“Just Friends” Beginner Arrangement
Welcome to this jazz standard lesson on the tune “Just Friends”.
This is a great tune to improve your understanding of the 251 progression and voice leading of guide tones which is the b7ths dropping to the 3rd of the next chord.
A Study Of Voice Leading
We’re going to pay special attention to this voice leading in all of the 25 and 251 progressions. This movement is the foundation of the harmony, and so having a solid understanding of this will give you strong foundations in which to build extended and altered chord voicings.
Part 2 – The Full Arrangement
After you have mastered this basic arrangement, check out the related lessons below where we create a full solo piano arrangement of the tune incorporating some more advanced jazz theory.
Related Lessons
In this lesson we will explore the interesting colours & textures that can be accessed over dominant chords using upper structure triads.
Misty is one of the most popular jazz ballads and the distinctive melody is immediately recognisable amongst jazz musicians.
Written in the key of Eb Major, Tenderly follows a 32 measure A – B1 – A – B2 form and has an impressionistic character similar to early Debussy.
Practice Tips
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Before playing a new tune, analyse the chord changes to spot common progressions such as 25s and 251s.
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As an exercise, you can annotate the lead sheet you are working to highlight the 25s and 251s.
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Remember that 251s do not always appear in their complete form - As we cover in this tutorial, it's very common to find incomplete 25s and 51s which are smaller fragments of the complete 251.
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Being able to spot the smaller fragments of this common progression will help you read from lead sheets.
Hello Hayden: when I started with the PG I skipped this tune for some reason. Yesterday, I stumbled across O. Peterson and O. Jones having loads of fund with it. Of course, I just had to learn it (and all the theory that comes with it). However, I could not find on YouTube a ballad-like performance (preferably on piano) to have something to aim at as a final ‘product’ (the way of playing the tune). Suggestions? [S. Vaughn is just simply wonderful for a ballad rendition but, alas, no piano solo in it].
Thanks much. Smole
Hi Smole.
This lesson is a relatively new addition which may have been why you missed the tune. We will also be adding more like this focusing on R-3-7 arrangements.
And yes the tune is mostly played with a medium swing feel. In fact, the tune carries itself much better in my opinion at faster tempos because there is so much space in the melody. I dd search for YouTube and Spotify when creating the arrangement and I couldn’t find any ballad piano performances either so I was listening to vocal versions for inspiration.
I was thinking about repeating the form at a faster tempo, but I was conscious of the lesson length becoming too long.
The reason I choose to teach it as a ballad is that at slower tempos it’s easier to focus on the harmony and the voice leading in the 25s and 251s. One thing I wanted to demonstrate in this lesson, is that it’s very common to have incomplete 251s in jazz standard forms and I wanted to highlight that it’s important for beginner students to be able to spot these smaller fragments of the 251.
I wish I could be of help with a recommended ballad recording. If you do stumble across one be sure to send me a link! 🙂
Cheers,
Hayden
Sorry, Hayden, I was not fully clear: I did find the Part 2 of Just Friends and am working off of the full arrangement transcript that you provided. Fantastic and not too technically difficult. I am also recording myself now that Dan has provided detailed guidance on the technical issues (for which I am deeply grateful) and that also helps correct my ‘playing.’ I’ll get there.
As you said, there seems to be no ballad piano recording that even I could recommend (as a simple way of doing the tune) and I may very well be satisfied to play it using your full transcript, possibly add some embellishment.
Thanks for the speedy response. Have a nice weekend. Smole
You might also like the more advanced arrangement of this tune too Smole, here it is: https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/just-friends-part-2/
In Section C, there is a movement from D7 to F#m7b5 – how is this movement to be understood? a D7 dominant resolving to a F#minor7?
Hi,
The D7 isn’t really resolving anywhere at this situation, the F#-7b5 is actually the same chord as D7;
So, you can think of them as a part of 2 5 (A-7 D7) and a part of 2 5 (F#-7b5 B7). This way these two 2 5s are connected, also because they are resolving to either the Gmajor OR it’s relative minor E-, which of course can be treated as the same thing.
Here some more info about the related 25s:
https://www.pianogroove.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-minor-3rd-relationship/
I hope this helps,
let me know if you have further questions!
-Tuomo
Ah okay; I get it. interesting! Thank u!
Thanks!
Let me know if you need help with anything else,
-Tuomo
Hello Hayden: I’m a “beginner”, new to this course and enjoying it. Should a student jazz pianist aim to ultimately be able to sit down and from just a lead sheet (of a previously unfamiliar tune) pretty much play it as a full arrangement. Or, do even experienced pros need to write in the full chords and progressions first so they have that to refer to while learning it.?
Hi Robert,
Good question.
An important thing to understand is that we are learning these tunes for all of our lives. We can always enhance our arrangements as we learn new theory.
As we learn more tunes, we realise that, in fact, many tunes in the jazz standard repertoire are very similar in their harmonic movements and cadences. This greatly speeds up the memorisation process as we are learning something that is very similar to something we have learnt in the past.
Once we have built up a repertoire of say 20 or 30 jazz standards, we are able to pick up any lead sheet and quickly create something pleasing to the ear. This is certainly not the case with the first tune we learn.
The other side of the coin is learning and memorising common chords and progressions such as the major 251. Virtually every jazz standard contains a 251 progression, and some are even composed entirely of 251s, and so learning this progression in its many forms is also a key step.
We can play that same 251 progression with chord extensions, rootless voicings, chord alterations, substitutional harmony, and so we use all of these components when arranging jazz standards.
I hope that helps Robert and let me know if you have any further questions.
Cheers,
Hayden
Helps a lot, great answer. Thanks!
I found a solo piano version of “Just Friends.” I don’t know if it’s slow enough to call it a ballad but it’s not up tempo either.
Mal Waldron. “Just Friends” on the album “Blues for Lady Day.”
Sorry I don’t have a link but I listen to it on TIDAL.
Also Hayden I really like the ways you break up chords instead of just playing all the notes at once when you hit the chord. After re-watching this lesson I am going to emphasize this more in my playing.
I know you mention this a lot and I pick up some of this from the songs and lessons. Is there a specific lesson on improving this process of breaking up the chord or do I just keep paying attention to it and it will come? Many thanks.
Brad
Hi Brad,
Good question.
I wouldn’t say there is a specific technique to this; it’s more a case of understanding that we have the freedom to break up the notes of the chord, and also to add other decoration and embellishments.
You might like to check out this seminar on “Adding Fills & Embellishments” and it could give you some inspiration for playing around with the chord tones and other colours from the scale.
https://www.pianogroove.com/live-seminars/adding-fills-embellishments/
You might also like to check out this new course on “Whole Step 251 Drills” which will improve your knowledge of chords and voicings in all 12 keys.
My other recommendation would be to learn more of the jazz standard arrangements. The more tunes we learn to play, the better our understanding of harmony will be, and how to voice chords creatively with the melody on top.
I hope that helps Brad, any other questions let me know.
Cheers,
Hayden
Automatically think of Chet Baker for “Just Friends” but it is faster. I found a piano jazz ballad version by Sonny Knight on Spotify.
Much harder to memorize for me than “The Nearness of You.” If that is a direct route with a few passing chords, “Just Friends” seems like the harmonic scenic route with lots of twists and turns.
Found a chord analysis on YouTube by Brett of LearnJazzStandards (guitarist) and he talks about chromatic 2-5’s and back door 2-5’s and parallel minors and secondary dominants all in the A section. That theory may come naturally one day but for now I’ll just have to practice a lot.