Groovin' High

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence, it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Well, the last couple of weeks, we have looked at five different jazz improvisation patterns. For the primary sounds of music, plus the altered sounds of music, the primary sounds being the major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. The altered sounds deriving from the harmonic and melodic minor scales, which would be the sharp 11, flat 13, flat nine, flat 13. And of course, the fully altered sound, which includes the flat nine, sharp nine, flat five, sharp five, we've done all this from the root note of B. Wow. Now we apply these five jazz improvisation patterns to these iconic sounds to the primary sounds and as well as the altered sounds. And we studied and applied proper fingerings to these patterns, making it possible to play with an authentic jazz articulation. The goal of our fingerings as always, is to allow the continuous incremental shifting of our right hand across the keys so that we articulate correctly and of course, never run out of fingers. It only makes sense, right? That the continuous shifting of our right hand when plain establishes small movements, which are much more manageable and much more accurate than giant leaps. Now I've said it many times, understanding and applying this truth becomes paramount when improvising and playing melodies of tunes especially bebop tunes, and especially the Bebop tune that we are about to discover, learn and play today. So today, you're going to discover a classic by John Burks Gillespie, better known as Dizzy Gillespie, his classic tune grooving Hi. And we're going to learn the chord changes harmonic function, Melody and fingerings for grooving. And we're gonna play multiple patterns extracted from groovin high for developing classic jazz language to use when improvising. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring Dizzy Gillespie's groovin high to be very beneficial. But before we get started, before we dig in, I want to as I always do welcome first time listeners to jazz piano skills and if you are a new listener, if you're new to jazz panel skills new to the jazz panel skills podcast, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz panel skills member. Now there are various membership plans to choose from. So when you have a moment, visit jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all the perks that come along with each membership plan. For instance, there are educational weekly podcast packets, which include illustrations, lead sheets and play alongs. There's an online sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses. Online weekly master classes online interactive Fakebook and, of course, a private jazz piano skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums on top of all that. There's also unlimited private, personal, and professional educational support. All these perks are waiting for you wanting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So once again, when you have a free moment, visit jazz panels skills.com And of course become a member. Now once you arrive at the site. If you're poking around looking at the various membership plans and you have some questions, please by all means, reach out to me. I'm happy to spend a little time with you answer any questions that you may have, and help you determine which membership plan is right for you. So typically, at this point, I have The question of the week, but because I have a ton to get through today, with this bebop standard, in addition to looking at the changes harmonic function and fingerings, I have six patterns that we are going to explore for developing improvisational vocabulary. So needless to say, I'm freaking out here a little bit, because I'm going to try to get through all of this within an hour. Right? I may do two questions of the week in an upcoming episode and make up for today. But for now, I need you just fasten your seat belt and get ready because here we go. All of us. I've mentioned this several times, all of us, every single one of us, at the beginning of our jazz journey, invest a lot of time, effort and energy searching for the secrets to learning how to play jazz, we all do it. We all try to find those shortcuts, right? There are all kinds of approaches and gimmicks that are out there promising to help us discover that shortcut way, right? And hopefully shave years off of our developmental timeframe at all. That sounds fantastic. I mean, it's a good game plan. However, it doesn't work. Now, we've all done it. And today, today, it's easier than ever right with YouTube, plus the gazillion other sites that are out there. Right there are million literally a million rabbit holes that you can run, jump in and blind alleys that you can run down to search for the secret formula for playing jazz and the secret formula just doesn't exist. I think you know that right? In our search, right, we end up with a ton of data fragments, with absolutely no idea whatsoever how to connect them, or even to determine if they should be connected at all right. So I'm here to tell you that the secrets that you're looking for, are all buried within the heads of bebop tunes. Within the heads of the bebop tunes. We discover all the skills, the jazz piano skills that we need to extract from those heads and practice skills such as a strong command of scales, skills, such as a strong command of arpeggios, right skills, such as development of great melodic ideas and lines for improvisation, skills such as articulation and phrasing, right all of all of this are buried within these melodies and today's tune by Dizzy Gillespie is a perfect example of all of these essential skills the bottom line. If you want to get good at playing jazz, there is no better way than studying it historically. And historically speaking, no period of jazz will help you develop your time your field articulation, fingerings improvisational vocabulary, then the Bebop period. Now the Bebop period right is typically consistent tippet typically consistent tunes with fast tempos, challenging melodies, tons of chord changes, with some of them being complex, and numerous key centers with within a single tune. Today Dizzy Gillespie's grooving high. It's pretty good example of that right? Bottom line again, bebop is the perfect formula for developing jazz chops. There's no need for any of us to look any further for a shortcut. Alright, or internet searches over everything about jazz that we need to know and develop the jazz piano skills that we are in search of discovering and to learn and to play are found within the melodies of bebop tunes. And that is why you've heard me say this, that bebop is what I call jazz, gold. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. We will explore Dizzy Gillespie's groove in high number two. We're going to examine the chord changes and harmonic function of groove and high number three, we will of course play the melody of groove in high and explore proper fingerings number four, we're going to extract six classic patterns from the melody of groovin. hi to us for discovering and developing our very own jazz vocabulary. And number five, we will be playing groovin high today at a tempo of 140 which is faster than the tempos we usually play but not nearly as fast asked as the temples that Dizzy Gillespie plays so

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so keep that in mind. So if you are a jazz piano skills member once you take a few minutes right now hit the pause button, I want you to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets in the play alongs for groovin high. Again, your membership grants you access to all of the educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episodes. So be sure to use them, especially as you're listening to this episode, and you're going to want to have them exercise while sitting at the piano and playing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories, which there are gazillion of them, you got Apple and Google and Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio Pandora, the list goes on and on. Then be sure to go directly to jazz piano skills. podcast.com That's jazz piano skills podcast.com to access and to download your podcast packets and you'll find the active download links within the show notes. Okay, one final but very significant message. If you are listening, and you're thinking in the back of your mind that the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play as we explore Dizzy Gillespie's groovin Hi, if you're thinking that these skills are like way over your head, then I would say to you relax, no worries, right? Just continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz panel skills intellectually by doing just that by listening. Right every new skill is over our heads when first introduced but but this is how we get better. We place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations, where we were hearing words to we've never heard before. We're hearing things we've never heard before. And it forces us to grow intellectually. I say it all the time. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually, before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So it's important to spend time just listening to conversations like we're gonna have today. In this podcast lesson, right listen, to discover and learn the play, as it always does, will come in time, I guarantee it. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets in your hands, I want to talk you through them quickly, you will see that lead sheets one and two. Present the chord changes and harmonic function for groovin hide lead sheet one presents chord changes lead sheet to the harmonic function to help you truly discover and learn the changes in harmonic function for grooving. Hi, I strongly recommend you using the lead sheet templates found in your illustrations podcast packet. Okay, now lead sheet three has the chord changes along with the melody. And the lead sheet four has the chord changes along with the melody plus the fingerings that I use when playing groovin. I spend time a lot of time playing the head, the melody over and over and over again, especially at slow tempos much slower than the 140 that we're going to be playing today. Right. So play the melody over and over at slow tempos as well as the chord changes. Now lead sheets five through 10 deal with six patterns that I have extracted from the melody of groovin high, right and we're going to use these patterns as launchpads for developing our own jazz vocabulary needed when we improvise. Right so as I mentioned earlier, we have a lot to get through today. So we need to get busy. First things first, though. My favorite part. Let's listen to groovin Hi by Dizzy Gillespie. So I want you to grab your lead sheet and I want you to follow along. Now, this is a great recording. This is a 19 because there's like I don't know hundreds of recordings of Irvin high up there but this recording is from 1945 Guild records. Okay, we have it's an all star cast. We have Charlie Parker on alto saxophone of course Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. We got to Slam Stewart playing bass. It doesn't get any better than that. And piano Clyde Hart So I want you to just sit back and listen to this 1945 record, it's classic, you'll even hear that it's a 70 recorded on a 78. So you'll hear all the little scratches in the recording as well which I just love that. So let's sit back and let's enjoy Dizzy Gillespie's groovin Hi here we go.

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Is that great? Or is that great? That's just oh my goodness gracious. scratches in all it's fantastic. Okay, so now we know how groovin Hi, sounds the tune. Now it's time for it's time for us to get to work. So let's grab our lead sheets. Let's start with lead sheet one and lead sheet two, grab lead sheet one and lead sheet two. You'll notice I want you to place these two lead sheets side by side. You'll notice that lead sheet one we're dealing with the core changes of groovin Hi, and lead sheet two you see the Roman numeral notation. Instead of the chord changes, you'll see the Roman numerals which represents the harmonic function of groovin. Hi, now groovin and groovin high is a classic 32 Bar tune 32 measures. And it's standard key, the key of E flat major, the form of groovin high is a classic, A B A B form. Okay, some little differences there between the B sections, but overall we would consider this and a B A B form. Now what I typically like to do is have these two lead sheets side by side. And I'm going to play through groovin Hi, the chord changes much slower than what we just listened to. We're going to play I'm going to play through the chord changes at 140. And I'm going to play through the form twice. And this is a little exercise that I enjoyed doing where I'll look at lead sheet one. And when I'm looking at the chord changes, I want to be thinking harmonic function. I want to be thinking in other words, Roman numerals. The second time through I'm going to look at lead sheet two With the Roman numerals, and I want to see the chord changes, I think the chord changes, right? So I'm, yeah, I'm saying that right. So I want to see, as I always say, I want to see or think I want to think the opposite of what I'm saying. So I'm looking at lead sheet one with the chord changes, I want to be thinking harmonic function. When I look at lead sheet two with harmonic function, I want to be thinking chord changes. Now, this is a skill that takes some practice. And of course, at 140, it's even, it's challenging, because the changes are going by relatively, rather quickly, right? So but you can do this at much slower tempos, the same concept, all right, we want to condition ourselves to be able to think the opposite of what we are saying. So let's bring the ensemble in, let's give this a try and grab what you can as you do it, in other words, there may be some changes that you miss, right? That's okay. So just grab the information that you can in other words, you know, it's okay that a chord change goes by and you're like, Man, I didn't, I didn't know the harmonic function of that chord change, okay, or it's okay for a harmonic function notation to go by and you were were unable to identify the core change, grab what you can all right. So let's bring ensemble endless listen to the chord changes of groovin high lead sheet one lead sheet two here we go.

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Nice Okay, so, look at the objective, as I mentioned, right you we want to be able to think the opposite of what we see. So, you can play through these chord changes at a much slower tempo you can take lead sheet one play the chord changes think a harmonic function, take a lead sheet to play the chord changes, think chord changes. Alright, now, when you're playing the chord changes, I was playing two handed voicing structures, right. But you could play contemporary shells, you can play traditional shells, you could play traditional block voicings if you'd like it really does not matter as you're working on learning the form the changes and the harmonic function of the tune. I would say utilize whatever voicings you are most comfortable with at this stage of the game. Okay, so now let's grab lead sheet three and lead sheet for you will see lead sheet three has the melody of groovin Hi notated for you. And lead sheet four has the melody of groovin Hi with fingerings included. Okay, so we have a clean lead sheet with no fingerings we have a lead sheet with the fingering so let's To bring the ensemble back in, and let's just listen, I'm going to practice playing the the head of groovin high. Now when I do this and when I would recommend when you're doing this at home practicing, I would recommend sitting on your left hand. In other words, played the melody, and pretend that you're Dizzy Gillespie, you're you're, you're an instrumentalist, in other words, and play the melody as such, and play it over and over and over again. So I'm going to model that for you at 140. Nice and relaxed, I'm going to sit on my left hand, I'm going to play the melody of groovin high using the fingerings that you have in front of you. And we'll talk about the fingerings here in a few minutes, but let's let's learn let's listen to the melody of groovin Hi, played right hand only sitting on the left hand, I'm thinking like an instrumentalist, here we go check it out.

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This is exactly how I learn tunes, how I learn the heads of tunes, I don't even play the chord changes I play, focus on playing the melody right hand all my and I would highly recommend you doing that as well. Now with regards to the fingerings, right notice on on your lead sheet, just check out how many three one fingerings you have, how many 124 fingerings that you have, right, these are fingering patterns that we've been dealing with all year with all of our exploration of the primary sounds and the altered sounds with our finger in development. And you'll see the the fruits of your labor here right now when you start working on grooving hi and play in this head. Utilizing fingerings that you are now very, very comfortable with with the hand shifting around. Okay, check out measure 30 down there at the end, I have a thumb, I'm intentionally playing the thumb up on a black note on an A flat. And there's a reason for that as well. So anyway, the fingering should look very familiar to you based on all the work that you've been putting in so far this year with all of our again, primary sound exploration as well as altered sound excellent exploration. So lead sheet three lead sheet for great lead sheets, you have a clean version of the melody and you have a version of the melody with the fingerings included with the hands shifts in there. So all right. Now let's start looking at our improvisational are the patterns that we're going to use to help us develop improvisational vocabulary. So it's interesting, right? We're going to be focusing on really measures measures three and four measures seven and eight and then measures 11 and 12, again, three and 478 11 and 12. And you'll notice that these are all to five patterns. But we're going to, we're going to break them apart and look at the minor patterns separately. And we're going to look at the dominant patterns separately. Okay. You'll also notice that this melody is the same, it's literally the same, right? So we have the melody for over our A minor and our D seven. Now our melody over a G minor and C seven. And now our melody over F minor and B flat seven. So you'll see a minor to D seven, then we fall down a whole step of G minor, C seven, we fall down a whole step again, F minor seven, a B, flat seven, very clever by MR. GILLESPIE, very, very clever. So we're going to take a look at each of these minor patterns, each one of these dominant patterns, not so much because they offered unique ideas, because the minor patterns are all the same that that dominant patterns are the same. But what you'll find in exploring these patterns in these different over these different minor chords, the language that you develop is different, is different. So we'll see that as we go through here today, hopefully, as I model this for you. So let's start with a minor seven, measure three, I'm going to bring the ensemble in, I'm going to play that motif several times. And then after I play that motif, I'm going to use that shape. To begin developing some improvisational vocabulary that I'm going to associate with a minor seventh, I'm going to use the boundaries of that pattern, that low note being the E natural, going up to the high note, which is the C, I'm going to work within that range, I'm going to limit myself to beat to stay within those goalpost. Okay, and I'm going to be focusing on rhythmic development using this shape. Alright, so let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out our very first pattern for today the A minor seven, from measure three here we go.

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How fun is that? Right, I could do that all day long. And that's exactly what we're going to do in this podcast. So we're going to move on to our very next minor sound G minor seven. Oh, before we do that, you'll notice on the lead sheets, I have a map out, right. So I have like the A minor that I have the D minor than the G minor moving around the circle of fifths. And I have a little note there continue moving, moving the pattern around the circle of fifths. In essence, that's what we're doing here today. We're taking the same pattern and we're playing it in different over different sounds moving around the circle. So now we're going to take the G minor it's going to be the exact same motif. But I'm going to see what ideas I come up with in relationship to G minor. And I think this is one of the you know, big revelations. I think everyone has at some point as they're developing their Jazz skills. You know, the vocabulary that you have, that you developed for an E minor may not be the same vocabulary that you developed for G minor may not be the same vocabulary that you developed for F minor, and so on, right. So it's so important to isolate these sounds like we're doing today and use a motif and use that motif to help you develop, uncover on Earth, if you will, your improvisational ideas for that specific sound. So we're going to just do that right now for G minor. So let's bring the ensemble in, I'm going to use this great little motif that Dizzy Gillespie has provided us and I'm going to see what what it leads me to as I begin improvising over the G minor seven sound. So here we go check it out.

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You see different. Different, a minor is different than G minor. So, if you're thinking that your improvisation should be all tidy and that you have X number of ideas that you play over a minor and those should be the exact same X number of ideas that you play over G minor, and so on, I would ask you to rethink that. Right. And I think in doing so you will be liberated in a huge way when it comes to developing your improvisational vocabulary. So with that being said, let's drop down to the F minor seven now another whole step down. And let's take that exact same motif that Dizzy Gillespie has given us and let's see what that does for me in relationship to F minor seven, what kind of ideas can I come up with and again, I'm honoring the boundaries of that shape for right now I'm not allowing myself to to move outside the low note in the high note of that shape. So for that F minor you know my C is my low note my A flat is my high note. And I'm staying within that geographical region as I tried to develop some nice ideas using this motif from groovin high so let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out F minor seven from mage measure 11 Here we go.

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Okay, so that concludes our minor exploration today, extracting those that that idea from grooving high and I would encourage you to do that on all 12 all 12 minor chords utilize that exact same process for developing your jazz vocabulary. So now Now let's turn our attention to the primary sound, the dominant sound, the primary dominant sound. So we're going to look at measure four. And we're looking at that motif and measure four. And again, it's going to be the same motif, the D seven for the C seven for the B flat seven. And so let's start with the D seven. I'm going to once again, honor the boundaries of this melodic shape this melodic idea. And I'm going to use that shape to try to unearth as I said, some of my vocabulary, my ideas I'm interested in. The whole point here is right, I'm interested in finding my voice, my vocabulary. I'm not interested in trying to steal a lick from Dizzy Gillespie, I'm interested in having dizzy, help me find and discover me. So I'm going to use this motif and I'm going to see what kind of stuff I can come up with by exploring it within that geographical region. So here we go, let's check it out.

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Nice and as I just mentioned with the miners write them the vocabulary that I developed for D seven will not necessarily be the vocabulary I developed for C seven will not necessarily be the vocabulary that I developed for B flat seven. Okay, so now I turned my attention to C seven even though I'm going to take the exact same melodic motif and play it over C seven, I will come up with I will discover learn and play some new ideas that I have that are uniquely associated with C dominant seven. So with all that being said, let's let let's not waste any additional time let's bring the ensemble Len and let's explore C seven Okay, here we go check it out.

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All right, so we are now down to our last exploration for today for the B flat seven for measure 12 I am modifying it just slightly you know that the last eighth note of that measure is an F sharp, we're gonna I'm going to make it F natural so it matches with what we've played for the D seven and the C seven. But I'm going to take that exact same motif I'm going to explore that motif utilizing the same boundaries that Dizzy Gillespie has given us. I'm going to see what I can find what what can surface for B flat down at seven and once again I cannot stress it enough. My vocab February for each of my dominant chords will not be the same. My vocabulary for each of my minor chords will not be the same. I will discover different ideas over each of those sounds. Okay? So again, if you're thinking that everything should 100% transfer from one dominant to the next dominant to the next dominant that is not necessarily true, just not. So let's bring the ensemble in. And let's have fun with our last little exploration for today utilizing the motif for B flat dominant seven from measure 12. So here we go check it out.

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How much fun has to? I don't know, has been for me, at least, you know. And we've done it again, right? We've unpacked a ton of information. And one very fast one very short hour. Right? It's, it's so it always stresses me out, right? I'm always trying to cram as much as I can into one hour. And so listen, I cannot stress enough the importance of practicing, playing bebop heads playing bebop melodies, right, for developing several jazz piano skills for developing obviously fingerings and technique and time and articulation. But also to take away the proper kind of scale, practice and arpeggio practice. All of these jazz piano skills are buried within these heads. And you should be able to look at these melodies, hopefully, through our exploration this year, how to actually dissect these melodies, find the gems that are the hidden gems within these melodies, that you can utilize to help you develop the proper jazz piano skills. Right. So do not skim over, studying and learning when you do these bebop tunes that do not skim over the study and learning of the core changes in harmonic function. Right? Always tackle harmonic function are the chord changes, then attack the melody. That's the That's the order in which I do it harmonic function. At court, the chord changes harmonic function and melody. And after, after I have the foundation in place, then I can play that melody on top of it, it all starts to make so much more sense, right? Again, I want to encourage you to use your your illustrations podcast packet to help you gain a command of these essential skills that I'm talking about. And once you do have the command of the changes in harmonic function, then you'll say the melody the melody practicing, the melody will make more sense to you. Right, you'll actually see the melody harmonically. And as the old jazz was used to always tell me, if I want to, if I really am serious about learning how to improvise, if I'm really serious about learning how to develop melodic ideas, then study harmony. When I was 14, that made no sense to me. Now that I'm much older, a little bit. It makes all the sense in the world. Finally, I would encourage you to take apart bebop melodies to find all the invaluable melodic ideas right that you can convert to improvisational patterns. It's a goldmine, again, a goldmine and most importantly, be patient. I mentioned this every week be patient, developing mature and professional jazz piano skills takes a lot of time. In fact, that takes a lifetime. So began structuring your study and practicing after the plane demonstrations and I modeled for you in this podcast episode and I guarantee it you will begin to see and feel and hear your music Oh progress. Well I hope I hope you found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring Dizzy Gillespie's groovin high to be insightful and to be beneficial. And don't forget if you're a jazz piano skills ensemble member I'll see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass, that's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode, exploring grooving Groovin High in greater detail, and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Use those podcast packets, tap into the online sequential jazz panel skills courses. And also get out there and join that jazz panel skills community get out there and reduce yourself make some new jazz piano friends always a great thing to do. You can always reach me by phone here at the Dallas School of Music. My number is 972-380-8050 my extension is 211. Again, that number is 972-380-8050 extension 211 My email if you prefer email Dr. Lawrence drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can send me a SpeakPipe message. It's a nifty little widget that is found on every page of the jazz panel Skills website. While there is my cue, that's it for now, until next week. Enjoy John Burke's Dizzy Gillespie's, Groovin High and most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz Piano