Db7 (drop 2)
Autumn Leaves Guitar Chords
How to Play Autumn Leaves Melody on Guitar?
The second important part of this guitar tutorial will show you how to play the melody of Autumn leaves in order to understand this jazz standard more in-depth. Remember that before learning a chord-melody for any jazz standard, make sure you know the melody in order to be more comfortable mixing the chords and the melody. Playing the melody will also help you to solo more easily over the changes previously discussed when you want to start improvising over this great jazz tune with your guitar.
As you can see in the lead sheet below, the melody of Autumn Leaves is almost entirely based on phrases leading to the 3rd (the blue circle) of the chord (Am7, Gmaj7, F#m7b5, Em7). The other lines lead to the fifth or the root of the chords.
Autumn Leaves Melody
Chord-melody arrangement
The following chord melody arrangement uses three-note voicings except Em11 in bar 15, Gmaj7 in bar 18 and Em7, Eb7#9, Dm7, Db7#9, Cmaj13 in bars 22, 23, 24. These are chords built with four notes. Most of these three-note chords are rootless and inverted. Here are the chord shapes used for the changes below. Please note that the root represented by a red circle is not played in this lesson, it is up to you to play it.
Autumn Leaves Chord Shapes
Autumn Leaves Chord Melody Arrangement
After having thrown a glance with the previous chord diagrams, you must try to mix them with the melody as it is shown in the music sheet below. You may notice that the melody is an octave higher than the previous one.
Autumn Leaves Jazz Guitar Chord Melody Lesson With Chord Diagrams