Autumn Leaves just seems like the gift that keeps giving - at least as a gateway song into jazz standards, this is where I'm starting. The piece I have is from The Real Book, and can be interpreted as moving both within the key of G major and its relative E minor.
The chords follow fourths, so on the electric or double bass, it's really visual when you follow it on the fretboard: A to D to G to C, then F# to B to E and back to A. Like an eternal circle of fourths (or fifths).
If we consider it under the key of G major and switch the notes out with their corresponding degrees, we have
II - V - I - IV - VII - III - VI
Adding in their functions (major, minor, diminished), we have
IIm7 - V7 - I7 - IV7 - VIIø - IIIm7 - VIm7
It is important to note here that even though B is the 3rd minor, the song actually wants us to play B7 instead, colorizing this as a secondary dominant, which resolves into E as the tonic, a process termed tonicization.
Practicing 2-fills
I've been largely practicing this by playing it over a backing track, and choosing to play half notes per measure, 1 and 2 for the root, and 3 and 4 choosing the 3rd or the 5ths.
For example, over the first 4 measures,
- A, then C (minor 3rd) or E (perfect 5th)
- D, then F# (major 3rd) or A
- G, then B or D
- C, then E or G
Next up - 4-fills
This week I'm going to take a small step forward (pun intended!) and practice with quarter notes and play root, 3rd, 5th and the 7th.