Welcome to your Autumn Leaves beginner jazz guitar lesson. I will show you the easiest and most musical approach to learning this great jazz standard and also throw in a free PDF lead sheet.

In this lesson, you will learn to play the melody of Autumn Leaves, combined with chords to fill up the gaps. Next, you will learn a guitar solo over the chords of Autumn Leaves, and the scales needed to play that solo. Learning the melody is an important part of studying any jazz standard. Autumn Leaves is a great piece of music to write a solo guitar arrangement for no. Although the lead sheet shows each of the chords in separate bars, common.

Let’s get started! Use this lesson to: • Learn the chords. • Play the melody. • Grab a few tricks for sounding hip. • Have fun while you learn! Your Autumn Leaves Lead Sheet Here is a simple chord chart of this great tune. I have included some suggested scales and chord substitutions to put in.

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit study strictly for educational purposes. I do not own the rights for Autumn Leaves. How to create license key for a software in vb6 tutorial visual basic. No melody is written, only chord changes. Autumn Leaves Leadhseet Autumn Leaves Video Tutorial In this video I outline an easy and systematic approach to playing the melody and chords to Autumn Leaves.

Check it out then let’s examine the tune in detail. How Do I Memorize this Song? Your first step in learning any tune is to memorize the chord changes and the melody. Once you do away with the sheet music you can then start creating REAL music. 4 steps to quickly memorize this song: • Listen – listen to 5 different versions. I made this easy for you by selecting my favorite 5 into a Youtube playlist, • Use your Brain – Analyze the structure of the song.

How many sections are there? Do chords repeat? What key is it in? Hint: The form is A A B A and LOTS of chords repeat, and the key is G Major or E minor (same thing). • Learn the Words – Learning lyrics not only helps you to memorize a song but enables you to really dig into the meaning of it.

Your national anthem isn’t just a nice melody it has meaning and significance. Autumn leaves is a love song, learn the words and it will show in your playing. • Use a Play Along – or better yet make your own!

I often use garageband or even just a BOSS looper to play along with myself. Throw yourself out there, start soloing along right away. How to Solo: the Easy Way Before I throw a whole bucket of music theory at you here is some musical fast food: You can solo on E Aeolian or natural minor scale over this WHOLE tune.

Here is an Aeolian fret diagram, just centre the white dot over any E (e.g. 7th fret on your A string) and BAM, you have your scale. Here is what E Natural Minor or Aeolian sounds like: Now, change the b7 (D note) to D# on the B7 chord.

This scale is E Harmonic minor (sounds exotic right?). Can you hear the difference between the two? A Better Approach; examine each chord individually. So you know how to easily solo on this tune, now let’s check out each chord for a better approach. Jazz is about outlining the chord changes so let’s get down to business. The following tips are all included in the free PDF above, so make sure you have that as we progress. Side note: Feel free to click on any scale or arpeggio – it will link to an in depth lesson.

The Am7 Chord This chord is the II (two) chord in our key of G major. On II chords you play the dorian mode and you can add in the 9th, 11th and 13th as extensions to a plain minor 7 chord. Here is a little summary and a few links if you would like to learn more about minor chords. • Chord: Am7 (or Am9, Am11, Am13) • Scale: Dorian Mode • Possible extensions: 9, 11, 13 • Guide tones: b3, b7 (Your target notes) • Arpeggio: 1, b3, 5, b7 The D7 Chord The V chord is a powerful thing. In the key of G major our V chord is D7. It leads really nicely to G and you can add on many different notes to colour this chord up.

• Chord: D7 (or D9, D13 ) • Scale: Mixolydian Mode • Possible extensions: 9, 13 • Guide tones: 3, b7 (Your target notes) • Possible Alterations: b9, #9, #11, b13 • Arpeggio: R, 3, 5, b7 The Home Chord: Gmaj7 This chord is your tonic major resting chord. • Chord: Gmaj7 (or G6, Gmaj9, Gmaj69, Gmaj13) • Scale: Ionian Mode/ Major Scale • Possible extensions: 9, 13 • Guide tones: 3, 7 (Your target notes) • Arpeggio: R, 3, 5, 7 Great job on making it this far! To dive even further into these chords, check out my lesson on the II V I progression. Cmaj7: The Lydian IV Chord This is your IV chord, check out my full lesson on this awesome colorful chord here. • Chord: Cmaj7 (or C6, Gmaj9, Gmaj69, Gmaj13, Cmaj7#11) • Scale: Lydian Mode • Possible extensions: 9, 13 • Guide tones: 3, 7 (Your target notes) • Arpeggio: R, 3, 5, 7 F#m7b5: The Half Diminished Chord This chord is functioning as the ii chord in our minor key of E minor.