50 Jazz Standards You Need To Know

There are hundreds and even thousands of jazz standards to learn. Playing jazz requires a reasonable amount of repertoire ready to be played at a moment’s notice (no pun intended).  It can be overwhelming!

We get emails from time to time from musicians asking for advice on which standards to learn.  There are so many standards it can be hard to know where to start and which ones are the most important. It’s important to know as many standards as possible.

Not only will this help you out during a jam session or gig, it will strengthen your harmonic knowledge and improvisation skills. However, it’s impossible to know them all and indeed some are more important to know than others.

Every city or region tends to have a different set of common tunes that jazz musicians will call.  One cities list may differ slightly from the other, or even different circles of musicians will have different lists. It’s important to get involved in your local jazz scene and find out what other musicians in your area like to play.

But there are certain tunes that I would consider the standards among standards; the songs that every jazz musician needs to know and will likely be called in any jazz scene you are a part of.

Below is a list of 50 jazz standards you need to know. If you are a beginner and looking for a place to start, this is your list! Make it a goal to learn every tune in here and you will have an excellent foundation to build off of.

If you are an experienced player, make sure you know all of these tunes. I guarantee that these will get called on you at some point.

If you don’t know one of these tunes, take advantage of everything Learn Jazz Standards has to offer! We have spent years and countless hours researching these tunes, creating chord charts and play-alongs, and building up resources to help you learn these important songs. To learn these songs and learn more about them, click on them!

But before you start learning, make sure you download our free eGuide “Learn Jazz Standards the Smart Way” so that you can learn how to crush it on any of these 50.

50 Jazz Standards Every Jazz Musician Needs To Know:

1. All of Me
2. All The Things You Are
3. Alone Together
4. Autumn Leaves
5. Billie’s Bounce
6. Black Orpheus
7. Blue Bossa
8. Body and Soul
9. But Not For Me
10. Bye Bye Blackbird
11. Cherokee
12. Confirmation
13. Days of Wine and Roses
14. Doxy
15. Fly Me To The Moon
16. Footprints
17. Four
18. Have You Met Miss Jones
19. How High The Moon
20. I Hear a Rhapsody
21. I Love You
22. I Remember You
23. I’ll Remember April
24. I’m Old Fashioned
25. If I Should Lose You
26. If I Were A Bell
27. In A Mellow Tone
28. In A Sentimental Mood
29. It Could Happen To You
30. Just Friends
31. Misty
32. My Funny Valentine
33. Night and Day
34. Oleo
35. On Green Dolphin Street
36. Recorda Me
37. Satin Doll
38. Stella By Starlight
39. Scrapple From The Apple
40. So What
41. Solar
42. St. Thomas
43. Sweet Georgia Brown
44. Take The A Train
45. The Girl From Ipanema
46. There Is No Greater Love
47. There Will Never Be Another You
48. Up Jumped Spring
49. What Is This Thing Called Love
50. Yesterdays

How many of these do you know? In this list is a wealth of knowledge. All of the lessons about jazz harmony, theory and language can be found just by studying these.

Already know all of them? Your journey is not over. Visit our index to view an even larger list. Make learning jazz standards a priority and you will find that the tunes will teach you how to play.

If you want some help practicing these, we have a play-along album for our 50 jazz standards list. You can check it out by clicking here.