autumn leaves improv study

8/13/2019 Autumn Leaves Improv Study

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A Improvisational Study “Autumn Leaves”

disclaimer: For copyright purposes, this is a non-profit study in which I as the writer have nointention of selling this article/text to make any form of profit. If the owners of the rights of

Autumn eaves get up in arms over an attempt to educate young musicians a!outimprovisation using their piece as a vehicle for learning then you"ll note that I will not pu!lish

the melody of this song and chord changes are not a!le to !e considered intellectualproperty. #ven still, if you want this removed then I will do so post haste in an attempt toavoid !eing sued. I $ust want to talk %a&& Improv.

'reetings fellow %a&& 'uitarist.

I wanted to talk in this article a!out a few fundamentals a!out %a&& guitar playing that will!ranch past the guitar. If you"re not a guitarist or pianist then fear not, most of the su!$ectsof this study are more then valid for you. (owever, if you wish to skip over the sectionsa!out chord voicings and comping I don"t want to stop/!ore you and won"t take offense ifyou don"t even give them a second look.

In this study we are going to !e looking at methods to improvise over the famous %a&&)tandard Autumn eaves. It was written in *+ !y %oseph osma and French oet %ac0uesrevert. It was then taken into #nglish speaking cannon and given #nglish words !y theinfamous %ohnny 1ercer, whom most people !elieve is credited with this piece.

2ou might !e thinking 3Autumn eaves... c"mon man, I can play on that tune4. erhaps youcan, in fact may!e you"ve !een playing on it for years. (owever there are certain aspects ofimprovisation in %a&& that I hear young people play that makes me wonder if they ever tried

to learn a tune in this way that I want to talk to you a!out today.

5he first thing I want to do is have you forget all a!out whatever you think you know a!outthe changes !ecause mine might !e different, more literal. If you learned this out of the old6th #dition 7eal !ook then you might want to look at the chord progression I have outlinedhere as well as the ey that we are going to play the song in. 5he form of the piece is A 89!ars A 89 !ars ; 89 !ars < 89 !ars. It"s important to memori&e this form $ust as much as itis to remem!er the changes and the melody. If you sing the melody to yourself while youpractice these changes it will help you make that connection !etween your ears andinstrument, which is perhaps the single most important thing to develop as a musician. 5hepurpose of all of this is to strengthen that connection, through limiting what you can with

your instrument so that your fingers can catch up to your ears, or your ears to catch up toyour fingers.



1emori&ation of the progression and the melody 8which is easy enough for you to pick out ofthin air if you have good or even moderate ears is the first thing you have to do. ;ut note

on the lead sheet how I wrote the chords and the Functional (armony on top of the chords.5his is the !est way to memori&e tunes as well as !e a!le to transpose them into differentkeys if need !e. For example, in a later exercise in this study you will start playing Autumneaves in keys other then ' minor in an attempt to really get into the things we"re going totalk a!out today.



(ere is the progression written in Functional (armony

ractice this chord progression on your instrument if you are a !assist/pianist/guitarist interms of voicings that you already know and we can get rolling on some ideas for comping onthis most infamous $a&& standard.

Comping Ideas

It"s important at the !eginning of your comping ideas to think rhythmically first, voicing



second. I like to !reak the voicing thing into separate ideas as well, !ut first lets talk rhythm.

5o many guitarists and ianists seem to !e more into trying to map out cool chord voicingson their instruments. 'uitarists are $ust as guilty if not more then pianists !ecause of thephysical limitations of the instrument 8only = strings and fingers... 6 if you use your thum!hooked around the neck means that 'uitarists often times try their !est to add in notes that

should $ust !e left alone. #specially if it is at the sacrifice of solid rhythmic motives.

)oloists want to hear you !ehind them playing in the pocket. 5hey don"t care nearly as mucha!out how cool that >nd in your voicing was if you played it in a !ad spot. earning to comprhythmically starts from working on your own with a metronome and playing with * purpose,to make the 3click4 swing.

(ow I suggest working on this is to select a tempo that you feel comforta!le playing in. 1ysuggestion is to put the click on !eats > and 8to simulate the drummer"s high hat and havethe metronome set to ?> !eats per minute. (owever, don"t feel shy a!out turning it down fyou don"t feel you are ready for that tempo. 5here is no shame... in fact in many cases it"smuch harder to swing at tempos !elow *> then it is at tempos a!ove >.

@ith the 1etronome try to make it swing !y using simple idiomatic rhythmic ideas such asthese figures laid out here

%ust 0uarternotes, however with a specific voicing idea this will create the very popular 3Freddie 'reen4 style of comping. It"s a swing style, dictating every !eat with accuracy. 5hisworks great with duos, with !ass solos and in practice nailing your time. <heck out thevoicing ideas !elow.

5he <harleston 7hythm is a very swinging rhythm here that I"ve written out ways. ;asically

it"s a strong !eat and then the off !eat of the next weak !eat. It provides lots of forwardmotion and is still not clichB, in fact it appears all the time in %a&& from swing !ands tomodern groups that are recording today. 1aking this swing is vital and so important. @e willcom!ine this with the Freddie 'reen voicings and you will !e swinging for days.



If this was the end of the form going into a new A section this is a way of anticipation of the

chord !y an 9th

note. %a&& is a!out forward motion, it"s a unifying aspect of all the su!genre"sof the music that there is forward motion somehow. 5he anticipation strongly of a new chordcan really punctuate the harmony and give strong support

(ere is $ust another example if anticipation as we now see a delay using the C* as a restthen hitting that < minor chord then anticipation through the rest of the idea. (ittingoff!eats provides forward motion, !ut you must hit them with convictionD 5his might takesome practice or you might nail it right away. #ither or, the next step really is to !reak awayfrom constant repeated patterns and start to improvise your rhythms. 5his takes a lot ofconcentration, and in a lot of respects it takes $ust as much as soloing. A lot of teachersseem to !rush over the idea of comping and $ust leave it to the devices of the student, it wassuch a way with me. I find that it took me a while to get more and more comforta!le withcomping in trios and 0uartets, !ut what you need to do is !e a!le to comp for the melody inyour mind first.

5urn that metronome on right now and sing the melody to Autumn eaves. Eon"t worry if

you can"t sing in perfect tuning or anything. ;ut the 1elody is now your guide as to whenand when not to play a chord. 2ou don"t have to vocali&e the melody either, have it playingin your head like a !acking track, as a guide to when you can let a chord out. 5hink first with!asic chords, no extensions !eyond a +th, no su! chords, $ust what is on the lead sheet fornow. If you find yourself losing the melody in your head, or forgetting the melody, ordropping !eats with the melody, it"s pro!a!ly !ecause you are...

A laying to much; Eon"t have the melody completely memori&ed, go !ack and make sure you know it< Are trying rhythms that are to complex for this piece at the level you are trying to play at.

2ou must remem!er to try and !e as musical as possi!le. lay with intention and conviction,and don"t try to !e fancy. 5hink to yourself... if I was soloing right now, would I appreciatethe comping that I $ust played. 1ake it a yes or no answer... if it"s no, then stay calm, takea !reath and play again, which is something you should try to do all the time anyway.ianists, 'uitarists and other comping instruments 8uh, Gi!esH do not need to !low or expelair to make their instruments speak. )o we tend to think in continuous lines or $ust play!ecause our fingers move... stop doing this right away. se space, especially when comping.5hink a!out the melody that is going on around you. @ork on locking up with the click of the



metronome rather then what voicings to use.

Jnce you have !ecome comforta!le with that tempo, and trying it at other tempos you nowmight wish to consider adding more depth to your chord voicings. <onsidering that thisoriginally is intended to !e focused towards 'uitarists 8!ecause I am one I will not get intoiano voicings !ecause I would !e making it up as I go along... !ut I can and will talk a!out

voicings on the guitar.

Voicing Ideas – Guitar

5his tune is !asically dealing with the ma$or cadence in %a&& music, the ii G I in ma$or andminor keys. 5here is a iii GI ii G I progression in the last section of the tune often timeswritten with the GI and G as tri-tone su!stitution chords, which is fine and sounds good.(owever, we as guitarists need to learn how to connect our ii G I cadences smoothly.

'ood voice leading can take place in a few forms

– 1elody note moves !y K step – 1elody note moves !y a @hole )tep – 1elody note does not <hange – se of <hord inversions or su!stitutions to create more motion in your harmony

It is very important to know that there are standard chord voicings that all 'uitarists mustuse. <ommonly people refer to them as 3Erop >4 or 3Erop 4 or some other form of 3Erop4chord voicings. 5hese are not inaccurate terms, however the theory !ehind them needsexplaining that might through people off. For myself I rather name them as chord tonesname them. For example, a typical 7oot position Erop > chord I would call a *6? !ecause

the notes in the chord from lowest pitch to highest are the root, fifth, seventh and third.1ake senseH 'ood.

5he two core voicings are 157 and 175. 5hese are the primary chord voicings where $a&&guitarists learn shapes to play. 5hese are also primary > hand voicings for pianists. 5hroughthese there are inversions meaning that a ma$or ?th chord with these two groups is 9separate chords.

An inversion is simply when you change the !ass note of the chord and $ust switch everythingaround. A 7oot position *6? is $ust that, *6?. *st inversion you put the rd in the !ass andthen organi&e it as such, almost like a graph

5he *6? grouping is a closed voicing on the guitar meaning that all notes are on ad$acent strings. 5his means that it exists on string groupings the =- group the 6-> groupand the -* group. 5his is very handy giving you a much wider range on the instrument.

*6??*66?*



?*6

looking at this from a 5ext 5A; view you come up with these sorts of voicings 8lets use F asan exampleFma? 'roup *

root L * > > M M*st in L 6 ? =>n L 9 9 ? + M Md L *> *> * * M M

Fma? 'roup >

root L M 9 * + * M*st L M *> * * * M>nd L M > Mrd L M ? ? 6 = M

Fma? 'roup

root L M M 6 6 6*st L M M ? + = 9>d L M M * * * *>d L MM > > * *

Now, these are ma$or ? voicings. From here what you must do is through your knowledge of<hord )cales is alter each individual voicing to get all the 0ualities.

For example, the difference !etween ma$or? and minor ? is lowering the rd and ?th in theminor chord !y a half step 8down one fret ets look $ust at group * for this

Fmi? 'roup *

root L * * * M M*st in L = =>n L 9 9 = 9 M Md L ** ** * * M M

5he other ma$or chord voicing group is !ased off *?6. 5his group has only > groupings!ecause there is a string skip

5he *?6 group has a string skip in it limiting the range 8the chords are =M> or 6M>* !utaccommodate extensions !etter. )o !oth set has their purposes.

Fma? L * M > > * M



now can you figure out the 0ualities and inversions from this chordH

*6?6?*?6*

!reddie Green"#$yt$m Guitar

@e"ve talked a!out *6? and *?6 voicings, and earlier in the comping section I talked a!outthe Freddie 'reen <hord. I"ll spare you a history lesson, !ut $ust go to wikipedia or googleand search for Freddie and you"ll get lots of info a!out him and how he played.

;asically the 'reen chords are note voicings that consist of $ust the root, rd and ?th of achord, ignoring the 6th for the most part 8except in some cases aka K diminished chords andany extension. 5his gives you the fundamentals of the chord that ring out and don"t lie.

;asically chords look like this

*M>>MM L Fma?*M*>MM L F?*M**MM L Fm? and Fm?!6*MMM Fdim? 8although this is $ust a frame, you don"t want to use open strings, they ringto much in this instance

M9?+MML Fma?M9?9MML F?

M9=9MML Fm? and Fm?!6 8alternate M9+9MM for m?!6M9+?MM L Eiminished

so you see these simple voicings can give you all your ii G and I chords in ma$or and minor.ine these up with the !eats to the !ar 8playing the 0uarternotes turned down almost allthe way with a pick struming short, in time down strokes. 5his is the !asics of Freddie"s styleand it swings like cra&yDD

Now, look at how each chord is altered from a 1a$or ? to create the 0ualities, remem!er thishere is vital to remem!er

1A%J7 ? L *, , 6, ?1INJ7 ? L * !, 6, !?EJ1INAN5 L *, , 6, !?K EI1INI)(#E L *, !, !6, !?EI1INIA(E#E L *, !, !6, !!? 8or =

5his can take a lot of practice and memori&ation. ;ut you need to work on it over time.Ouite often times you don"t run into very many rd inversion chord voicings for example, you"ll



want to really master the root and >nd inversions 8with the root or 6th in the !ass at the!eginning and then work on the *st inversions 8rd in the !ass and then the rd 8?th in the!ass.

At this point I would not worry so much a!out adding fancy chord sounds. @e"re not talkinga!out !ig chords, with lots of extensions in them yet. erhaps as you feel more comforta!le

with them then sure it would !e time to create some voicings with some >nds in them orsome nice altered dominant sounds. For our purposes, we"re going to keep it simple for now.@e want some solid comping ideas with good, accurately played voicings and with a solid,steady and consistent time feel. <omping is a!out groove not a!out how hip your chordsare, those are nice things to have 8hip voicings I mean !ut they can really get in the way ofa good listena!le performance.

@ith the 'uitar, I find when voicings contain more then notes then they start to getcluttered, muddy or not as clean and crisp as I would want them to !e. )o often times I stickto and note voicings. (owever, an interesting skill to ac0uire is to !e a!le to play $ust theguide tones to a chord 8the rd and ?th to spell out the nuts and !olts of a tune"s progression.'uide tones can !e played on two ad$acent strings. 5his in and of itself can !e a greatcomping tool, spelling out the harmony clearly without confusion. ;ut this is also a!outmapping out the guitar with what I like to call 'uitar <artography . 5o know where the musicactually lies on the neck, especially when we"re discussing clear, accurate and correct use ofmelody and harmony to create something that sounds like $a&&.



@ith now the a!ility to play these guide tones !y themselves, perhaps the addition of anothernote for the chord is a good idea. @e can select from any notes that make up the chord, the7oot, the 6th... up into the extensions of the chord, +th, the **th, the *th. Eominant chords inthis progression can !e dressed up 0uite nicely with altered +ths and **ths. @ith this youcan experiment with chord voicings in a manner that is not coming from the 3grip4 method ofdoing things. 2ou could place the extension in the low part of the chord, or high in the

melody part of it. (owever, you must trust your ear and instinct. If you don"t like the soundof a voicing you come up with in this manner, then don"t use it. Eo not try to convinceyourself that it is cool if you don"t !elieve it is. 5ry it, play it for a little while and if you don"tlike it, leave it alone. <ome !ack to it may!e the next time you sit down to practice, if youstill don"t like it then that is perfectly fine. 1y experience with it has !een that I try a chordand let it grow on me for a few days and if !y the end I still am not sure a!out it, then Ileave it !y the road and don"t trou!le myself with it.

Improvisation

Now we get to the part where anyone who doesn"t play guitar comes !ack to the game. Isay 3@elcome !ackD4 and I"m glad you stuck around through all that chord stuff.

@hat I want to focus on here in the improvisation section is to eliminate the need that youngpeople feel for 3<hord )cale 7elationship4 playing. @hile having the theory of it down, andknowing the scales, it really seems to me that it !reeds players running up and down scalethesaurus !ooks trying to get all the notes they know that are right in a given chord out intothe air for all to hear. @hile there certainly are ama&ing players out there who havemastered this approach to improvisation, it seems to me that there is an easier way toapproach playing on chord progressions such as the one we have to work with here today.@e are going to work with some limitations on how we can improvise on this tune and from

there, we will add more and more options that you can work on allowing you to reach moreand more possi!ilities in your playing. (owever, I want to make it clear what our goals are.

● 5o lay musically and with intent, confidence and a good sense of swing● 5o not have to think a!out chord scale theory and instead think of simple ways to

make the music actually sound like %a&&● 5o let the music speak, to not sound like endless ram!ling● 5o focus on time, melody and creating interesting lines and playing as 3pattern free4

as we can manage.

Approac$ 1

@e will limit our improvisational Goca!ulary in Approach Jne two chord tones. ;oth the5riad and the note ?th chord for each of the written chords as well as accessing the 5ri-tonesu!stitutions of the F? and E?8!+ chords.

)o these are the notes we can improvise with



No chromatic playing is allowed unless it exists in the relationship of the chord tones of the!asic triads and ?th chords. Eo not play extensions on these chords, only the notes that are

in them. (owever, with the > Eominant chords giving you their related 5ri-5one su!stitutionsthen you have 9 notes to work with on each of these areas of the tunes.

Also in Approach *, we will limit ourselves conceptually to playing rhythmically around t$e “s$ape” o% t$e melody o% t$e tune as well as try to play our own melody, 3off4 theoriginal melody of the tune we"re playing.

5his is a great general approach to the !eginning of any improvisation on any tune. 5he1elodic statement should help to dictate the course of your improvisation rather then $ustfeeding off the chord progression. If we ignore the melody of the tune then what is the point

of even !othering with the melodyH @ould it not $ust !e us playing over a chordprogressionH @hat a!out that !eautiful, simple diatonic melodyH 5he 1elody can give yousuch inspiration to create an excellently constructed solo that makes perfect sense. se thatmelody as your first idea, revisit it, turn it around, play it in different keys. #ven a melody assimple as Autumn leaves can give you a lot to work with. It"s a nearly perfectly constructedmelody that has an o!vious !eginning, climax and ending... which is what any solo shouldhave.

As you progress through approach * !egin to change your rhythms and start to explore otherrhythms. (ere are some ideas.

● lay the melodic rhythm in retrograde 8!ackwards● Eisplace, anticipate and omit parts of the melodic rhythm● lay strings of 9th notes !ut not play long cascading lines yet.● lay and entire section in $ust 0uarter notes or 0uarter restsD

As we learn to play interesting lines with these guide lines you"re going to find some truthsforming in your playing.

5ruth Jne: ;y leaving space and counting your rhythms in your head, playing entire 9 !ar



sections in 0uarter notes or using the melody"s shape you will notice your swing feel and time!egin to improve.

5ruth 5wo: 2our improvisation will have a very coherent, specific direction to it teaching youto !uild solos instead of running changes from the down!eat of your *st chorus.

5ruth 5hree: 5he ines you construct using $ust the !asic chord tones will actually havemelodic weight and give a listener something to gra! onto !efore you !reak out into morecomplex melodic/harmonic ideas.

Approac$ &'o

In approach two we take all the elements of our first approach and add some new guidelines

● Jn the G? chord in the ma$or cadence, add the li!erty of the Eominant ;e!op scale● Jn the G?!+ chord in the minor cadence, add the li!erty of the K@ Eiminished )cale

● ;egin to vary and !reak away from the melody more as you progress. 5hink of this asif it is your >nd chorus, you are !uilding your solo

After > !ars of playing off the melody it is time to start to change up your language. Addingthese two melodic possi!ilities really can drastically open up your playing. @e step awayfrom $ust using chord tones on the Eominant chords to adding in idiomatic scales. )cales allto often are overused or perhaps overlooked !y $a&& musicians who are !eginning toimprovise. 1any schools and teachers shove hand-outs to their studentsenmasse filled withchord scale relationship theory. 7ight now we are going to 3throw you a !one4 !ut please,on the other chords you need to stick to your guns with the triads and ?th chords only and stillavoiding arpeggios.

;reak away from the melody now. If we look at Approach to as a >nd chorus, the melodyshould !e strongly stated. (owever, don"t completely ignore it. (int at it, 0uote at itsometimes in your >nd chorus, !ut your >nd time through the form should !e the !eginnings of

3okay, where do we go nowH4 thought process. At this point now your dominant chords are!ecoming more chromatic creating more forward motion into the tonic chords and creatingmore interest.

7hythmically 9th notes now are starting to !ecome a good idea. (owever, don"t start runningand chasing the changes. It"s not time for chops yet, save them. A few !ars of 9th notes,



some triplets. Eon"t fear letting a !ar or even two !ars go !y in silence, you should alwaysem!race musical silence. 'et ideas from your rhythm section as to how to proceed or $ustcontinue with how you are going. Always remem!er though, %a&& is conversational music,never ignore anyone on the stand with you, use their creativity to give you ideas.

Approac$

Now we"re getting into the meat of the solo. @e again are adding new ideas into the fold.

● 2our Eominant chords are now fair game. @hatever chord scale relationships or chordsu!stitutions you favor are now allowed to !e used. Eiminished, @holetone, 1elodic1inor, Altered Eominants etc.

● 2our 5onic chords are periods of rest however now explore their extensions. ydian,ydian Augmented, 1elodic 1inor vs Natural 1inor vs (armonic 1inor.

● ;egin to employ melodic se0uences.● If you have the chops, it"s time to 3dou!le time4 or play *=th at around the ;ridge or

last 9 !ars, leading to a climax in your th chorus.

Now that everything is moving along we must address the idea of 5ension and 7elease moreclosely. 5he key to this is the Eominant G chords. I"ve given you the most li!erties withthese, !ut now any restrictions placed are out the window. 5hese !ars are completely up forgra!s. se whatever you $ear clearly and accurately and play with lots of confidence onthem. 9th note lines are now a lot of what you should !e working with here, and in thatrespect symmetrical scales will lay very nicely here. se them in se0uences, !roken up, don"t

$ust run scales from root to root, move around try things, ta(e some ris(s)

5he other opening is on the tonic chords. 5his is not $ust to rest your line !ut to play overthe phrase and into the next one. 5his helps to create longer lines that flow as if you areplaying 9 !ar phrases and not !ar phrases of 1a$or vs 1inor. @ith using new ideas overthe tonic chords we can create one long line over an entire 9 !ar section.

)tarting to employ se0uences is a good way to take your solo to different levels. At thispoint, on a tune with such a static harmony to start to 3take it out4. 5here are lots of ways todo this.

)ome might argue that using diminished scales on the G chords is out. I don"t agree.



Eominant chords are supposed to have non-harmonic tensions on them, and therefore whenI hear someone use a diminished scale in !ar = of the tune I don"t consider it out. singse0uences on the ii chords does. se digital patterns 8*>6 for example or use pentatonicscales and side step them 8moving them !y half steps until they resolve to the next chord.5here are a lot of pentatonic relationships that happen in the music. 2ou can use chord su!sas well moving them within the key that exists to create interest. 5aking ideas and moving

them up through the key or moving them completely up new intervals 8play *>6 and thenplay it up a minor rd and you will get lots of outside tensions for example, this is a fairlycommon thing to do.

*t$er Ideas to &ry● lay anything you want !ut make he changes playing (alf notes, Ouarter Notes only.

5his will improve your time feel significantly● Ignore the ii and IG chords in the A section and $ust play G G I I 8of III and G G i to

create more tension and releaseD● Never forget ;lues. #specially using it as a point of rest at the end of phrases, for

example using a ' minor !lues scale over the 'minor? !ars.● <hromatic ideas. laying <hromatically !etween chord tones creates interest and

forward motion. laying the !? of a minor chord and moving down !y K steps to the6th is a common sound in $a&&, same with 6 to !, ! to * so on and so forth.#xperiment

autumn leaves improv study

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