How to Memorize Jazz Standards
Jazz piano performance tips - always have 3 songs ready.
It’s a good idea to memorize the songs in your repertoire - so that you can play them without sheet music.
After all, if you find yourself somewhere that has a piano, and your friends ask you to play - you won’t have the sheet music with you.
In this article I’ll show you the steps I go through to memorize jazz standards.
1. Memorize Chord Sequences (Not Individual Chords)
For most jazz pianists, learning a song’s chords will be the tricky part (while the melody should be fairly straightforward to remember).
Instead of viewing chords as individual ‘islands’ - try to make sense of the song’s chords as a whole, by analyzing how each chord relates to the next.
For example, most chord progressions in jazz will be based on the ii-V-I, which can be played through multiple keys.
First, there’s the major ii-V-I (D min 7 - G 7 - C maj 7):
IMAGE - major ii-V-I in C major
The song ‘Afternoon In Paris’ plays a series of ii-V-Is - first in C major, then in Bb major, then in Ab major, and finally back in the song’s home key of C major again. This is exactly how I remember this song’s chords.
Many jazz songs play variations on the ii-V-I - like a repeating ii-V-ii-V (without a I chord). The song ‘Satin Doll’ for example - plays a ii-V-ii-V in C major, then it repeats this pattern up a whole-step in D major. And lastly it uses tritone substitution to bring the music back to the home key.
IMAGE - Satin Doll ii-V-ii-V
Another common jazz progression is to play the V-I chords only (G7 - C maj 7), without the preceding ii chord (D min 7). The song ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy’ for example, plays a V-I in the key of F major:
IMAGE - Stompion Savoy excerpt V - I
Duke Ellington’s song ‘Caravan’ also features a V-I progression, also in the key of F major (this time it’s drawn out over four bars) - and this is exactly how I would remember this song’s chords.
Some songs feature the minor ii-V-I (Dø - G7 - C-Δ) - songs like ‘Blue Bossa’ or ‘Dolphin Dance’ - and again I’ll memorize the minor ii-V-I sections as a whole, rather than three isolated chords.
Many songs feature the cycle of fifths chord progression - where each chord resolves down a 5th (keeping within the song’s scale), and this eventually takes the music through all seven chords.
You can hear the cycle of fifths progression in ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, ‘Autumn Leaves’, and ‘All The Things You Are’ - and again, I’ll memorize the cycle of fifths as a whole (making note of which key it is in), rather than trying to remember seven isolated chords.
It’s also helpful to note that nearly all jazz songs will start and end in the same key - this is known as the ‘home key’. So you can also expect the music to end with a ii-V-I in the same key that the music started in.
So by zooming out and seeing the bigger picture of the song’s chord structure - you can remember the song’s chords more easily with less information. No longer do you have to memorize 20 individual chords. Just remember the ii-V-I patterns, and the keys that those patterns are in.
Download my complete list of 33 recommended jazz songs for beginners. Click here to download (free).
2. Stick To Your Arrangement
Jazz music comes with a lot of freedom - but when it comes to memorizing songs for your repertoire, I think it’s a good idea to make your arrangement once, and then stick to it - at least for the main ‘head’ section (you can always add an improvised solo section if you want, but the rest of the song can be set in place).
Play through the song and decide which chord voicings you like best - then stick to them (write them above the sheet music if needed).
Decide on your arrangement techniques - will you use a walking bass line for the A section, or a stride piano texture for the B section, or a chord + melody texture, or a reharmonization?
How will you play the song’s intro?
How will you end the song?
I suggest you decide on all of these things once - and then stick to your arrangement.
Playing the song the same way every time will also help you to remember the song more easily.
3. Loop The Tricky Sections
The tendency among most musicians is to play a song from the beginning every time. This results in you getting very good at the first 8-16 bars, but staying weak on the song’s middle section and ending.
To combat this, spend more time playing a song from the middle section onwards.
In addition, identify the tricky sections - especially the sections that you find yourself forgetting. Now loop these sections and play them 20 times in a row.
You can also imagine yourself playing your songs while you’re away from the piano. Practice going over the tricky sections in your head, multiple times, until you’re no longer worried about forgetting the song’s chords.
4. Play Each Song 50-100 Times
Lastly, I think that many jazz students underestimate how many times you have to play a song before you’ll learn it by heart.
Even the top professional jazz musicians will play a song hundreds (if not thousands) of times before it’s ever played in public. So when you hear a professional jazz musician ‘improvising’ over a tune, bear in mind that they will have probably played that tune hundreds of times before - and everything they play ‘on the night’ has probably already been played before - both in practice, rehearsal, and previous concerts - just in different combinations.
As for myself, I’ll usually play a song at least 50-100 times before I consider it ‘performance ready’. Only then will I be confident that I can play it without sheet music.
Once you’ve learned your repertoire, you should perform your complete set, at least once a week. This way you’ll know that you’re prepared for whenever the next playing opportunity arises!
5. Write Down Your Song List
While it’s important to learn your songs by heart, you also need to remember the names of the songs that are in your set to begin with!
Otherwise you’ll find yourself sitting at the piano, after playing the first song - thinking to yourself “what songs do I know again?”
So I suggest you write down all of the songs that you know on a 3x5 card, and carry this in your wallet.
That way, you can simply look at your list of songs and choose something appropriate to play - while remaining cool, calm and collected.
Download my complete list of 33 recommended jazz songs for beginners. Click here to download (free).
Summary
Today we covered 5 tips to help you memorize jazz standards more easily:
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- Memorize chord sequences (not individual chords).
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- Stick to your arrangement.
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- Loop any tricky sections.
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- Play each song 50-100 times.
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- Write down your song list.
Free Jazz Piano Resources
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About the Author
Julian Bradley is a jazz pianist and music educator from the U.K. He has a masters degree in music from Bristol University, and has played with and composed for a variety of big bands.
Julian runs the popular Jazz Tutorial YouTube channel and writes educational jazz lessons at JazzTutorial.com
