Recommend some beginner Blues / Jazz Blues Lead Sheets

I'm getting back into playing mandolin but more into jazz now that bluegrass. I'm working through one of the books on chording and finding lead sheets for those tunes (if you look hard enough, you can find anything online). For learning lead, rather than trying to improvise off the chord progression, I'm learning the melodies really well, then embellishing with scale notes, arpegios, etc.

I've tried to improvise blues from the various "blues scales" but kinda get lost sometimes. I thought it might be good to find some lead sheets to jazz blues tunes, start with them, and then expand.

So can anyone recommend any lead sheets for Blues / Jazz Blues tunes to start with?

-K

PS

I kinda think everyone can play blues a little bit but if they don't learn tunes, everything just sounds like their blues. So, some guy named Bob plays blues but everything he plays just sounds like Bob Blues. I once heard someone describe good blues playing in that if you heard any two bars of a blues song, you would know it was that blues song, not just any blues song. That's why I'd like to start from some lead sheets.

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Originally Posted by kvk

I'm getting back into playing mandolin but more into jazz now that bluegrass. I'm working through one of the books on chording and finding lead sheets for those tunes (if you look hard enough, you can find anything online). For learning lead, rather than trying to improvise off the chord progression, I'm learning the melodies really well, then embellishing with scale notes, arpeggios, etc.

I've tried to improvise blues from the various "blues scales" but kinda get lost sometimes. .

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Perhaps it would be better to improvise off of the chord changes.

Anyway here is a link to jazz fakebooks:

https://www.swiss-jazz.ch/partitions-real-book.htm

https://www.soundslice.com/store/jazz-mandolin-chords/

not lead sheets, but exploration of chordal accompaniment for standard swing/jazz progressions

https://www.soundslice.com/store/jaz...ines-mandolin/

not lead sheets, but finding fretboard routes for playing the changes in well known swing/jazz forms. sample solos included

I've found it helpful to pull up videos of musicians jamming (e.g., Clapton/Marsallis), and either follow or respond to what they're doing. It doesn't matter what instruments they play, I just follow the music.

The constant question or tension between learning patterns and learning melodies.

People respond individually, and some are like me, in that I can’t bring myself to work through catalogs of riffs. What worked for me was learning the tunes, as those tunes are built from the riffs and patterns we use in other tunes, and in improvising.

Assuming we are not restricting ourselves to the vocal-based Delta and Chicago blues, which are less about riffs than about bass lines and kicks behind the song, like “Born Under a Bad Sign”, it is jazz blues that offers instrumental satisfaction.

A few I have learned from include:

All Blues (Miles Davis, in G)
Billie’s Bounce (Charlie Parker, in F)
Bag’s Groove (Milt Jackson, in F)
Now’s The Time (Charlie Parker, in F)
Chitlins Con Carne (Kenny Burrell, in C minor)
Blue Train (John Coltrane, in Eb)
Blue Monk (Thelonius Monk, in Bb)
Birk’s Works (should be Birks’, but that is the spelling in Real Book— Dizzy Gillespie, in F minor)
Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane, in C minor)
Sandu (Clifford Brown, in Eb)
Straight, No Chaser (Thelonius Monk, in F)
Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins, in Bb)
Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (Duke Ellington, in F)

Plenty of flat keys, which will be good training. Transpositions to other keys can be found, but horns will want to use original keys.

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Originally Posted by Tom Wright

The constant question or tension between learning patterns and learning melodies.

People respond individually, and some are like me, in that I can’t bring myself to work through catalogs of riffs. What worked for me was learning the tunes, as those tunes are built from the riffs and patterns we use in other tunes, and in improvising.

Assuming we are not restricting ourselves to the vocal-based Delta and Chicago blues, which are less about riffs than about bass lines and kicks behind the song, like “Born Under a Bad Sign”, it is jazz blues that offers instrumental satisfaction.

A few I have learned from include:

All Blues (Miles Davis, in G)
Billie’s Bounce (Charlie Parker, in F)
Bag’s Groove (Milt Jackson, in F)
Now’s The Time (Charlie Parker, in F)
Chitlins Con Carne (Kenny Burrell, in C minor)
Blue Train (John Coltrane, in Eb)
Blue Monk (Thelonius Monk, in Bb)
Birk’s Works (should be Birks’, but that is the spelling in Real Book— Dizzy Gillespie, in F minor)
Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane, in C minor)
Sandu (Clifford Brown, in Eb)
Straight, No Chaser (Thelonius Monk, in F)
Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins, in Bb)
Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (Duke Ellington, in F)

Plenty of flat keys, which will be good training. Transpositions to other keys can be found, but horns will want to use original keys.

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Thanks for the suggestions; I'll look some of those up. (Totally comfortable with the horns keys, F and Bb are two of my favorite. I tend to play tunes in the fiddle keys with open strings but like playing jazz melodies with all closed strings. F and Bb work really nice starting on the 3rd fret.)

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Originally Posted by DavidKOS

Perhaps it would be better to improvise off of the chord changes.

Anyway here is a link to jazz fakebooks:

https://www.swiss-jazz.ch/partitions-real-book.htm

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Originally Posted by Don Stiernberg

https://www.soundslice.com/store/jazz-mandolin-chords/

not lead sheets, but exploration of chordal accompaniment for standard swing/jazz progressions

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Absolutely! Know your chords, know your melody.

And while you´re at it find some room to be educated by Carol Keye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4JWqK6r6N4

Now's The Time and Blues in the Closet are very easy melodies. Also don't forget Minor Blues. Blue Train is an easy melody to play.

One of the most simple melodies is the head to C-Jam Blues (Basie); can be used as a jumping off point for many possibilities!

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Originally Posted by DavidKOS

Anyway here is a link to jazz fakebooks:

https://www.swiss-jazz.ch/partitions-real-book.htm

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Originally Posted by Tom Wright

All Blues (Miles Davis, in G)
Billie’s Bounce (Charlie Parker, in F)
Bag’s Groove (Milt Jackson, in F)
Now’s The Time (Charlie Parker, in F)
Chitlins Con Carne (Kenny Burrell, in C minor)
Blue Train (John Coltrane, in Eb)
Blue Monk (Thelonius Monk, in Bb)
Birk’s Works (should be Birks’, but that is the spelling in Real Book— Dizzy Gillespie, in F minor)
Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane, in C minor)
Sandu (Clifford Brown, in Eb)
Straight, No Chaser (Thelonius Monk, in F)
Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins, in Bb)
Things Ain’t What They Used To Be (Duke Ellington, in F)

Plenty of flat keys, which will be good training. Transpositions to other keys can be found, but horns will want to use original keys.

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Almost all those tunes are in the links I posted. Also includes Bb and Eb books for other key versions of tunes.

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Originally Posted by grassrootphilosopher

Absolutely! Know your chords, know your melody.

And while you´re at it find some room to be educated by Carol Keye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4JWqK6r6N4

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Pay attention to her ideas about chord arpeggios and chord tones .

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Originally Posted by John Soper

One of the most simple melodies is the head to C-Jam Blues (Basie); can be used as a jumping off point for many possibilities!

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C Jam is an Ellington tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlpcJhNyDI