Don't Blame Me, Melodic Analysis

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. I hope everyone enjoyed this past week exploring the harmonic structure of the great jazz standard. Don't blame me. As always, we tackled many essential jazz piano skills. We looked at the form of Don't blame me. The standard chord changes of Don't blame me. We're looking at the harmonic function of Don't blame me the common harmonic movement found within Don't blame me. And of course, last but certainly not least, my suggested voicings for Don't blame me for that question, right, a ton of information that, hopefully, hopefully, the process of harmonic study is getting easier each and every month. You know, I mentioned on several occasions that there is a sequential order to learn how to play jazz piano, which indeed there is, and there is also a sequential order to learn how to play tunes. Step one is always harmony. This week, we take step two and thoroughly study melody next week. Step three, improvisation, Harmony melody improvisation is 123 Punch, right? That allows us to discover, learn and play a tune successfully. Now, I mentioned last week, that if you have been a faithful jazz piano skills listener for the past four plus years, then you have become intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to successfully begin tune study. And I also mentioned that if you haven't been granted along with us over the past four plus years, no worries, no sweat. This is always a great time to jump on board begin developing enhancing your jazz piano skills. The tune study that we do each and every month will actually help you sift through and prioritize the last four years of podcast episodes so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano skills right now immediately. So if you're a jazz piano skills Vette fantastic if you're a jazz piano skills, rookie, wonderful. You're in the right place at the right time to begin jazz piano journey that will have a profound and I mean, a profound impact on your understanding of music. And of course, on your jazz piano playing as well. So today, you are going to discover a melodic analysis of the jazz standard Don't blame me. You're going to learn melody guide tones, finger phrases target notes, for Don't blame me. And you're going to play three different melodic treatments of Don't blame me, Ballard Basa swing. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, right, whether you're a beginner, an intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcasts lesson, exploring Don't blame me to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to as I always do welcome first time listeners to jazz piano skills. And if you are indeed a new listener to the jazz panel skills podcast or if you're just simply new to jazz piano skills, I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Your membership grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode and for every weekly podcast episode. premium content will help you thoroughly and correctly discover learn to play the jazz standard that we are currently exploring, and so much more. For example, as a jazz piano skills member you have access to the past current and future educational weekly podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs that I designed and developed to go along with every weekly podcast episode. You also have access to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks. There's interactive learning media video demonstrations of the jazz panel skills and all 12 keys and so much more. As a member your premium content reserves a seat for you in my online weekly masterclass. which is held every Thursday evening. If you can't attend, it's no big deal because the master classes are recorded. So you can watch the video of the class and rewatch the class whenever and as often as you wish. You'll also have access to an online interactive fate book containing must know jazz standards with excellent chord changes, chord scale relationships, harmonic function analysis, there's listening suggestions, historical insights, and more. So wellworth as a jazz piano skills member, you can also hang out with some old friends and meet some new friends in the online private jazz panel skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums. And finally, as a jazz panel skills member, your premium content allows you unlimited private, and personal, professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. So all of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz piano skills.com. And of course, become a member to enjoy premium content, plus all of the other privileges that I just mentioned. So check it out. And as always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you, and answer any questions that you may have. Okay, on to the question of the week and this week's question comes from Pat do shit. Living in Houston, Houston, Texas. And Pat writes, I know it is important to study music theory, especially as an aspiring jazz pianist. However, there are so many different music theory books available today. And it's overwhelming. I would like to know if there is a specific book that you would recommend for a beginner. As always, thanks for your help, and guidance. Well, Pat, you're 100% Correct. There are an overwhelming number of music theory books available today. And I'm talking to jazz music theory books, right? It's overwhelming. No doubt about it. But if I had to pick one, one jazz music theory book, for you to have sitting on your piano, it would have to be the book called The jazz language by DAN HURLEY, the jazz language by DAN HURLEY. Now this book has been around for a very long time. And it's considered a classic within the world of jazz education. And in fact, this book has been used for years, and it still may be used at the University of North Texas to teach jazz theory to all of the jazz majors. The entire the entire title of the book, however, is check this out. The entire title of the book is called the jazz language, a theory text for jazz composition and improvisation. Right? The title is pretty telling write a theory text. In other words, get ready to read, get ready to think, which of course is right in line with what I preach all the time, that your conceptual understanding drives your physical development. In other words, you have to know jazz first and foremost in your mind before you can have any chance of physically executing it in your hands. So I absolutely love the entire title of this book, The jazz language, a theory texts for jazz composition and improvisation by Mr. DAN HURLEY. Now a quick side note, Dan, who I had as a guest on jazz piano skills back on July 6 2021. In fact, he was he served on faculty here at the Dallas School of Music for eight years as well, so I get to work side by side with him. Dan was considered one of the jazz education pioneers. There's no doubt about it, you know, after John Mohegan. Dan was part of a trio of jazz educators who are all legends in the field. The two other giants, Jerry Coker, David Baker. So it's DAN HURLEY, Jerry Coker, David Baker, pioneers in the field of jazz education. Okay, so back to the book. It's a thin book, which is deceiving right? It's a thin book but it is packed packed with essential jazz information, the absolutely no fluff, zero fluff to this book. So to my point, let's check out the various chapters of this book. We have chapter one intervals, chapter two basic chord construction, Chapter three modes of the major scale

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chapter four basic substitution and function, chapter 5/13 chords, chapter six modes of the harmonic minor scale, chapters seven voicing and connecting chords, chapter eight modes of the ascending melodic minor scale. So you see he's got modes of the major scale modes of the harmonic minor scale modes of the ascending melodic minor scales. He goes on chapter nine poly chord nomenclature really very important. Chapter 10, symmetrical altered scales, fabulous Chapter, Chapter 11. Advanced substitution and function chapter 12, pentatonic and blues scales. Awesome. Chapter 13, five part harmony. Nice. That's maybe why I have all my two handed voicings or five note structures, chapter 14 synthetic scales. And then there are several appendix in the book as well developing improvisational skills, Melody harmonization checklist, hints on transcribing solos, mode identification guide, and a suggested course syllabus. See what I mean? No fluff, zero fluff in this book. Now, each chapter This is fabulous. Each chapter ends with a set of study questions, followed by written exercises, paper practice, as I like to call it. And keyboard exercises where you physically play, right. So he spends all this time in each chapter, helping you digest the jazz theory conceptually, right, gives you some paper practice exercises to help with that process. And then you do then you execute you play, right? So the conceptual understanding comes first, the physical application. Second, right. So this entire book is organized and structured extremely well. And honestly, I can't think of another jazz theory book. That's better. They just can't. And I would highly recommend. So Pat, I would suggest picking up a copy of the jazz language, a theory text for jazz composition, improvisation by DAN HURLEY, available at of course, Amazon. And I think you will find it to be very rewarding, right? It's not going to be necessarily an easy book, not by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of reading and a lot of thinking, right? Packed in these within the pages of this book, but but I would strongly recommend picking up a copy and that would be the one if I had to pick one, that would be the one I would recommend. So great question, Pat. And as always, if you want some additional guidance regarding jazz theory material, do not hesitate to contact me again. I'm always happy to help you in any way that I can't. So, okay, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play. Don't blame me. Okay, so, since the beginning of the year, I have presented I think just about every week my outline for studying and learning any tune. And again, for me, the genre makes no difference. I don't care whether it's a jazz tune, a rock tune, pop tune country folk or r&b. I approach learning a tune the same way regardless of the genre. Number one, I listen. I always listen and I like to listen to various artists I like to listen to vocalist, I like to listen to instrumentalists. And of course, I listen to pianist number two, I will always lock in first and foremost on after listening on determining the form of the two. Every song has a form. What is Is it a BA A B A B A B A C and so on. After I have form identified, I will then turn my attention to learning the chords and the voicings for the to the harmonic movement to come up common harmonic progressions. I like to lock in on various cadences to five ones one, four or five, fill in the rest of the harmonic movement of the piece. So once I have my chord shape ranges, then I'll turn my attention to learning the melody of the tune. And then finally, after I have my chords, my melody under control. Now the fun we wrote, the real fun begins I get to turn my attention to various treatments, and of course, improvisation. And that's it right? Nothing more, nothing less. Listen, I determined form checkout, I learned a chords and the voicings, I learned the melody, and I explored various treatments. That's it. All right. This week, last week, we did our harmonic work, right. Last week, we did. Listen, we did determine form we did look at the chord changes in harmonic function, common harmonic movement and the voicings for Don't blame me. This week, we turn our attention to a melodic analysis. And don't blame me. Right. So our goal, as always, right, like to keep things really organized, really structured, clean and tidy. As I like to say, you know, and I do this with my skill study or tune study, again, that makes no difference, right? Whether I'm focusing on a skill or learning a tune, I want it to be very organized, very structured, very clean, very tidy, conceptual understanding of all that we do musically, must be structured and simple. That's the goal, right? So that it can be replicated over and over and over again, right. And y'all can attest to the fact that I've said it many times over the past four plus years. In fact, I've already said it when talking about Dan Hurley's book, The jazz language, your conceptual understanding of music drives your physical development, therefore, your conceptual understanding of music, the goal is to get it to where your conceptual understanding is simple. It's simple, it's organized, right? Because if it's not simple and organized, then it's unorganized. And it's confusing, right? And if it's unorganized and confusing conceptually upstairs, you have no shot zero shot of executing it in your hands downstairs on the piano. brutal fact, just as simple as that, you have to sort out the details conceptually first, therefore, we keep our tune steady, very structured and simple and replicatable. We do the same thing, right. Every month, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation, we have an outline. So with that being said, the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we begin part two of our exploration of Don't blame me with a melodic analysis part two. All right, number two, we are going to listen of course to a definitive recording of Don't blame me. Number three, we're going to turn our attention to the melody of Don't blame me. Number four, we'll discuss the fingerings that I suggest for Don't blame me. Number five, we will discover learn and play the melodic phrases of Don't blame me. Number six, we will discover learn and play the melodic target notes of Don't blame me. And number seven, we will discover learn and play the melody with voicings of Don't blame me right using three different treatments, three different treatments. So we have a ton to do no doubt about it. So if you're a jazz panel skills member I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button I want you to download and print your podcast packets. These are the illustrations the lead sheets, the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode for every podcast episode, past, current and future right. So I mentioned that every week you should be using these podcast packets when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course you should be using them when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google Spotify, I Heart Radio Amazon Pandora The list goes on and on. Then I would recommend going directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com jazz piano skills podcast.com And

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you will find the active download links for each of the podcast packets in the show notes. Or you can log into your jazz panel skills account. And from your Dashboard, navigate to this episode where you will find one convenient link to download all three podcast packets in one convenient bundle. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab lead your lead sheets right and you should have six lead sheets. lead sheet one and provides you a great template for learning the malady of Don't blame me, using your ears, right not reading that, but using your ears with some help from the lyrics and we'll go through that here shortly. Number two, lead sheet two provides you with the melody of Don't blame me. Number Number three, your lead sheet three provides you with my suggested fingerings that I would recommend using when playing the melody for Don't blame me. lead sheet four highlights five phrases that we'll use for really solidifying our understanding of the melody and learning the tune, don't blame me. And number five, or lead sheet five illuminates the target notes, the beginning and ending of these phrases that we use for melodic development and quite honestly for improvisational development that we will be focusing on next week. And then finally, lead sheet six combines the melody with my suggested voicings that I presented last week with our harmonic analysis for Don't blame me. So no question about it. Right. We have some invaluable tools to utilize today to discover learn and play. So what so let's get busy. What's the first thing that we're going to do? You got it right? We're going to listen, because that's what we do. Right? We do it every every week, the first thing we do, always, always and I stress it all the time because I believe quite honestly, I believe that is the most important step of all. I can't even imagine attempting to learn a tune without doing a lot of listening of that tune without checking out a lot of different artists and you know what artists from different genres genres to, I always course select jazz musicians because it's jazz piano skills. But if there are redundant renditions of this tune from other genres, I'll check those out as well. So I typically listen to vocalist first, as you know, right followed by instrumentalist followed by Panis. Regardless, bottom line, I listened. And that's what we're going to do right now be going before we go any further, right now, last week, we checked out Nat King Cole. This week, we turn our intention to an instrumental treatment. And I've selected none other than the great the iconic, Charlie Parker. And now this is taken from the album One night in Washington, which features Parker with an orchestra which is fabulous. So as always, right as always, I want you to grab your favorite beverage cup of coffee or whatever you enjoy drinking. I want you to sit back and I want you to enjoy simply the best of the best. This is Charlie Parker. Again from from the album One night in Washington. Plain Don't blame me and nine teen 53 Check this out.

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is pretty amazing, right? You know, as with all recordings, I want to encourage you to listen to it over and over and over again. And every time you do, I promise you, every time you do, you'll hear something new. And it will have a profound impact on the development of your treatment of the tune. So check it out, listen to it over and over again, the great Charlie Parker plain Don't blame me. So now, let's explore those lead sheets, I want you to grab lead sheet one, let's discover how to properly begin learning the melody of Don't blame me using your ears. Okay, so lead sheet one, you'll see has just what I call melody guide notes. And those melody guide notes are really determined by the lyrics of the two. And you can find a copy of the entire lyrics of Don't blame me, I've included it in your illustration packet. So if you want to grab that as well and have all of the lyrics in front of you, that would, that would be great. But you see what I've changed it up a little bit this month, and I've put underneath each of the melody guide tones, I literally put the lyric that goes that is being played with that, or sung with that note, okay. So if you need these melodic guide tones to help you with lyrics at with the lyrics included. Fantastic, right, it's great. This is how I, this is how I go about learning to melody. But however, if you don't need that, you already have the melody secured in your mind, and you can hum it and sing it, then great, then a little, a little lead sheet like this, a little crutch like this to help you decipher or discover or transcribe the melody because in essence, that's what you're really doing here you're transcribing the melody. This is I put this in the packet in your lead sheets packet, because I find it to be very helpful. And I think that the addition of the Lyric, the word that's being spoken along with the note, I think you'll find that to be very helpful as well. I'm curious to get your feedback. So let me know what you think of that. So once you've transcribed the melody, once you feel like you have it, again, you're not, you're not cheating, you're not looking, you know, going to the internet and looking up the lead sheet with the melody written in it. I don't want you to do that I want you to 100% Use your ear, I want you to hunt and peck and find that melody, transcribe that melody using your ears. And that is why it is so important to listen to the tune over and over and over again and from various artists, so that you do absorb the melody internally, orally so that this transcribing process becomes easier and easier every time you do it. So once you feel like you've done all that you've can with the transcripts transcribing of the melody, then I would grab lead sheet two. And with lead sheet two, you see that I have the melody written out for you, right. And so now you can compare your work. How well did you do? What did you get correct? What notes of the melody Did you miss? Right? So if you got 5%? Correct, fantastic. That's a start. That's where you need to start. If you got 50% Wonderful. If you got 80 or plus percent. It's it's time to celebrate. If you got it all. You're rocking it. So listen, I don't want you to fall into the trap of of thinking, oh my goodness gracious if, if this is the first time you're doing it, and you only got 510 15% of the melody right? Listen, this is where we all begin every single one of us. So if you're falling into that boat right now, the hardest part is over. You've done it, you've started. So I can't encourage you enough to keep doing this kind of melodic transcribing to help develop your ears. Okay, so lead sheet one Got a little template to help you transcribe lead sheet to gives you the melody written out so that you can compare your work and see how you've done. Okay? Okay, so now let's take a look at lead sheet three and this is where I have inserted my fingerings that I would recommend. Now a couple of things I want to point out on the fingers. If you look at measure three, we have in measure three, measure five, measure six, we have quarter note, triplets, quarter note triplets, and you'll notice that the fingerings, I have the fingerings changing on each one of those quarter notes, even though it's the same note like in measure three, the melody has quarter note triplets on the note F. So it's the same note, but the fingerings go three to one. You may be asking or thinking, why do I need to alternate my fingerings? Well, the answer is you don't have to write it's a slow tune for playing as a ballad, you could probably get away with just using your third finger and playing all three of those F's that quarter note triplet with the same fingering. And likewise in the same in measure five and likewise and measure six however, I would recommend getting used to take advantage of Don't blame me being a ballad. Take advantage of that, and practice alternating your fingering, you know moving three to one through those quarter note triplets. So that you get acclimated to that feel because quite honestly, as tunes pick up different tempos, and even at a ballad tempo, I think it makes a big difference in the articulation of that melodic line. So experiment with that a little bit. As always, I always say that you can feel free to modify these fingerings as you'd like. But I want you to know the the changing of the fingering throughout those quarter note triplets. That is intentional 100% intentional, okay. So when practicing the melody, when solidifying your fingerings, it is perfectly fine to do so without playing the chords in your left hand. Right to just focus on the melodic line. Thinking like an instrumentalist. Focus on playing that melody using fingerings that gives you the articulation that you are desiring with your treatment of Don't blame me. Okay, now this is a fairly simple melody. So this is a great one to kind of cut your teeth on to explore a little bit with some fingerings to see what works for you see what you like. And feel free to make some, like I said, make some changes. But experiment a little bit with that quarter note triplet, right. Don't be too quick to just play it with the same fingering and and leave it at that. Okay, so now let's grab lead sheet for lead sheet four is where we I focus on the phrases found within the melodic line of Don't blame me and you'll see that I have five red boxes on this page. Each box of course represents a melodic phrase within the melody of Don't blame me. So phrase number one right

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now, when learning the melody right with some of our melodic guide Thompson the lyrics I was having you focus on little melodic fragments, like the very first fragment fragment one fragment two. That's great way to learn the melody on these melodic fragments determined by the lyrics. However, the musical phrase a musical phrase can contain multiple fragments. And in this case, phrase one has two melodic fragments here right.

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That's how I hear a phrase to

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by the way, the pickup note at the end of measure four is part of that phrase to just couldn't figure out how to get the red box to around that pickup note and the free phrase online too. So anyway, so we have two phrases there in the first eight measures. If we get to the B section, or the second a section For the first four measures, they are the same as the first four measures in the first a section. But I indicate the next four measures, it varies, changes slightly. And so I treat that as a different phrase and how does it go

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there you go. Phrase three, then we get to the bridge, the bridge consists of course, eight measures, two phrases, each phrase being four measures in length. So phrase one.

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Beautiful phrase to

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Okay, so and then the last a section, we're playing phrases that we've already played in the first a section, and the second a section. So, so we have really five phrases, five phrases that I would recommend practicing, isolating and practicing those phrases. Okay? Then, then, once you have those phrases, each of those phrases under your belt, I think you'll find putting the entire piece together to be a snap to be much easier. Okay. So lead sheet for dealing with each of the musical phrases, five of them, in this case, gold, practice them, and the tune will fall in place quickly for you, I promise. Okay, so now grab a lead sheet five, right, and the lead, lead sheet five, my goal here with this lead sheet is to illuminate really the first and the last note of the musical phrases to highlight those, right? So if you look at phrase number one, which is measures one, two, which include what measures 123 and four, right, the first note of our musical phrase is the note, G. And the last note of our musical phrase is the note D on that C major. So we have a G on our C major. And we end with the ninth on C major. A melody falls in between those two notes right, so.

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Okay, so I see the melodic line unfolding between the first note of my phrase and the last note of my phrase. So why this is important. It really number one, it will help you learn and digest those musical phrases when learning them. But it's really kind of improvisation prep. Alright, so when I'm improv, improvising through Don't blame me, I am very much aware of my entry points on my phrases in the destination point of my phrases, so that my improvisational lines can mimic those entry points and destination points. Okay. So that's why I illuminate this, I would practice those musical phrases with those entry points and destination points in mind, knowing where you're starting the phrase, knowing where you're ending the phrase, and, and in doing so, your ear gets acclimated to that and is listening for that as well listening for these target notes. Okay. And we'll talk more about this, of course, next week when we turn our attention to improvisation. So, don't gloss over lead sheet five. I think once you have the phrases under your hands, then it's then you take the next step with the musical phrases, and focus on and illuminate the entry points and the destination points of each one of those phrases. So in lead sheet, five here, I have those red boxes around each of those target notes of each of the phrases going through the entire two. Okay. All right, so now let's turn our attention to lead sheet six. lead sheet six, you'll see that I have the melodic line written out and I have the voicings that I introduced the last week that I use my left hand voicings that I use with Don't blame me. So what I want to do now is I want to present three different treatments of Don't blame me, using those voicings to support work the melodic line or the melody of Don't blame me. So I'm going to bring the ensemble then I'm going to start with the ballad treatment. And this is a tempo of 8585. And I'm going to play this lead sheet. Basically, as written, I'm going to play these voicings with a mallet, I'm not going to try to do anything fancy, because I really want you to hear the melody. And I want you to hear these voicings, and I want you to hear the melody in the voicings within the ballad context, right. And then likewise, I'll do the same for the Bossa treatment, and then also a swing treatment. Okay, so the only thing I would mention is, before I begin playing, is, you know, in the in the bridge of this tune, there is in the second half of the bridge, I use an A flat dominant altered chord as a sub between the D seven and the D minor, the melody is played as a D, F sharp, B against that a flat. Right, sometimes I may play that instead of the flat five sound, which which the D natural would be sometimes I like actually playing that with a sharp five sound. Right. So, you may hear that little slight variation from time to time within the melodic treatment of the song, but everything else is pretty much straightforward. I might do some rhythmic, slight rhythmic variations. Obviously, everything in the lead sheet is written in half notes, but I may do some rhythmic fare. Why No, I'm going to do some rhythmic variation, but not not a whole lot. I'm going to keep things pretty straight. Pretty much like the lead sheet is notated. So let's bring out sample and let's listen to Don't blame me ballad treatment tempo 185 Using my suggested voicings in the left hand and the melody in the right hand. Okay, here we go check it out.

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Yeah, right. So I would encourage you to keep it simple. Keep it simple. This is not about improvising. This is not about trying to do something fancy. This is all about experimenting with the voicings and the melody, hearing them together and hearing them within the context of a treatment. So this is not about, you know, preparing for a concert. So, keep it simple. All right now, taking the exact same melody, the exact same voicings in the left hand. And by the way, most of the voicings I'm using that left hand are four note block shapes. I do have some traditional shell voicings, do use some chordal shapes, contemporary chordal shapes in there as well to, you know, to note shells, in addition to the traditional contemporary shell so, so there's a little mixture of everything but primarily, the majority of the voicings as you can see when looking at the lead sheets, they are primarily for note block voicings. Now I'm not necessarily playing root third five, seven for all those blocks as as is a good example would be the very first block with the C major seven and plan is E, G, B, D, which is a C major nine sound, right? C major nine. So anyway, we're going to take those exact same voicings exact same melody, we're going to kick up the tempo to 110 and we're going to play it with a bossa treatment but again, I'm going to keep it very straightforward very simple play what's on the lead sheet here so that we can hear that melody and the chord changes together in the context of a bossa treatment. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble back in and let's check this out here we go.

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Yeah, very nice right, exact same voicings exact same melody, just treating it a little bit different rhythmically to capture that Basa groove to play it in that kind of setting that kind of context. But the point being is same voicings, same melody, just treating it a little bit different rhythmically to create that Basa groove. Okay, so now I want to do the exact same thing going to increase the tempo a little more to 130 and we're going to apply a swing groove. So this is going to be a swing treatment of Don't blame me. Again using the exact same voicings, of course the exact same melody together as written in the lead sheet, nothing fancy. Again, not trying to prepare a concert here I'm wanting us to really focus on that melodic line with these voicings and then the the various rhythmic treatments that are and adjustments that are needed to go from a ballad to a Basa to swing so let's bring the ensemble back in and let's check out Don't blame me 130 traditional swing group here we go.

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Right very nice. So there you have it, we have a ballad treatment. We have a bossa treatment, we have a swing treatment using the exact same voicings and of course, the exact same melody but changing it rhythmically to be stylistically correct. And I would encourage you to practice that right if you're at that stage of the game, and you're jazz piano development. Practice, one, two, or all three of those treatments, okay. You'll love the growth even even if you feel like you're struggling, you will love the growth. In attempting to play don't blame me using three various treatments. And again, you don't have to play the entire tune, maybe play the the first day section, just practice playing the first day section as a ballad. The first a section has Abaza the First Aid section as a swing group, right? So don't think you have to play the entire tune as you're developing your jazz piano skills. Well, there you have it. Don't blame me Part Two a melodic analysis. I mentioned at the beginning of those podcasts less than that the very first thing I do and learning to tune is a harmonic analysis, which we did last week. And we always follow that up with a thorough melodic analysis just like the one we did today. And then of course, we'll turn our attention to an improvisation exploration which we will do next week. Today with our melodic analysis, the goal. And of course, the goal is with every tune that we do and explore melodically is to secure our conceptual understanding and physical execution of the tunes melody using our ear, right, we want to determine the proper fingerings. To use with that melody, we want to understand the phrases that are found within the melody. And we want to be aware of the target notes of those phrases the entry point the destination point of those of those musical phrases, as I mentioned, really in preparation for improvisation, which again we will be doing next week. So listen time, the time that you spend nailing down the melody the fingering if raises the target notes, exploring various treatments of the tune. It's time very well spent. So take your time. As always, do not rush this stage of the tune learning process and above all, be patient. But begin structuring your tune learning process after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode to discover, learn and play. Don't blame me. And if you do, I promise you if you do, you will begin to see you'll begin to feel you'll begin to hear significant jazz piano growth. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring Don't Blame Me Part Two and melodic analysis to be insightful and beneficial. Don't forget, I'll see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass. That's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode less than exploring, don't blame me in greater detail. And of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general, if you can't make the class no big deal, right? All the classes are recorded, and you can watch the video of the class whenever convenient. And as often as you wish, all you have to do you'll access it right through your jazz piano skills account right through your dashboard. If you have any questions, please post them in the jazz panel skills forum so all the members can benefit and can and can contribute. And if you need to reach me personally, you can do so by phone. My office number here at the Dallas School of Music is 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 by email if you prefer reaching out that way, it's Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the jazz piano skills website. Well, there's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy Don't blame me part two, a melodic analysis. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn, and play jazz piano!