Play Jazz Standards – Jazz play Along Free sheet music in our online library.
Jazz play Along (with sheet music) FAMILY GUY THEME
Jamey Aebersold has gone to great lengths to put together fine rhythm sections and fairly accurate chord progressions into a neat little bundle, to make it easier for you to learn any jazz standard in the comfort of your own home, even without a band! The sheet music is also accurate and completed with the right chords.
Using jazz standard play alongs and lead sheet music as tools
Play alongs do have some benefits:
- The soloists are out of the way so you can focus more easily on the rhythm section
- The changes are more defined and easier to hear
- The track stays consistent in terms of harmony
These attributes make jazz standard play alongs great for practicing exercises with. To use a play along effectively to improve at a tune, abandon the attitude that it exists simply for for your desire to “just play” while having a band back you up, and instead create exercises which will help to do the following:
- Integrate new bits of language into your vocabulary
- Isolate a concept
- Work on problem chords
- Work on figuring out chords by ear
- Any other creative things you can come up with
When you use play alongs during your practice, make sure you’re implementing some type of exercise and do not get carried away by the urge to “just play.”
Utilizing play alongs in this manner will help you improve much more rapidly than if you put a tune from a play along on repeat and improvise over it endlessly.
We all have those chords that we get to and just freeze. That’s a problem chord. Most of time, rather than work on these chords, we glide over them, or use one approach we’ve figured out that kind of works, but not perfectly.
Slow it down. Then figure out ways your heroes dealt with a similar situation and use that knowledge to experiment with how you’ll approach the problem chord. Loop the section in the jazz play along and apply your new knowledge until you gain a firm understanding of how to go about playing over that particular harmonic instance.
After you feel you’ve sufficiently worked on things, then give yourself the opportunity to work on performing. Feel free to Let loose and enjoy just playing for a bit.
Remember to practice in the practice room and perform when you’re on the bandstand!