This Jazz Piano Skills Episode explores the essential elements of a Jazz Piano Practice Approach.
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills; it's time to discover, learn, and play Jazz Piano!
Every Jazz Piano Skills weekly podcast episode introduces aspiring jazz pianists to essential Jazz Piano Skills. Each Podcast episode explores a specific Jazz Piano Skill in depth. Today you will discover, learn, play a Jazz Piano Practice Approach. In this Jazz Piano Lesson, you will:
Discover
A Jazz Piano Practice Approach
Learn
Essential jazz piano skills found in a Jazz Piano Practice Approach
Play
The essential jazz piano skills in A Jazz Piano Practice Approach both
conceptually and physically
Use the Jazz Piano Podcast Packets for this Jazz Piano Lesson for maximum musical growth. All three Podcast Packets are designed to help you gain insight and command of a specific Jazz Piano Skill. The Podcast Packets are invaluable educational tools to have at your fingertips while you discover, learn, and play a Jazz Piano Practice Approach.
Educational Support
Community Forum
SpeakPipe
Episode Outline
Introduction
Discover, Learn, Play
Invite to Join Jazz Piano Skills
Jazz Lecture
Conclusion
Closing Comments
Visit Jazz Piano Skills for more educational resources that include a sequential curriculum with comprehensive Jazz Piano Courses, private and group online Jazz Piano Classes, a private jazz piano community hosting a variety of Jazz Piano Forums, an interactive Jazz Fake Book, plus unlimited professional educational jazz piano support.
If you wish to donate to JazzPianoSkills, you can do so easily through the Jazz Piano Skills Paypal Account.
Thank you for being a Jazz Piano Skills listener. It is my pleasure to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano!
Warm Regards,
Dr. Bob Lawrence
President, The Dallas School of Music
JazzPianoSkills
AMDG
Dr. Bob Lawrence 0:32
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. The last two weeks we've gotten after it. Two weeks ago, we explored the primary sounds of a, a major, a dominant, a minor, a half diminished, and a diminished in our exploration was guided by five improvisational patterns to help us develop good fingerings needed to play with a proper jazz articulation. And last week wow, we follow the same approach but dissected the altered a dominant sounds, the sharp 11 The flat 13, flat nine flat 13 and the fully altered flat nine sharp nine, flat five sharp five. Wow. Now, typically, typically I like to follow up these two weeks of serious grunt work with a bebop two. But today, today, I've decided to do a lecture series episode instead. Why? Well, because I just got back into town late last night from visiting my eldest son out in New Jersey, celebrating his 21st birthday with a man I feel old. So I didn't have time to put together a bebop tune episode, right, so much easier for me to do a lecture series episode today and push the Bebop episode to next week. So last night on the plane ride home, I put together some thoughts about the development of a jazz piano practice approach. In other words, when you sit down to practice, what should you be practicing? As you all know, I get asked a ton of questions about jazz piano. But I can honestly say I think the number one question by far is simply what should I be practicing? And how? Create Question right? Create Question straight to the point. And what I love about this question is that every jazz educator should be able to answer the question succinctly and with much conviction. And that is exactly what I'm going to do today. Yep. Today I am going to present you with an outline of what you should be practicing and how. So today, you get to kick back, you get to listen enjoy my thoughts, insights and experiences. As a lifelong jazz student, and professional jazz educator about the essential jazz piano skills that should be in your jazz piano practice approach. How fun is this going to be? So today, you're going to discover a jazz piano practice approach. And you're going to learn essential jazz piano skills found in a jazz piano practice approach. And you are going to play the essential jazz piano skills that should be in your jazz piano practice approach, both conceptually and physically. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player and advanced player or even if you are an experienced and seasoned professional, you're gonna find this jazz piano skills podcast lesson outlining a jazz piano practice approach to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, before we get going, I want to as I always do, I want to welcome new listeners to the jazz panel skills podcast and if you are indeed new to jazz piano skills, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. There are various member membership plans to choose from so when you have a moment, visit jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all of the perks that come along with each membership plan. There are educational weekly podcast packets, illustrations lead sheets play alongs that are developed and produced for every weekly podcast episode. There's also a online sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses, online weekly masterclasses online interactive Fakebook. And also there's a private jazz piano skills community that you can get involved with that hosts a variety of engaging forums. And there's unlimited on top of all that Unlimited, private, personal and professional educational support. So all of these perks are waiting for you wanting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So when you have a moment, visit jazz panel skills.com. Check it all out. And of course, become a member. If you have any questions, once you get there, please by all means, do not hesitate to reach out to me, contact me, I'm always happy to spend some time with you, and answer any questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can. Okay, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano let's discover, learn and play an efficient and effective jazz piano practice approach. There's an old saying in the old expression that I absolutely love. People don't plan to fail. They simply fail to plan. And I can tell you this, without question, the number one reason why students experience little to know musical growth, even when they put in the time and effort at the piano. The reason being no progress is because they have no plan. It's that simple. Now, in defense of all students embarking upon the study of jazz, the reason no plan exists is is that they are uncertain about the skills that need to be practiced. Right. Hard to make a practice plan when you do not even know the skills that need to be practiced. Hence the creation of jazz piano skills. My goal is and has always been from the very beginning to introduce aspiring jazz pianists to the essential jazz piano skills that will help them truly achieve their musical goals and their musical dreams. I have spent a lot of time, effort and energy over the past several years teaching essential jazz piano skills through this podcast, the weekly masterclass, and various educational resources that I make available through the jazz panel Skills website. So I thought it would be a good idea today to vote to devote a little time to establish in a clear, concise, and thorough jazz piano practice approach that will help help you organize the essential jazz piano skills in a way that will assure your success. In other words, let's put together a plan to succeed. So grab a pad of paper and sharp pencil or two, you're going to want to take notes, as I outlined for you a jazz piano practice approach that you should begin implementing immediately. We begin with three broad categories. Number one, harmonic skills. Number two melodic skills. And number three rhythmic skills, harmony, melody and rhythm. I call them the Holy Trinity of music. Everything we discuss everything we study, everything we practice should fall into one of these three categories. Harmonic skills, a lot of skills, rhythmic skills. If what you are practicing, you are unable to play squarely into one of these three categories.
Dr. Bob Lawrence 10:01
then you are either trying to practice something completely foreign to music or you have a very skewed understanding of the skill that you are exploring. There are also three subcategories for each of the three main categories, so, under harmonic skills, under melodic skills and under rhythmic skills, I want you to create three headers, the headers are ascertain, process and apply again ascertain process and apply should list those three headers beneath harmonic skills, melodic skills and rhythmic skills. So, let me expound upon each of these subcategories, subcategory number one ascertain the gathering of legitimate information. So important the gathering of legitimate information in other words, what are the resources you are using to study this particular harmonic melodic or rhythmic skill? So, so very important, like the saying goes right garbage in, garbage out, you must absolutely be sure that the information you are hanging your hat on is solid and legitimate, do your homework, do your research. I know this is no shock to you. But all of the information you have at your fingertips is not good information. And this is very unfortunate, because bad information leads you astray and time is invaluable. Now, a quick litmus test that you can apply to any material that you that you are considering using as a jazz compass is to answer one very simple question. And the question is this. The does the explanation and or presentation of this material appear to be difficult? If your answer is yes, then run away. Quickly. The resources you want to use should conceptually simplify the study of jazz piano and not complicated. Let me say that again, the resources you want to use should conceptually simplify the study of jazz piano and not complicated. anything complicated is either bad information, or is being poorly taught. Either way, it's a resource that you want to avoid. So the bottom line, make sure you have a body of resources that can legitimately help you ascertain quality jazz information. And of course, jazz panel skills resources should be at the top of your list. Alright, so on to subcategory number two process. This is the act of studying the information you just ascertained. Did you catch that study? Yes. Like you're in school preparing for an important exam. Y'all have heard me say this 1000 times if not a million times. Conceptual understanding drives physical development. In other words, if you do not have the skills sorted out upstairs conceptually, then you are fooling yourself into thinking that it's going to somehow magically come out downs There's in your hands on the piano. I like to call this process, paper practice. Bottom line, music has to become mentally has to become easy for you mentally. If you hope to have musical success physically, I'm going to say that again to music has to become easy mentally, if you hope to have musical success physically, if music is hard, if music is confusing if music is complicated if music is abstract, abstract mentally, then you have no shot. Absolutely no shot at successfully performing music. Okay, subcategory number three, apply. Once you have a handle on musical data mentally, conceptually, you can move to the piano and sit on the bench with great confidence. Because you are now ready to begin your application. Success is just around the corner because you started with good resources to ascertain essential jazz piano skills. You then spent quality time conceptually processing the essential jazz piano skills, which now illuminate the path you need to take. In order to successfully apply perform the essential jazz piano skills see a plan a plan that does not try to ascertain process and apply essential jazz piano skills simultaneously, which is what 99.9% of everyone studying music tries to do. They try to ascertain process and apply information simultaneously, which is a formula for disaster just think about it How difficult is that ascertain process and apply information simultaneously. Disastrous bottom line to have success performing essential jazz piano skills you have to begin with ascertaining quality information quality material and have spent adequate time studying the jazz piano skills, the information the material, stop trying to ascertain process and apply information simultaneously. It does not work. Alright, so we have the basic outline of our jazz piano practice approach in place right we have our three main categories harmony, Melody, rhythm, rhythm, right, we have the three cat subcategories for each one of those main categories, which is ascertain process and apply. So let's take a look at harmonic skills first.
Dr. Bob Lawrence 18:45
Beneath ascertain This is within the harmonic skills category beneath, as ascertain I want you to write chords, chords quartz, okay. And underneath the chords. There are going to be four types. We're going to have blocks, traditional three note shells, contemporary three note chordal shells. And number four, two handed voicings. Okay, those four again, blocks, number two traditional three note shells. Number three contemporary three note chordal shells. And number four, two handed five note voicings. Okay, now, I have podcast episodes that deal with each one of those types of chords. Okay, the blocks the traditional shells, contemporary shells, and two handed voicings that you can go listen to and dig deeper into each one of those now, look under blocks. All right, we have 12 notes, we have five sounds, we have 60 chords, you need to be able to play those black chords, wrote position, three inversions right hand and left hand. Okay. Now I want you to think of these four voicing types of chords, the blocks traditional three notes, shells contemporary three notes shells, two handed five note voicings, I want you to kind of think of them in levels, right, like, level one would be your blocks. Level two would be your traditional three notes shells, level three contemporary three note coral shells, level four, two handed five note voicings. Now, if you are at level one, fantastic, you have to have level one. under your belt, before you go to level two, before you go to level three, before you go to level four. Now the good news is this. If level one, you can go no further than level one, no further than level one ever, in your lifetime, that you can only play the blocks. And you can only play them in root position and in inverted, inverted shapes where they're inversions. Right, then I got great news for you, you can spend the rest of your life playing a lot of music, a lot of music. If you can play those blocks in your left hand and melody in your right hand of tunes, you are going to have a blast for the rest of your life. The only reason you want to go to level two and level three and level four is your playing will become or sound more mature. That's it. That is it. Right? So if you are at the black level right now, congratulation level one fantastic now this is the information that you should be this is the information you want to ascertain. Right? It's very clear, it's concise, it's not overwhelming. Now, the process subcategory right the paper practice regarding these four levels of blocks, traditional three notes shells contemporary three note quarter shells and two handed five note voicings. Now you're at the process level the paper practice again that I like to call it, you should be able to spell these voicings these chords. So if you're working on block voicings, you should be able to spell them and root position you should be able to spell them in inverted shapes. Correct, right, you should be able to map them out draw them diagram them right imagery is so important, important in the learning process. Right in the paper practice process imagery. So this, this part of the learning process, I can so many times is skipped over that, right we have our ascertain, process and apply. So many times this middle section processing is or paper practice is skipped over. And that is very, very unfortunate. Because again, if it's not sorted out upstairs, I promise you, you're going to have difficulty getting it out downstairs in your hands, it's just not going to happen. The imagery, the touch upon that a little bit further, I used to use the imagery of the black and white notes on the piano quite a bit when I was learning my chords, right. So like a D flat major seven would be a black, white, black white shape. A D major seven would be a white, black, white black shape. See majors or white, white white white shape, you see you see what I mean? This kind of imagery and I would map that out, I would draw that out I would have keyboard diagrams where I would mark it mark on the keyboard diagram. So I can visually see that that imagery and I would write it out on paper you know using WB WB for white, black, white, black. So again, the more of the imagery work that you can do, the more the paper practice you can do, the more secure these voicings are going to go into B. Do the same thing for your three note shells. The same thing for your three note chord voicings and the same thing for your two handed five note voicings right, be able to spell them and be able to map them out on paper before you go to the piano. Okay, so now let's get to the piano. Now we apply Right, we apply the chords. So now we're at the actual practicing of the chords. And I will suggest four ways in which to practice your chords, whether you're using blocks, traditional three note shells, contemporary three note chord or shells, or two handed five note voicings. I like to practice them by what I call family. I like to practice them by type, I like to practice them by key, and I like to practice them by progression. So if I'm going to practice my chords, I'll demonstrate on using blocks. Level one. So if I'm going to practice my blocks, by family, I'm going to play something like C major, C dominant, C minor, C half diminished, and C diminished. Right, so my five C chord, C major C dominant, C minor, C half diminished, C diminished, and then I would practice them in their inverted shapes as well. So I just played them in a root position, but I would put them in first inversion and do the same thing, C major, C dominant, C minor, C half diminished, C diminished, right, and then I would do the same thing in second inversion, same thing in third inversion. Now, for type, I would group all of my say major chords together. So I might move in chromatic motion, like C major, to D flat major, to D, to E flat major, to major and so on. F major, right, moving in chromatic motion, I would do those inverted positions, again, C major, first inversion, D flat major first inversion, D major, E flat, E Major first inversion, F major first inversion and so on. Okay, so, when I referenced type I'm playing, put all your major chords together, put all your dominant chords together minor, half diminished, and diminished, okay, group them, and then use various patterns, whether you move chromatically, you can move around the circle of fifths, so major, F major, B flat major, E flat major, A flat major, and so on. Okay, so you can use various patterns to practice moving your chord types around on the piano. The third way, I like to practice my voicings, my chords, after I've ascertained them, after I've done my paper practice and process them, I like to practice them by key. So if I'm in the key of C, I'm playing C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G dominant, a minor, B half diminished.
Dr. Bob Lawrence 28:06
Okay, so there's the seven chords in the key of C, and I would practice those in the inverted shapes as well. So I'm going to C major first inversion, D minor, first inversion, E minor first inversion, have major first inversion, and so on. Okay, and again, I'm doing these in both hands right now, but I would practice them hand separately, and then hands together. And I would then move to various keys, I'd go up a half step, go to D flat major. Now I'm in the key of D flat, E flat minor, F minor, G flat major, or maybe I move around the circle of fifths. Again, I'm just want to think within a key and I can move those keys around using various patterns. Finally, I like to practice my chords, my voicings, whether the blocks are traditional shells, three corner shells, or the two handed voicings, I like to use progressions, and of course, the most common progression of all is our 251 progression. So, go to the key of C 251. Go to the key of F 251, G minor to C seven the F major and again, right I practice using those starting with that two chord in various positions. So instead of playing just to five one with my, my two chord being in root position I put my two chord in first inversion but my two chord in second version, and my two chord and third inversion. So in other words, it creates a domino effect however I start my two chord determines how my five chord is going to be played determines how my one chord is going to be played. So that's a very quick run through of the harmonic skills that I would have in my jazz piano practice approach. I'd be tackling my chords based on blocks, traditional three note shells, contemporary three note choral shells, and two handed five note voicings, I would spend time processing these chords or doing the paper practice spelling them in root position, inverted shapes, I'd be mapping them out on keyboard diagrams, or mapping them based on imagery, black note, white note black notes, so and so on. Okay. And then I would apply them these chords by family by type by key by progression. And again, I would use root position and inverted shapes. Or I would use the various options for my shell voicings and my two handed voicings, again, I have podcast episodes out there already on all of these voicing types, and more information with regards to this outline and how to practice them. Alright, so now on to category two melodic skills. And for the melodic skills we have our same three subcategories right ascertain, process and apply, under or beneath, ascertain, right scales and arpeggios. These would be your major scales, harmonic minor scales, and melodic minor scales. Okay. Again, major scales, harmonic minor scales, melodic minor scales. Now I know there are other scales. But again, these three, the major, the harmonic, minor, and melodic minor personally, I feel if you don't have a command of these three scale types, then you shouldn't be looking at other scales to explore, make these your top priority, major harmonic minor melodic minor scales, study them. Now the paper practice, right the process, paper practice, spell them, just like you would spell your chords, I would spell them from the root to the seventh, the root to the seventh. Okay. And I would also spell them from various entry points, not just from the root, I would spell them from the third, I would spell them from the fifth, and I would spell them from the seventh, I would map them out again on a keyboard diagram, right, can print a TV keyboard diagram from the internet and print it out, use it as a template to x out your scales, I would also encourage you to diagram them using a drawing them right and what I mean by drawing them. This is kind of hard to explain verbally, but I used to use a line I used to draw a line on a on a piece of paper. So like, for instance, a C major scale would be just the straight line, right? Because there are no flat flats or no sharps and a C major scale. So it'd be just a straight line. If I were mapping out a D flat major, the line would start straight. And then there would be a dip down because it goes to the note F there I'd come right back up with my line again, kind of like a V shape, you'll come back up to the note G flat, straight over to the another straight line over to B flat, then straight down to C and then back up to D flat. So I have kind of like a V shape at the end as well. Okay, so you would see once I would draw that imagery on a piece of paper using a line, it would be it was amazing because I would go to the piano. And I'd play that scale and it would literally mirror a line. So it's kind of hard to explain. Verbally. I wish I could draw it for you right now. But hopefully if you try a couple of those you'll it will come to life for you. And of course if you have any questions please let me know. The point being is the more time you can spend with scales with arpeggios spelling them, drawing them mapping them on a keyboard diagram, the better. Okay, the better. Now, application number three application so we talked about ascertain underneath it My category of melodic skills for practicing in my jazz piano practice approach under ascertain would be my scales and my arpeggios, my scales would be major harmonic minor and melodic minor talked about the how to process the scales and arpeggios again, paper practice spelling them, mapping them out diagramming them. Number three, applying scales and arpeggios. Right now we're at the piano. And for all of you who have been following jazz piano skills for a while, you know exactly what I'm going to talk about entry point fragments where I practice my scales, I practice my arpeggios from the root to the seventh, from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th, from the seventh to the 13th. I would, the whole point is to become root independent, that I can play the scales I can play my arpeggios from various entry points from within the sound. Okay, again root the seventh, third to ninth, fifth to the 11th and to the 11th to the 13th. So my scale, for instance, if I did a C minor scale route to seventh if I did third, third to ninth, fifth to the 11th some instead of 13. If I did arpeggios, same way, right route to 739, five to 11 and 11, a seven to 13. Okay, and then of course I would practice this incident, the arpeggio at the scale in its entirety as well right. So going all the way to the 13th same with scale right all the way to the 13th you're going in back so everything I would practice of course would be ascending descending motion, but with my scales with my arpeggios I would absolutely break them apart and get used to hearing them from various entry points root, the third, the fifth and seventh and make sure that you're exploring the entire sound, the entire sound okay, with regard to the harmonic minor melodic minor scales, I would practice them in relationship to the major scale and what I mean by that is I used to practice like C major scale and I'd practice my C melodic minor scale which is just simply lowering the third and then I would practice my harmonic minor scale which is a lower third and a large six so I'd have a nice little set there major melodic minor
Dr. Bob Lawrence 38:10
harmonic minor. Okay, knowing full well that my harmonic minor melodic minor scales are going to be used to explain altered sounds. But for now, if you're not at that point, just practice your major harmonic and melodic minor scales just as I demonstrated, knowing full well that you are getting under your fingers, the shapes and sounds that you're going to need to understand altered sounds. Okay. Okay, so our for our final category today rhythmic skills that is going to be part of our jazz piano practice approach rhythmic skills. We have our same three subcategories right? We have our ascertain, we have our process and we have our apply, okay. So, under ascertain, I would place a strong emphasis on the study of in the discovery of rhythmic patterns. And again, I have podcasts in fact, all last year was devoted to rhythmic development and rhythmic patterns. So any of the podcasts from last year you will find to be extremely beneficial, but I would focus heavily on ascertaining various rhythmic patterns using whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and eighth note values. And then of course, syncopated values as well like dotted quarter eighth, and the dotted eighth 16th pattern. Also, eighth note triplets and quarter note triplets. Again, all out Last year was devoted to these rhythmic patterns and rhythmic motifs that you need to have in your practice, jazz piano practice approach. If rhythmic practice is new to you, then I would stick to for for time, right now, if you are comfortable with four, four time, the next logical step would be practicing patterns in three, four time. Okay, but four four time is where you should begin and where you should stay until you feel that you are developing a strong sense of time, and a strong sense of rhythmic values. subcategory to process write paper practice, wow, this is so important when it comes to rhythm. Because if you can write rhythms, if you can write various rhythms using whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and even the syncopated values, right, the dotted quarter, eighth, dotted eighth 16th. If you can write it, wow, it is going to become so much easier for you to play it, because you actually conceptually understand it. Right? You're not guessing. In other words, at rhythm, so again, writing them, mapping them, diagramming them. Anything that you can do, to help digest these rhythms, conceptually, is time well spent, and absolutely invaluable. There are apps out there that will help you. That will give you rhythmic dictation, if you will, where it will play a rhythm. And then you have to identify that rhythm, either write it out, or be able to identify it on the screen. Again, great tools, great resources to use. So if you just did a search search, you would find many of these software applications and sites that can help you with rhythmic notation. Rhythmic understanding, okay, now applying the final subcategory or subset here the application or applying rhythm. The best eyesight I think the best, but I'm old school. The best is what I call tap and tap and clap, right. So you can take your hand tap a rhythm on the table, you can take your hands Clap that rhythm. If you can tap it and clap it, you will be able to play it right tap and clap. So I would practice first, rhythmically using my hands. And like a percussionist very percussive then I would practice rhythms using isolated sound. So I might play a rhythmic idea. Let's say I had three quarter notes followed by 2/8 notes. I might play those using say a minor chord, simple voicing, maybe something like just like that, right. So I got three quarter notes followed by 2/8 notes. So taking any rhythm, taking a single voicing, whether it's a block voicing a two handed voicing, a quarter voicing a quarter shell or a three note traditional shell makes really it really makes no difference. You use that voicing to practice the rhythm that you're wanting to play. Okay, so isolated sound, then once you're comfortable with isolated sound, I would move it to a progression, right so I might like take a 251. If I take that same if I take that same rhythm, three quarter notes followed by 2/8 notes, apply a 251 might end up with something like this
Dr. Bob Lawrence 44:28
one more time. Right so you can take any progression, it doesn't have to be 251. If you want to do 36251 or 16251 or two flat two, one again, you can mix it up however you want to keep interest, but I would then apply that rhythm over. Over that progression. Now again, all last year 2022 heavy dose of rhythmic study that you can tap into throughout the entire year to help you with this development. Wow. So much to try to get through it through within one hour, right. As I always say it's a it's a ton of information in a very short and very fast hour. But the idea here was to give you a fundamental, a basic jazz piano skills, jazz piano practice approach, right? That is organized using harmony, melody, and rhythm as the main categories with the essential jazz piano skills of each of those categories being studied, using the subcategories of ascertain process and apply. Now, I cannot stress, I just simply cannot stress the importance of approaching the study of jazz using a logical, structured and organized blueprint that allows you to manage a formulaic approach to developing the skills needed to play tunes. Oh, yeah. Oh, tones. Oh, let's talk about tunes for a second. Did you notice that the plane of tunes they were not it was not included in my jazz piano practice approach. I know right, blasphemy. Well, here is why tune plane was not included. You do not develop your jazz piano skills by playing too. So I'm going to say that this again, you do not develop your jazz piano skills by playing two tunes are the cherries on top of the cake. Right? Your success in plain tunes is 100% 100% dependent upon your familiarity, your comfort, and your mastery of essential harmonic Mala melodic and rhythmic skills. Right that you have properly ascertained. Process and apply. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that skills, skill practice results in tune performance, not the other way around. Now, I am not saying do not make time to play some tunes. I love Andy in a great practice session. With playing a tune, it's like my reward for putting in the grunt work necessary to get better. I do not, however, kid myself into thinking that somehow by by playing tunes, the essential jazz piano skills that I need to develop are somehow improved. Think about it. How in the world? Can I develop the skills that I cannot play? By playing a tune? I want to say that again. Because it's so important. How in the world can I develop the skills that I cannot play by playing a tune? It's impossible. My hands cannot play what they cannot play. My hands cannot play what they cannot play just because it's a tune. So I'm gonna have to set the tuner aside and practice the skills that I need to be able to play in order to play the tunes. Wow. So look, walk in on the jazz piano practice approach that I presented today. And you'll be playing all the tunes that you want to play with great success. I promise you continue to make tune plane on the other hand, continue to make tune playing the center of your practicing. And you will sound the same a year from now. You will sound same five years from now you will sound the same 10 years from now and so on. I'm just giving you a little tough love there. Right Most importantly, most importantly, I say this every podcast right be Be patient, right developing mature and professional jazz piano skills takes time. Right? It takes a lifetime. So, let's just do a quick recap. Okay. Your jazz piano practice approach should have three broad categories. Those categories are harmony or harmonic melody, melodic development and rhythm, rhythmic development, right? Harmonic, melodic rhythmic. Within each one of those three categories, we have three subcategories ascertain process, apply, ascertain is where you do your homework, you make sure that you have good resources, good materials that you are using that introduce you to essential jazz piano skills. Process is your ability and determination and dedication to implementing paper practice with regards to these essential jazz piano skills, spending time working them out conceptually, so that the concepts the skills themselves are easily or are easy, conceptually, so that you have a shot at actually being able to play them or perform them. And number three, the application. And this, this is where the rubber hits the road sort of speaks, right? This is where you're actually going to play the jazz piano skills that you've ascertained the jazz piano skills that you've taken the time to process, and now you're ready to apply them. Okay. So I took some time to put some good information in each one of those categories for you. Again, I have done podcast episodes on all those jazz piano skills throughout the last several years that you can look up at the jazz piano Skills website and check out and again, if you have questions, as always, let me know. Okay, well, I hope you have found this podcast episode this podcast lesson exploring a jazz piano practice approach to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. Don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills ensemble member, I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills master class, it's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode less than exploring a jazz piano practice approach in greater detail, and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. As always, you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 My extension here at the Dallas School of Music is 211 if you prefer email, my email address, Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com or you can use the SpeakPipe widget, which is a nifty little device that is found I think on literally every page of the jazz piano skills website that you can send me a message that way will help there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week. Enjoy exploring your new jazz piano practice approach. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!