You Don’t Know What Love Is Tutorial
One of the saddest sounding songs in the jazz repertoire, the ballad ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is’ follows an A1 — A2 — B — A2 form and the tonality is primarily minor throughout which gives the tune a dark and melancholy vibe.
We start the lesson by playing left hand voicings underneath the Chet Baker vocal version so that we can learn some insight into how Chet phrases the melody.
We then play through with some simple two handed voicings and look at ways to ornament the melody and bring out the colour of the extensions and alterations.
The melody itself contains many of the altered notes such as b9s, #9s, #11 and #5s which creates a lot of tension and interest over the chord changes.
Finally, we will develop the tune harmonically by adding upper structure triads and passing chords.
Related Lessons
In a minor 251, the 5 chord will be an altered dominant chord. In this lesson we apply altered dominant chords to the major 251 progression.
Upper structure triads are complex sounding altered dominant chords. They will add texture and sophistication to your playing.
To play a rootless voicing we leave out the root of the chord and play one of the upper extensions to get a richer, more colourful sound.
Practice Tips
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The Chet Baker vocal version is one of the best vocal arrangements of the tune.
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A tip when learning ballads is to first listen to a vocal arrangement of the tune. Before learning a new jazz standard I try to find a solid vocal version and then play the chords using left hand voicings underneath the recording.
- This gives you a lot of insight into the phrasing and also the general contours and accentuation of the melody.
Other inspiring versions of this song: George Benson, and duet by Sting-Chris Botti.
Thanks Lori – just had listen and both versions sound great! Cheers, PianoGroove
Another great one thanks – love playing the blues scale with this
any more tunes on here to suggest with similar vibe/minor tonality ?
Hi Kester 👋🏻
Glad you enjoyed the lesson!
Yes “Cry Me A River” has a minor vibe/tonality.
We have a 2 part lesson on that tune here:
Part 1: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/cry-me-a-river-tutorial/
Part 2: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/cry-river-part-2/
I think you will enjoy that one too.
Cheers!
Hayden
This.
Is.
So.
Smooth.