Come Sunday: Lead Sheet / Fake Book

This lead sheet captures one of Ellington's most spiritually resonant compositions, and the stripped-down format lets students grapple directly with the harmonic elegance that makes this piece timeless. The single-page format means you can circulate it easily, whether you're introducing jazz harmony in a general music class, supporting pianists learning to comp, or giving singers a standard that rewards expressive interpretation.

Introspective and spiritually grounded, with a walking bass foundation that suggests movement even as the melody moves slowly through rich, close-voiced harmonies. The piece has the feel of late-night conversation, inviting rather than flashy.

Jazz pianists strengthening their comping vocabulary, singers building a standards repertoire, and ensemble directors looking for accessible material that teaches genuine harmonic concepts. Advanced students in music theory can use this to study Ellington's voice leading and chromatic movement.

• Let the harmonic rhythm breathe. The changes move deliberately, and rushing them flattens the piece's meditative quality.
• Approach the melody as a vocalist would, even if you're playing it on piano. Ellington wrote this with legit emotion, not as a head to solo over.
• Experiment with tritone substitutions in the comping voicings to color the harmony without losing the song's core identity.

Pair this with other Ellington standards in a jazz or American songbook concert, or use it as a study piece in a jazz combo or small ensemble setting. It also works well as an encore that shifts the energy of a concert toward something more contemplative.

• Recognizing and voicing extended harmonies (7th and 9th chords) in jazz contexts
• Comping with rhythmic sensitivity and space
• Balancing melody and harmony in lead sheet interpretation
• Applying legit vocal phrasing to instrumental lines