Richard Rodgers, music · Oscar Hammerstein II, lyrics · From the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music
My Favorite Things
My Favorite Things is a waltz from the 1959 musical The Sound of Music, with music by Richard Rodgers and words by Oscar Hammerstein II. Players love it because John Coltrane's 1960 recording turned it into a long, open vamp that holds the tune and lets soloists stretch out for ten minutes or more. You will hear it in jazz sets as a waltz in E minor, in Coltrane-style vamp versions, and in many Christmas-season recordings.
▶ Plays the whole path in order, one recording after another.
- 1 Learn the song Mary Martin and Patricia Neway✓
- 2 Hear the landmark John Coltrane✓
- 3 Hear it stretch John Coltrane Quartet✓
- 4 Hear it small and short The Dave Brubeck Quartet✓
- 5 Hear it on guitar Grant Green✓
- 6 Hear it alone McCoy Tyner✓
- 7 Hear a modern solo reading Brad Mehldau✓
- 8 Hear where it went John Coltrane✓
How the tune works
The written song is a 72-bar waltz in four parts. The first part (A) is 16 bars and is played twice. Each time it opens with eight bars in E minor, then moves toward G major and ends with two chords that pull back to E minor. The third part (B) has the same shape but starts with eight bars in E major. The last part (C) runs 24 bars: it starts in E minor, then settles in G major, where the song resolves. Coltrane's quartet leaves those changes behind for the solos. The melody is heard several times, but Tyner and Coltrane solo over vamps on the two tonic chords, E minor and E major. The Weimar Jazz Database analyses Coltrane's soprano solo as one chord, E minor 7, all the way through. His later live versions run from 17 to 20 minutes.
Each box is one bar of 3/4. Play the A strain twice, then B, then C. A tag marks the bar where the harmony moves to a new key.
Changes from a free online lead sheet in Real Book style; fake books differ in small ways. Coltrane's quartet solos over vamps on E minor and E major instead of these changes. The last two bars of the A and C strains turn back to E minor.
Source: Lead sheet, My Favorite Things (Real Book-style chart, swiss-jazz.ch)
Listen in this order
Play all 8 on YouTube ↗Start with the song as the show wrote it, then hear Coltrane turn it into vamp music. The next versions show other instruments and eras reading the same tune, and the last one is Coltrane's own most open take.
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Step 1 · Learn the song Now playing
Mary Martin and Patricia Neway (original Broadway cast) 1959
The Sound of Music: Original Broadway Cast Recording
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- Listen for
- Hear the tune as the writers made it, sung in waltz time with no improvising. Learn how it moves before any jazz player changes it.
- Try this
- Sing or hum the tune with the recording until you can play it from memory on your instrument.
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Step 2 · Hear the landmark Now playing
John Coltrane 1960
My Favorite Things
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The band plays the theme, then settles into a vamp for each solo. Listen for the switch between E minor and E major, and for how Elvin Jones keeps the waltz moving under both soloists.
- Try this
- Loop an Em7 vamp in waltz time and improvise on it for a few minutes. Then switch the vamp to E major and keep going.
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Step 3 · Hear it stretch Now playing
John Coltrane Quartet 1963
“My Favorite Things (Live At Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI, 7/7/1963)”, Selflessness Featuring My Favorite Things
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The same vamp plan now lasts seventeen minutes. Notice how each soloist builds the energy and how the rhythm section follows.
- Try this
- Improvise on one vamp for five minutes and plan three stages: quiet, building, loud.
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Step 4 · Hear it small and short Now playing
The Dave Brubeck Quartet 1965
My Favorite Things
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- The trio plays the tune and finishes in under three minutes. Compare that with Coltrane's long vamps.
- Try this
- Play the tune with a bass and drums: one chorus for the tune, one for a solo, then stop at three minutes.
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Step 5 · Hear it on guitar Now playing
Grant Green 1964
Matador
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- Listen for
- Tyner and Jones play behind a guitarist the kind of waltz groove they played behind Coltrane. Listen to how Green's single-note lines sit on top of it.
- Try this
- Play the tune on a single-line instrument over a piano vamp in waltz time. Keep your solo phrases short and leave space.
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Step 6 · Hear it alone Now playing
McCoy Tyner 1972
Echoes of a Friend
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- One pianist covers what four players covered in 1960. Listen for what the left hand does to keep the waltz moving while the right hand plays the tune and solos.
- Try this
- Play a left-hand vamp in E minor in waltz time, then add the tune with your right hand.
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Step 7 · Hear a modern solo reading Now playing
Brad Mehldau 2006
“My Favorite Things (Live)”, Live in Marciac
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Compare this with Tyner's solo. Notice what a pianist of a later generation does with the same tune in six and a half minutes.
- Try this
- Play the tune alone, then play it again with a different left-hand pattern, and compare the two.
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Step 8 · Hear where it went Now playing
John Coltrane 1966
“My Favorite Things (Live From Village Vanguard/1966)”, Live at the Village Vanguard Again!
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
- Listen for
- Compare Rashied Ali's drumming with Elvin Jones's in 1960, and notice that two horns now share the solos.
- Try this
- Play the theme, then improvise with no set chords and no set length. Stop when you run out of ideas.
More great versions
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John Coltrane Quintet with Eric Dolphy 1961
“My Favorite Things (with Eric Dolphy) [Live]”, Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane
A 1961 club recording with Eric Dolphy as a second horn, first released in 2023.
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Mark Murphy 1961
Rah
A vocal jazz version with an Ernie Wilkins arrangement, recorded the year after Coltrane's.
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Grant Green 1962
Oleo
Green plays it with Sonny Clark's quartet in January 1962, ten months after Coltrane's album came out.
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Julie Andrews 1965
The Sound of Music
The film version many listeners know first.
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John Coltrane Quartet 1965
“My Favorite Things (Live At The Half Note)”, One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note
A twenty-three-minute quartet performance from a New York club, first released in 2005.
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Kenny Burrell with Richard Evans' Orchestra 1966
Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas
A guitar version with strings and brass from Burrell's Christmas album, one of many Christmas-season recordings of the song.
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John Coltrane Septet 1967
“My Favorite Things (Live in New York City, 23rd April 1967)”, The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
From the last live recording of Coltrane, made in April 1967.
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Brad Mehldau 2010
“My Favorite Things (Live)”, 10 Years Solo Live
A twelve-minute solo piano performance from a 2010 concert, released in 2015 in a box set of Mehldau's solo concerts.