MARCH 2025 NEWSLETTER
Concepts For Comping: Lesson 14
We're applying open and close-voiced 7th chords (also known as “Shell Voicings”) to tunes.
This month we'll look at “All the Things You Are.” This is what I call a “template tune.” A template tune is a song whose form, or sections of the form, are used for other songs, also known as, “contrafact tunes." Those are tunes that use the same chord changes but have a different melody.
This is legal because you can't copyright a chord progression. If you could, there would only be 3 Blues songs! What is copyrighted are melodies and lyrics.
“Autumn Leaves” from Lesson 12 is another “template tune." Back when you were working on “Autumn Leaves” you were also working on:
“I will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor
“Yesterday When I was Young” by Roy Clark
“Europa” by Santana
“Alice in Wonderland” by Sammy Fain - from the Disney film
…and many more.
Some of the contrafact tunes based on “All the Things You Are” are:
“Bird of Paradise” by Charlie Parker
“Prince Albert” by Kenny Dorham
"All The Things That You Can C#" by Charles Mingus
"Boston Bernie" by Dexter Gordon.
So when you work on this comping lesson for “All the Things You Are,” you're also working on these other songs as well - you just don't know it! Well…now you do 'cause I told you!
Not to mention the diatonic progressions that are all over this song:
VI-II-V-I-IV in 3 different keys is almost 50% the tune, but I limit myself to marking just the II-V-I's and V-I's.
Related: I've written a blog that compares “All the Things You Are” with Elvis's “Hound Dog.” Read it here.
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Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
Practice Time is Sacred Time: Playing the guitar can be sacramental…
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 13: January Newsletter, Concepts for Comping, Blog Links and more…
Tune of the Month
Dude! I have no idea where this song came from! It's from my CD, My Ship and, stylistically, it doesn't even belong on the CD...but yeah, I can write Country songs.
BTW - it ain't ALWAYS the man's fault! Even so, this guy's pretty pathetic.
How about 5 lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions. It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
Almost every lesson I teach presupposes these 5 lessons.
You can download the 5-Lesson Foundational Series right here with no further obligation or commitment:
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Jay
P.S. Hey, if you have anything you're interested in, let me know. Suggestions for lessons, ideas for blogs - I'd like to hear your thoughts. Contact me HERE.
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