What is a Jazz Standard?

Jazz themes that become well-known are called Standards, which is why they are in high demand among musicians. However, these themes can become very popular for various reasons, whether it’s due to achieving significant success when they were released, possessing harmonic characteristics that have high educational value, having an interesting degree of difficulty for improvisation, among others.

Why is it Important to Know Jazz Standards?

It’s never too much to learn standards! For a musician, it’s always important to have many Jazz Standards in their repertoire, because being well-known songs, it will allow for a pleasant performance for their audience.

Furthermore, jazz standards hold an enormous source of knowledge; a single standard can be a lifelong challenge due to the vast array of possibilities it can bring to the musician.

It also happens that these songs have characteristics that can be found in an endless number of other compositions from various other styles. This leaves the musician well-trained to tackle any theme.

How to Study Jazz Standards?

It’s not enough to know how to play the melody of a theme; it’s necessary to delve deeply into all its aspects. Knowing the form of the music, whether it’s the traditional AABA, ABAC, ABCD form, the 12-bar blues form, or any other, jazz presents itself in the most diverse forms. Having the chords and melody memorized, so that one can finally improvise over the theme; the more one knows the general aspects of a song, the better one improvises over it. Jamey Aebersold, a great jazz educator and saxophonist, said that if a song has lyrics, memorize them too, as this will also help during improvisation.

What are the Main Jazz Standards?

There is an endless number of themes that can be considered Jazz Standards, but the repertoire can vary depending on the region or era; the preferences of certain groups of musicians or the general public can change. However, there are themes that are always welcome.

Here is a list of essential Jazz Standards:

• A Child is Born
• A Fine Romance
• A Foggy Day
• Afternoon In Paris
• Ain’t Misbehavin’
• Airegin
• All Blues
• All of Me
• All of You
• All the Things You Are
• Alone Together
• April in Paris
• As Time Goes By
• Autumn in New York
• Autumn Leaves
• Beautiful Love
• Bernie’s Tune
• Bessie’s Blues
• Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
• Billie’s Bounce
• Black Orpheus
• Blue Bossa
• Blues For Alice
• Body and Soul
• Bye Bye Blackbird
• Cherokee
• Confirmation
• Days of Wine and Roses
• Desafinado
• Donna Lee
• Doxy
• Easy to Love
• E.S.P.
• Eternal Triangle
• Favela
• Flintstones Theme
• Fly Me to The Moon
• Footprints
• Four
• Freddie Freeloader
• Giant Steps
• Gloria’s Step
• Have You Met Miss Jones?
• I Love You
• I Remember You
• I’ll Remember April
• Impressions
• In A Sentimental Mood
• Jordu
• Joy Spring
• Just Friends
• Just In Time
• Killer Joe
• Limehouse Blues
• Love For Sale
• Misty
• Mood Indigo
• Mr. P.C.
• My Favorite Things
• My Funny Valentine
• Night and Day
• Once I Loved (Amor em Paz)
• Oleo
• On Green Dolphin Street
• Perdido
• Prelude to a Kiss
• Road Song
• ‘Round Midnight
• Satin Doll
• So What
• Solar
• Sophisticated Lady
• St. Thomas
• Stella By Starlight
• Summer Samba (Samba de Verão)
• Summertime
• Sweet Georgia Brown
• Take five
• Take The A Train
• The Girl From Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema)
• Wave
• What Is This Thing Called Love
• When I Fall In Love
• When the Saints Go Marching In
• Witchcraft
• Yes or No

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With enough dedication, it is possible to achieve great learning in a short time; focusing on Jazz Standards is a very important part of this journey. We at Backing Track Center are working to help you with this. Subscribe to our website and receive notifications when we make new content available.

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