About

Jazz Changes helps you learn jazz standards by ear. Each tune gets eight recordings in a teaching order, a few more great versions, and a short note on what to listen for and what to try at your instrument. The idea is to hear a tune the way players learn it: first the song as written, then what generations of musicians did with it.

How the listening path works

The first step is always a version where the melody is easy to hear, usually a singer. Later steps each add one idea: a famous arrangement, a solo that moves away from the melody, a version without piano, an unusual meter, a modern reworking. They aren't in date order, because the order follows what's easiest to hear next.

How recordings are checked

• Session details (date, place, lineup, original issue and label) are checked against session discographies, mainly the Jazz Discography Project, plus Discogs, the Discography of American Historical Recordings, label pages and Wikipedia's sourced album articles.
• Listen links point to the exact recording. Each Apple Music track is matched by artist, album, title and length, and each YouTube video is an official upload (a label's or the artist's own) whose album and length match.
• When a detail couldn't be confirmed, it's left out instead of guessed.

Chord charts and musical facts

Each chart names its source under the chart: a published lead sheet, a harmonic analysis, or a transcription of a specific recording. Charts show chord changes only, never the melody or lyrics, since most of these songs are still under copyright. You can transpose any chart with the key buttons above it.

Key, tempo, meter and feel appear only where a source documents them. Many come from the Weimar Jazz Database (Jazzomat Research Project, Open Database License), which transcribes solos from hundreds of jazz recordings.

Videos

Videos play from YouTube's privacy-enhanced player and load only when you press play. Jazz Changes doesn't host any audio.