Standard study: “I can’t give you anything but love”
Video 1/6: Theme and improvisation
Today, I shares with you the first of a series of 6 videos designed to help you work on a jazz standard. The one I chose is a popular selection in gypsy jazz: “I can’t give you anything but love.” The tone is quite violinistic since the piece is in G, and the chord chart is not too complicated, without being the simplest either…
This first video includes an exposition of the theme as well as a chorus (improvisation on the chord changes), and it is intended to show you a possible way to play theme and chorus, before moving on to the others videos that will include exercises to practice the piece. You will see that the theme is interpreted, and not really played as it is written in the Realbook: indeed, in jazz it is very important to learn not to always play the theme necessarily as it is written, but tweak it a bit to your liking! Of course you have the right to play the theme as it is written, but once you know the notes well, try to move away from them or add others…
By the way, you will notice when listening to different versions of this standard that the theme is never played in the same way! Writing a theme is sort of a summary of several ways to interpret the theme, which I also talk about in my article on notation in jazz. In the other videos of the series, you will find two exercises to interpret the theme, as well as two exercises to help you improvise on the violin on this piece. Here is the link to this video:
While waiting for the rest of the videos, I invite you to talk about the blog Learn Jazz Violin, and share my posts! See you soon for new articles and tips!