Hello, my name is Marc from JazzGuitarLessons.net, and you're listening to podcasts on Introduction and Endings and other jazz guitar tips. So let's get going. Welcome to Jazz Guitar Lessons, where we help guitarists learn jazz faster, express themselves more fluently, and have fun along the way. My name is Marc, and if you're looking to learn jazz, form better practice habits, and especially if you enjoy French accent, make sure to subscribe.
All right, and welcome back to the podcast. So as you guys might have known, this is my favorite form of content on the website. It's really fun. I just put the microphone there. I got my classical here, my now now string guitar, and we're going to talk about how to improve your performances of standards, especially in a jazz style, with introductions, endings, and how to do that literally harmonically.
So I'm going to show you a few tips on which chords to play to make intros sound good. And it does not have to be very complicated, but a little goes a long way when it comes to building introductions or even building arrangements, should I say. Just a personal and a quick teaching anecdote.
From the past month or so, I gave a workshop to a duo. It's a combo guitar and trumpet. And we worked on a lot of standards. You would be amazed at what sort of magic we can bring to their repertoire list of their tunes when we just take a minute to go, "Okay, what's your introduction?"
What is going to be the transition between the solos? What are you doing to finish it? Or else what do you do? Well, typically as beginners and even sometimes intermediates, guys will just look at the chart in the fake book and start playing and then stop playing when it's over and just repeat that. But doing a little bit of an intro, a little something, can really put people in the mood.
So without further ado, I hope you were not expecting a lot of videos. I'm going to show you one of the tips. So let's say you are playing a song such as "The Girl from Ipanema" in F major. Right. One of the things people do typically is to alternate between two chords before the song starts.
So in this case, the F major can go to a G flat, some sort of G7â™13.
That.
Just that thing before the tune starts. You see, it's only four bars, but it really sets the mood. And you don't have to do this from anything that's written on a chart. You can just actually launch and say, "If I played that chord and that same chord a half step up, or if I play a I–V–I–V of some sort, it's going to work."
I'll give you another example with a minor tune. Say you're playing a tune in D minor, such as "Yesterday’s."
You know this song, right? Or it could be "Alone Together," which is typically played in D minor. What I would do is play an A pedal, and that A is actually the V chord. And what you can do is really play around instead of playing A13. You play a darker A like A7â™9â™13.
Or whatever. You know, that's an altered A7. And you stick to it. And you do this for four or eight bars and you're just actually sitting on a V chord, and you're building tension for the people. They're expecting that resolution. So I'll play this whole thing to give you a short version of what I would do in a gig, and I wouldn’t even count in the tempo.
It just starts playing, and my bandmates figure out what I’m doing. Ready?
[Music demonstration]
This would be how you go from playing the introduction into the A section. And of course, you know, guys look at each other and say, "Okay, I'm going to play the head now," these sorts of things. So that's really the best thing—to put something at first. Now, I'm going to play the devil's advocate. You don't need to play an introduction.
You can just go right in because not every tune needs a setup. Case in point, if you're playing solo, you just look at the guys like, "You guys ready?" 1-2-1-2-3-4.
You know, you don't need to set it up. You don’t always need to set it up. But sometimes it's nice, especially if you've never done these sorts of things.
So sometimes it's nice, especially if you've never done these sorts of things. Let me show you a variation to begin a tune, say, in C major, and we'll play "You Stepped Out of a Dream." You know this tune, right?
So it's a C chord at first. And what I would do if I were playing with a singer is probably some kind of variation of I–VI–II–V or so.
I–VI–II–V–I–VI–II. And you can do all these tritone subs and variations. You can also play III–VI–II–V. So III is E minor 7, VI is A7, and then you continue.
You can do these in different orders: I–VI–II–V or III–VI–II–V. Whether you do it in time or out of time, it leads you into something interesting.
I’m going to do it in time. Say your tempo is something like this:
[Music demonstration]
Introduction.
Two. Three. Four. Then II. Right. And now I–VI–II–V. Now I’m going to do III–VI–II–V. So III is E minor 7, A7.
You stepped out of a dream...
Right. So something like that. It’s just enough for the singer to know what key it’s in, or for the sax player to get oriented. It’s like, “Oh, neat little arrangement.”
So far, what we’ve talked about is:
Starting the tune with a vamp of some sort on two or three chords.
Using a I–VI–II–V progression.
Going straight into the tune without an intro.
Now, the last thing I want to talk about is starting at the B section to create some sort of an intro. I’ll use "Autumn Leaves" to demonstrate.
So you all know "Autumn Leaves," right? I’m going to play it in the key of G minor.
One last thing about intros, by the way. If there is an introduction that’s famous on a recording, then it’s a good entry point.
So before I do this demo on starting with the bridge, let’s talk about this:
[Plays Cannonball Adderley intro]
That’s right. It’s a G minor 6, and that’s the famous Cannonball recording. Everyone knows that intro. So if you start playing that, people can immediately latch onto it because it’s a familiar sound.
Now, let’s go back to "Autumn Leaves." What I’m going to do is start at a point that’s halfway in the song, and I’m going to play it completely rubato and accompany myself in a sort of chord melody style.
That point is:
[Plays the section before the A section]
Then it goes...
[Plays the transition into the A section]
So what I’m going to do is play that part from the middle, accompany myself, and just tell the other guys, "Okay, I got it. Just follow my lead. And when you hear me go..."
[Plays the pickup]
"...that’s time to play the head."
Alright, let me demonstrate this before we talk about endings.
[Music demonstration]
You see how I led the listener? I played something slow, and then it’s like, “Oh, we’re expecting something to take off now.”
And when you’re playing rubato like this, you can really take your time, put a lot of space between your chords. I don’t like to play anything too fancy, or else I know I’ll mess it up—play the wrong fingering or whatever. So play what you know, make sure the melody leads clearly, and you’ve got your intro just by using material from the song itself.
Alright. Now let’s talk about endings.
There are a few ideas you can use. Typically, there’s this tag ending technique. You watch a singer or a sax player, and I had in mind... what's the name of this song? "Blue Skies."
Near the end, you go...
[Plays the final line]
Then this ending...
[Repeats final phrase]
Then again...
[Repeats with slight variation]
Then finally...
[Plays a resolved cadence]
And you’re done. Right.
So this is how you'd play it with a singer. The singer goes, “Do this again.”
[Sings] Dee da da da doo dee dee...
And last time:
[Sings] Dee da da da doo dee doo dah...
So what I did was a tag ending. I repeated the last four chords, doing III–VI–II–V three times, and then resolving.
There are a whole bunch of tricks you can do. If you’re playing with a sax, trumpet, or piano instead of a singer, you can avoid landing on the I chord immediately.
For example, instead of resolving, you go:
[Plays a deceptive cadence]
That’s one half step above the tonic. Then you resolve. It’s a tiny little interesting trick you can do at the end—if everyone’s on the same page, of course.
Tag endings are very powerful. I remember Dave Turner in Montreal saying people would use this tag ending on a rhythm changes tune. They’d play III–VI–II–V, III–VI–II–V, III–VI–II–V, and then everyone started soloing over it!
Sometimes the tag would last even longer than the tune itself! Just keep tagging and tagging.
Another interesting ending idea: If you’re playing a tune that ends on C major, you can create a smooth transition backcycling.
So say you have this:
D minor 7 – G7 – Cmaj7.
Instead of stopping, you go:
[Plays backcycling progression]
So all I did was start on F# minor 7â™5 → B7 → E minor 7 → A7 → D minor 7 → G7.
You’re backcycling, starting from a tritone above the tonic, which creates a natural movement back into the song.
Lastly, let’s talk about cadenzas, especially for ballads.
A cadenza is when you use the V chord right before resolving to play an out-of-time solo phrase.
For example, in "Body and Soul":
[Plays the phrase]
Then something like:
[Plays a free solo over V7]
And then...
[Resolves to I]
You use that dominant chord to play a little line, a mini solo that’s just yours. Sax players and singers do this a lot.
Chet Baker did this. Sonny Rollins did this. You just wait for the V chord, then take your time to make a musical statement before resolving.
Alright! That’s it for this podcast episode.
I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Feel free to send me your questions or comments. You can email me at [email protected], and if you have good topics you’d like me to cover in future episodes, let me know!
See you next time!
