Traditional Jazz Violin Lesson – Melody On a Standard

This jazz violin lesson is a demonstration from Tim Kilphuis playing the melody to “I can’t give you anything but love,” – a classic standard that is  good to have in the repertoire. Learning the chord changes and melodies to classic standards is an important part of building your understanding of the music and developing jazz violin vocabulary.

This is an example of an earlier jazz violin style –  the feel of the rhythm section, with the banjo strumming and half time feel in the bass, is closer to a dixieland feel as well as the “gypsy” jazz feel. While there have been a lot of evolutions in the feel of the music from bebop to post-bop and more modern styles, good jazz violin lessons and study of the music should include the tradition. The phrasing of the melody here is a good example of this particular feel for jazz violin.

It would be valuable to hear one of the great jazz singers perform this song, so you can hear the lyrics and the way it is phrased. Then you will have a better understanding of the embellishments and the way it is being adapted for jazz violin.

The video has a link to download the backing tracks for free, which is very cool and a great way to practice jazz violin. The link from the youtube video to  get the tracks is: http://www.dc-musicschool.com/catalogue/playalongs/free-beginner-gypsy-jazz-playalongs/

 

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