Anatomy of a Tune: Misty Welcome to Anatomy of a Tune: Misty. Great to have you here! When learning any jazz standard, you need to have an understanding of four main elements:

Ø Melody Ø Form Ø Soloing Ø Comping

Because of copyright issues, this quick guide leaves out the melody and focuses on the other three elements. By studying the form, soloing techniques, and comping patterns, you give yourself everything you need to jam this tune on the guitar. From there, you can add the melody by learning it by ear or from a lead sheet such as you find in the Real Book. Make sure to work each section in this quick guide to get the most out of your studies. It’s no use being able to rip a solo over a tune if you can’t then comp the chords, or you can comp great chords but get lost in the form. It’s the marriage of these three devices, form-soloing-comping, that provide the skills needed to jam this tune with confidence. So, grab your guitar, turn up your amp, and learn how to play one of the most popular jazz ballads, Misty.

Harmonic Analysis

The first step to learning how to play Misty is to understand the form and progression of the tune. The form of Misty is the jazz standard AABA, with each section being 8 bars long for a total of 32 bars. The key of Misty is Eb major, with most chords falling into that key, and the few exceptions noted below. As with any jazz standard, there are a number of variations that you find for Misty depending on the source you use for the changes. The chords in the chart, and that are used throughout this eBook, are the ones that I’ve seen used most in jam sessions over the past 20 years. These are the chords I’d play at a jam session or if I didn’t know the players on the gig, as they’re pretty safe changes. From there, you can explore other options for the chords if you want, but these changes will do you just fine on any jam or jazz gig. To begin, here are the chords used in each section of the tune.

A Section Chords

• Ebmaj7 = Imaj7 • Bbm7 - Eb7 - Abmaj7 = ii V to the IVmaj7 chord • Abm7 – Db7 = ivm7 bVII7 (backdoor ii V) • Cm7 = vim7 • Fm7 – Bb7 = iim7 V7 • Gm7 – C7 = iiim7 VI7

B Section Chords

• Bbm7 – Eb7 – Abmaj7 = ii V to the IVmaj7 chord • Am7 – D7 = Unresolved ii V in G major (III major) • Cm7 – F7 = Unresolved ii V in Bb major (V major) • Gm7 – C7 = iiim7 VI7 • Fm7 – Bb7 = iim7 V7

As you can see, beyond the chords in Eb major, and the ii V to the IVmaj7 chord, there are two interested concepts going on here. The first is the “backdoor ii V,” so called because the V7 chord resolves up from “behind” the Imaj7, Abm7-Db7-Ebmaj7. The backdoor ii V is a common progression in jazz, so it’s worth checking out so that you recognize it in any tune you’re jamming over. The other concept is the unresolved ii V’s in the bridge, Am7-D7 and Cm7-F7. Both of these bars contain ii V chords that never resolve to their Imaj7 chord. This is also a common device in jazz harmony, where the composer leads the listener one way, before resolving in an unexpected manner. Though these ii V’s are unresolved, you still need to address them in your solos. This means that over Am7-D7 you solo in G major, and over Cm7-F7 you solo in Bb major. Here are all those chords and their Roman Numerals to see how everything comes together in the chord chart.

Arpeggio Choices

Here are sample arpeggio shapes for every chord in Misty, with each chord written only once in the diagrams below. This means that if you see Gm7 in multiple spots during Misty, you use the same arpeggio shape for each Gm7 in the tune. Start by memorizing the arpeggios for the A section of Misty, then the B section, before bringing them both together in your studies. From there, run them in four different ways to get the most out of these shapes in your studies.

1. All up. 2. All down. 3. One up one down. 4. One down one up.

As well, make sure to solo over the backing track using only these arpeggio shapes until you’re comfortable with them in your playing. From there, mix them with the scales, triads, licks, and more that you learned with previous tunes. Arpeggios are essential tools for outlining chord changes, and therefore are essential learning whenever you study a tune. These shapes give you a head start when soloing over Misty using arpeggios and arpeggio-based lines.

Suggested Chords

To get you started with comping over Misty, here are drop 3 chords over the changes to the tune. Start by learning these chords as is, then begin to add your own rhythms and picking variations when ready over the backing track. Because drop 3 chords have a skip built into their shapes, between the lowest two notes, strumming these chords can be awkward. To make playing these chords easier on your hands, use fingerpicking or hybrid (pick + fingers) when comping with drop 3 shapes. Lastly, drop 3 chords have a big, fat sound compared to drop 2 and other chord shapes. This makes them a great choice for solo, duo, and any other situation where there isn’t a bassist. You can use these shapes when jamming with a bassist, but you might have to adjust your tone so you don’t sound too muddy in that instance. Have fun with these shapes; work them with the plain rhythm, your own rhythms, and with picking hand variations.

Lead Sheet

To finish this Misty quick guide, here’s a lead sheet without the roman numerals to use as a reference. Have fun learning and jamming over this classic jazz ballad. Not only will you learn a new jazz standard, you also prepare yourself to learn other, similar, jazz standards much more easily in future.