How High The Moon - Part one

How high the moon (1940) by Morgan Lewis, a nice and easy-going jazz standard, with a
catchy melody. A pretty common tune in the gypsy jazz repertoire as well. Contemporary
guitarist Adrien Moignard plays a good version of it in that tradition on youtube. For a quite
different version check out Louis Armstrongs bassist Arvell Shaw play it here. He plays
both the head and a long solo. It's pretty impressive!
My favourite version is by Sonny Stitt and can be found on the album "How high the moon"
with Sonny Stitt and Friends. Look out for a very cool and straight-to-the-point-intro!
So first of all, why do we chose to learn/play the tunes we do? There can be several
reasons: You've joined a band who plays it, it's a common tune played at jam sessions,
your teacher urge you to learn it, you want to study the theory etc. But I think the best
reason we can have for playing the tunes we do, is that we like them! This is often the best
motivation. But here we go:
For learning this tune (and more or less every jazz standard) the following list would be a
good start:
1: Find a good vocal version.
One you really like and learn the lyrics by heart. It will be easier to remember and you get
a more "personal" approach to the song. Instead of just learning a chord chart. You can
almost always find a good version of the most popular jazz standards by some of the old
masters; Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Anita O'day, Nat King Cole etc. For
free versions use youtube.com, deezer.com or your local library for example.
2: Finding the sheet.
Of course the best thing would be to workout every note and all harmonies by ear, but for
most of us that demands a very good ear, a lot of time and a lot of hard work (although I
don't doubt it will pay of in the end). But until then you can find the basic changes in the
Vanilla book. I think this is a good way to start. Start to learn the changes in their most
simple form: major, minor, dominant, diminished without too many substitutions and
extensions. Later on when you know the fundamental changes of the tune, you can start
re-harmonizing.
3: What is the form and tonality?
Most standards are in AABA, AB, ABC or AAB forms.
Look out for which chord the song is ending on. It is often the first chord in the tune, but
not always!
Tonality in this case is G major, and the form is AB. Where the last eight bars in the B
section differs from the last eight bars in the A section.
4: Study the changes.
A: / G / G / Gm7 / C7 / F / F / Fm7 / Bb7 /
/ Eb / Am7b5 D7 / Gm / D7 / G / Am7 D7 / Bm7 Bb7 / Am7 D7 /

B: / G / G / Gm7 / C7 / F / F / Fm7 / Bb7 /

/ Eb / Am7 D7 / G / Cm6 / Bm7 Bb7 / Am7 D7 / G / (Am7 D7) /
A good approach is to take 8 bars at a time and see what happens:
/ G / G / Gm7 / C7 / F / F / Fm7 / Bb7 /
Tonality is G major. To bars of G major, going to one bar of G minor, to one bar of C7,
making a II-V in F, which leads to the F major of the forth and fifth bar. Again major
becomes minor in bar 7 and make a II-V in Eb major (Fm7-Bb7) which leads to the first
chord of the next 8 bars.
So the tonality changes 3 times in the first 8 bars: We have 2 bars of G major, 4 bars of F
major and 2 bars of Eb major. And tonality is descending in whole-steps: G to F to Eb.
Next 8 bars: / Eb / Am7b5 D7 / Gm / D7 / G / Am7 D7 / Bm7 Bb7 / Am7 D7 /
One bar of Eb major, then one bar of a II-V in G minor, which leads to one bar of G
minor, then one bar of the dominant seventh (the V chord) of G major, which leads to one
bar of G major, one bar of a II-V in G major, then a two-bar turnaround of descending II-V's
in A major and G major respectively. This finish the A section and leads to the G major in
the first bar of the B section.
Notice two things!
First: turnarounds can be voiced in many different ways. Alternatively we could play the
last two bars like this: / G E7 / Am7 D7 / a I-VI-II-V progression and make the II-V in bar 6
lead to the G chord. On the other hand the original turnaround (Bm7-Bb7-Am7-D7) gives
you a nice descending bass line: B-Bb-A. (alternatively you can even make a flat 5
substitution of the D7, which then becomes a Ab7, giving you Ab in the bass and
therefore the base line: B-Bb-A-Ab. And now the B section will start with a G major chord,
and then we will have a G in the bass, and voil! A long elegant descending bass line).
Second: when you substitute chords you have to be aware of the melody note. In bar 7
the melody note is D, and we dont want that to clash with the chords we are playing. The
D note works with the G chord (the 5th), with E7 (the 7th), with the Bm7 (the 3rd) and with
the Bb7 (the 3rd as well). So both turnarounds will workout fine.
So the tonality changes 3 times: From Eb (bar 1) major to G minor (bar 2 and 3) to G
major (bar 4-6) to A major (bar 7) to G major (bar 8). Bar 7 can also be seen as in the key
of G major, in my opinion is redundant to say we change tonality, but we do it here for the
sake of argument. The Bm7-Bb7 could be seen as a II-V leading to A minor. Strictly
speaking the Bb7 belongs to the Eb major scale, but here it's used as a b5 substitution of
E7, which can be seen as a substitution of Em7 which is the 6th in the scale of G major.
But in short, the important thing is to make a turnaround which leads smoothly back to the
G chord, without clashing with the melody notes.
Let's move on to the B section.

Okay, the first 8 bars of the B section is the same as the A section, so no problems here.
Last 8 bars: / Eb / Am7 D7 / G / Cm6 / Bm7 Bb7 / Am7 D7 / G / (Am7 D7) /
One bar of Eb major, one bar of a II-V in G major, which leads to one bar of G major, going
to a Cm6 (! I'll get back to that), to one bar of Bm7-Bb7; a II-V in A major, with the Bb7
being a flat 5 substitution of the normal V-chord, E7. In bar 6 the II-V in G leads back
home to the tonality and end of the song; G major.
In the last bar you normally play a II-V leading to the beginning of a new chorus if you're
not ending the song.
So back to the Cm6 chord in bar 4. In the Realbook they suggest Am7-D7 in that bar. The
melody notes is A, B and C, which is the 6th, the mMaj7 and the root of the Cm6 chord. All
notes works pretty well with that chord. In relation to Am7-D7 the notes A, B and C are the
root, the 6th of Am7 and the 7th of D7 respectively. All notes works pretty well too. Cm6
has the advantage of making a descending bass line (C-B-Bb-A..). On the other hand the
chord will give us one bar with a whole new tonality: The 3rd in the Cm6 chord (Eb) will
stick out. (remember the Cm6 can also be seen as a Am7b5 or F9 without the root).
With the Am7-D7 as the Realbook suggest, we stay in key of G major. If you're the only
chordal instrument in the given group, you can do pretty much as you like. It's really a
matter of taste and what you feel like. Try to make turnarounds which smoothly leads back
to the root chord and dont clash with the melody notes. It is very important that not only
you, but also you're band mates are sure of where you're going. In the end it is all about
getting home in a good way. Follow your heart.. and your ears!
5: Practice the changes with a metronome and/or play along with your favourite
versions of the tune. To practice with a metronome is maybe hard and sometimes boring,
but very rewarding. Playing along with recordings is fun and inspiring!
So, this was the first part. Next in part 2 I will talk about the melody and improvisation
ideas I like. And about Charlie Parker and his piece made over the same changes:
Ornithology.
Hope you liked this first lesson/guide in my blog and learned something, feel free to leave
a message!
Somewhere there's music / how faint the tune..
In this article I'd like to share some ideas on how you can improvise over the tune.
Improvisation is a big topic and there are endless ways of doing it, understand it and learn
it. I don't think there's one right way to learn it, I think it's about finding out what you want to
say and how you want to do it. A lot of people describe good improvisation like 'telling a
story'. I think that's a good way to see it: To tell a story about something you think is
important. But before we can tell such a story we need to have the basic tools to express
it. I hope this article can be a help to find or develop these tools. Enjoy!

Playing chord tones.

This is rather simple, but a very effective way of making good melodic lines in your
improvisation. So lets do the theoretical stuff first and then talk about how we can apply it.
In the first 4 bars of How high the moon we have following progression: / G / G / Gm7 /
C7 / In order to play chord tones we need to analyse each chord:
G major: G (root), B (3rd), D (fifth) and an extension: normally a F# (Maj7) or a E (6th).
Gm7: G (root), Bb (minor 3rd), D (5th) and F (7th).
C7: C (root), E (3rd), G (5th), Bb (b7th)
G major is the 1 chord of the G major scale
Gm7 and C7 are the 2 and 5 chords of the F major scale respectively.
G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#
F major scale: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E
(Notice which notes differs from the two scales!)
Now, the next part here is to connect the chords with the each other throughout the
changes. This is also called playing the changes. When you connect each chord with
each other you (and the audience) will hear how the chord changes and it will give you a
more 'jazzy sound'.
In order to do that we have to see which notes differs from one another in each chord. And
we have to know which notes is defining each chord the most.
In jazz the most important notes in the chords are the 3 rd and the 7th. If we compare a
Gmaj7 with a Gm7 we'll see that the root and the 5 th are the same in both chords, but the
3rd and the 7th of each chord changes.
An example of how to apply it:
When you go from a Gmaj7 to the Gm7, try to go from the B note (the 3rd of GMaj7) to the
Bb note (the 3rd of Gm7). So you hit the Bb note on the first measure of 3 rd bar of the
song (the Gm7). You'll clearly hear how tonality changes and the shift from major to minor.
You'll go from a 'safe' or 'pretty' sound to a more 'sad' or 'sentimental' sound.
When doing this it's a good idea to start simple and practice in a slow tempo and then
increase the tempo when you feel you got it. (I highly recommend this approach for
everything you practice). Try to make a simple melody with the chord tones and don't be
afraid of pauses.
8th notes and strong and weak beats
To be aware of 8th notes and strong and weak beats is a way you can create long and
elegant lines in your improvisation.
First 8th notes: A bar got 4 beats: 1, 2, 3, 4. Now count the four beats but with an '&'
between. Like this: 1&2&3&4. We now have 8 beats. If you play a note on each of the
beats you're playing in 8th notes. We can distinguish between strong and weak beats
among these 8 notes. We call them strong beats because we tend to hear the beats 1, 2,
3, 4 better than the 'off beats' (The &'s).
Now you can try to make lines where you put the chord tones on the strong beats and
non-chord tones on the weak beats.
I will spell out a line over a 2-5-1 in F (Gm7-C7-F). Remember we have 8 notes to play for

each measure.
/ Bb-C-D-E-F-F#-G-A / Bb-B-C-D-E-F-G-G# / A...
So here the chord tones are in bold. And the last note is an A, the 3 rd of the F major chord.
Always good to end you line on a 3rd on the first beat of the bar.
On the off beats you can play whatever you like. A good way to spice up your lines is
playing notes outside the scale on the off beats when it fits. When you work with your
lines, you can, as an exercise, tell your self that you have 8 notes and then try to put chord
tones on each uneven number. It's a great exercise to get familiar with all the chord tones
and to be aware of how you end and start your lines.
Notice how Ive underline some of the notes, this is where the notes are connected
chromatically. To use chromatics is a great way to make your lines flow elegantly through
the changes.
It's a common technique in bebop improvisation, even though I only see it as a small part
of getting the 'bebop sound' (which is indeed also has to do with, rhythm, syncopation and
accent).
For more info about bebop lines and chromatic lines I recommend this site.
Ornithology.
Charlie Parker was the great pioneer in the bebop revolution in the 1940's. He
experimented with altered chords, soloing with the upper extensions of the chords, rhythm
and syncopation. His tunes or 'heads' was typically based on 3 different kind of chord
progressions:
1) Blues: Bloomdido, Chi Chi..
2) Rhythm changes: Anthropology, Moose the Mooche..
3) The popular tunes of the day: Donna Lee, Scrapple from the Apple, Ko-Ko. Was based
on the changes of 'Back home again in Indiana', 'Honeysuckle Rose' and 'Cherokee'
respectively.
In this case his 'head' Ornithology is created over the changes of High high the Moon. A
study of the head of Ornithology compared to the melody of How high the Moon, is a good
way to see two very different approaches to the same changes. Both 'styles' would be
good to use in your improvisation: The rhythmically simple, melodic chord-tone way of
How high the Moon and the rhythmically sophisticated bebop way with extensions and
altered notes of Ornithology. For further study the 'Charlie Parker Omnibook' is the the
'bible' for most bebop'ers. It contains transcriptions of most of his tunes and his solo's.
Playing Arpeggios.
This is a good way to mix up your lines if you usually play scales. Django Reinhardt used
this technique a lot. I will divide this in two areas:
1) Inside-arpeggios. Are arpeggios which stays in the given tonality. So over an G major
chord you can play any chord from the scale of G major: Gmaj7, Am7, Bm7, Cmaj7, D7,
Em7 F#m7b5. Of course some works better than other. Try to relate each chord to the G
chord and see which notes each arpeggio contain.
A Bm7 arpeggio will give you the notes B, D, F# and A. So if we relate those notes to a G
major chord we'll have the 3rd (B), the 5th (D), Major 7 (F#) and the 9th (A). In other words
a Gmaj9 chord without the root note (the G). A 'nice' and 'airy' sound and a good way to
outline the changes (remember the 3rd and the 7th are the notes which are defining the

chords the most).

Lets look at an Em arpeggio and relate it to the G major chord like we did before: Em7
contains the notes E, G, B and D. Related to the G chord we'll have: the 6 th (E), the Root
(G ), the 3rd (B) and the 5th (D). in other words a G6 chord. A more 'stable' and 'safe'
sound and also a very good way to outline the changes.
2) Outside-arpeggios:
These contains a note or notes which doesnt belong to the tonality of the changes your
playing. You can play any arpeggio you like. What's matter is if it works and you like the
sound of it. I will give a few examples of outside-arpeggios I like to use, so this is only an
example to follow in finding sounds you like.
Diminished 7th arpeggios.
Consist of minor 3rd intervals and is build from 'stacking 3rds' from the diminished scale.
The diminished 7th arpeggio has a symmetrical structure. It's the same interval (minor
3rds) between the notes in the chords. That means we basically only got three different
kind of a dim 7 chord. If you try to 'build' a dim 7th chord you'll see why. Start on any given
note. C for example. go up a minor 3rd and you'll have Eb, then F# and then A. If you'll do
it again you will be back at the C note. You'll have a Cdim7, Ebdim7, F#dim7 or Adim7.
The notes are the same in each chord.
The dim7 arpeggio is very 'effective', it works on minor, dominant and diminished chords
and it is pretty easy to apply.
So in How high the moon we have / Gm7 / C7 / a 2-5 in the key of F. You can use a
diminished arpeggio over both chords. But which diminished arpeggio?
From a minor 7th chord you can start your arpeggio from the root of the chord. In this case
with a Gm7 you can play a G dim7 arpeggio (you can also see it as a Bb, Db or E dim7
arpeggio): G, Bb, Db and E. That will give you the root (G), the minor 3 rd (Bb), a b5 (Db)
and a 6th (E). So here the outside note is the Db, which will give you the sound of a
Gm6b5 chord. And a 'dark' or 'bluesy' flavour.
You can use the same G diminished 7th scale over the C7 chord. You'll get the 5th (G), the
7th (Bb), the b9 (Db) and the major 3rd (E). This will give your lines a sound of a
Dominant7b9 chord. A 'unstable' or 'sharp' sound.
Pauses.
This is a very effective way of making your playing more pleasant and laid-back. I think it's
not often we talk about pauses or space in improvisation, we are more concerned of what
we wish to play than what we not wish to play. In my opinion pauses it's a way of putting
more awareness into your music and to listen more.
It should be rather easy to hold pauses in our playing, we can just stop! But I think some
are afraid of get lost if they're not playing the changes all the time. Some are maybe not
comfortable with the silence. But there's no need to fear it! It's like a good conversation.
Sometimes you're saying something spontaneous, then you take a moment to reflect
about what you've just said. Then you think about how you can express your self the best
way in your next sentence. It's a way of letting your lines 'breathe' and to make the
audience and the band mates digest your 'story'.
How to do it:
First of all think about you don't have to play everything you can! When we're playing we

have all our personal vocabulary which we use in different situations. So when you're
playing over a certain chord or passage and you start to use your usual 'tricks', try to stop
it. Make a pause, listen to the groove and see if some new idea spontaneous comes to
mind and do that instead. It's better than the usual licks we more or less mindless normally
pulls off. This is a good way of breaking up our usual licks and habits.
For a simple exercise to get started, you can do like this: start a backing track with a tune
you know well. Then start your lines on the second beat of the bars. Get use to the feeling
of letting the first beat start before you do something.
If you listen to the old masters you've hear how they do it. Another good exercise is to do
like this: Take a good tune you like. Confirmation by Charlie Parker is a good example.
Then count along the recording (tap your foot or your finger in 1,2,3,4) and listen to where
on the beat he starts his lines.
Next you can experiment with different places to you start and end your lines. The
important thing is to have some variation and have a good sense of time.
Tension and release.
We could also call this 'building a climax'. The idea, as pointed out in the first part of this
guide to How high the moon, is about getting home in a good way. One of the ways we
can make interest in our improvisation is to create tension and then release it. It's like a
telling good story, and in literature there's tons of stories with the Home-away theme. You'll
start your journey and experience all kinds of exiting things and get home as a new man!
So how do we apply that? It's a big and very interesting subject, so I will only talk briefly
about it and give a common example:
First take your instrument and play a 2-5-1 in any key. Play it slowly and pay attention to
each note of each chord. You'll hear how it feels like 'getting home' when you end on the 1
chord: It's safe and stable. So it's typically over dominant 7 th chords you would create
tension. For example when playing over a turn around or at the end of the A or B sections.
In How high the moon, try to do it in the end of the A section (bar 15 and 16) and the B
section (29 and 30) and release it when you get home on the G chord.
So how do you create tension? There are several 'tricks' you can use:
- Play harder, louder more intense. (Check out Django Reinhardt's solo on 'I'll see you in
my dreams' from 1:09 - 1:16).
- Play notes outside the tonality. For example an outside-arpeggio.
- Play fast! (Check out Sonny Stitt on Just Friends 1:15 - 1:28).
- Play a repetitive pattern. (Guitarist Grant Green was great at this. check his solo on
Alone Together 3:19 - 3:32 ).
After you've created tension, now you can release by showing you're 'home again':
- Play soft, quiet and calm.
- Use silence.
- Play melodic or a small part of the original head (It will make it obvious to everybody that
you're home again).
- Play 'stable notes' or 'inside notes'.
There are endless possibilities of doing it. And it's a good way to avoid monotony in your
playing. It can seem a bit awkward to do it like following a manual like this example, but it's
a good place to start until it begins to feel natural.
Practice time!
As mentioned earlier I think the very best way to practice is to start slow and simple and

then increase the tempo when you got it. Play along your favorite recordings of the tunes.
Use backing tracks. The best ones I've used so far is by Jamey Aebersold. In his vol. 6 All
bird you'll find Ornithology and other Parker backing tracks. You can also find How high
the Moon and a lot of other good backing tracks here. If you're in to a jazz-manouche style
of backing track, you can use this one (Be aware of a mistake in the displayed chord
changes).
So, lock the door, turn off the phone and kick out your girlfriend for a while! Or throw out
your TV and buy a metronome! As a fellow guitarist once told me. A just go for it. But in all
seriousness; isolation and focus on only one thing can get you very far, but of course in the
right doses. I guess we all have to find our own 'golden mean' which work for us.
I'll finish this guide to How high the Moon with a Louis Armstrong quote, which I think
expresses what it's all about: Playing good, honest, swingin' music.

There is two kinds of music the good and bad. I play the good kind.

- Yes you did!