"Standards" ...?

[matzentrpt]

What makes a tune a standard, and should they really still be referred to as "standards"......
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Max Matzen, DMA
Associate Professor of Trumpet
Utah State University

[tptguy]

It's a relative term that roughly means "lots of repetitions by lots of people in lots of venues." That's a bit of a mouthful so it's easier to just say "standards". If a song is well enough known to debate whether it's a standard, that's probably enough to say it is. - Kyle

[PH]

It seems to me that when I hear people these days say they are playing a standard they often do not mean that they are playing a tune that everybody else also plays. Just a couple of days ago I heard a well known musician introduce a tune as "an obscure and rarely played standard." therefore, to musicians these days a "standard" is not necessarily the same thing as "a tune everybody knows and plays."

I think the current use of the term among professional musicians is that a standard is a tune from the great American popular song tradition (also known as a "Tin Pan Alley" tune). This means the tune was probably either a show tune or popular song from the 1920s-'50s (pre-rock).

Most standards were originally written in the form known as "verse and chorus". The verse was usually done quasi-rubato and in the context of a show or pop tune served as a sort of quick synopsis of the characters and plot situation, providing a context for the lyrics of the chorus. The chorus usually goes into steady tempo and follows one of the familiar 32-measure song forms (usually AABA or ABAC). These days instrumentalists rarely know or play the verse of these tunes. There are a few exceptions (Stardust, Lush Life, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most...).

Ordinarily when modern musicians are talking about a standard they are only talking about the chorus of the original tune...the 32-measure portion.

Anyway, There Will Never Be Another You and It Could Happen To You are "standards" that are in everyone's "standard repertoire". "Thinking of You" and "Namely You" are "standards" that aren't so common.

Does that little discourse make sense to you folks?

[babyimanARCHIST]

I think a "standard" is any song that many different groups play where the audience will know it when they hear it, but I think it depends on what type of genre too.

[jazz_trpt]

Pat's observations are in line with what I see/hear as well.

(I have taken to calling frequently-played tunes from musicals/Tin Pan Alley/etc. "song standards", and tunes written specifically by/for players as vehicles for improvisation "jazz standards".)
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Jeff Helgesen
Free jazz solo transcriptions!

[PH]

[mateoshaw]

Along the lines of what PH, mentioned, I'm noticing more and more of classic jazz tunes becoming must knows, not only in jam sessions, but what people (at least my age- 20's) want to play. Tunes like Inner Urge, Locomotion, etc...

Do you guys feel that the "jazz standard" repetoire is growing? Do you think some original compositions from this era will one day become "must learn" standards? Or has the door closed?

Matt

[PH]