Autumn Leaves (jazz standard)

Autumn Leaves (chord melody) PDF

Here’s a tricky one for everyone!  Two rules to remember:

#1:Play each phrase of the melody in position.

Playing “in position” means that you need to assign each finger to it’s own fret space.  For example, our first phrase (leading to a Cm7 chord) has notes spanning from the 7th fret to the 10th fret.  That 4 fret distance needs to be covered by assigning your fingers across the total fret-space, so that each finger gets a fret to itself.  In this way any notes at the 7th fret are played by your index finger, 8th fret by the middle, 9th by the ring, and 10th by the pinky.  The position is always referenced by the fret the index finger is on, so this first phrase is in the 7th position.  Just a bit of music jive for ya!

 

#2: The last note of each melody phrase must be played with the finger that is found in the following chord.

The last note of each phrase is (almost always) the highest note of the chord to follow–play it with the finger that would normally be used in the upcoming chord.  This may involve playing out of position from time-to-time, but playing this way will allow you to hold over the last note of each phrase as you assemble your other fingers into the chord shape.  This allows the melody to ring into the following chord, and helps keep your hands from jumping last-minute to find their place.

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