LJS 101: Learn How to Play “My Shining Hour”

Welcome to episode 101 of the LJS Podcast where today Brent will teach you how to play one of his favorite jazz standards, "My Shining Hour" by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Learn the melody, chords, and how the harmony works. Brent improvises a chorus at the end to tie it all together. Listen in!
Listen to episode 101







In today's episode, I'm trying something a little bit different than I've done before.
I've had learning jazz standards on my mind a lot lately, as I've been working on a new eBook and eCourse geared towards studying what I call my 10 Master Jazz Standards. This will be coming out in April of 2018 and it's called "The Jazz Standards Playbook."
So since it's all fresh on my mind, I thought it would be fun and helpful to teach you how to play a jazz standard. One of my favorite jazz standards is "My Shining Hour" by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. I just love the triumphant melody and harmony. In general, I find it fun to improvise over.
While I do encourage you to do some homework on this song, such as listening to a lot of recordings and try learning the melody and chords by ear, I walk you through the basics. Here's what I go over:

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I play through the head for you so you can get acquainted.

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I play the melody in it's purest form with a metronome.

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I teach you the chords and how they function in the harmony.

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I demonstrate a chorus of improvisation for my own (and hopefully yours too) pleasure.


Use this episode as a resource for learning this awesome jazz standard. Since this is the first time doing an episode like this, let me know if you thought this was helpful in the comments below.
Also, if you're checking out this episode at the time it came out, be sure to participate in our Birthday Month Raffle.
Important Links
"My Shining Hour" from The Sky's the Limit
Chord charts and backing track for "My Shining Hour"







Read the Transcript
Brent: What's up everybody, my name is Brent, I am the jazz musician behind the website LearnJazzStandards.com, which is a blog and a podcast all geared towards helping you become a better jazz musician.
Wow, I am so excited for you to be here today. Thank you so much for joining me. Whether you're a regular listener, or if you are listening for the very first time, welcome, and I am excited to give you as much value as I can today.
And today's episode, I'm actually going to do something I've never done before, which is teach you how to play a jazz standard. And, you know, I'm also trying to do different things on the show, try different things, see how you guys like them, and ...
So, if you like a show like this today, please let me know. That would be awesome.
Today I am going to teach you one of my favorite jazz standards, which is, "My Shining Hour." Really, really cool tune. So, I'm really excited to jump into that today. It's going to be a lot of fun. Going to be a lot of me playing my guitar for me. Remember, it doesn't matter what instrument you play. This is for all instruments. I just happen to be a guitar player.
But I'm excited to do that today, it's going to be a lot of fun. But before we get into the show today, this month ... If you've been listening to the show for the last month or so, you know that this month, February of 2018, is our birthday month. That's right, so on episode 104, coming up here, we are celebrating our two year birthday of the podcast.