#Best jam session songs pdf#

The finest jazz players can play anything they can hear and have heard and know thousands of tunes. The best folks I have gotten to know seem to be utterly un-stumpable. This is no accident and it comes form their experience. They seem to have an incredibly intuitive understanding of melodic structure.

However, what I have discovered from working with these experienced pros is that they go far deeper than that. This may sound daunting, as you should know EVERY scale and chord - ALL OF THEM! The next step is transcribing solos, of course. This is important, but this is actually the minimum required. Jazz musicians these days study chords, scales, patterns theory. It is from the seasoned pros (musicians at least 20 years my senior) that I have learned/gleaned the most. The make of personnel/attendees varies from very young and inexperienced to seasoned professionals. I regularly attend about 5 different jam sessions in the Chicago area. I’ll start with a small list of tunes that I can recall hearing at jams in Madison:Įssential Jazz Tunes List 2008 (by Chicago Trumpeter Nick Drozdoff) The result is a list of essential, essential tunes to know.

#Best jam session songs pdf#

A downloadable, easier to read pdf version is HERE.įor more on “must-know” tunes, Peter Spitzer took 6 lists of essential tunes and winnowed it down to just the tunes that show up on all 6 lists. Many good tunes are not on these lists the lists are only a starting point and increase the chance that you will know the tunes called at the jam, and the tune you call will be known by others.

For those that want to explore other jazz tunes here are several lists of tunes commonly called at jams or otherwise considered essential. If you are relatively new to improvising you may want to work on the tunes suggested for that session (see the home page).