Hybrid Scales

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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, here we are, week five, right? A month with five. Weeks five, jazz panel skills, podcast episodes, tremendous. I only wish there were some months we had six or seven. But hey, here we are, week five. You know, we have spent the entire the entire month, right tackling the great jazz standard, just friends, and we studied it. Of course, harmonically, we looked at the forms, the changes, the common progressions, the voicings, we looked at it. Melodically, we transcribed the melody. We checked out our fingerings, phrases, target notes, various treatments, and of course, we tackled it improvisationally, right? Which means we looked at, how do we produce a melodic representation of the harmony using various skills, arpeggios, of course, scales, various motifs, tension, tones, zones we cover it all right. So last week we I presented a lecture series, what called hybrid arpeggios. Hybrid arpeggios. And of course, you all know, if you've been listening to jazz panel skills for any time now, you all know that anytime I talk about arpeggios, the next thing I'm gonna have to talk about are scales or vice versa. If I talk about scales, you know, I'm gonna talk about arpeggios, they go hand in hand. It's like the chicken and the egg, right? So today it's gonna be Lecture Series Part Two, and we're gonna look at hybrid scales. So today you're going to discover hybrid scales. You're going to learn why hybrid scales, right? They're critical for developing mature improvisation skills, and we're going to play a variety of melodic lines using hybrid scales formulated from harmonic pairs. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, you're an advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring the art and essential skill of hybrid scales to be very beneficial. But before we do, before we get started, I want to, as I always do, right? I want to welcome first time listeners to jazz panel skills. And if you're a new listener to the jazz panel skills podcast, or if you're just new to jazz panel skills, welcome. I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. 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I'm going to pass it again this week, and we will come back next week. But again, let's get to the content of today's podcast, because we have so much to get through with these hybrid scales that I want to make sure that we can get everything like it within an hour right. I always try to keep these podcast episodes an hour in length. So next week, we'll be back to business as usual with the question of the week. But for now, let's discover learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover learn and play hybrid scales. Okay, last week, when I introduced hybrid arpeggios, I posed a question at that time that I want to bring back today. And the question simply, is this, why is improvisation so difficult? And I gave last week three reasons. Those three reasons, number one, lack of hand mobility, poor fingerings. The In other words, the inability to move around on the piano. So poor fingerings will certainly impede your ability to move around, and also unfamiliarity with moving melodically from one sound one chord through another chord, which is why we're studying hybrid arpeggios and hybrid scales, right? So no matter how you slice it, whether you talk about poor fingerings or whether you're talking about the inability or unfamiliarity of being able to play arpeggios and scales through multiple chords or multiple sounds, either way, it comes out to be a lack of hand mobility. Right? Number two was the inability to play harmony melodically, which I just explained. Right? So I kind of combined one and two there, right? And number three, unstable time, unstable time. So lack of hand mobility because of poor fingerings or an inability to play harmony melodically. And of course, a lack or unstable time. So we have to deal with with those three issues, and we have to come up with a way to fix them. How do we fix a lack of hand mobility? How do we fix the inability to play harmony melodically? How do we fix unstable time, right? Well, that's what we started to do last week, and that's what we're going to continue to do today. But before we go any further, I want to address each one of these areas of concern as jazz pianists skills that we need to develop, and just kind of talk you through it for a second. So number one, lack of hand mobility, poor fingerings.

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How do we fix that? We need to practice what I call intentional hand shifts when playing four note, harmonic shapes, your harmonic shapes, right being root third, five and seven of each sound so you have five primary sounds in music, Major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, diminished. Each one of those sounds we play using the root, third, fifth and seventh to produce those sounds right a little block shape, as I call it. I. And we need to be able to arpeggiate that block shape using an intentional hand shift. So for example, you're not going to play C, major 7c, E, G, B, using your thumb, index finger, middle finger and little finger, right? You're not going to play from the bottom of the hand to the top of the hand. In other words, right? You got a dead end at the bottom, you got a dead end at the top. That's a huge problem. Yet, that's how 99% of everyone practicing arpeggios using four note shapes. That's how they do it. And they think in their mind, hey, this not a problem. That's pretty easy. Oh yeah, when it's isolated and you don't need to get anywhere other than just playing that shape up and down, we need to play those shapes with an intentional hand shift. And so instead, play one, what I call 1313 so you're going to play your C and E with your thumb and your middle finger. One Three. Hand shifts over to G and b1, 31313, so there's an intentional hand shift every one of those harmonic shapes. Again, five primary sounds, five primary sounds, 12 notes and music. We have 60 of them right, 12 times 560, so we have 12 major blocks, we have 12 dominant blocks, we have 12 minor blocks. We have 12 half diminished, 12 diminished. And we need to be able to play each one of those with an intentional hand shift. And of course, those blocks have inversions. Gotta play those with intentional hand shifts as well, but that's we'll get to those later, but you get my point. So if you're not practicing four note blocks route the seven with intentional hand shifts, you're practicing wrong. You got a problem. You're playing across the hand from the bottom to the top, dead end at the bottom, dead end at the top. You're actually doing more to prevent hand mobility than help it. Okay, so that's number one, practicing intentional hand shifts when playing four note harmonic shapes, again, whether that's in root position or first, second, third inversion. But I would start off if you're if you're new to this, I'd start off with root position. Okay. Number two, the inability to play harmony melodically. Well, that's where hybrid arpeggios come in. That's where hybrid scales come in is that we need to gain a functional command of not only moving these blocks right and their inversions, be able to play them with intentional hand shifts isolated, but we have to get comfortable with moving through various sounds, because That's how tunes work, right? They just don't sit on one chord for 32 measures. So that's why we are dealing with hybrid arpeggios last week. That's why we are dealing with hybrid scales this week, to help us move these block shapes and their inversions through multiple sounds, okay? And then finally, you know, unstable time. Well, it's time to get out the metronome. It's time to maybe start practicing with some apps like I real pro or band in the box. We need something right to keep us honest, to create time, to make time audible so that we can accurately assess whether or not our time is getting better, right? And we need to practice time harmonically. We need to practice time melodically. And of course, whether you're doing it harmonically or melodically, rhythm has to be part of that equation as well. So check it out if you're doing these three things when practicing right. If these three areas are baked into your practice routine, right, working on lack of hand mobility, fingerings, right, using intentional hand shifts, playing uh, hybrid arpeggios and scales that move through multiple sounds, right? One arpeggio that moves through multiple sounds, one scale that moves through multiple sounds. And if you're consciously working on time, you're making time to practice time. Check that out. That's a good t shirt, right there. Make time to practice time, right? So if you're doing those three things, I promise you, you are, you are on your way to becoming a very fine jazz pianist. So the question should always be, then, when you're practicing, hey, if. Am I? What am I doing right now? Am I? Am I working on hand mobility? Am I working on playing harmony melodically? Am I working on my time? Those three areas, like I said, must be baked into your practice routine, somehow consistently throughout the week, consistently. Okay, so that's what we're gonna do today, right? We're gonna, we're gonna bake this into our practice, practice routine today, these hybrid scales. So the educational agenda for today is as follows, number one, we're going to, of course, discover, learn, play, hybrid scales. What are they? Why are they important to practice? How to create them? We'll talk about all that. Number two, we will discuss why we must move beyond isolated scale practice, which, again, that's what everybody does. That's all they do. I've taught for 30 plus years. No one I've never taught anyone who has practiced scales in any way other than in isolation. Just let that sink in for a second. I've taught for over 30 years, and I've yet to meet one person with any musical experience that has practice scales in any other way but isolated. Wow. And we wonder why we can't improvise. Number three, we will discuss the importance of seeing improvisation as the melodic representation of harmony. Number four, we will discuss why time is everything right, our ability to see objects, track objects, objects, of course, being our harmonic structures, our chords, the ability to track objects in time, and our ability to see and hear the elements of those objects, the elements being roots, thirds, fifths and sevenths. And finally, we will discuss how to practice hybrid scales right the importance of establishing my favorite thing, self imposed constraints, rules of the game, right? Creativity is a product of limitations. It's not a product of abundance. So when we self impose constraints, we are creating limits, right? See, so important. So now kind of makes sense why I'm again skipping the question of the week. Because we got a ton to do, and we got a ton to do conceptually to digest, as well as physically. Okay, so again, a reminder, real quick, no podcast packets for a lecture series episode like today. Instead, really, I just want you to sit back, listen and think, think, right, think about what we're discussing and talking conceptually, digest it, so that you can go to your instrument, whether it's a piano or another instrument, and process and Start, begin, begin applying these skills. Okay, okay, I just mentioned that I have yet to meet anyone in 30 plus years of teaching that practice the scales any other way than isolating them, right? But that's that's a huge problem, because that's not how music works, right? So, hybrid scales, hybrid arpeggios, hybrid scales, the concept is simply this intentionally practicing arpeggio motion, or scale motion that moves through various sounds or various harmonic shapes. All right. So last week, we used the harmonic pair. Took just two chords, C, minor, F, sharp, minor, kept them in the same camp, both minor sounds. Of course, we can mix and match however we want. But to keep it simple, right, let's deal with the same sound. So two different chords, same sound, two different chords, side by side. We have a harmonic pair. We have to play an arpeggio, or we have to play a scale that moves through those two sounds. So the goal is to create one melodic idea, one melodic line that encompasses or embodies two different chords.

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Just think about that for a second. Isn't that what happens when someone improvises chords? Multiple chords are moving by. We're passing through these chords. We have to pass through these chords melodically, right? That's what improvisation is, the melodic representation of harmony these chords that are being presented to us, and we have to be able to create lines that move through them, right? So that's what a hybrid scale is. That's what a hybrid arpeggio is. It's a melodic. Mind moving through multiple multiple chords. Begin practicing this skill. I recommend using what I call harmonic pairs, taking two chords and start with two right? If you can't play, if you can't play a hybrid arpeggio or a hybrid scale, moving through two chords doesn't get easier with three. It doesn't get easier with four or five or six, right? So let's approach this logically and use harmonic pairs to get us acclimated to accustomed to the concept, right? So today, last week, we focused on the hybrid arpeggios. Today, of course, we're going to work utilize the hybrid scales. Okay. Now, last week, I introduced the rules of the game because, again, we have to establish constraints, self imposed constraints. And, you know, I got some grief. I got some grief from some folks that I incorporated a lot of rules, and I was tempted to even throw a few more in today, just because of it, right? But, but I'm not going to, it's good. We're going to utilize the same rules the game that I introduced last week. And those rules are as follows. Number one, we're going to use harmonic pairs from the same quality of sound, whether we do major, major, minor, minor, etc, right? Today, we're going to do minor, we're going to actually use C minor and F sharp minor, the same two sounds that we used last week. We're going to bring them forward today and use them to create hybrid scales. Okay. Number two, the first quarter of our harmonic pair will remain constant, right? That's never going to change. So I would say, if you're going to do C minor, that becomes your constant, you would match that up with a not another minor chord. There's 11 other minor chords. Work through all 11. But today, today, just for the sake of time, I'm going to use F sharp minor, so we have C minor, F, sharp minor, another, self imposed constraint. Each harmonic pair will be one measure in length followed by a measure of silence. So we are we have sound silence, sound silence. Now you could make it two measures. I mean where one harmonic, one chord is a measure long, the second, second chord is another measure, right? Nothing wrong with that as well, right? But today, the rule is that the self imposed constraint that I'm utilizing is that the harmonic pair will be one measure in length, counts one and two will be C minor, counts three and four will be F, sharp, minor, okay, followed by silence. The next rule of the game, we will create four specific melodic lines. Four, we're going to create an ascending, ascending line. We're going to create an ascending descending line. We're going to create a descending, descending line and a descending, ascending line. Right? Very methodical, very calculated. Another rule, each of our four melodic lines will be created two ways. First way we will create a line that uses all quarter notes. And the second way, we will create a line that uses all eighth notes. Another rule, our melodic line will only consist of the root, third, fifth and seventh of each chord. Oh, I'm sorry, that's not true. That's I was thinking arpeggio for a second, the rule is our melodic lines will only consist of scale tones. Scale tones, one through seven. Okay. Another rule we will, or must practice creating our melodic our musical lines launching from various entry points, the root, the third, the fifth or seventh. I'm not going to do that today, but that's a great rule. I'm only going to I'm going to be launching everything from the root. But if I was going to do a thorough, thorough exploration of this, I would certainly be doing entry points of the third to fifth and the seventh as well. Okay, then, oh, and we're not done yet. Another rule will be, each melodic idea will fill the entire measure. So that means four quarter notes. If I'm creating a quarter note line, I'm going to be using four quarter notes. If I'm using eighth notes, I'm going to be I'm going to utilize 8/8 notes. Okay. And the last rule, of course, our melodic line must be played in time. So look, we have nine rules, nine. I counted them up, nine. So there, here they are again, very quickly. Number one harmonic. We're going to use harmonic pairs of the same quality today. It's going to be minor, minor. Now. Number two, our harmonic pair will the first chord of our harmonic pair will remain constant, never changing. I'm always going to be launching with C minor. Number three, each harmonic pair will be one measure in length, followed by a measure of silence. Number four, we will create four specific melodic lines, ascending, ascending, ascending, descending, descending, descending, and descending, ascending. Number five, each of our melodic lines will be created two ways. One way using all quarter notes, second way using all eighth notes. Number six, our melodic lines will only consist of scale tones. Today, that's it. Number seven, we're going to practice creating our musical lines, launching from various entry points. Today. I'm going to only the root, but I encourage you to do the same thing that I'm going to do today, but from the third to fifth and the seventh as well. Number eight, our melodic idea will fill the entire measure. So if using quarter notes, I'm gonna have to have I'm gonna have to have four quarter notes, eighth notes. I'm gonna have to have 8/8 notes, and, of course, number nine, playing all of this in time. Okay, so here we go, C, minor, F, sharp, minor, thank you for listening to jazz piano skills. The remaining premium content of this episode is available to jazz piano skills members at jazz piano skills podcast.com Visit jazzpanelskills.com to learn more about membership privileges and become a jazz piano skills member. Thank you.