# Music by Genre > Jazz/Blues Variants, Bossa, Choro, Klezmer >  Jazz tune of the month anyone?

## Pete Martin

Hi all,

I hang out at the Jazz Guitar Forum quite a bit.  They have a Tune of the Month where:

A standard Jazz tune is selected

The moderator posts backup files of the tune, usually a couple different tempos

Players of all levels record a video of themselves playing the tune using the backup files provoided or their own and post to YouTube 

They link the Youtube vids to the forum post for that months tune so others can view it

Anyone interestred in doing this?  I'd be willing to pick the tunes (of course taking suggestions) and put up the backing tracks.

At the Jazz Guitar Forum, a number of players (not everyone) after doing this ask the other players (from beginners to pros) for feedback and many players feel it helps them work on their playing and especially their Jazz improvising.  It also helps players find others with a common interest.

If anyone wants to do this say so here.  We could start this in December

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bro.craig, 

colorado_al, 

DaveMorehouse, 

Denman John, 

des, 

Don Grieser, 

DSDarr, 

Jess L., 

Jordan Ramsey, 

Mandolin Cafe, 

Mark Seale, 

soliver

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## Bill McCall

I may not be competent, but I'm game. :Smile:

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## Jake Howard

I would love to do this! Count me in.

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## chris.burcher

I'd love to participate. Thanks for offering, Pete.

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## David Lewis

I'd be interested in having a go.  :Smile:

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## Barry Canada

Great idea! I’m in!

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## Jim Abrams

Fabulous Pete.  Thanks for getting this going.

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## Jstring

Cool idea, I’ll do it. Thanks, Pete.

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## Pete Counter

I havent the slightest idea how to approach jazz mandolin...but I may be able to up a few cool licks! I probly wont post but I would LOVE to watch!

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## bigskygirl

I'm still trying to get a submission into SOW but yeah, jazz tune of the month would be great!

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## Mike Snyder

I vote go on this.

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## AlanN

I'm in The In Crowd   :Mandosmiley:

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## des

> I'm in The In Crowd


Me too - You ain't been nowhere till you've been in

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## Joey Anchors

I would love to join in even at my low level of skill.

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## wadeyankey

Count me in!

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## Teak

Great idea, Pete. I'm a joiner.

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## Greg Schochet

What's the worst that could happen??

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Jordan Ramsey

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## Brian560

It sounds like a great idea, even if it takes a while to jump in.

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## Pete Martin

That's great you all!  In a couple days I'll post 3 tunes and we can vote on the tune to start in December.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!   :Mandosmiley:  :Chicken:

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Bill McCall, 

bruce.b, 

colorado_al, 

DSDarr, 

Joey Anchors, 

Mark Gunter, 

Mark Seale

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## Michael Neverisky

Sounds like a fine idea. Thanks, Pete.

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## Joe Pickett

I would like to join in - Thank you

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## colorado_al

Count me in! 
PS- any chance that you can include charts for the song as well? And maybe some suggested chord fingerings for those of us not as well versed in jazz?
Thanks!

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## fatt-dad

I rarely join anything, but I'm in!

f-d

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## Perry

I hang out at the Jazz Guitar Forum quite a bit too. I have a feeling this will be a more warm and fuzzy experience over at the Cafe  :Smile: 
They don't tolerate too much b.s. over there.

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## Sid Simpson

Lovely idea! Thank you. I'm game to give it a go.

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## HonketyHank

I'll take a front row seat in the peanut gallery. Should be fun!

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## Dave Martin

Pete, yes,  and thanks!

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## Mark Seale

Let's do it!

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## Tom Morse

Yes please.

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## dorenac

Thank you and ditto to all the above.

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## Jim Garber

Sign me up!

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## DSDarr

Great idea Pete!

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## Pete Martin

I will post the backup mp3s and a chord chart on the decided tune each month, although I can't submit the written melody notes due to probable copyright violation.  Each person will need to learn the melody on their own.

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colorado_al, 

DavidKOS

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## UsuallyPickin

Excellent..... one a month is something I can get into. R/

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## Tom Wright

Lead sheets (melody and chords) can be purchased for one dollar each (or so) at outlets such as sheetmusicdirect.com. For example, the Real Book-style lead sheet for Honeysuckle Rose is $0.99.

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Jess L.

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## BrianWilliam

I'm in, thank you!

Is this going to be a social group or forum thread?  The former doesn't work on mobile.

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Jess L.

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## Pete Martin

> Is this going to be a social group or forum thread?


Thread

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Jess L.

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## BrianWilliam

Mobile freaks rejoice!

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## Jess L.

> ... Is this going to be a *social group* or *forum thread*? ...





> *Thread*


Good choice, IMO.  :Mandosmiley:  

I think you'll likely get lots more participation here in the regular forum threads.  :Smile:  

Among other reasons - the following is little stuff but it all adds up - these forum threads here have many more *useful tools* that make it easier and more inviting for us non-tech-experts to *post* stuff.  :Mandosmiley:  Such as, the ability to quickly and easily: 

"*Subscribe*" to threads so that we get email notification when someone replies to a thread we've posted in. 
Post *pictures*, and *PDF* files, *mp3* audio files, and TablEdit *tab,* without having to do any extra steps  :Smile:  - all the tools we need are right here in the "Go Advanced" reply box.
*Quote* other posters by clicking the "Reply With Quote" link. So we don't have to manually copy/paste text and/or make people wonder who we're replying to. 
*Thank* other people without having to actually type anything, by clicking the "Thanks" link.  
More *text-format* options (different sizes). 
Create *lists*, both 'bulleted' and 'numbered' (even though lists don't seem to be used very often, it's a handy option to make things easier to read). 


Whereas, as far as I've seen, the Social Groups have *none* of the above options,  :Crying:  at the time of this writing. I don't know why, must be something different with the software.  :Confused:  

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this Jazz Tune Of The Month thing.  :Mandosmiley:  I don't even play jazz yet  :Redface:  but who knows, if it's approachable enough as Pete said with backing tracks & chord-names provided, I might be able to learn something new. 

I've always been curious about jazz but it seemed so complex,  :Chicken:  especially the harmonies/chords, I didn't know where to start. 




> I will *post* the *backup mp3s* and a *chord chart* on the decided tune each month, although I can't submit the written melody notes due to probable copyright violation. Each person will need to learn the *melody* on their own.


I can usually figure out basic melodies by ear, at least in other genres... the more complicated stuff I slow down to half-speed and study it for a while... haven't tried it with jazz yet... hope it isn't _too_ difficult. I'm thinking it would be hard to write down some of the more complex melodies anyway, might be actually *easier* (maybe?) to learn the melody part by ear... 

The place I always get hung up is trying to figure out (decide on) complex *chords*, anything beyond a simple I-IV-V and maybe a couple of minor chords, I can sometimes tell it needs _something_ different but no idea _what_. So... 

Having the chords-names and backing tracks provided, will be a great learning tool.  :Smile:  

*Thanks Pete*!  :Smile:  

P.S.:  I won't be *voting* on tunes right away, because I don't know enough about jazz to know which tunes I might want to play, or which tunes I'd be capable of playing. I will just have to try the monthly tunes and see. But this will be a fun thread to keep up with regardless of whether I vote and/or post videos.  :Smile:

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Beanzy, 

DavidKOS

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## mandocrucian

Google _'name of song' lead sheet_  or _'name of song' sheet music_. 

There will be numerous jpgs to choose from. Some may be melody only, others two-stave piano, or transcriptions of solos.  Some may have the gray 'sample' on the page because they are the first-page-sample from one of those "pay-4" sites.  Sometimes you can get the whole song, but do you really need to the music for a missing repeated phrase or verse? Print it out if you're OK with the image size, or save the jpg, or use the snipping tool so you can enlarge it later. 

If you're so _concerned_ with copyright violation, most of those YouTube things are probably violations. Someone has an out-of-print LP and so they put an audio transfer on YouTube....   and everyone is happy with that. or....  OK let me demonstrate how to play this Jimi Hendrix tune.... 

*Also.... how about MIDI?*  There are still plenty of MIDI collections on the web. Some are individual musician's, others may be some academic project.  Most of the notation programs probably have *"input midi"* option and the entire score will appear on the screen. I used to use a program called MIDInotate (the version I have is old and won't run on Windows 8+).  Midia can vary in quality to crude and amateurish to pro arrangments.  (also MIDIs can be played at any tempo you want and there is no pitch change)

I'd use MIDIs for two main reasons.  1) to pull out/isolate the rhythm figures (piano, guitar, etc) or horn section stuff or bass lines that is/are buried in the mix. Load in some James Bond theme, or "Perry Mason" and you can SEE what is gong on in the conductor's score. (That's one reason Beatles' midis were often so good...some nerd copied and replicated the arrangements right out of *The Beatles: Complete Scores* book!  With rock stuff, I was much more interested in the rhythm playing/riffs/figures; (the lead guitar solos are always upfront and ear accessible.)

1a) There would also be MIDIs of individual MIDI'd instruments which would be a bear to transcribe.  Various banjo (3-finger and/or clawhammer) tunes inputed by a midified version of the instrument. There was a bagpipe site that did that... great for actually seeing what the ornamentation are, and on highland pipes, it's a nightmare unless that is actually your instrument.

2a) ETHNIC MUSIC, especially from regions that have their own notational systems and printed music may be* impossible* to find in western standard notation.  20 years back, when I was really digging into Asian music, I asked a guy (can't remember his name at the moment) either from Comando or the Cafe who was living in Hong Kong to see if there were any books of Chinese ensemble music/scores (in western notation).  And outside of examples in big reference books in libraries, there really wasn't any.  However I found a site/project at a university in Taiwan that had had replicated Chinese chamber ensembles performing in MIDI. Load the midi into the program and voila..... instant score of the music.  Take the tunes that I like, print them out and put them onto a comb binder and compile my own "book".  Also did similar stuff for Thai morlam and lukthung songs (att Bert Dievert!) by Pompuang Duangchan,  Jintara Poonlarp.  Also Okinanawan minyo sanchin tunes.

But you could find midi-fied folk ensemble projects in European countries. There was a great site that did that for Portuguese tunes.  And you also could find stuff that was Greek rembetika, laika in nature.  I've got a box of old floppy discs of stuff I'd saved. (And still have a PC that has the floppy slot, so _data rot_ isn't in play.  (I really should move all that stuff onto data discs)

Oh yeah...medieval and Renaissance ensemble stuff too, if you're into any of that. How about some of the Gervaise dances?

Of course...everything you need is on the recording if your ears are good enough to pull it out.  But having some visual reference is a big plus when it is _alien_ sounding (to you) stuff, or the arrangements are so dense it hard to isolate particular parts.

Niles H

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DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Pete Martin

Thanks for the info everyone. As Niles pointed out, a search for any song title plus music notation or some similar term will often bring up at least partial lead sheets. 

As Jazz arrangements will often have different chord sets, I will try to use common accepted progressions for these. My favorite source is the Sher volumes of The New Real Books.  These usually take definitive versions of tunes and use those melodies and changes. 

For tune choices, I will draw heavily on the site Jazz Standards top 100

http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/

But of course feel free to PM me suggestions. I am thrilled with the participation so far and look forward to this! 🙂🎻🐓🎻🐓

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Barry Canada, 

colorado_al, 

Dave Martin, 

DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Jim Fichter

> Hi all,
> 
> I hang out at the Jazz Guitar Forum quite a bit.  They have a Tune of the Month where:
> 
> A standard Jazz tune is selected
> 
> The moderator posts backup files of the tune, usually a couple different tempos
> 
> Players of all levels record a video of themselves playing the tune using the backup files provoided or their own and post to YouTube 
> ...


I would.

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## Bob Buckingham

This sounds like fun.

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## Starbuckna

Im game to try.

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## DominiqueInBoise

I am interested, thanks for the offer.

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## Trey Young

Great idea Pete, I've been wanting to dip my toe into the jazzier side of things.  This seems like the perfect vehicle!

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## DavidKOS

> As Jazz arrangements will often have different chord sets, I will try to use common accepted progressions for these. My favorite source is the *Sher volumes of The New Real Books*.  These usually take _definitive_ versions of tunes and use those melodies and changes.


You prefer those changes to the "real" Real Books that Hal Leonard now publishes? Sure, even after going legal some of the changes still need corrections, but mostly that is the definitive working jazz player's guide.

I do NOT find the Sher versions of the chord changes to be "definitive", sorry to say. The Sher books are well written and researched, but are highly stylized in terms of chord changes.

The chords in the Wong book are much more of the real ones I learned on gigs from older jazz players than the highly substituted ones in the Sher "New" Real Book series. Often I think they are not substitute changes but just are wrong.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Jazz.../dp/0881889792

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...=used&qid=&sr=

buy used!

Anyway, having the BASIC right changes is essential. The changes in the Sher books are just too much for beginners - and even for many intermediate players too - and like I say, I do not even always agree with the substitutions!

My apologies for not making this a PM, I think that chord changes are an essential part of playing jazz and to use overly complex - and to my school of jazz, often wrong - changes would put this whole experiment off on the wrong foot.

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Jess L.

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## Pete Martin

David, I know what you mean and don't take any offence.  I do find the Sher books in MY own gigging experience to be what players often play.  I will say that I don't play swing era gigs often, usually I playing with players who play bop era and later.  I should have clarified that.

There are usually a number of chord progressions that fit any Jazz tune.  The biggest arguments I hear between musicians are what are "correct".  

Any of the progressions I post, take with a grain of salt.  If you want to use others, feel free!!!

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DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## mandocrucian

The simpler _"Vanilla changes"_ are *always the starting point*. Once that is established, then you can look at chord substitutions, reharmonization, transitory connector chords, etc and *how and why you get to those*.  

No difference than learning a fiddle tune using the basic skeleton melody before embellishing it with note-ier and/or more syncopated versions and then onto deviations from the original melody with motivic transposition/manipulation etc. etc. etc.

In any case, unless you know what the starting point was, one can't understand the fancified end result and the process of arriving at it.

NH

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DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## MontanaMatt

I'd like to do it too, thanks for offering to lead us :Mandosmiley:

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## DavidKOS

> David, I know what you mean and don't take any offence.  I do find the Sher books in MY own gigging experience to be what players often play.  I will say that I don't play swing era gigs often, usually I playing with players who play bop era and later.  I should have clarified that.
> 
> There are usually a number of chord progressions that fit any Jazz tune.  The biggest arguments I hear between musicians are what are "correct".  
> 
> Any of the progressions I post, take with a grain of salt.  If you want to use others, feel free!!!


I too have worked with musicians that use the Sher books, too, that's why I am very familiar with the style of chord subs used in the books.

I grew up in New Orleans and learned to play jazz at a young age from master older players; we also had to play gigs that covered Dixieland, swing, big band, bebop, and fusion style jazz. 

Frankly, you are correct in that the Sher books _do_ represent the way a large number of players harmonize tunes in the current practice. The choices are often not my preference as a jazz player and teacher.

I recall one gig in the 70's when a hot-shot jazz pianist asked the bandleader about some fancy chords subs he used on some tune or other.

The bandleader, a well-respected player, conductor, and arranger, said:

"Substitute chords hell, those were just the _wrong changes_"

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## BrianWilliam

Pete, perhaps you could post a vanilla and advanced chord sheet. I'm interested in the latter.

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Jess L.

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## Drew Egerton

The ambiguity of chord progressions in jazz has been one of the hardest things to wrap my head around so far as a purely bluegrass player up until this year.

"These are the chords...but you CAN play these 4 other chords here where this one is...sometimes...if you want to..."  :Laughing: 

I'm definitely looking forward to learning from this thread!

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DavidKOS

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## mandopops

Pete, David, & Niles all give good insights into the Jazz process. 

I've never been in a full time Jazz band. In my decades of playing, either solo, duo, trio, I have played many of the "Jazz/Great American Songbook" tunes. To look for the definitive/Holy Grail version might be futile.(Same with fiddle tunes). Instead of spending too much time looking for the "Perfect" version. Pick one & get going.

I try to find a couple of sources & then make choices. Then if you are playing with others, try to agree on an arrangement. Listen to different recordings, as well. If you want to learn "All the Things You Are" listen to Bird & Diz, of course, but also dig up a Tony Bennett recording. 

I, like, Niles, at times will look for a "Vanilla" very straight version, learn that, then look for more complex takes on the tune. I have down thru the years used song books, Fake books, online, & one on one with someone to learn tunes. I'm lucky now, some years back my brother, a professional drummer, loaned me a CD he got from one of his Musician friends. It had about 10-12 fake books, Real,New Real Sher etc that I put on my computer. So if I look up a tune often I'll have several to work from.

I don't think Pete would say his take on the tune is the definitive way to play it. It is one person's starting point. Jazz, as it very nature, is an exploration. Discover new ways to play the tunes. (Insert the Star Trek motto here). 

Joe B

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DavidKOS, 

Pete Martin

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## colorado_al

I love playing the mandolin in jazz precisely because of the chord choices. If I'm playing solo, I get to make interesting choices that hopefully vary throughout the tune to keep it interesting and expressive, and I only have 4 (or 3 or 2) notes to worry about. When I'm playing with a group, I can just play 2 or 3 string chords that accentuate a 9th or just play some 3 note inversion and let everyone else worry about what the rest of the chord sounds like. Or even drop into percussion mode and play no notes at all, or just play fills or whatever I think might sound right. Since the mandolin is not normally the main instrument to carry the rhythm, I think it gives more freedom to the player to go to different places that you might not get to on a guitar.




> Insert the Star Trek motto here


PS- I vote that next month's tune is the OG Star Trek theme by Alexander Courage

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DavidKOS, 

Jess L., 

MontanaMatt

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## Bill McCall

I'm grateful for whatever Pete posts.  I really appreciate his effort here.

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Jess L.

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## BrianWilliam

> The ambiguity of chord progressions in jazz has been one of the hardest things to wrap my head around so far as a purely bluegrass player up until this year.
> 
> "These are the chords...but you CAN play these 4 other chords here where this one is...sometimes...if you want to..." 
> 
> I'm definitely looking forward to learning from this thread!


It's shared chord tones right?  Looking forward to learning more about it.

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## Jess L.

> ... I vote that next month's tune is the OG *Star Trek theme* by Alexander Courage


That would be awesome!  :Mandosmiley:   :Mandosmiley:  Would love to try that, and to hear other people's versions too - this would be fun!  :Smile:  Hopefully it would be ok as an option if I played it just _slightly_ faster than the video, maybe somewhere inbetween the jazz tempo and the TV tempo.  :Smile:

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## colorado_al

> That would be awesome!   Would love to try that, and to hear other people's versions too - this would be fun!  Hopefully it would be ok as an option if I played it just _slightly_ faster than the video, maybe somewhere inbetween the jazz tempo and the TV tempo.


Click on the gear icon in the bottom right and you can change the speed. I think it sounds pretty good at 1.5x

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Jess L.

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## Jess L.

> Click on the gear icon in the bottom right and you can change the speed. I think it sounds pretty good at 1.5x


Thanks!  :Mandosmiley:  And I agree about 1.5x, sounds good there.  :Smile:

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## KOakley

I would suggest www. guitarcats.com as a material source.

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