If you want to get started with jazz piano, you’ve come to the right place! Jazz can be intimidating for beginners, but there are simpler jazz standards that can ease you into the genre.
Playing jazz is a different experience than playing other styles of piano. There is more chord theory involved, but there’s also more room for freedom, improvisation, and expressing your own voice. Jazz is a lot of fun and provides a solid foundation for mastering other styles of music.
Here are ten easy jazz standards that will introduce you to the basic principles of jazz. They’re also very popular songs, making them perfect for jam sessions.
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HOW TO PLAY JAZZ FOR BEGINNERS
Catch Kevin Castro’s Jazz 101 lesson for free here.
Jazz Piano: What You Need to Know
You’ll need a basic understanding of chords to play jazz. You don’t need to know every chord under the sun, but you should be familiar with basic chords, especially 7th chords and how chord progressions work.
Here are some free lessons to help you along:
How to Play Jazz Piano for Beginners:A complete overview of the skills you’ll need to start playing jazz. Taught by our resident jazz expert Kevin Castro.
The 2-5-1 Chord Progression:Watch our Piano Bench episode on how to play the most popular jazz progression in major and minor keys. We also demonstrate how to use ii-V-Is to reharmonize songs to give them more flavor.
Chord Symbols, Explained: Chord symbols can look like complex math equations. This article will teach you how to decode strange-looking chord symbols like “CΔ7#5.”
Jazz standards are usually notated as lead sheets. Lead sheets contain the melody line in standard notation with chord changes above. There is no left-hand accompaniment—you create it yourself!
Many official lead sheets are still under copyright, though you can find free, unofficial versions online that are transcribed by fans. For reliable lead sheets, consider purchasing:
The Real Book: Published by Hal Leonard, this is considered the most accurate, authoritative collection of notated jazz standards.
A subscription to a sheet music library like Sheet Music Direct or Musescore.
A Pianote+ Membership! We have over a thousand note-for-note transcriptions in our Song Library, including arrangements of all the songs in this list. We also have jazz lessons taught by experts, so try it for free.
Lead sheets are great for beginners, but master jazz pianists suggest putting them aside as soon as you’re able. Memorize, learn by ear, and internalize songs to the point where you don’t need lead sheets!
EASY JAZZ STANDARDS FOR BEGINNERS
Pianote Coach and jazz expert Sangah Noona jamming in our studio.
#1. “Autumn Leaves” – Joseph Kosma (1945)
Renowned jazz improviser Jesús Molina plays “Autumn Leaves.”
“Autumn Leaves” is a popular first standard for new jazz students. That’s because the chord progression is very predictable. For example, look at the chord progression for the A section (this example is in E minor):
Am7 – D7 – Gmaj7 – Cmaj7 – F#m7b5 – B7 – Em
Notice that the roots are a series of descending fifths, making this song similar to a trip around the Circle of Fifths. You can also see this as a series of 2-5-1s:
Am7-D7-Gmaj7 = 2-5-1 resolving to G major D7-Gmaj7-Cmaj7 = 2-5-1 resolving to C major …etc.
Once you’ve mastered Autumn Leaves in one key, try transposing it to another. Now you can play it with anyone!
#2. “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)” – Bart Howard (1954)
Handily transcribed performance of “Fly Me to the Moon,” played by Brandon Goldberg.
“Fly Me to the Moon” is similar to “Autumn Leaves” in that it’s also a series of 2-5-1s repeated over and over! This song isn’t just beautiful—it’s very famous and people who don’t typically listen to jazz will likely recognize it. Which makes it a perfect song to whip out at an impromptu public piano performance.
I find the melody in “Fly Me to the Moon” very conducive to improvisation because it gives you lots of notes and ideas to work with. The song also sounds very lovely at a slower tempo, so beginners can take their time exploring what improvisations go well with the harmony.
#3. “Satin Doll” – Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (1953)
“Satin Doll” performed by Oscar Peterson, one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.
While the chord progression isn’t as predictable as our previous examples, “Satin Doll” uses a simple melody and a harmony built on simple 2-5s. There is a key change right before the final resolution of each section, but it’s not that complicated.
In How to Play Jazz for Beginners: What to Learn First, Kevin Castro goes over this song in detail, using it to teach complete beginners. So, use “Satin Doll” to practice essential jazz skills like swing rhythm and comping.
#4. “Misty” – Erroll Garner (1954)
“Misty” played by the composer himself, Erroll Garner.
Erroll Garner originally wrote “Misty” as an instrumental piece, but Johnny Mathis loved it so much that he asked Johnny Burke to set lyrics to it. The song is later featured in the film Play Misty for Me.
Written by a jazz pianist, “Misty” is a beautiful song that captures the essence of jazz piano. The harmony is quite simple and the same chords appear over and over. As a classically-trained pianist, “Misty” was my “gateway” to jazz and one that made a lot of things click. I think that’s thanks to the classical feel of the song.
#5. “So What” – Miles Davis (1959)
Renowned jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani shredding “So What.”
With its iconic bass line, “So What” might be Miles Davis’ most famous tune. It sounds slick, and it’s also an excellent introduction to modal jazz.
The A section is in D Dorian mode, and then we transition to E-flat Dorian in the B section before returning to D Dorian in the A section. There are only four chords used in the entire song, and if you stick to D Dorian and E-flat Dorian, it’s easy to improvise to.
Scared of modes? Don’t be! You can think of D Dorian as “C major from D to D” and E-flat Dorian as “D-flat major from E♭ to E♭.” If you need a review of how modes work, read this.
#6. “Blue Bossa” – Kenny Dorham (1963)
Piano duet of “Blue Bossa” with Eliane Elias and Chick Corea.
Bossa nova, meaning “new wave,” is a Brazillian style with a relaxed, swaying rhythm. Kenny Dorham was likely inspired to write “Blue Bossa” from a trip to Rio de Janeiro.
This tune uses pretty simple chords, but what I love about it is that it’s very conducive to improvisation. I find that some songs “spur” improv better than others. And because “Blue Bossa” has a lot of descending scale lines, it lends many good improv ideas. You can try embellishing those scale lines with ornaments, going in the opposite direction, or picking different notes from them to riff on.
#7. “Christmas Time Is Here” – Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson (1965)
Kevin Castro teaches “Christmas Time Is Here” in our free lesson.
This song has some scary-looking chords, but because it’s meant to be played very slowly, beginners can sound good while taking their time.
We have a tutorial and beginner arrangement for this song. But see if you can figure out the extensions and alterations in a lead sheet. Extensions are chords that include notes stacked on top of a basic triad. Alterations are when we change the quality of a chord tone.
For example, take Eb7(#11), a really jazzy chord that appears a lot in this song. This is a dominant 7th E-flat chord with an additional sharpened eleventh degree. That’s eleven notes up from the root (E-flat), which is A-flat. The A-flat is then raised a half-step.
Cateen (Hayato Sumino) plays “I Got Rhythm” with increasing levels of difficulty.
“I Got Rhythm” is a jazz must-learn because the chord progression, the “Rhythm Changes,” has since become a standard of its own, appearing everywhere in jazz. Songs that use the Rhythm Changes include:
“Cotton Tail” by Duke Ellington
“Salt Peanuts” by Dizzy Gillespie
“Rhythm-a-Ning” by Thelonious Monk
“Oleo” by Sonny Rollins
“Anthropology” by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
The A section is built on a I-vi-ii-V progression, and the B section is built on the Circle of Fifths. Different songs will have different alterations to this structure.
The Rhythm Changes can be fast and therefore more challenging, but knowing it will help you a long way.
#9. “The Girl from Ipanema” – Antônio Carlos Jobim (1964)
Groovy performance of “The Girl From Ipanema” by Yohan Kim.
“The Girl from Ipanema” is perhaps the most famous bossa nova song of all time, written by the “father of bossa nova” himself: Antônio Carlos Jobim.
On its surface, it may seem like a simple and relaxed tune, but the harmony is rather odd. This harmony has been re-interpreted throughout history and if you want to play the “proper” version of “Garota de Ipanema,” learn it in D-flat major.
The syncopated bossa nova rhythm can be tricky. You can try breaking up the rhythm and counting out loud. Or listen to a recording a few times to internalize how it sounds.
#10. “Summertime” by George Gershwin (1934)
A slick performance of “Summertime” by Antonio Guglucci.
“Summertime” was one of my first forays into jazz because a) I loved the Janis Joplin classic version as a kid; b) it’s in A minor, so yay no sharps and flats; and c) the languid nature of the song (think lazy summer afternoons) makes it rather forgiving.
Interestingly, this song has classical roots. It’s an aria from Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, which fuses jazz elements with classical tradition. What makes this song sound “jazzy” and “bluesy” is its melody, much of which is derived from the pentatonic scale. That’s C-D-E-G-A in C major or A-C-D-E-G in A minor. The pentatonic scale is one of the first scales you’ll learn as an improviser, which should make this song feel familiar.
Author’s Note: Jazz as a Second Language
If you’re a classically trained pianist like me, learning jazz can be a strange and exciting experience.
It’s strange because in many ways, you feel like a beginner again. Learning jazz when you’re an experienced musician in another style feels like learning a related, yet completely different language—like Spanish and French.
But jazz is also immensely freeing. Once you understand the basics of the language, jazz lets you express yourself in ways other styles of piano don’t!
Learning jazz as a second language can be challenging, even frustrating at times. (No one wants to feel like a beginner again in something they’re supposedly experienced in.) But I encourage other jazz learners to embrace discomfort, experiment, and not be afraid to sound bad. Jazz is worth it!
Jazz can be intimidating, but if you go into it with the right mindset, playing jazz is an incredibly rewarding experience.
Learn the basic skeleton of a song first.
Before you start riffing, filling, and improvising, learn the song in its most basic form: melody in the right hand, chords in the left. Doing this lets you get familiar with the song’s narrative, harmonic structure, and general “sound.” Patiently building this foundation will help with fancier stuff later. In other words, spend some time getting to know the standard. Talk to it; ask it questions!
Pay attention to rhythm.
“With good tempo, literally everything sounds good!” – Jesùs Molina. This blew my mind because as a beginner, you tend to worry more about which notes to play. But rhythm, articulation, dynamics, and expression are just as important. In fact, adding a dynamic rhythm to the same set of notes can vastly improve its sophistication.
Think of jazz as a language.
This is something you’ll hear from pro jazz players: jazz is a language. To master it, practice vocabulary, grammar, and common phrases. You do this by studying theory, learning licks, and transcribing. Then, once you’re fluent in the language, create your own sentences.
So, treat learning jazz like learning a new language. Listen to it a lot, converse with other people (jam!), and immerse yourself in it.
Don’t be afraid to sound bad.
When I first started playing jazz, I was very careful about playing “correct” notes. The result was a stiff, overly planned performance that wasn’t jazzy at all.
At some point, I decided to stop worrying and play whatever I felt. Surprisingly, I sounded better—and a lot more jazzy!
Once you understand the basic skeleton of a jazz progression, explore and experiment. Sounding bad at first is normal. In my humble opinion, it’s even necessary.
Have fun.
Finally, you’ll know you’re doing jazz right if you’re having fun. Remember: jazz is about expression, creativity, jamming, and having a blast. So if you’re enjoying yourself, you’re winning!
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Charmaine Li
is a Vancouver writer who has played piano for over 20 years. She holds an Associate diploma (ARCT) from the Royal Conservatory of Music and loves writing about the ways in which music—and music learning—affects the human experience. Charmaine manages The Note. Learn more about Charmaine here.
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