Free Digital Sheet Music

I know the language of jazz. The scales, the chords, even the harmonic intent of pieces. But I can’t speak the language. All that comes out is notable gibberish that wouldn’t fool the most neophyte of jazz listeners. But I still take up the struggle every now and again. Joe Pass is one jazz artists that leaves me breathless, especially his solo guitar work. If I was going to play jazz that is the style I’d want to play. Of course, I don’t have decades of playing smokey jazz clubs under my belt. But one can dream. Pass’ technique and seemingly off the cuff harmonic mastery makes transcribing one of his solo compositions daunting. But I’m going to start off in the shallows as his version of the standard Autumn Leaves from Unforgettable is (too my ears) quite accessible. I’m going to break the tune down into about six short parts which should cover the whole song. At the end, we’ll see how close I got as there is a transcription of Pass’ version of Autumn Leaves that I’ll leave until then. Part one covers the first 8 bars. Tab for those who’d like to play a long at home. We are in the key of G Major for this tune. -------8-------------7-------------5-2-------7---5------------------- -5-7-8---5-4-----5-7-7-3---5---3-5-5-2-6-------------8-4-7-5--------- ---------5-5---7-----7-4---4-5-----5-2---3S4-----------------4------- ---------5-4-----------4---3-------4-1-------------------------5----- -------------5-----------2-3-------------------6---7-------------7--- ---------5-------------3-------------------------------------------0- So the chord progression here is Am7-D7-Gmaj7-Cmaj7-F#m7b5-B7-Em. And nothing real fancy. Pass makes the D7 a D7b9 which is cool. An almost straight reading of the melody. A cool move is the D# to hint at E harmonic minor at the end. I admit to approaching Pass with some trepidation but the first part was not that hard to transcribe. Not as scary as I thought given there is a emphasis in single lines rather than dense chording. As for accuracy, I reckon about 90%. Which is okay as it is not about slavish imitation but learning and understanding as to develop your own version. So let’s listen. Next, I’ll delve into the second run through of the same progression.