Hi Rick 👋

Thanks for your comments and for sharing the Dexter Gordon recording.

I think learning contrafacts is a great idea, considering that you are already comfortable with the original melody of the tune. Also, I think it would really depend on your goals and aspirations.

For example, one of my main goals is to learn a good selection of tunes (maybe 30 tunes or so) that I can play solo piano, play head melody with rootless voicings and tasteful melodic embellishments/fills (for example if I’m playing in a trio format without a lead instrument), and finally to have memorised and internalised the chord changes so that I’m comfortable with improvisation and 2 handed comping voicings. Perhaps also learning each of these tunes in 1 or 2 different keys so that I have practiced transposing the chord changes in case I had to perform with a vocalist.

Now what I outlined above is a LOT of work, and so trying to learn non-original head melodies at the same time would certainly dilute my focus and spread my time thinner.

So for me personally, learning contrafacts at this moment in time is not a priority as it doesn’t align with my goal to expand my repertoire. I don’t currently play in a band but I enjoy to ‘sit in’ for a song or 2 at a jam session when the opportunity arises. So I’d say that being comfortable with the standard melodies of songs is better than knowing contrafact melodies – for what I am doing musically at the moment at least.

In the future once I’m happy with the breadth of my repertoire, then certainly learning contrafacts would better develop my knowledge of specific tunes.

That’s just my personal take based on my goals. If a specific tune interests you and you’d like to understand it better from a melodic and harmonic standpoint, then by all means check out some contrafacts of the tune.

I hope that helps Rick and if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Cheers,
Hayden