How To Play Standards

In this lesson I'll take you through the 12 levels (I broke them into days for this lesson) and show you once and for all the steps necessary to play standards and lead sheets from a fakebook. This lesson should be your FIRST lesson before beginning my other courses on standards and fakebooks. The goal of this lesson is to introduce you to the levels and show you where to get more help on each level, so this is a great summary lesson. We will use the song "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" as an example.

In this lesson you'll learn how to think of playing standards in layers. Each layer adds sparkle to the arrangement and you'll learn how to use these layers for maximum effect!

If you've never improvised over a jazz standard before, this is the lesson for you! Learn the different techniques like targeting and improvisation shells.

Learn the steps needed to create your first arrangement of a jazz standard. After learning the techniques in this lesson, you'll be ready to create your own first arrangement from a lead sheet.