Improvisation's Little Secret

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.206)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Here we are, the end of the month, week four. We have spent February exploring the great jazz standard I've grown accustomed to her face. Week one, as we always do, we discuss the tune to gain an understanding of the form, unique chord changes, harmonic function.

common harmonic movement, and of course the voicings, left hand shell voicings as well as the two handed structures. Week two, again, as we always do, we study the tune's melody, fingerings, phrases, and various jazz treatments, Like ballad, bossa, swing. And then last week, week three, we used the chord progression of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face to develop our improvisation skills.

It's a thorough approach that uses a standard tune, right, typically from the Great American Songbook, to further develop our jazz piano skills. You know, our three-week study always leaves us with a week or two, depending upon the month, to either enjoy a jazz piano skills guest or a jazz piano skills lecture. I was planning on releasing an interview today, but...

But we've had such great conversations, much needed conversations, in the Jazz Panel Skills Weekly Masterclass, as well as last week's question of the week, centered around improvisation, that I thought it would be a good idea, a good time to present what I like to call improvisation's little secret. It's a secret that demystifies the ever elusive

ever frustrating, ever confusing, ever complicated, and quite frankly, intimidating concept of improvising. So today I thought I would do a lecture series. I thought I would put an end to all of that highfalutin jargon that flies around the internet and especially in YouTube videos. You know, I experienced one of two scenarios when checking out jazz lessons and videos on

Dr. Bob Lawrence (03:02.303)
On one hand, I hear, as I just mentioned, a lot of lofty academic terminology that makes improvisation sound like something Aristotle would have pondered. Or it is demonstrated in such a way that there is no way a beginner, mean, no way a beginner or even an intermediate player would gain any benefit. The demonstration

is actually more about self-glorification than it is about teaching. Either scenario is not good and actually does more to discourage learners than motivate them. So today I am going to present Improvisation's Little Secret, which simplifies the skill conceptually and physically, which of course will produce results.

it will radically change how you approach developing your improvisation skills. How fun will this be today? So today, you will discover improvisation's little secret. You will learn how to rethink your approach to developing your improvisation skills. And you will play your new improvisation approach

through various fragments of the sound without changing your thought process or physical approach.

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 going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson exploring improvisation's little secret to be very beneficial. But before we dig in,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:04.608)
Before we get started, want to, as I always do, welcome first time listeners to Jazz Panel Skills. And if you are a new listener, if you're new to Jazz Panel Skills in general, or just the podcast, I want to welcome you and I want to invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. Your membership, vitally important, keeps the Jazz Panel Skills podcast 100 % ad free, which has been my goal from day one.

100 % educational content, no ads. Additionally, your membership grants you many perks. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you receive premium podcast content. In other words, you get to hear the entire episode. The first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone. You know, we deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for the members,

includes the lesson content, the demonstrations, exploration of the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the backing tracks, the play alongs, and of course, the weekly rhythm assignment that is given every week as well. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have access to the educational podcast packets. Now, the podcast packets are material that are designed and developed

by me for each weekly podcast episode, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. You should absolutely have this material in your hands when listening to the podcast to get the most out of it. And of course, you need this material sitting on your panel when practicing as well. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have access to the online interactive courses, sequential courses. These are all comprehensive, self paced and of course,

as I mentioned, sequential and interactive. There's a learning media, interactive learning media, and of course, video demonstrations as well. You also as a Jazz Piano Skills member have a reserved seat, as I like to say, in my weekly online masterclass, which is held every Thursday evening at 8pm Central Time. If you can't make it, no big deal because the masterclasses are recorded and you can log in

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:29.92)
watch the video or listen to the audio of the masterclass as often as you wish. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the online Private Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of forums, episode specific forums, as well as just general jazz forums. It's a wonderful place to meet new folks, enjoy member feedback and assistance. It's an amazing group. And finally,

as a jazz piano skills member, have unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional, as often as you wish. Right? You can always reach out to me, several ways to do that through SpeakPipe. There's a web form. You can reach me through my office number here at the Dallas School of Music, or if you're old school, you can send me an email. Anyway, all of these amazing privileges, all of these perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano.

So check it all out at jazzpianoskills.com and of course become a member. If you have any questions, once you get to the site and poking around, of course I am happy to spend some time with you and answer your questions and help you in any way that I can. So do not hesitate to contact me. Okay, so now speaking of questions, let's go on to our question of the week. This week's question comes from Terry Pacheco.

Terry Pacheco living in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And Terry writes, I am new to jazz panel scales and blown away with how much content and material is available for improving my jazz panel scales. There is so much to learn and I'm not sure where to begin. Can you give me some suggestions on how best to approach the content you have published? Any guidance is welcomed and appreciated.

Well, thank you, Terry, for your question. In fact, I get this question frequently and I may have dealt with it. This question or a similar type question in prior episodes, but regardless, it's a great question and one I receive again regularly and should be addressed on a regular basis. So, okay. The first thing I would say is to begin with any and all material that deals with

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:57.11)
Harmony first. Any and all material that deals with harmony first, right? Regardless of the content type, whether it's a podcast episode, one of the courses, information posted in the forums and so on, makes no difference. If it's harmony, you want to devour it. If it deals with harmony, chords and voicings, right? Consume it as much as possible. And remember, if you want to become proficient with melody,

proposing melodies or improvising melodies makes no difference, then you must gain a functional command of harmony, conceptually and physically. So make sure you know your chords, in other words, Chords are the shapes we depend upon to create melody. No chord, no shape. No shape, no melody. No melody,

No improvisation. It's that simple. So most importantly, most importantly, study your block chords and their inversions, right? Block chords and their inversions. So Terry, mission number one, task number one, all things harmony. Address first. After you tackle harmony,

I would suggest turning your attention to technique skills, arpeggios and scales. And remember, arpeggios and scales are the melodic representation of harmony. Again, why you need to focus on harmony or chords first, right? In fact, I will go as far as to say you should not be playing arpeggios and scales without thinking about the chord

that the arpeggio and scale represents. I'm going to say that again. You should not be playing arpeggios and scales without thinking about the chord that the arpeggio and scale represents. So arpeggios and scales have two challenging dimensions to master. You have the physical technique side of actually playing the arpeggio and scale, right? Proper fingerings, proper hand movement.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:24.83)
range. Plus, you have the challenge of having to see the arpeggio and scale as harmony as a chord. Again, harmony should be your first order of business. Okay. All right. So, Terry, so far we have harmony content first.

technique content, arpeggios and scales second. Then I would turn my attention to rhythm development, which anything published in the year 2022, 2022 will help tremendously. Now that year, 2022, that year we explored the pure and altered sounds for each chord family harmonically and melodically with an emphasis placed on rhythm.

It's a pretty intense year. So when you get ready to attack rhythm, attack year 2022. You know, I would also, I think it's a good idea to point you to the October 26, 2021, October 26, 2021 podcast episode called Celebrating 100 Episodes. And in this episode,

I go through a suggested order for listening to and studying the first 100 episodes. So I think you'll find that to be very helpful as well, Terry. Again, that's October 26, 2021, celebrating 100 episodes. You know, with all that being said,

Okay, I'm gonna do it. With all that being said, I have a big announcement. And you know what the heck, no better time than the present to let you know about it and make it public, I guess. I guess this is a good time. I am extremely excited, Terry, to let you know that I am about to publish in March an entirely new set of courses.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:37.746)
all new courses at Jazz Panel Skills that will make your question hopefully, Terry, thing of the past. The courses are centered around practicing sound harmonically, melodically, and improvisationally. Right? Again, the courses are going to be centered around practicing sound harmonically, melodically, and improvisationally. And contained in each course,

are the harmonic shapes that you need to know along with the associated and related melodic shapes, along with the improvisation shapes, right, that you need to focus on for developing your vocabulary. And again, these courses are sound centric, meaning that, meaning that we're going to emphasize these courses are going to be emphasizing the 12 major, 12 dominant, 12 minor,

12 half diminished and 12 diminished sounds, the primary sounds of music. And it's going to be emphasizing those sounds harmonically, melodically and improvisationally. There will be a set of 60 courses published in March 60 that will serve as a complete practice agenda for you a practice roadmap, if you will. And each course brings together and contains

essential jazz piano skills for each sound, right? It's a very focused approach that is replicated for each of the five primary sounds of music. So needless to say, I'm extremely excited about it, about these courses, and I'm extremely excited to release these courses, because I know it will give you and all the jazz piano skills members a very direct, no nonsense, intentional, thorough

and replicatable, replicatable, replicable process to discover, learn and play jazz piano, right? The, you know, the very approach, quite honestly, I wish I would have had a long time ago, years ago. So, Terry, your question was a great question. It got me

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:56.576)
got me fired up, man. I mean, I just made an announcement that I wasn't planning on making, but your question was awesome. And I hope my answer helps. I know the new 60 courses that will be released in March will help for sure. So as always, if more clarification is needed, do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to like I always say, keep the can around a little more with you and shine a little more light on this

topic if needed. So again, do not hesitate to reach out. All right, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play improvisations little secret. So what is this little secret that we all need to be aware of if we want to improve our jazz piano skills?

and our ability to improvise. What is this little secret? Well, before I reveal the little secret, let's do a let's do a quick review about what jazz is the study of and the facts of music you need to know and understand so that you can identify them, see them in your practicing in the music that you play. And of course,

in the little secret that I'm about to reveal. So I have said this, oh, I don't even, I can't even count how many times I've said this and how many podcast episodes. Jazz is not the study of dots and buttons. In other words, jazz is not about identifying a dot on a piece of paper, a dot on a piece of music.

and then pushing the appropriate button on the keyboard that that dot represents. Right? This is called reading music, and that's not what jazz is the study of. Jazz is not the study of reading music. Instead, jazz is the study of sound and the shapes used to produce those sounds harmonically and melodically. I want to say that again.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:24.667)
Jazz is the study of sound and the shapes used to produce those sounds harmonically and melodically. And once we have have this aha revelation, the logical question is, well, what are the sounds of music? Well, if you've been listening to this

podcast for any length of time. Right? If you've been listening, whether you started six years ago listening or three years ago listening or heck, even if you started last week listening for the first time, you know that the primary sounds of music, the primary sounds of jazz are major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. All

other identifiers that you have heard about through your jazz journey. Identifiers like flat nine, sharp nine, sharp 11, flat five, sharp five, flat 13, augmented, suspension. All of these identifiers are simply embellishments or decorations to the sound. do not, listen carefully, they do not create a new sound.

dominant flat nine is still a dominant sound. A major sus suspension is still a major sound. Right? So important that you begin understanding and seeing and hearing harmony this way. Now, the next logical question is, well, what are the shapes of

these sounds of music. What are the shapes of major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished? Well, the shapes of these sounds are harmonic, which are the chords, and melodic, which are the arpeggios and scales. And today, improvisation's little secret is going to require, require us to know

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:49.375)
harmonic and melodic shapes of sound in order to gain an entirely new perspective of improvisation. A perspective that moves us from a macro understanding of improvisation to a micro understanding. Thus simplifying, really very much so simplifying, our entire thought process and approach.

And as a result, significantly improving, and I mean significantly improving our improvisation skills. So I don't know about you, but I am super intrigued. I am super excited to know improvisation's little secret. What the heck is it?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:46.661)
All right. Okay. All right. Enough with all this small talk. Let's get the show on the road. All right, here it is. You ready? improvisations, little secret . . .

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