Introduction to Standards
Lesson time: (0min 52sec)
Ollie Weston introduces jazz standards - the Gershwin, Porter and Berlin songs players have used as vehicles for improvising since the 1930s - and why knowing them matters.
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Exploring Jazz Saxophone: Part 2 - Soloing on Songs and Chord Sequences
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Introduction to Jazz Standards
In this lesson, I'm going to introduce jazz standards and songs. These are timeless jazz classics that have been used as vehicles for improvising by musicians and bands since the 1930s.
The Legacy of Jazz Composers
Composers such as:
- George Gershwin
- Richard Rogers
- Cole Porter
- Irving Berlin
have left us a great legacy of beautiful songs that jazz musicians from the 1930s to the present day have interpreted and played over.
Importance of Knowing Standards
Having a good knowledge of standards and knowing a bit of repertoire will enable you to:
- Play with other musicians
- Turn up and play at a jam session
- Collaborate with people you may not play with all the time
It is through knowing these songs as vehicles for soloing that you can enhance your improvisational skills.
Exploring Common Devices
In this lesson, we're going to look at a few tunes and some of the common melodic and harmonic devices that are used between these standards.
About the instructor
Since graduating from the Leeds College of Music (BA Hons) and the Guildhall School of Music (Post Graduate Diploma in Performance), Ollie has built a busy and varied career in music. As a saxophonist he has performed in live and studio settings with artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Tim Minchin, Bonobo, Frank Turner, the London Jazz Orchestra, the Hackney Colliery Band, the Ambient Jazz Ensemble and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. He is also the co-leader of the jazz quartet 'Time Is Of The Essence', and composes and arranges material for this and other ensembles. Ollie is active in music education, currently as course leader for the jazz department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (junior school), where he runs jazz ensembles, big band and theory classes. He has written a series of 'Exploring Jazz' books for Schott Music that are published worldwide and feature on exam syllabuses in the UK. Ollie has also run workshops for Oxford University, Pro Corda Strings and BABSWE, as well as the Guildhall School of Music summer schools. In his Exploring Jazz Saxophone courses, Ollie takes you from getting started right through to soloing confidently over songs and chord sequences, building the improvising skills that put a real jazz player's vocabulary at your fingertips. read more