Intro to Rhythm Changesby Piano Techniques

In this lesson we’re going to work on Rhythm Changes, a standard chord progression that takes its name from the George Gershwin tune “I Got Rhythm,” made famous in the 1930 musical “Girl Crazy.” George’s brother Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics. The chord progression to “I Got Rhythm” was so popular that innumerable jazz musicians have written their own melodies on top of it over the years. We’ll look at a fairly standard version of the changes, first going through root position voicings, then guide tone voicings in both inversions, and then a set of rootless 4-note voicings.