The jazz standard “Indiana” (also known as “Back Home Again in Indiana”) was composed in 1917 and was recorded that same year by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, making it one of the earliest jazz songs to be recorded. It’s often associated with Louis Armstrong, but there have been innumerable versions, and Miles Davis used the chord progression of “Indiana” for his classic bebop contrafact “Donna Lee.” Aaron’s solo starts with a sliver of the melody followed by a chromatic run to a chord tone and then a rest for a full bar. You’ll also play some blue notes, approach tones, arpeggios, slurs, and scale phrases. Aaron teaches “Indiana” in the key of F, which is a common key for the song, but he notes that horn players often favor it in the key of A♭, while some string ensembles prefer the key of G. In this video, Aaron walks you through his solo for “Indiana.”
