What is a Jazz Standard?

The jazz themes that become well known are now called Standards, so they are in great demand among musicians. But these themes can become very well-known for several reasons, either for having achieved a lot of success at the time it was launched, for having harmonic characteristics that have a high didactic value, having an interesting degree of difficulty for improvisation, among others.

Why is it important to know the Jazz Standards?

It never hurts to learn standards! For a musician, it is always important to have many Jazz Standards in his repertoire, because as they are known songs, it will make it possible to make a pleasant presentation for his audience.

Furthermore, in jazz standards there is a huge source of knowledge, a single standard can be a lifetime challenge due to the huge range of possibilities it can bring to the musician.

It also happens, that these songs have characteristics that can be found in an infinity of other compositions of several other styles. This leaves the musician well trained to face any topic.

How to study Jazz Standards?

It is not enough to know how to play the melody of a theme, it is necessary to go deeply into all its aspects. To know the form of the music, be it the traditional form AABA, ABAC, ABCD, the form of the blues with 12-bars or any other, jazz presents itself in the most diverse forms. Having the chords and melody memorized, so that you can finally improvise on the theme, the more you know the general aspects of a song, the better you improvise on it. Jamey Aebersold, a great jazz educator and saxophonist, said that if a song has lyrics, memorize it too, as this will also help when improvising.

What are the main Jazz Standards?

There are a multitude of themes that can be considered Jazz Standards, but the repertoire may vary according to the region or the time, the preferences of certain groups of musicians or the general public may change. However, there are themes that are always welcome.

Here is a list of Jazz Standards that are essential:

• 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 a lot of dedication it is possible to obtain 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 that. Subscribe to our site and receive notifications the moment we make new content available.

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Until next time and a great year to you!