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Harmonica Lessons: "I Got Rhythm"- Rhythm Changes

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[MUSIC]
That is the melody

of the most used chord

progression based on

a song in history of jazz,

it's called I Got Rhythm.

It is something that every jazz
musician has to learn how to play and

it kind of plays itself because it's
got a whole bunch of chords but

they're basically all in the scale.

Now the standard key of
this tune is B flat.

So I'm gonna use a B flat harp,
right there, that's what I was playing on.

And the chords are
[MUSIC]

one, six, two, five.

One, six, two, five, one
[MUSIC].

Basically anything you play
in B flat is fine for that.

And then the bridge,

I explain this in an earlier lesson
of an introduction to rhythm changes.

Goes to the key of the three,
in other words D seven,

for two bars, and then the six for
two bars, G seven,

and then the two, C seven,
and then the five, F seven.

[SOUND] That's the only
tricky part of the tune,

is because you have to play the dominant
seventh chords of these chords that

take you out of your comfort zone
on the harmonica in any given key.

You have to be able to relate
these chords to understand what

notes to play over these chords
that are not in the key of B

flat after you've played of
16 bars of easy going stuff.

Yeah, whatever you want to do in B flat.

So, I'm gonna play,
I recorded a backing track that starts out

with a basic two-beat feel that is just
[MUSIC]

and then the bebop players play more

[MUSIC].

That kind of feel.

And the swing players
[MUSIC]

And there's also an article linked to this

that gives you a list of about 50 or
60 jazz standards,

that all are based on the chord
changes for rhythm changes.

And there's a million of them.

Charlie Parker wrote some,
Sonny Rollins wrote some.

Just about everyone, every famous
jazz musician from the 40s, 50s, and

even into the 60s, wrote melodies, wrote
songs that used the chord changes for

I Got Rhythm without giving George
Gershwin who wrote them any royalties.

So, the melody, the way it sounds on
the C harp, on the B flat harp, rather.

[MUSIC]
And

then the bridge is

[MUSIC]

etc.

[MUSIC]
There's an actual tag.

[MUSIC]
And I play that at the very end so

now what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna solo for

you on a B flat harmonica
in first position, and

then a low F harmonica in 12th position,
and

then finish off with a high
E flat harmonica in cross.

I believe this is a three chorus
version of rhythm changes.

And if it's a four chorus
I'll finish with the C harp.

If not I'll do a separate take with that.

Okay, here we go.

B flat, low F, and high E flat.

[MUSIC]

flat.

[MUSIC]

So,

there

you

have

it.

Rhythm changes on three
different harmonicas.

A B flat harp in first position,
an F harp in 12th,

finishing off with an E
flat harp in cross.

[MUSIC]

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