Intermediate piano arrangement of “Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans)” as performed by Louis Armstrong.

Every once in a while, I will give away free sheet music arrangements I’ve made here on the site. Hopefully you can enjoy them. Feel free to download. Use and share these. I only ask that you link back to this site and give credit to the arranger.

I chose today’s song because it is a classic of the American Song Book. It also has personal meaning to me. I used to live in New Orleans. Now, I do not. I definitely know what it means to miss the city.

Today’s giveaway is a song I arranged in a simple style. It is for pianists who can easily read a treble clef melody and handle complex rhythms of jazz. However, the ideal student for this exercise can’t read from a leadsheet (see definition). Leadsheets don’t use notated chords; they use chord symbols. The right hand plays the melody, and the left hand plays the chords. The piece has roots in jazz. Thus, the chords are sometimes more complicated than simple triads. I have put chord symbols in the arrangement to aid in improvisation or identification.

If you don’t know the tune, I highly recommend checking out the original first. It was performed by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday in 1947 for a film called “New Orleans.” In the original recording, Billie Holiday sings while Armstrong accompanies her. But she never made a studio version of the song for release. The version I know better is the one I’m linking below, where it’s Louis doing it all. The song actually doesn’t do a great job at depicting New Orleans. It shows more of an old Hollywood romanticization of the city. After Hurricane Katrina, the city embraced it as cultural emblem.

The film has Louis playing opposite Billie Holiday and has a great set of musicians in the cast. Interestingly, it is Holiday’s only acting credit. I’m adding it to my list of things to watch in the future. The song is a classic and you’ve likely heard it somewhere. I was in a biergarten in Berlin. A random busker came by and started singing it near me!

To download the arrangement, follow the linked image below:

And please, if you play it or use the music in any way, please share your performance with us here on the blog or via social media. And feel free to give us feedback if you have suggestions!