STOP using The REALBOOK to learn tunes - Do THIS instead - St. James Infirmary lesson

To internalize music you have to memorize it. In this video we break down the essential skills needed to truly know a tune and how to approach them.
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#guitar #musiclesson #jazz #realbook

[@iwanjones4705]

Thos was a groundbreaker for me! Thank you so much

[@marbinmusic]

Glad I could help! Join our Patreon for more

[@DARRBEV]

Great vid.as someone who made plenty of chord melodies in another life, this is the true way to learn standards. After 17 years hiatus through a 4 four year injury and life taking over am starting to get my mojo back, and you my friend are really helping to make my practice more efficient. Thank you.

[@jem7bsb]

You are a R rated Rick beato lol. Love it

[@louisdeath8965]

Best jazz lesson in years.

[@hearpalhere]

Thank you so much for this wonderful lesson Dani! I love this song too.

[@ferrocile]

Thanks for the lesson. Extremely useful and well thought out.

[@TerebiJoke]

Very motivating, thanks!

[@lekinguitarrista8445]

amazing lesson man!!!!!

[@BrianMay0329]

One of my favorite videos from you and it's a common problem out there. I've seen it and I've fallen into that trap myself a number of times. Great vid

[@ramirointrocaso3578]

very VERY didactic the example and the step by step, thanks Marbin!

[@jaspersmith9207]

Absolutely love this content and your approach. Having been a pro player and guitar teacher since the late 80s I can honestly say this and your channel is some of the best, most useful content for intermediate/advanced musicians I have seen and I have seen a lot over the years.

[@marbinmusic]

Thanks so much man! Means a lot.

[@vitoleo7197]

Fantastic and very useful Dan. Occasionally I think that if you were to use a looper to keep the chords running it would be a touch easier and also nicer to listen to. But I also understand that being able to unroll the harmony in one's mind is very important as well. Keep on doing these great lessons. You deserve a much bigger audience for sure !

[@marbinmusic]

That would be a disservice to you guys. Learn to hear it

[@wintergap]

You’re fantastic ! I might have heard this tune before but now.., it’s forever branded into my head 😂 do that for the solo challenge lead in F

[@JustusVidyo]

This is great. I have been playing with all kinds of other musicians and i always felt like a slow learner, but i could remember the tunes, because i listened to them and didnt play from a sheet. After i went to learning from sheet i got stuck to it.

[@chrisbarrineau7896]

I tired of saying Thank You, Dani!

[@marbinmusic]

Please keep going

[@nemedie82]

Great great lesson, as always, thank you. Diego from La Spezia Italy

[@skittlepuff]

“There’s no such thing as visually learning music” *me, who has synesthesia and sees music* 👀

[@Corporal-Clegg]

no you don’t

[@skittlepuff]

@@Corporal-Clegg you don’t know shit

[@manoftheworld56]

Some month ago I saw you do a beautiful gypsy jazz jam live stream and you did this song with a singer and another guitar player, could you upload it so I can enjoy it again?

[@portsideguitar1981]

Like your style.

[@marbinmusic]

I appreciate that!

[@andrewkratz226]

“Geezers”! Haa Love your channel

[@michaelkiese7794]

The biggest problem to memorizing Jazz is that there just is not enough of a scene and culture to perform, learn, reinforce, and speak jazz. If this were the 1920's and the economy was booming and there were live jazz bands in every bar, then there would be tons of opportunity and impetus to memorize tunes. AND there would be competition and incentive to make money and be a great player. But it's not the 1920's. People go into tons of student loan debt at music conservatories like Berklee only to gain a skill that the world doesn't need/want. It's self evident that if you wanted to learn a foreign language, take Spanish for example, that immersion in a Spanish speaking country for 1 year would yield much better results than 4 years of learning Spanish in an English speaking University while living in an English speaking country. There is no place to immerse yourself in Jazz for 1 year (unless you want to go in life crippling student loan debt). Most people have to do it on their own. Most people are bedroom musicians. They learn from paid internet courses, or on KZbin. They get precious little to no experience playing with others (much like you would if you were doing language immersion in a foreign country). People learn Jazz much in the same way if someone were to self-teach a foreign language using an online course or app like Duolingo, yet never have the opportunity to speak that foreign language with native speakers. Furthermore, in the 1920's through the 1960's, there were many new Jazz songs being written. Therefore, young musicians were learning new songs. Nobody rights original music anymore because there is no money in it. If you take the monetary incentive out of anything, then smart and talented people will move on to other pursuits. Jazz is basically like Classical music now. It's institutionalized within Academia. It's not going to change anytime soon. The only thing that will change it is if the economy turns around and the monetary incentive returns to music. As it is now, music has been greatly devalued. People pay tons of money taking care of and lavishing their pets in luxury, yet they expect music to be free. What's the point in memorizing tunes unless you reinforce and perform those tunes consistently? I've learned and memorized tons of tunes, and have completely forgotten them due to lack of performing them, but it's quick to relearn and remember them. In your example of those old f*ckers that play the same gig for 50 years at a jazz restaurant...yeah... That's quite an exaggeration. But let's take your example at face value. They probably use the same book because there is utility in it. I'm sure they have most of those songs memorized. But there is probably some new/young musicians who need to sub in/out. Thus the book. The point is not to play all 300 pages in all 12 keys. The point is to get through the gig and play background music, and collect their meager paycheck at the end of the night and keep the gig consistent. Music should be treated much more like a trade, and less like an art. There is more value in learning 12 different songs, rather than learning 1 song in all 12 keys. Furthermore, the only practical reason to change the key of the song is for the singer, and if YOU'RE the singer, you always get to pick the key. There truly is value in memorizing songs, but honestly that's the "high hanging fruit" goal. Being a gigging musician just requires you to sound good, play good, play in tune, be professional, show up on time, and give a consistent product. Thus, the reading culture. It is what it is. Reading is very practical. People don't like to practice. You need to get through the gig, and most of the time people have real full time jobs. And if they are full time working musicians, they're probably playing music in many different genres. So you have to memorize 50 rock tunes, 50 country tunes, 50 jazz tunes, 50 pop tunes. Or...You can read real book charts or make number charts. Dani, turn the economy around and return the monetary incentive into being a professional jazz musician, and you will naturally see many more people memorizing tunes. St. James Infirmary is a good simple song, and a good example to make your point. But as a matter of practicality, St. James Infirmary was written circa 1925, so the audience for that song completely died off 20 years ago in retirement homes.

[@marbinmusic]

Nah, you should memorize songs. Reading sucks and if you want to work on your playing you need to do it on tunes you know well.

[@michaelkiese7794]

@@marbinmusic well, I’ll tell you one thing: guaranteed those old jazz f*ckers with their 300 page book are smart and experienced enough to not play St. James Infirmary at a restaurant. No customer wants to listen to a dredge as part of a fine dining experience. I mean, even the word “infirmary” is so old timey. I don’t know about you, but the next time I pay for a $100 steak at Morton’s Steakhouse, I want to hear a song about someone going to the hospital to see their dead girlfriends body and wishing themselves to die and join her. It makes a hell of a lot more sense to read a bunch of American songbook tunes in major keys on a paid restaurant jazz gig, than to play St James Infirmary from memory. It’s important to work on your playing, but it’s even more important to get paid and make practical and pragmatic decisions. That way you keep yourself performing and gigging. Memorizing will just come naturally if you regularly perform. If you regularly perform, you will naturally be working on your playing. Music is for the listener. Your average jazz restaurant listener won’t care if you’re reading or not. Only that you add to their social experience. I don’t know any modern paid live music situation where performing St. James Infirmary is advisable nor appropriate. Read on society gigs. Memorize your music if people are specifically paying to see you perform. If you’re going to memorize, pick your favorite songs, or songs you’ll definitely perform a lot in many situations.

[@raf889]

This is a lot of mental gymnastics to avoid learning tunes by ear. Which you should do in every genre, not just “jazz”.

[@diystompbox]

There is something to this. If you play one jazz gig a year and they provide charts, and there is an arrangement with specific chords and they give you the music 3 days in advance, you need to read. Otherwise the rest of the year is 4 chord pop tunes if you want to make any kind of money. Of course it depends on where you live. Then there are the jazz guys that want you to play specific voicings all the time and non-standard substitutions.

[@marbinmusic]

@@diystompbox at least for me, there is a dimension of curiosity and love of music that should also be addressed in this conversation. I didn’t learn jazz tunes to make it easier to play gigs. I learned jazz tunes because it’s the music I listened to and loved and I wanted to sound good doing it. The irony of course is that if that’s not how you arrive at it, you are probably just faking your way through the music on that one gig a year. Survival mode is important to make some money and not get too embarrassed doing it but it should not be promoted.

[@Billywagner22]

Preach it brother!

[@GypsumGeneration]

Feels like a lesson from somebody that really cares about the material and the student. Killer video man.

[@jasonweidner3274]

Pretty sure Dani just dropped a bomb on some guy that plays whatever venue it was he called out by name. This can only end in an epic jazz beef: a would be fatal shooting loading out from a Tuesday night $100 gig, stymied only by the Hendrickson Bud catching the bullet. Street cred culture will begin to seep into jazz, and next generation's standards will all be beef dis tracks calling out poseurs whose L5s have never been shot up.

[@polishmasterjay]

Yessss!!!! 🤦‍♂️👏🔥🎶

[@augmented2nd666]

Why does his Gminor sound diminished to me?

[@geezerbill]

Because note-wise, it is. It's not a Gmin chord (G Bb D) being played, but rather a Gmin6 chord (G Bb D E) with the 5th omitted. The natural 6th (E) is enharmonically equvalent to a diminished 7th (Fb). In fact, notice that if you rearrange the four notes of a minor sixth chord, you get a half-diminsihed chord. In this case, Em7b5 (E G Bb D). Since the D is being omitted, what your ears are hearing are the three notes of an Edim: E G Bb. But in this particular song's context, the bass note is G, so the chord functions more properly here as a "Gmin6" chord.

[@jasonkeaton5140]

Man I was at a jam this weekend And I had all the songs memorized except Misty. I played it before but not much Of course it come up when I sat down. Bot not any of the other 24 fucking tunes on the list I was booed and ran off from my town.

[@diystompbox]

In that case, I think it would have been helpful if you had a chart. There's a weird thing where people think that just because a person reads a chart, they cannot perform the song. A couple of listens to your favorite studio musician can dispel all of that. I've seen plenty of jazz musicians sight read a chart and play incredible solos and also comp effectively. I've seen plenty of people have a song memorized and still play like crap. So it goes both ways.

[@jasonkeaton5140]

@diystompbox I specifically was going to play another song. I could have grabbed a chart but it start up. I did figure it out by ear after a chorus or so. I just didn't have it ingrained in my head like a lot of tunes

[@loricreamer5752]

“I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.” - Albert Einstein

[@marbinmusic]

That’s why he sucked at jazz

[@loricreamer5752]

Typical response

[@Corporal-Clegg]

@@marbinmusici’m dead

[@richardsamples5863]

Bruh: please consider making a course doing exactly as you did here with some simple songs; Ill give you lots of my shiny shekels

[@54x11]

You are toxic. You have some good points but they are buried in insulting and demeaning language. Maybe work on your respect for others before giving any advice. You are not as helpful as you may think. Stay positive and try not putting down old people you may be old someday and need help with your memory. Too.

[@marbinmusic]

Please subscribe for more content! For supportive positive vibes please join our Patreon!!

[@geezerbill]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought so. There are so many clips like this preaching the false dichotomy of using a lead sheet vs. memorization, as if you can't use one in some instances and the other in others.