Gershwin Tune of the Week #9 I Got Rhythm

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]This is Gerswin tune of the week number nine. I got rhythm. This is of course one of his most famous tunes and it's one of the most popular jazz tunes. Or is it because we all play these chords, but we never play this tune. Of course, I'm talking about rhythm changes, the very common chord progression that so many jazz musicians have written other melodies over. so-called contraacts, endless lists of contraacts over this these chord changes. Probably the most uh quoted chords in the jazz vocabulary.

[00:00:40]But as I said, we never play this tune.

[00:00:41]So today we shall do that or it's not as common that we actually play this tune, right? Or maybe you disagree and it is a little bit different. So before we play it, we need to figure out what to do with those two extra bars there at the end. I'll show you what I mean. So this is the Valerie, right?

[00:01:10]Now we got the bridge. [music] But then [music] [music] so there's two extra bars. So rhythm changes is a A B A form.

[00:01:33]But this original version of the chords is actually a A B C. So there's two more bars when you do that little I always thought it was but apparently according to this chart is who could [singing] I think the most common thing to do when people play this tune is to ignore those extra that extra phrase until the very very end and use it as a cod.

[00:02:09]So you only do it on the way out. Or you could do it when you play the head and ignore it for the soloing.

[00:02:18]That's also quite common. And uh some people play that whole uh every time in the solos they solo over those extra two bars. Or you could cue those as a way to end your solo, but that could be a little bit confusing.

[00:02:37]So, what we're going to do, we're going to do the way ial Pro does it. We're only going to play it on the way out as a little kod. All right. So, I have removed the piano from I Real Pro. We'll play the melody and then we'll trade solos and then play the melody again.

[00:02:52]This time, you can probably pick it up by ear and then we shall talk about the tune and play the verse and some other stuff. So, here we go.

[00:03:02][music] Thank you.

[00:04:12]This is your solo.

[00:04:22]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Okay, here comes the melody.

[00:07:36]>> [music] >> with the Koda.

[00:07:52]So this is what we do in the tune of the week. We jam like this and trade solos and then talk about the tune a little bit. And uh if you like this idea, I have every week a new tune of the week on Patreon. And this is uh over a hundred by this point. So you can there's plenty of tunes there for you to learn if you would like to learn more tunes. So there is actually a verse right [music and singing] this is quite common to play this verse.

[00:08:28][music] [music] >> [music] >> So I often talk about famous recordings of these tunes.

[00:09:08]And my goodness, there are so many recordings of this, but it goes a little bit back. It's not a lot of people because there it's so such a common chord progression, people tend to play uh the famous contraacts of this uh tune, Charlie Parker heads. And I have made videos of that. And uh I will include the PDF with and the link to the video that I did on Bbop Heads in the PDF package to this Patreon episode. So you can uh really check out Rhythm Changes. And also there's a there's a video with I did where I talk about Barry Harris, a workshop of his where he's talking about stuff to play rhythm changes. And I'll put that PDF in there too, so you can check that out. And I will also make a little bonus video where I go over some Barry hair stuff.

[00:10:05]But in these videos, I don't talk about how to play over over rhythm changes. We uh just uh we just kind of jam and try to learn the melody and the chords and not worrying too much about how do you solo over this because playing over rhythm changes is a challenge. When you look at it here, it seems like, well, this is easy, but there's all this stuff that you can do with rhythm changes, right? Like that people have kind of superimposed other chord progressions uh on top of it, and there's so much stuff.

[00:10:40]Uh, and it's a little bit of a mystery.

[00:10:42]How do you sound good over rhythm changes? So, I think it's a good idea to kind of just put that stuff aside. You should work on all that stuff, but remember to just play the tune every now and again. Just try to play it with good timing and not worrying about all the kind of superimposed Charlie Parker craziness that you can do here.

[00:11:07]So these are the most common. So these are basic chords.

[00:11:18]And then this thing instead of that's more of a Bbopy kind of uh chord progression. This is more oldtimey.

[00:11:36]So if I just set a metronome and what Barry Harris wants to do is to tap on one and three. So 3 1 and then just play play the melody with a good time feel.

[00:12:06]Some chord stabs.

[00:12:20]Clapping. One, two, three, and one, and three. And [music] then some blues.

[00:12:39]and some chords.

[00:12:45]And maybe some of that stuff [music] [music] [music] and not worrying too much about the stuff. Just play something, some chords, just major.

[00:13:41]What I mean is don't forget to practice like that every now and then so that you're not just working on all the, you know, the all that kind of stuff which can be a little bit uh so don't get me wrong here not saying you shouldn't you have to work on that stuff too but I find that when you're up there on the band stand I play a lot of gypsy jazz all that stuff kind of goes out the window and does it when you know the the band is like [music] you know you what you need to be able to do is just >> [music] >> just play some stuff that swings. So, listen to some older players the the before the uh the Bbop stuff. So, I'm not dismissing the Bbop. I'm saying that that stuff is kind of difficult and that is built on top of something that came before. So go back and listen to uh old Charlie Christian. I mean maybe that is considered BBOP but I guess it's swing and uh again there's so many recordings of like big bands versions and just play along with th those players who don't play all the Bbop stuff like Lester Young. Um there is Benny Goodman. I mean maybe that came he was doing that I guess after BBOP too. he was just still playing like his kind of music swing rather than Bbop, right? And uh it's often I find with students and they ignore that part of the jazz vocabulary and they go right for like the how does Michael Breer play rhythm changes and it's like he can do whatever he wants over rhythm changes or there's this video with Tigran Hamasan who was on Rick Biato the other day and he's playing the most insane stuff over rhythm changes doesn't even sound like rhythm changes >> rhythm changes for example you Mhm.

[00:16:04]>> So for me when playing a rhythm changes it's really this [music] then you know um They're just using rhythm changes as a vehicle for what they're doing, which is completely different. And I think he also demonstrates there in that video that he can sound like Bud Powell or he can play or monk. I think he's playing a monk tune. So you need to be able to do the play the uh the traditional way before you break it up into crazy stuff. So So this is a good opportunity to just actually look at the tune I got rhythm instead of all the counteracts. And uh some good versions. I listened to uh Frank Mcnola on his uh Gershwin uh tribute plays a very good version and uh they do uh play the that second ending or the third ending every time in the soloing and uh yeah uh that was I got rhythm.

[00:17:41]Thank you for your time and attention. I shall see you next time.