Hello again and thanks for taking the time to pop in today. A topic of late has been on how to construct our own Jazz songs/tunes. This is a fun topic and one that has many possibilities. We’ll mention a few, then construct our own and use some typical compositional devices that are employed in Jazz songs/tunes.
Where to start
The simplest and best way to start is to grab a copy of and open up “The Real Book” by Hal Leonard and take a look at some of the charts! As a supplement to this, head over to Youtube or use whatever streaming service you have to listen to famous versions of each song/tune that you find. There are strict legal rules against copying melodies, but there aren’t any rules on copying chord progressions. So that makes it nice and simple for you to just nick a progression and get going if you don’t want to or don’t yet know how to make your own. Writing a song off of an existing chord progression is called a contrafact and is completely legal and fair to use.
Let’s list a few famous contrafacts based off of original chord progressions and put the originals in italics. There are countless contrafacts that exist, so we’ll just list one to a few of each so this doesn’t turn into a dissertation.
I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin:
– Anthropology by Charlie Parker
– Dexterity by Charlie Parker
– Chippie by Ornette Coleman – this is one of the many Rhythm Changes tunes that doesn’t actually have a composed bridge. This makes it so you only really need to write 8 bars of material and just repeat it over and over again for the “A sections.” Rhythm changes – and many songs/tunes – are composed in AABA format which is a simple way of saying “repeat the first 8 bars, create a different section for 8 bars, then repeat the first 8 bars again.” This is also one of the few standard songs that Ornette Coleman wrote. He is most famous for his amazing contribution to Free Jazz.
– Lo-Joe – George Coleman: He uses the “New York Changes” for the bridge of this tune. Example: A-7 D7 | Ebm7 Ab7 | Dm7 G7 | Abm7 Db7 | etc. You play the regular ii-V then a ii-V that is a tritone away from the original ii-V.
How High The Moon by Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton:
– Ornithology by Charlie Parker
– ADVANCED Satellite by John Coltrane – this is very advanced in harmony. Coltrane applied his “Coltrane Matrix” to a plethora of jazz standards. One of the best sources of information for this is through “The Jazz Theory Book” by Mark Levine. We’ll dig into the Coltrane Matrix at a later date.
Cherokee by Ray Noble
– Koko by Charlie Parker
That should be a good start for you to look at.
What’s common with some melodies for Jazz songs?
One big thing you’ll notice, aside from the AABA format, is what’s called a “sequence.” A sequence is where a section/passage/phrase of music is repeated in a higher or lower pitch. Take a look at I Got Rhythm (you can see a sample of the chart here) and how it really has two main sequences through the whole piece. The first being on the words “I got rhythm” and the next being on “Who could ask for anything more.” The whole piece is written off of these fragments, including the bridge.
For this week’s song, I’ve used a similar compositional technique to make more material out of small fragments – which is not that different in practice from last week’s post on how to write a song from a riff. On top of this, the lyrics will be a tongue in cheek callback to life “Back In The Day” and how things were more affordable (for some).
Lyrics
I could buy a house
On minimum wage
Support a family
Of 5 or more
I could drive across the town
I could live without a frown
I could do it, so could you
Back in the day
I could get a job
Where I could climb
In a place where they
Promoted from inside
I could work a year or two
And get a raise for me and you
So we could travel all the world
Back in the day
Bridge
Most the jobs would have a union
Life was swell
Where the benefits were plenty
We lived well
Verse
I could buy a house
On minimum wage
Support a family
Of 5 or more
I could drive across the town
So little traffic to be found
I could do it, so could you
Back in the day
Let’s give a listen
Most Jazz Standards are 8 bars for the A sections and 8 bars for the B sections. This one is 16 bars for the A sections and 8 bars for the B section. I didn’t base it off of any song, but it’s a fairly standard style chord progression and melody. If you schmooze up your vocals a little bit then it sets you right back in Frank Sinatra’s style of singing.
The solo is just the first 16 bars and is strongly focused on playing the melody. This is a common technique in soloing and is just a basic example of it. We will discuss soloing over a chord progression as well as soloing over a particular tune/song in later posts. If you’d like to learn more about that sooner, book a lesson and we’ll discuss many different ways you can construct/improvise over a particular song instead of just playing over the changes for a given progression.
Parting words
Now that you’ve heard a few examples, give it a shot! If you haven’t tried before, take somebody else’s chord progression and make your own melody over it. If you’re interested in obtaining a copy of “Back In The Day” for yourself then feel free to click here to contact me. If you’re interested in learning more about writing your own standard, consider booking a lesson to get in-depth information to enhance your knowledge and experience.
Thank you and I hope you’ve learned a few things in the time you’ve taken to listen to and read this material.
Remember to be kind to yourself, keep practicing and searching for new questions and answers, and have fun in your process.
All the best,
– Matt