Learning Tunes – Chords

Many times in a musician’s development (for me this happened a lot in college) they are required to learn a standard very quickly. In certain cases this is a requirement of a class and other times it is actually during the gig. Below I have outlined the approach that works best for me to learn new material.

As a guitarist, the difficult part to internalizing a tune has always been the voicings more so than the melody. Considering the seemingly infinite number of variations on extensions and inversions for each chord, it is easy to fall into a rut and rely on several stock voicings.  A good friend of mine, Jody Fisher recommends the following method for working on the changes to a tune.

• Divide the guitar into 7 regions as follows
  • Top 4 strings
  • Middle 4 strings
  • Bottom 4 strings
  • Frets 1 through 4
  • Frets 5 through 8
  • Frets 9 through 12

This allows you to break the fretboard up into more manageable pieces and gain a better understanding of how the mechanics of the guitar work.

For each region, you would find as many voicings of a particular chord as you can taking into consideration both alterations and extensions.

Take the following progression for example:

Gm7 / C7 / Fmaj7/ Bbm7/ Eb7/Abmaj7/ Fm7/Bb7//

If this was the first time I am working with this method, I would take the Gm7 chord and work through as many inversions, extensions and alterations as I could in each region.  Once I felt comfortable with being able to grab a Gm7 voicing anywhere I happen to be on the fretboard, I would repeat the process with the C7 chord.

As you can see, this isn’t something that you can accomplish quickly.  Once I have the first two chords worked out, I would practice going from Gm7 to C7 in each region.  Slowly but surely the process is repeated with each chord of the progression.

By the time you get through the first A section of a tune, the harmony is so internalized that hearing the melody in your head becomes easier.

To work this method over an entire tune could take several months, but as with many things the more you do it, the easier it becomes and the less time it takes for each tune.

Check out Jody’s book The Total Jazz Guitarist to see this method written out with detailed examples.

What are the most effective ways you have found to learn changes?