Autumn Leaves - flatpick

1 Flatpicking Guitar MagazineFree Email Newsletter LessonMay 2014 Autumn LeavesArranged by Mickey Abraham Hello and welcome back to Flatpicking Guitar Magazine s free lesson portion of our monthly newsletter. Over the years I have strived to keep these lessons musically diverse. One month you might click here and find a classic bluegrass kick-off -- and then the next month you might click here and find a cool klezmer tune. I suppose it goes without saying that learning songs from as many genres as you can will improve your flatpicking, musicianship, and overall musical knowledge. This month I present to you three versions of the famous jazz standard Autumn Leaves .

2 Autumn Leaves is a tune that is heard on many instruments in many genres all over the world. Most people associate the song with the American jazz tradition as it is often played and recorded by well known jazz musicians. I chose to present the tune in the key of Gm. You will hear musicians playing Autumn Leaves in a variety of keys. I chose Gm because that is the key my jazz friends play it in. Gm is the relative minor to Bb major which is a favorite key for trumpets and saxophones. Interestingly, although this song is jazzy, most musicians find the tune s infectious chord progression to poses all the makings of classical and baroque music. It s really all the same stuff !

3 If you are used to playing open position chords in a bluegrass context this will be a wonderful song to learn new closed position chord shapes. All the chords used in this song are common shapes used in gypsy jazz and acoustic swing. Just like learning and using G, C, and D, once you get these new shapes under your fingers, you will be able to apply them to many other tunes that are similar. The technique used in playing these swing chords involves the muffling of all the strings that you are not fretting. Some people find this difficult. My advice would be to try to not arch your index finger -- let it feel lazy so it falls over all the strings. Everyone s hand is different and attacks the guitar at a different angle.

4 Keep experimenting with various hand positions until you feel comfortable with the muting concept. The next step is to strike the chord like it s one big fat string -- don t separate the bass note like you would in bluegrass. My rhythm pattern is based on a gypsy jazz strum. I m playing the chords with all downstrokes and trying to accent the 2nd and 4th beats of each measure. Something like: one TWO three FOUR one TWO three FOUR. When I was arranging the solos to this lesson my goal was to combine flatpicking language with jazz language. One of the ways I accomplished this was to keep all my ideas in open position on the neck. I tried to make use of all the open strings the way I would when playing a tune such as Salt Creek.

5 Most jazz players don t exploit the open position as much as us flatpickers. I find it interesting and challenging to try to weave musical lines in and out of the chord changes all while staying in roughly one position. Next, I based my ideas around picked eighth notes. Playing continuous eighth notes is a significant characteristic of bluegrass and fiddle tunes. It s actually quite fun to come up with flatpicking licks that fit over these chords. For the first solo pass I tried to outline the chord changes with melodic variations. Even though the jazzy chords are flying by, the lines are mostly based on unaltered major scales. The second solo is more advanced and takes more harmonic liberties.

6 There is a lot of meat in these solos and I encourage you to work through it all at your own pace. Remember to click on the included lesson mp3 to hear the chords and melody in action. I hope you enjoy working on my arrangement of Autumn Leaves . I had a great time coming up with all the cool lines for the solos. For those of you out there that already have a firm grasp on creating bluegrass licks and are interested in how to create lines like these I plan on writing a book called Jazz for the Flatpicking Guitarist. In the book I will explain what scales and shapes I use to make these kinds of lines and, of course, I ll be keeping the licks in open position. This way they can be related to fiddle tunes and you can begin to insert them into your already existing language.

7 As always, if you have any questions or comments on this e-lesson just drop me a line at Autumn Leaves Chord ShapesXXCm7 XXXXB bmaj7 XXF7 Ebmaj7X8th fretX8th fretX6th fretX6th fretXXXXD7X5th fretX5th fretXXGm7X3rd fretAm7b5 XXGm7X10th fretXXFm7X8th fretXXF#7X9th fretXXE7X7th fretXXEbmaj76th fretXXD73rd fretXXG#dimX3rd fretAutumn LeavesArranged by Mickey Abraham&TABbb441 023w#4Cm7 302F7w3 Bbmaj7 # 130 Ebmaj7&bb6w1Am7b5 # 042D7w3Gm7 j 0J023&bb10w#4Cm7 j 3J302F7w3 Bbmaj7 j # j J1 J130Eb7&bb14..13Am7b5 # 23202042D7w0Gm j j # J0 J040&bb18. j .2J2 Am7b5 j 2J202D7. J .3J3 Gm7 323 Autumn Leaves (con t)&bb22..55Cm7 #64F7w3 Bbmaj7 J # 3J323 Ebmaj7&bb26 # 4411Am7b5.

8 #.24D7j # J233Gm7F#7Gm7F#7 j # 0J040Fm7E7&bb30..13 Ebmaj7 j j # j 23 J2 J4 J0D7w0Gm7 j j J0 J023&bb34 # n # #4434134Cm7 # n #5545314F7 # n #3323131 Bbmaj7 # n # n0040310 Ebmaj7&bb38 # 3313013Am7b5 # 40042353D7w0Gm7 023 Autumn Leaves (con t)&bb42. J n b .5J45320Cm7. j n .3J23021F7. j .3J23203 Bbmaj7. #j n # .1J01303Eb7&bb46. j # n #.2J12031Am7b5 # # # 04014324D7w0Gm # 040&bb50. j .2J2 Am7b5 202D7 # n3313413Gm7 323Gm7&bb54 53353353Cm7 # # n #25421412F7w3 Bbmaj7 Bbmaj7 J # 3J323 Ebmaj7&bb58 # 4411Am7b5 # # n 21231431D7 33 Gm7F#7 j j # J0 J040Fm7E7 Autumn Leaves (con t)&bb62 J 1 J3 Ebmaj7j # j j n J23J23J21303D 7 # n 030431G m7.

9 J # #30331301C m7 # # # 0134121214F 7b9 3031303 Bbmaj7 # # #1130401 Ebmaj7&bb70 # 20131021Am7b5 # # #4241241D 7b9 0336563G m7 # n b # n 60310310G#dim&bb74 # j # n 1310J2313C m7 n # # n # n 2413421214F 7b9 # 30232013 Bbmaj7 # n. J # # J n534534 J3Am7b5 # # j #412412 J1D 7b9 # 04013103G m7 # #04001001 Autumn Leaves (con t)&bb82 # # 21213121Am7b5 # # # n # n 3412421214D 7b9 # 32300331G m7j J # n #J3J4 30130301G#dim&bb86. j # n #.0J10301C m7. #j # n .4J04240F 7b9. j .3J03130 Bbmaj7. #j n .1J03130 Ebmaj7&bb90 # n # # 10130403Am7b5 # n # 43403034D 7b9 . #j m7F#7 j n j 33 J322 J2F m7E 7&bb94 # j 331331 J1 Ebmaj7 # # # 01342141D 7b9 j 30 J00 G m7