Dominant b13 Sound

Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. And it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Last week we explored the dominant sharp 11 sound, migrate sound. And this week, we are going to tackle another classic dominant, altered dominant sound, the dominant flat 13, which is another great sound. I mentioned last week that you always have to have a balance between macro and micro study. Macro study, of course, being the big picture, things like learning to tune, and micro study, of course, being under the hood details, like dissecting the sound like we're going to do today, we will be applying the same discovered learn and play process that we used last week, when we put the dominant sharp 11 sound under the microscope. In fact, we will use the exact same process every time we get under the hood to take apart a specific sound. I know that when we do micro study the nitty gritty work of any kind when, when we do that kind of work. Without doubt many questions will arise that need to be answered. No worries. Whenever you have questions during this podcast episode, you can send me a speakpipe message a voicemail, and I will respond with an answer right away. If you are listening to this podcast through the jazz panel skills website, look directly below the podcast player. And you'll see, you'll see that snazzy little widget called speak pipe and click on the Start recording button and speak. That's it. It's that simple. Your message will come directly to me in seconds, and I will return your question with an answer. It's awesome technology that I hope I hope you will take advantage of speakpipe allows you and me to engage with one another and for you to get help quickly. So please take advantage of it. I am always, always happy to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. Okay, I made a point last week that I want to make again this week. And just FYI, whenever I spotlight a point two weeks, or even more in a row than Please no. It's important. Here it is. Here's the point music is the production of sound gonna say it again music is the production of sound This is what musicians do we produce sound again, I know many of you listening are shaking your head in total agreement while having absolutely no idea what I am talking about. Unless of course you listened to my podcast episode last week. This is okay because when I mentioned this fact, that music is the production of sound. Most people think I am speaking about the plane of notes and notes of course produce sound. But that is not what I am referring to when I say music is the production of sound. After all notes, especially when treated at is as if they enjoy autonomy have more resemblance to noise than to music. Their sine waves of course, right. The reality is notes do not enjoy autonomy. every note belongs to A sound. A sound is a grouping of notes. And that sound is either played harmonically or melodically And today, we will do both. We will play the dominant flat 13 sound, harmonically, and melodically. The educational guides. For this jazz piano skills podcast episode devoted to the dominant flat 13 sound are available for immediate download at jazz piano skills.com. And again, if you are listening to this podcast episode through the jazz panel skills website, which I hope you are, you'll see the download links for each guide just to the right of the podcast player very easy to access. And likewise, you can easily access all of the educational guides for all of the episodes through the jazz panel skills.com website through the jazz panel skills store. The there are three, three educational guides the illustration guide, the lead sheet guide, and the play along guide for every jazz piano skills podcast episode, which can be downloaded individually as a bundle or as a subscription. My regular listeners are already familiar with these educational guides. However, if you are listening for the first time, the illustration guide helps you discover the jazz piano skill, the dominant flat 13 sound, conceptually, the imagery The graphics are amazing. And I say it all the time. Your physical growth as a jazz pianist depends 100% on your mastery of the jazz piano skill you're studying, mentally and conceptually. Know mentally I get this mentally and physically, right. Mentally and conceptually Well, okay, now mentally and physically, right. So, the graphics, the images help you do just that. They help you digest the shapes, and the sounds of the dominant 13 sound right shapes and sounds of jazz, which in turn will fuel your physical and your ear training your oral mastery. The lead sheet guide uses traditional music notation to help you successfully learn the jazz piano skill. So if you are a reader, if you like seeing the concept placed upon the musical staff, the lead sheets are perfect for you. They are perfect to have sitting on your piano. As a quick reference when you are getting these various shapes and sounds under your fingers. There are 12 lead sheets for each podcast episode. So I developed one not just for the key that I am demonstrating in today. But for all 12 keys. So these lead sheets are without question an invaluable resource for you. And the play along guide which are simply play along tracks. And again, they are for all 12 keys as well. And they're perfect to help you successfully play the jazz piano skill, the dominant flat 13 sound that we are studying today. They help you play that jazz piano skill. Again, in all 12 keys. The play along tracks Additionally, will help you develop a strong sense of internal time, right? Plus the proper jazz feel in articulation when you're playing. And I say this all the time to you know a teacher cannot teach you these essential elements of playing jazz piano. I can talk to you about about them, right and I can try to describe them to you. But in order for you to truly develop them, you must experience them, right there's there's no other way. And there's no better way to do this than to use quality play along tracks. I cannot stress enough how beneficial the educational podcast guides are for maximizing your musical growth. So Be sure to check them out at jazz piano skills.com. If you go to the homepage, click on the podcast link that's in the menu bar that runs across the top of the page, upper right hand corner, and you'll be good to go. It will take you directly to the podcast page. And once you are there on that podcast page, you'll see an expandable menu listed out by year, so click on the year that you would want. That menu will expand and then you can click on the episode that you want to study. And you're good to go. If you download the educational guides and have questions, you can always send me a quick voicemail speakpipe using the widget that is nestled directly beneath again, right beneath each podcast episode. Or you can post your question in the jazz panel skills forum and let your jazz piano skills community help you or attend the Thursday evening jazz panel skills masterclass at 8pm. Central, and get your answer, get your questions answered by me face to face. Wow. So many ways to get help. And again, I say this all the time as well. My entire goal is simply this I want to provide you with the best jazz piano lessons, the best jazz piano educational materials, and the best jazz piano support that's available anywhere today. Okay, here we go. It's time to discover, learn and play the dominant flat 13 sound. And in this lesson, of course, you're going to discover the dominant flat 13 sound, you're going to learn how to construct how to put together the dominant flat 13 sound and you are going to play the dominant flat 13 sound harmonically and melodically. So regardless of where you are in your jazz piano journey, a beginner intermediate player, advanced player or even a professional, you will find this podcast this jazz piano skills lesson exploring the dominant flat 13 sound to be enormously beneficial. With any sound, the very first thing that we want to do is to get a handle on the sound to discover it first and foremost harmonically as a court, I am going to use the C dominant flat 13 as our model today. And you of course, as you did last week, you of course are going to then apply this approach to the remaining 11 dominant flat 13 sounds. Okay. So harmonically, I want you to play in your left hand, the note E, and the note B flat, below middle C right directly below middle C, this is the third and the seventh of C dominant. And in your right hand, I want you to think of a C augmented triad in first inversion, so we're going to put an E, right above middle C, A G sharp, there's our sharp five, and we're gonna put our C or the root up on top, right, so we get, we get the third seventh in the left hand. And then we get the third sharp five in the root and our right hand sounds like this together. Now, if I put the root down in the basement, if I play this, see down here in the bass, hold my sustain pedal down, come up here and hit those five notes. Wow, what a pretty sound. Right? Let's do that again. I just like to let that sink in. Right? And just listen to that. See. dominant flat 13 sound really nice. Now, as a little bonus if you want. If you don't want to put the C on top, you can move that your finger off the C just move it up one whole step to the ninth. So you get instead of this you get this difference now pretty. Now put my bass Wow. Such a huge sound right So depending on what you want, you can put the C up on top the root. Or you can put the ninth or the second on top. Both are fantastic. Now, voicing number two, we're going to invert our third and seventh in the left hand. So we're going to put our B flat on the bottom, right below middle C, we're going to put our E, the third directly above middle C, on top. Right, then I'm gonna play that C augmented triad. Now, in second inversion, so I'm going to have a G sharp, C, and an E, those five notes together. Really nice, put my C in the bass, hold down my sustain, pedal, come up and hit those five notes. What a great sound. Now for another bonus, we can, in our right hand, play instead of the C, put our ninth back in there. So we're gonna have our G sharp, we're gonna have our ninth, which is the D. And then up on top, G, the fifth. Right? So if I put those five notes together now. So I have in my left hand, my B flat, my E, the seventh and the third. And my right hand I have the sharp five, the G sharp, or the flat 13, is what I should say, right, the sharp five, I don't think I've been communicating that right that sharp five is flat, 13, right, sharp, five and flat six are the same. So when I say when I said c augmented triad, immediately, I was thinking G sharp, but that G sharp is the a flat. Okay, so we have the the seventh, the third, the G sharp, which is the flat 13th, the ninth, D, and then g on top, g natural. Now put my C down in the bass, hold my sustain pedal down. Wow. Let's hit that again. Really nice. So you have the option of playing just the C triad augmented triad, straight up. second inversion, G sharp, again, which is the flat 13. The root, the third. So this option, or option, two different sounds. So I'm really actually presenting four ways today to voice the C dominant flat 13 sound. Here they are just one right after the other. Here we go. Listen, every one of those, each one of those voicing fantastic. And I would encourage you to just sit there at the piano and do exactly what I was just doing here. Right? Play that route, right down in the bass, hold your sustain pedal down, come up and hit those five notes. You're always going to be playing two notes in your left hand. three notes in your right hand. And again, I want to clarify when I speaking of sharp five, anywhere in this podcast episode, that sharp five is the flat 13. Okay. All right. Now that we have a handle on the dominant flat 13 sound harmonically. We now want to learn it melodically and to do so, just as I did last week, we are going to use ascending and descending scale motion. And again, just as I did last week, I am going to present you with two approaches to doing this approach. One is the academic approach, the college perspective. approach to the practical approach, the street perspective. Okay. Approach one, the academic perspective originates from The melodic minor scale. So the thought is this, if we take the F melodic minor scale, which by the way, to get to the melodic minor scale, we're going to play just the F major scale first, right? So we're going to play F, G, A, B flat C, right? Now, to make that F major scale, an F melodic minor scale, we're just simply going to flat. The third, we're going to flat the A. There it is. f melodic minor scale, F, G, A flat, B flat, C. And now, if we take that F melodic minor scale, and instead of playing it starting on the note, F, we play those exact same seven notes starting on the note C, we get C, D, F, A flat, B flat, there is our flat 13. c dominant flat 13. Right. So a lot of times you may hear this referred to as the Mixolydian, flat six scale, right, originating from the melodic minor scale, specifically, the F melodic minor scale. Sounds so academic, so smart. So that's one approach, the academic approach. Again, I do not encourage you to think that way, when you are playing, right, I think I said last week that if you try to think that way, if you try to process information that way, when you're playing, it's equivalent to strapping sandbags around your ankles and trying to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, it is not going to happen. But at least the academic approach validates for us that this is a legitimate musical sound. So approach number two is what I call the practical approach or the street perspective. And the street musician just simply goes, Okay, wait a minute, we got the C major scale we're in That's right. To make that dominant, I'm going to lower that top note that seven, well make that a B flat, instead of a B. There's my dominant, C dominant. Now, you know, what do you want? Oh, you want me to flat the 13, which is the A. There we go. See dominant flat 13. Makes perfect sense, much more of a direct way to get to that sound, as opposed to thinking, academic and thinking modes, right? So I always like to say, look, both perspectives, say the exact same thing, they just come from different direction. The academic approach is a approach that will validate for you that you're doing the right thing and, and actually validate the origins of the sound. The street perspective actually gets you to playing that sound in the most efficient and effective way possible. Now, I know this is a whole lot to digest very quickly, right. So I just want to remind you and everyone that every Thursday evening at 8pm Central time, I am live online using the zoom platform, which I know everyone is familiar with by this time. I am online 8pm Central Time Thursday evenings to discuss the jazz piano skills podcast episode of The Week, in more detail, right, and to answer any questions that you have. So the masterclass is just simply an open discussion and a deeper dive into the jazz panel skill that we are exploring this week. And of course, I always leave room within the hour long class for some q&a A as well. In fact, that's some of the best conversation when we just open it up. And everybody can ask questions about any facet, any aspect of playing jazz piano, so market on your calendars Thursday evening, this Thursday evening. 8pm Central Time join me online to discuss the dominant flat 13 sound in even more detail in the end. answer any questions that you have regarding this podcast episode, it is definitely a value added educational opportunity that you do not want to miss. The Zoom link is posted on my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages, so be sure to follow me. Plus it is posted on the homepage at the jazz piano skills website as well. So looking forward to seeing you Thursday evening 8pm Central Time. Always a ton of fun. Okay, here we go with the demonstration number one of the C dominant, flat 13 sound. So I'm going to bring the ensemble in. And we are going to sit on a C dominant flat 13 sound. And I am going to play that sound from the root from the sea to the seventh. And I'm just going to repeat that several times, ascending and descending, focusing on playing with a very nice and relaxed jazz articulation. And just going to let that sound kind of settle in both harmonically and melodically. So I'm not going to try to improvise, I want to keep this. However, I want to think of that scale ascending and descending as if it were part of an improvisational line. But I want to play it as musically as I possibly can, with the right feel the right articulation. So here we go. That c dominant flat 13 sound with the entry point of the route, traveling through the sound up to the seventh, and back down. So let's let's take a listen. Let's check it out. Nice what a sound right. You know, it's funny last week, when playing and demonstrating the C dominant sharp 11 the dominant sharp 11 sound. I kept saying to myself, man, I think this is my favorite altered dominant sound. Yeah, it's definitely my favorite altered dominant sound. And now this week as we're exploring the dominant flat 13 sound, I'm sitting here I'm thinking, no, no, this is definitely my favorite altered damas sound, right? So it's just amazing, right? These, they're just so beautiful, it's impossible to pick which one you enjoy. Most. They're all beautiful. And we have more to explore after the flat 13 sound, of course, but it's just kind of interesting. And just a little side note there. So okay, so now let's start looking at this sound through multiple perspectives. Okay, so now we're going to shift the sound and instead of playing it from the root to the seventh, I want to now focus on playing that sound from the third to the ninth, right, so I'm going to start on the E on my E and I'm going to play through the dominant flat 13 sound all the way up to the ninth to the second, right. So I get this. Let that ring. I just want to hear this sound. Let me do that again. Right, I just like I think I mentioned this last week too, that I just like to let it all blur together right blend together so I can really just digest the sound. I like to bathe in that sound. Wow, how beautiful. Okay, so now after I get my bearings straight, and I know exactly how I'm going to enter that sound, my entry point my destination point through the sound. Now I want to place it in a musical context in a musical setting. So let's bring the ensemble back in. And let's hear the dominant flat 13 sound, the C dominant, flat, 13 sound, with the entry point of the third, traveling to the ninth, and back down. Again, I'm not going to improvise, I'm just going to try to play this with the best jazz articulation and feel that I possibly can I want to play it as musically as possible. Okay. So here we go. Let's check it out. Wow, very nice. Very nice sound, a very nice perspective, right? Always nice to be shifting things around. I do it all the time. Those of you who've been listening for a while know that, when I play scales, I never have my entry point and my destination point, being one in the same, I always like to enter on a specific note within the sound. And I like to travel a specific distance to another note within the sound. So in this case, we just did the third to the ninth, right. So now we're going to keep that mindset. And we're going to shift again. Now my entry point goes to the fifth of the sound. So it's going to, I'm going to come in on that G and I'm going to travel through the dominant flat 13 sound all the way up to the F, which is the 11th. Right? So I'm going to do this again. Let that ring and I'm just gonna play the scale. Let it all blend together. Wow. Nice. So now let's bring in the ensemble is placed this perspective within a musical context within a musical setting, and see what we think. All right. So here we go. Let's check it out. Very, very cool. Love it. Really nice. Really nice sound really nice perspective, right? So nice. And you want to do this, right? We went from the root to the seventh and from the third to the ninth. And then we've now we've practiced the sound from the fifth up to the 11th. This is so important not just to get a different perspective through the ears, right? But the reality of it is when you're playing a tune when you're improvising. You have no idea right now when we're practicing this We have no idea where we are going to be coming from or where we are going to be going to win plain tune or improvising. So you have to be able to enter into an exit out of a sound at any given point, right? You have to it cannot be seen as one dimensional, right, you cannot just know a C scale starting on C. Just think about that for a second one dimensional, we have to have multiple dimensions, multiple perspectives, we have to be able to enter an exit freely within that sound at any given point within that sound. So, it's always a great way to practice from our major entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and as we're about to do from the seventh, and also from the ninth as well. But before we do, I want to make sure I mentioned to everyone the jazz piano skills courses. I know I've already talked about the educational podcast guides, the illustrations, the lead sheets to play alongs that are available for you to download. And I strongly suggest that you do they're invaluable resources that will maximize your musical growth for sure. But also the jazz piano skills courses are fantastic. They're it's a it's a different, it's a different tool, right. The Jazz panel skills courses are a, they make up a sequential jazz curriculum, that you utilize a self paced format, packed with all kinds of jazz education goodies. every lesson, every course has six lessons and every lesson is packed with detailed instruction and illustrations, in depth educational talks, interactive learning media, traditional guides and worksheets that you can download or do online, high definition video demonstrations in all 12 keys so you can see my fingerings and hand movement. Also the there's play along tracks and lead sheets again that you can utilize to help you and then also, of course professional and personal educational support is available. And yes, mobile access to all of the courses and lessons the jazz panel skills courses on the lessons through any of your smart devices, whether it be your laptop, or your desktop, whether it be your tablet, or your phone or your TV or your watch, right, so easy to access, great jazz piano courses and lessons at any time, regardless of where you are. So be sure to check out the jazz piano skills courses at jazz piano skills.com. Okay, back to the dominant flat 13 sound, right, we just looked at it from the root to the seventh from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th. Now I want to enter that sound through the seventh throat so through the B flat, right, and I'm going to travel through the sound to the flat 13. Nice. So I want to hear that with my voicing. Nice again. And again. We're gonna let this all bleed together. Really nice. Okay, so now let's place this perspective into a musical context musical setting. So we're going to bring the ensemble back in, I'm going to play the dominant flat 13 sound from the seventh to the flat 13. And again, I'm going to focus on my articulation my field I'm going to pretend that this line is part of an improvisational line so I want it to I want it to be as musical as I possibly can make it right. No, no jacking around, no improvisation. Just gonna ascend and descend through that sound making it as hip and cool and relaxed as I possibly can. So here we go. Let's Let's check it out. See what we think. Here we go. Man, hard to argue with that, right? What a great sound, regardless, right regardless of our entry point and our destination point, just a fantastic sound. So for our final perspective, right, we are going to start on the ninth of the flat, third dominant, flat 13 sounds, we're gonna start on our D, and we travel through the sound up to the root. So now we end right back at the root right where we started, right. So let me put that, let me put the voice in underneath that. Now let me play that. Let me have it all just blend together here. I'm talking about bathing in the sound. Such a great way to do that. Just let it all bleed together and just soak it in. Okay. So now let's bring the ensemble back in again. And let's hear the dominant flat 13 sound with our entry point being the ninth and our destination point being the root, right. So from D, up to C. So here we go. Let's check it out. Wow. So, so nice, right, we just literally took that dominant flat, 13 sound and we just kind of rotated right we looked at it from multiple perspectives, and got familiar with that sound from different entry points, traveling to different destination points. Now that's a thorough, that's a thorough exploration and dissecting of a sound. That's the way to practice not just the dominant flat, 13 sound, but any sound. So now what I want to do for the last demonstration of the day, I want to drop that sound into a musical progression, of course, we're going to use the classic 251 progression. So we're going to be in the key of F, we're going to be G minor, seven, going to our C seven flat 13 resolving to our F major to our one chord. Okay, so what I want to do is I want to make, I'm going to focus on that G minor chord, I'm going to focus entering that dominant flat 13 sound from the root of G minor. And then I'm going to travel ascending or descending with the dominant flat 13 sound, then you'll hear me emphasize the third of the G minor chord, and then travel ascending or descending through the dominant flat 13 sound from the third that G minor and then you'll hear me focus on the fifth of the G minor chord, and then enter into the dominant flat 13 sound and then finally the seventh of the G minor chord, and then enter into the dominant flat 13 sound using scale motion, either ascending or D Sending, okay, does that make sense. And the reason I'm focusing on either the root third, fifth or seventh of the minor chord because again, as I mentioned earlier, I have no idea where I'm going to be coming from when I enter into that dominant flat 13 sound. So I'm purposely having a focal point shift on the minor chord, to, to force me to enter that dominant flat 13 sound from a different entry point. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble back and let's hear the dominant flat 13 sound placed in the context AV of a 251 progression. And let's, let's see what we think, right? Let's make this as musical as we possibly can. We want to make this sound like jazz. So here we go. Let's check it out. Wow, hello, dominant flat 13 What a great sound to have in your toolbox. What a great sound to utilize. When plain standards and improvising. Fantastic write. Simply fantastic. Again, dominant. Sharp 11 was fantastic dominant flat 13 equally as fantastic. So I hope you have found this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring the dominant flat 13 sound to be insightful. And of course, I hope it is very beneficial for you as well. Don't forget I will see you Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass. 8pm, central time to discuss this podcast episode in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about this lesson. This jazz piano skill or the study of jazz in general. Also, be sure to download the educational guides for this podcast lesson at jazz piano skills.com very tremendous resource that will help you tremendously, they will expedite your musical growth. And while you're there, you should check out the jazz piano skill skills courses as well. Don't forget about the jazz piano skills forums, join the community get involved, make some new jazz piano friends. And as always, you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 extension 211 that's my office extension here at the Dallas School of Music by email, Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com. That's Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com or, by the speakpipe. Use the speakpipe widget found on the jazz piano skills website in the educational guides or in the jazz piano skills courses. It's all over the place making it as easy as possible for you to reach out to me. So that's it for now. And until next week. Enjoy this amazing journey. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano