Post 180: EASY TUNES FOR BEGINNERS

I recommend Ice Man as the first tune you master. It's only eight bars long and uses just two chords - the tonic and dominant 7th. You can pick it up from the YouTube performance by Tuba Skinny.

Very similar is Old-Time Religion. It's essentially just eight bars - six of them on the tonic and the other two on the dominant 7th.

For your first experience of a tune in a minor key, may I recommend Crumpled Papers? It's a very simple 12-bar (though not a blues). It is best played in D minor and you will probably get away with just two chords - D minor and A7th. You could pick it up by clicking on  THIS VIDEO.

I recommend Eh La Bas and Mama Inez for playing even by a novice jazz band. Eh La Bas has a simple melody and is also entirely based on the two most familiar chords (tonic and dominant 7th). Mama Inez  has a very simple chord pattern (using only three chords) and is fun to play. Let me also offer you Creole Song, Gatemouth, Jambalaya (On the Bayou) and Rum and Coca-Cola. That gives you quite a few easy tunes to learn and try out.

Creole Song consists of just 16 bars, divided into two 8s. The two little melodies are simple, catchy and repetitive. Play it in the key F and all you will need are two chords: F and C7th. Don't confuse this with Creole Love Call or Creole Love Song. I am talking about the tune you can find on YouTube played by Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band. The song Salee Dame is almost identical: perhaps they were originally the same tune.

Basically, the chord pattern is simply:-
  F  |  C7 | C7 |  F, repeated over and over.

Gatemouth was I think written by Louis Armstrong’s wife, Lil Hardin, and made famous by the clarinetist Johnny Dodds. It also has just two simple, repetitive sections, in this case 16 bars each. You can pick it up by watching the performance on YouTube of Gatemouth by the Peruna Jazzmen of 1988. The main theme (used for the improvisations) requires little more than the chords of Bb7 and Eb, though with the final four-bar sequence:
 Ab :Abm / Bb : C7 / F7: Bb7 / Eb. This is a sequence you must learn, as it comes at the end of dozens of tunes, so it is worth the trouble.

Jambalaya is great fun to play and SO simple. Play it in Bb and all you need is to keep repeating the sequence:  Bb  /  Bb  /  F7  /  F7  /  F7  /  F7  /  Bb  /  Bb.

If you need reminding of the tune, try the YouTube performances by the Carpenters and by the Tierra Buena Jazz Band.

Rum and Coca-Cola is just as simple. Play it in the key of C and all you need is to keep repeating:

 C  /  C  /  C  / G7  /  G7  /  G7  /  G7 /  C  .

This calypso-style tune was composed about 70 years ago by the Trinidadian Lionel Belasco. In the last few decades, trad jazz bands have adopted it with much success.

Post 111: 'MAMA INEZ'

(The first version of this article was published in 'Playing Traditional Jazz' in 2014. It had hundreds of readers, so it seems to have met a need. I have now updated it.)

I don’t know how many New Orleans traditional jazz bands these days include Mama Inez in their repertoire. I believe the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans about 45 years ago was the first to show how effective it could be as a contrast to the usual run of tunes. For a time it became popular with European bands too.

There are four great things about Mama Inez, making it attractive for musicians of any standard - even beginners. First, it is remarkably simple in structure and chord pattern. Second, it is not difficult to play. Thirdly – because it can be played with a Latin-American rhythm – it provides variety to any band’s programme. Fourthly (always important) it has a catchy basic melody that appeals to the audience.

Mama Inez was written in 1932 by the prolific Cuban pianist and composer Eliseo Grenet who lived from 1893 to 1950. He had an amazingly busy career in music, leading bands and writing many popular songs as well as film music. (Words for Mama Inez were added by L. W. Gilbert).

For a performance of Mama Inez, CLICK HERE.

This really is a three-chord trick tune. Assuming you play it in the key of G, you will need only the chords of G major, C major and D7^th. In my examples below, I am using the key of G.

Some bands used to play Mama Inez only as a 32-bar tune. But there is also a 16-bar verse or introduction. It uses this rhythmic phrase.

The first sixteen bars and final eight bars of the chorus are based on a repetition of this.

But there’s a distinctive rhythmic middle eight, in which the entire band must be silent throughout the final three and a half beats of bars 2 and 4. It’s effective and great fun for dancers.