern 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 3 - 2 - 1 over each chord. And also when you play the scales over the changes play them up to the 7th and back down to the tonic. Please jump in on the audio clip posting threads. I would love to hear you play and we need more people to post :)

Mike

jdizzle

I would also add you should play the changes on the piano. It is critical to internalize the music. Tunes I learned on the piano, I have never forgotten.

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"If you don't hear it, it won't come out your horn."

lovevixen555

I just practice the stuff I want to learn. You figure if you are musical slob you have to practice at least an hour a day just to stay decent you can learn a lot of stuff in an hour a day. If you plan on doing this for a lieveing then 2-3 hours a day at the minimum spaced out is not that hard to do when a paycheck is rideing on it. I worked doing weddings and dinner parties in Middle School. I hated 90% of the music I had to learn but that really does nto matter. I am preety lucky because for the most part if I hear a song once I preety much got it other then getting the phraseing all right which goes back to practice.

I kid you not when my school asked me if I would consider playing tuba until they found someone else my day hated it! He used to yell at me and to stop and everything. I normaly practiced 2-3 hours each night even if everything was going well. If I had a difacult section I would do it over and over and over and over again until I got it right. A towel under the door does nothing to stop the sound of a tuba even played at low volume it goes right through the walls like they are rice paper. So really practice is the key and lot's of it. In fact my Dad was an according player on the Larence Welck show as a kid. He was int he Army for 21 years in Infrantry and Special Forces. He only pick's up his accordin 1-2 times a year and he still plays it like he played it every day. He remebers every song he ever learned in school and can sound out most songs fairly quickly. Nothing does that to you like practice! If you wanted to learn Japanese Kanji you would not be asking if their is some secret you would already know you need to practice more. Same thing with music it is a language all it's own and practice and repition are the most useful tools. Your brain will rewire itself to a degree if you practice enough. As to how you learn best well only you can answere answere that since you know yourself better then anyone on this board know's you. Oh and instead of listening to your regular music when you are out and about listen to the stuff you need to learn and start humming it when you are cleaning the house etc.....Total immersion!

frankmike

I go with real book standards. IMO the best piece to start practice is "song for my father", it has great rhytm, and range is not to high, perfect for starters