Wave Piano Tutorial
In this lesson, we will create an arrangement for the tune “Wave” by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
This is a song that Jobim composed whilst in the United States. According to Jobim, the song was written as a ‘love letter’ to his hometown of Rio de Janiero. He was thinking of all of the things that he missed such as the beach, the waves, and the ocean.
The Changes Played By Jobim Himself
“Wave” was a huge hit and quickly became a jazz standard. Often, the changes that you find in the Real Book are not completely correct and in this lesson we will use the chords played by Jobim himself.
Like many of Jobim’s compositions, there are lots of minor 6th chords, and also many beautiful inside chromatic lines which we have explored in the other Jobim compositions.
Practice Tips
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Practice vamping over the last 2 bars of the tune which is D-7 to G7.
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This 2 bar vamp can be used both as an intro and an outro.
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As with the previous lessons in this course, you should first learn to accompany the tune.
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This will allow you to identify the inner voice possibilities within the harmony.
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Experiment with the melody in different registers of the piano. In this arrangement, we play the melody an octave higher for the 2nd A Section.
Just tackled this now, thanks Jovino: really digging your teaching style. I prefer your chords here in the B section to the ones in the iReal Pro! As is my style, I’m going to get this under my fingers well enough to find a good accompanying register for my voice, and to be able to improvise. Thanks again!
Awesome, glad you enjoyed the lesson James… I’ll pass your message onto Jovino :-)
Cheers!
Hayden
Cheers Hayden! :)
In bar 24 beat 3 of the transcription of Wave, the chord is shown as B7 flat 9, which would be a C natural, but the chord requires a C# and that is carried through to the C# of the following chord E7sus. The melody note is a G natural, the flat 13. Should the chord notation then be B7 flat 13 on the third beat, or should the chordal note fall from a C# to a C natural, the flat 9. I also note that the lead sheet shows a B7 flat 9. If one played a flat 9 on the third beat then the notation for the E7 sus chord would require a #. Is the C / C# optional or am I missing something here? Such a great groove!
Hi Roger,
Apologies for the late reply here.
This isn’t a tune that I have personally played but looking at Jovino’s demonstrations I notice the following:
During his comping demonstration (at 2:51) Jovino does play a B9sus moving to a B13b9 and then to E13. So this moving chromatic voice can be used in a comping setting.
Conversely, at 3:21 he voices the same harmonic sequence without the b9 in his voicings. So it seems to be an optional voice that can be added at the performer’s discretion.
At 7:00 during his slow demonstration he momentarily adds the chromatic descending voice to the b9 over the B7 chord, however at 7:21 he doesn’t play it, and also at 9:07 he doesn’t play it.
I would recommend to analyse the actual performances by Jovino in the lesson and choose what sounds best to you. It seems the b9 over the B7 can be included or excluded.
Improvised music can be difficult to accurately notate and personally I don’t use transcriptions but I appreciate they can be very useful for students who have strong sight reading skills – which I unfortunately was never gifted with! :–)
I hope that helps Roger. I agree this tune – and Jovino’s performance/arrangement of it – has a wonderfully infectious groove.
Please let me know if I can help further and enjoy the lessons!
Best,
Hayden