LJS 135: How to Learn Difficult Jazz Standards

Welcome to episode 135 of the LJS Podcast where today we are exploring how to learn, understand, and memorize complex jazz standards. We take a look at Wayne Shorter's "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" and extract lessons we can apply to others. Listen in!
Listen to episode 135







On this podcast, I often go over basic jazz harmony and chord progressions. These are important starting points but are also imperative to continually review and improve upon.
But what about those jazz standards that just don't seem to make diatonic sense?
It's understandable to look at complex tunes by Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane and a host of others and get completely stumped.
These songs can be hard to understand, and therefore become hard to learn and memorize.
So in today's episode, I dive into Wayne Shorter's "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum" and try to make sense out of it. At the same time, I talk about how to approach difficult songs like this in general.
Here's some of what I talk about today:
1. Diatonic harmony vs. non-diatonic and complex harmony.
2. In-depth analysis of "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum"
3. 3 important tips to heed when learning complex jazz standards.
Pay special attention to the 3 tips at the end. Those are the real key to approaching these songs and not getting overwhelmed.
Important Links
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum chord charts and resources
The Jazz Standards Playbook eBook and Companion Course