I've been investigating playing jazz, cause to me, I like the way the chords sound, when done right making jazz versions of songs sometimes...

So I thought, np, Happy Birthday (to me), July 16th shouldn't be a problem...but NOT so simple.

I don't care to learn all the chords, inversions, played open, when played again played with chords with more "color" etc., just for one song, though I will learn that stuff over time.

Wtf do I go to get sheet music for a jazzy Happy Birthday song (to me) on the keyboard/piano? yo. Cause ppl that can play jazz, don't need a music sheet, only the chords of the song and they make the arrangement on the fly it looks like to me.

Thanks for any help. As a kid I only heard jazz played at social functions and I thought it was just for old farts but, if played similarly with songs I know, idts.

 

That's not always the case. As a "Jazz" pianist, sometimes if I can grab a piece of sheet (especially something that's a bit complex) I'll take it it every time, buddy). Let me say this to you, many of the "Jazz" musicians I've known in my life, started out as "Classical" pianists; learning the many scales and nuances of those scales. A lot of hard work and countless hours of practice (think Oscar Peterson, e.g.). By the time (more often than not) you see a performance onstage, trust me, even though it may look effortless, there's a ton of hours spent to create that illusion. Bottom line, if you're really interested in "Jazz" music, it's more than just a few minor chords and improvisational notes (played haphazardly).

I'm running around right now, but I will post a sheet of music featuring a few bars of a 'Jazzcentric' inspired version of "Happy Birthday". Hopefully, you can snag a few ideas, Jeff. Look for it tomorrow when I get back home. By the way, Happy Birthday!

 

100% agree there is no shortcuts.

 

Oh, I agree with you guys, the second I saw a few youtubes with guys "demonstrating" jazzy interpretations and it looked effortless to them, I went oh crap, cause I know that's probably 10,000 hrs of practice.

I've played Classical Guitar*, being forced by life circumstances, my punishment at my work, no joke, but I find the piano an easier way to "see" the music theory, cause there's not "14" ways to voice the same freakin chords on the keyboard like a guitar but, I can't just go, okie dokie for the last round of the song I'll now add the aug 7ths cause unlike when I saw it demonstrated with those guys doing open chords, with some chord inversion of a 9th or 13th in minor, my little brain went down in flames.

I did find a couple of crappy versions on line and one so complicated idk if it's even worth learning, given now I see how piano gets hard trying to sight read chords. To me sight reading any key is irrelevant, I have no unease to touching black keys, though I still find the b/c and e/f keys are undercover brothers or something...

What I was wondering was for a single song given the time frame, can I find a nice sounding jazzy happy birthday song. I think I can learn the complicated one for Aug 14th, which is my son's birthday if I can't meet my birthday deadline of July 16th...so then I think I'll go back and forth between the easy and hard one and maybe add the complication of that "one way" to modify based on principles to the easier ones. Of course, they are ALL in different keys, but if I have to, I'll just put it in Sibelius and transpose to the key that sounds best to me (I don't know if I'll sing too. I'm not one of those guitar players that can't sing while playing at least).

Unless you guys can suggest an alternative?

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*I was probably the only classical guitarist that converted pieces completely to tab to play until a Staff Sargent who's an FDNY EMT between killing Al Qaeda yelled at me for being so disrespectful to my instrument, music and history.

 

I think I missed an important point: is "jazz" the pinnacle of the music art form? So I'm trying to do something only ppl that have the most interest, experience and knowledge can do well? Is that why most of the jazz I heard as a boy at social functions sucked?

 

No. Jazz is NOT the "pinnacle" of music art form. First of all, "Jazz" comes in so many forms, it's really almost impossible to categorize. There was a time when the average person thought that Classical music was only played and listened to, by either snobs or "high-brows". They (and sometimes rightly so) felt that the music was far too complicated (and boring) for their tastes, so ultimately, the music was relegated to a very select group. During the early 20th Century, people's musical sensibilities began to change (a lot). And, people's attitudes towards certain forms of music changed a lot. The period from the end of the First World War, until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known, as you probably already know, as the "Jazz Age". "Jazz" (during its early heyday) was certainly not considered an "art form" by any stretch.

As I mentioned, in today's music climate, their are so many hybrid forms of the genre, it's damn-near impossible to even identify WTF you're listening to anymore. <lol> So, quite some time ago, I simply stopped trying to categorize my own playing and just stick to whatever sounds good to my ears. If some want to call it "Jazz", so be it. By the way, when I attended similar (mainly adult) social functions as a kid; some of the crap coming from the band playing on stage was something, but it was certainly NOT "Jazz" (at least by any "purist" definition). Bad musicians can really leave a lasting bad taste on the palate of the music side of your brain.

What tempo/key did you have in mind for your birthday song?

 

I like Ab (like All of Me, John Legend or Hello, Adele). The tempo, I tap out myself seems to be 80bpm, but I see on the super hard song sheet is F and 60bpm, so idk. They both have Fm as a relative or parallel minor, but idk if my ear even notices that. I haven't played long enough in enough keys to understand that consciously yet. Tempo probably slower than faster especially with the chord changes...why?

So, that "jazz" at the social functions were like "pizza" made with ketchup I accidentally ordered once in Georgia? Good to know.

 

I'm going to put together a simple sheet of some chords (not too complicated). Maybe you can work out something from there. It's Saturday, so when I can find a few minutes without my brother's kids hogging my time, I'll let you check it out.

 

Exactly!

 

Thnx for any help. My bro has two girls (one looks like a preteen scarlet johansson, he's so in for it), I got "back" my older son, working on getting back my younger son...only longer than 4 years in family court which may end with the state saying whoopsie, never mind. Maybe what you're wife said really was untrue. (no joke) Oh, never marry an actress (or the mistress) I think I'm gonna call myself Dumb Depp...until it sinks in.

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2016

Happy birthday Ab

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