Learn Jazz Harmonica: Five beginner friendly jazz tunes

Learning Jazz Tunes: A Guide for Harmonica Players

I often receive questions about which jazz tunes to learn. Learning jazz tunes is crucial if you want to play jazz and develop your improvisation skills and your jazz language on the harmonica. The ingredients you need are all there within the tune: the melody, the rhythm, the lyrics, and the chord progression.

Learning jazz standards is a lifelong journey of discovery. Embrace the challenge, accept the process, and enjoy the incredible musical rewards that all these tunes will give you. I am still playing and practicing Autumn Leaves every week.

How does one learn jazz tunes?

First of all - listen to the songs you want to learn! That is the most important thing to do. Listen online or on CDs, vinyls, tapes or whichever way you prefer. Listen many times and sing along if you feel for it. You don’t have to sing “good” or with correct pitch all the time, just humming the melody or even just humming the rhythm will teach you a lot.

I highly recommend you to buy the Real Book 6th Edition (Hal Leonard Co.) or some other Jazz Fake Books (they all have different names) so you get the songs with sheet music notation. These books are invaluable resources, “The Real Book” for example contains 400 tunes. I am not sure exactly which tune is in which book – but if you get the one I recommend you will get a lot of most known standards.
Note: I recommend harmonica players to buy a book in concert C version. Don’t buy the Bb (trumpet key) or Eb (alto sax) versions.

Combine Learning Methods: You can learn tunes by ear, from sheet music, or a combination of both. I often find a combination of both methods to be most effective. Ultimately, the best method is the one that works best for you. There is no right or wrong.

I often mix these two methods. However, in the end I often double check the score so I got the tune right. Sometimes, when learning a song by ear, we learn an artist's personal interpretation and arrangement of that song. In such cases, it can be helpful to double-check the sheet music to also understand the composer's original version. This is good to do if the artist we transcribed is another person than the composer.

Use Tabs (If Needed): If you don't read music, transcribe the melodies into tabs on the score. This allows you to start playing immediately. While reading sheet music is more preferable than tab notation, the goal is to play, make music, and have fun. If tabs help you achieve that, use them!

Alright, here is my list of five beginner tunes (no specific order):

Autumn Leaves (Kosma/Mercer)

The melody is beautiful, lyrical and challenging, allowing you to develop your phrasing and expression. It has a great chord progression, you will learn both the major and minor II-V-I progressions, which are fundemental to jazz harmony.

Learn it in the key of G minor first. Then try A minor and then E minor. Use C chromatic or Bb diatonic for Gm, C diatonic for Am or G diatonic for Em. For diatonic harmonica players - this will all be in 4th position. If you want to expand the diatonic timbre - try it in 3rd position. Use a Low F to play in G minor.

In this video I am playing it on both a chromatic and diatonic harmonica (Bb).

Bag’s groove (Milt Jackson)

A simple yet effective blues head, perfect for beginners. Key of F. Listen to Miles Davis version or The Modern Jazz Quartet’s version. Works fine on C chromatic or Bb diatonic (2nd position). In general - it is very good to collect as many blues tunes you can to your repertoire. Great for jamming.

The video is from a concert my jazz quartet did five years ago.

Fly me to the moon (Bart Howard)

Classic, fantastic melody with lovely chord changes that moves arounds in fourths. Recorded in so many versions and always sounds inspiring. Try it in C major (starts on A minor), then move on to other preferred keys. Use C chromatic harmonica or C diatonic (1st position). For diatonic you can also try it on a G harp in 12th major.

This snippet is from a concert at a high school with a music department. We had a fantastic time playing there!

Summertime (George Gershwin)

Another timeless standard with a soulful and bluesy feel, one of the best ever written in my opinion. Can be played in so many ways and grooves. Great, bluesy feeling and a really nice chord progression. Learn it in D minor first, then try it in A or G minor. Use C chromatic or C diatonic (3rd position).

This concert is from September last year, we played a show in a re-opening of music store in south Sweden. We are playing it in A minor.

All blues (Miles Davis)

Great blues melody and a very classic tune. Listen to Miles recording from Kind of Blue, it is magic. The “turnaround” is not a typical II V I or V IV I, it is V7 to bVI7, which means D7 to Eb7 (if playing it in G). Very different sound and feel. This tune is also a good study for jazz waltz. Original in G. Use C chromatic or C diatonic (2nd position). On diatonic it also sounds cool on a Bb in 4th position.

Great video here with Toots Thielemans, Danish TV from the 60s. Never seen this clip before actually, really like it. A few years ago, I actually played a concert with Mads Winding, the bass player in this video.

Here is another fantastic version, by Howard Levy and Anthony Molinaro. I remember buying this CD in 2003 or 2004.