Learning tunes – "they're all kinda the same"

Ron Carter says something like, "Tell me the key and the first chord of the bridge and I've got it." He has that confidence because the tunes are all kinda the same

— Ethan Iverson (@ethan_iverson) April 16, 2022

But just what do you mean by "learn"? I've found that, in jam sessions, I could blow reasonably well on a wide range of tunes after hearing them through once, twice, maybe three times. So, someone else takes the head, blows a couple of choruses, and then I'm good to go. That's "because the tunes are all kinda the same." They're built on the same harmonic building blocks.

Melodies are something else. Yes, they're mostly constructed of the same building blocks as well. But you can learn the harmonic structure without knowing the melodies. There are tens and hundreds of tunes built on Rhythm Changes. They've got the same harmonic structure, but different melodies. You learn one harmonic structure, with some variants, and you've got all those tunes. You can blow on them. But you have to learn the melodies one at a time.