The Jazz Room
Welcome to The Jazz Room, a resource of materials for learning jazz, featuring Jazz Cubs, a progressive series of materials to help the beginning jazz player.
“Nothing is difficult – only unfamiliar.” – Kenny Werner
What is Jazz Cubs?
Have you wanted to learn to play jazz but don’t know where to start? Have you found “beginner” jazz tunes to be too complicated? The materials in Jazz Cubs are sure to help anyone with even the most basic skills get started playing jazz. So whether you’re an experienced musician that has never played jazz before or a beginner student taking music lessons, Jazz Cubs will give you the tools you need to start playing standard jazz tunes.
Many students would like to learn to play jazz, but because of the relatively complicated structure involved with jazz, most of them don’t get into it until they’re at an advanced level of playing. Even when more advanced students start playing the simplest jazz tunes, they are often overwhelmed by having to analyze unfamiliar concepts and as a result, their free flow of creative improvisation is hindered. The solution is for the student to become so familiar with common jazz elements in easier tunes before moving on to apply those same elements in more complicated structures. This is the approach of Jazz Cubs. It takes elements common to jazz and breaks them down into simpler tunes.
For example, students learn basic chord, rhythm and scale patterns to each tune and then play along with the recording of live musicians. Because they’re playing along with live musicians, students can intuitively pick up the feel of actual swing playing, rather than trying to match the dry rhythms of a digital recording. The play-along also has various versions of each tune so that students can practice either the background chords (comping) or the melody (the melody of the tune or lines and solos, helpful especially for piano and guitar students). There is also a version of the full rhythm section as a listening example.
Jazz Cubs was originally written for piano students, although it has been used by students of a variety of instruments including guitar, bass, violin, cello and flute. All tracks have bass and drums, so there isn’t a play-along for bass, per se, but bass students have found it to be very helpful in learning how bass lines work and to improvise solos. Please keep in mind that there are no transposed versions for Bb instruments at this time.
Get started with just one or go ahead and download the whole thing. Unless otherwise indicated, each downloaded tune will contain a PDF of the basic lead sheet, a play-along recording with four different versions that include a professional recording of the tune, one minus LH piano version, one minus RH piano version, and one version with only bass and drums. Most importantly, have fun!
Download the tunes below individually according to your goals, or download the whole Jazz Cubs package for just $35.
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All Tunes Package $35
Download all 15 tunes, which includes sheet music, recording (about 1 hour and 45 minutes) and instruction booklet.
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First Home Run $2.99
The main purpose of First Home Run is to provide a simple backdrop over which the student can explore his initial improvisations without too much structure. This can be used for very young students but and complete beginners, but beginners should try for RH only and chords only and then come back to the other variations later.
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Major Mary $2.99
The main purpose of "Major Mary" is to explore how to improvise a variation of a familiar theme in a swing style. The student should first learn to play a straightforward version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (sheet music included).
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Blue Mary $2.99
Similar to "Major Mary", but the goal of this tune is for the student to incorporate blues notes into a familiar tune.
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Two - Five - One $2.99
The purpose of this tune is for the student to become familiar with the sound of the common II-V-I progression in the key of C.
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Surprise! $2.99
This is to provide the student with further experience with the II-V-I progression in the key of C.
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Riding with Cookie Dough $2.99
This tune adds another chord to the key of C and introduces the AABA form.
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Every Night When the Sun Goes Down $2.99
In this tune, the student will be able to expand on blues chords and notes in a folk song.
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Mystery Motive $2.99
The purpose of this tune is to help the student rely on his ear when creating melodies against an accompaniment. There is no sheet music for this tune. it comes with recording and instructions only.
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Rainy Sunday $2.99
The main purpose is for the student to experiment with contrasting melodies and the notes that define the chord.
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Not Too Complicated $2.99
This tune gives the student an opportunity to develop skills in "comping", that is, to accompany a soloist. It is in the key of Am and requires only that the student use random notes in the key of Am to create chords, including clusters. This download comes with recording and instructions only.
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Swinging in Three $2.99
This tune introduces swing in 3/4 time signature and the key of G.
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The Water is Wide $2.99
This tune introduces the key of D. It would be helpful for the student to have already played in the keys of C and G.
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Chocoholic Blues $2.99
An introduction to a traditional 12 bar blues in C. In this tune, the student has opportunity to improvise with the notes from a common blues scale along with the I-IV-V chords. The student will also learn the from of "head/solos/head".
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Vincent's Blues $2.99
This is similar in purpose to "Chocoholic Blues", but is in the key of A.
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Last Minute Blues $2.99
This is similar in purpose to "Chocoholic Blues", but is in the key of F.