Index Finger Improvisation

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Today you are going to discover index finger improvisation, and you are going to learn how to improvise, using simplicity, space, and repetition guided by your index finger and you are going to play a classic jazz standard using the various improvisational elements illuminated by your index finger. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player, an advanced player or even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional, you are going to find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring index finger improvisation to be very beneficial. I want to take a second as I always do at the beginning of every podcast episode to welcome new first-time jazz piano skills listeners. So if you are new to the podcast if you are new to jazz panel skills, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz panel skills a member simply visit jazz piano skills.com To learn more about all of the jazz educational resources, materials and services that are available for you to use to help you become an accomplished jazz pianist. For example, as a jazz panel skills member, you have access to all of the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, delete sheets and the play alongs these are educational guides and materials that I developed for every podcast episode every week. Also as a jazz piano skills member, you have access to the sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive jazz piano courses using a self-paced format educational talks interactive media video demonstrations and all 12 keys at play alongs and so much more. You also has a jazz piano skills member heavy reserved seat in the weekly online masterclass which, which are in essence, a one-hour online lesson with me each and every week. And you also as a jazz panel skills member have access to the Jas panels skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums, podcast-specific forums, core-specific forums, and general jazz piano forums as well. And last but certainly not least, as the jazz panel skills member you have unlimited, private, personal, and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. Again, I want to invite you to visit jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all the educational opportunities and how to easily activate your jazz panel skills membership. If you have any questions, any questions at all, please reach out, let me know. I'm always happy, happy to help you in any way that I can. I also want to remind everyone to check out the jazz panel skills blog. Now you have access to the blog whether you are a jazz piano skills member or not. So you can enjoy reading some additional insights regarding the jazz panel skill of the week. And you will find the blog link in the menu bar that runs across the top of the homepage at jazz piano skills podcast.com. Or once you land on the homepage, you can just simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see an entire blog section. I like to take some time at the end of each week to jot down some of my final thoughts about the Jas panel skill explored in the weekly podcast episode. And hopefully provide you with some words of encouragement and inspiration as well. So be sure to check out my blog. And always I welcome feedback. So let me have it. I enjoy hearing from you and enjoy getting some insight and some new perspectives on your thoughts regarding the jazz piano skill. So please, always feel welcome to reach out. Okay, so let's discover learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play index finger improvisation. So what the heck? What the heck is index finger improvisation? Well, it's exactly what the title suggests it's improvising using your index finger and your index finger only

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improvising using one finger. Now I know upon initially hearing this, you have to be thinking what? Are you kidding me? What? Why? Why improvise with one finger? This guy, this guy is not. Well, you, you may. You may have already been thinking that a long time before now, but that's not the point. The point is that the best way to begin developing mature improvisational lines, let me say that again, the best way to begin developing mature improvisational lines, melodic ideas is to do so using your index finger only. And why? Because by limiting your physical capabilities, right, by limiting your physical capabilities, you begin to immediately address the three biggest jazz improvisation hurdles that all of us have to jump if we hope to achieve our dream, our goal of becoming an accomplished jazz pianist. So what are the three biggest hurdles that we all have to jump? Here they are, number one, simplicity. Number two, space in number three, scales, simplicity, space scales. There are others like repetition, time, feel articulation, but they don't start with the letter S. So I left them off my top three list. They're important, don't get me wrong, they're important. But I'm sticking with the top three being simplicity, space, and scales. So let me take a few minutes right now to talk about each one of these. And why practicing only with your index finger will help you gain a conceptual and physical command of all three. Number one, simplicity. I believe there is not a professional jazz musician in the world. That would disagree with me. When I say that all beginning jazz improvisers. overplay, beginner beginners tried to do way too much. Too many notes. Too many changes of direction, ascending, and descending motion. Too aggressive, too loud. I used to have a teacher at the end of every lesson. As a joke, of course, he would always say, Hey, Bob, remember, if you can't play good, play loud. Bottom line. The beginning jazz musician beginning jazz improviser overall is just way too busy. Your index finger will help you get over all of these music co nuisances quickly. When playing with one finger. You certainly are not going to be playing too many notes. It's simply impossible. When playing with one finger, your index finger you are going to begin incorporating a whole lot more space within your improvisational ideas, which is the second biggest hurdle to jump the inclusion of space. All beginning jazz musicians improvisers. If they were to be truthful, are afraid of space. Silence, especially jazz pianist piano players We get nervous with space. Space freaks us out. Because we think that our hands need to be doing something at all times. Otherwise, we're simply not playing the piano, right? This couldn't be further from the truth.

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I encourage all of you to spend some time this week listening to Count Basie listen to Count Basie play the piano, he'll quickly, he'll quickly give you a lesson on how to use space. When playing when improvising. When you restrict your improvisation practice, to using your index finger only, you begin to immediately incorporate space into your play, you have to, you only have one finger so your mobility is, is limited. Our new use of space with our index finger our new use of space will eliminate a lot of musical noise for I like to call musical noise in our plane, which, in turn when we eliminate the musical noise, we create audible transparency, melodic clarity, if you will, which then illuminates the importance of all of us have any strong conceptual and physical command of scales, which is our third hurdle needing to be jumped. And this is why I spent the last two weeks pounding home just how important unnecessary scale practices in order to pave the way for your jazz success. If you haven't checked out those last two podcast episodes, I would encourage you to do so. Chord scale relationships unlock the mystery of what notes should I play when I play a particular chord? In other words, it removes the guesswork from our improvisation. If you want to learn scales quickly begin practicing them using your index finger only. In doing so you will find yourself focusing 100% on the notes of the scales, and not the fingerings. I'm going to say that again. When practicing scales using your index finger only you will find yourself focusing 100% on the notes of the scale and not the fingerings Why worry about fingerings if you don't even know what notes you're trying to play it right, it makes no sense. Learn the notes first then worry about the fingerings. So often, this happens all the time. Students diagnose their difficulty with improvising as being due to poor fingering poor technique when in actuality, it is due to simply not knowing scales. The reason they are so quick to blame the fingers is that their fingers can't find the notes that they intellectually do not know. It's funny, you can get away with a lot of bad fingerings if you actually know the scales, if you truly know correct chord scale relationships, you can get away with a lot of poor fingerings. So when you improvise with your index finger only, you do not have to worry about fingerings you can focus on the scales the notes that you should know. So there you have it. Index finger improvisation will help you jump the three biggest hurdles that all beginning jazz pianists all beginning jazz improvisers must, must jump simplicity, space scales. Now here's the ultimate goal with all of this index finger improvisation. Once you have successfully incorporated simplicity, space and scales, into your improvisation you can begin to use your entire hand. All four fingers and your thumb and here's the kicker. Your improvisation should sound the same Regardless of whether or not you're using one finger or your entire hand.

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In other words, your improvisation should still be built around simplicity, space and scales, regardless of how many fingers you're using the goal, if someone was in front of the piano, the goal should be that if someone in front of the piano could not see your hands, it would be difficult, it should be difficult for them to determine whether or not you were playing with one finger or your entire hand. And that is what I am going to try to demonstrate today. So the educational agenda for today is, is as follows. Number one, I am going to present I am going to improvise seven chord scale relationships. I'm going to do so using index finger only. I'm going to do so using the entire hand side by side. So you can hear and compare the two. Number two, I am going to present 2251 progression is I'm going to improvise over two to five one progressions, one major 251 progression, and one minor 251 progression, again, with index finger only. And with my entire hand number three, I'm going to put it all together the seven chord scale relationships, these 251 progressions, I'm going to put it all together and a classic jazz standard called Blue Bossa fantastic. And I will be doing this number four, I will be doing all of these demonstrations today these exercises using a snappy and I mean very snappy tempo of 165. Now, you've heard me say this a million times slow tempos to begin, right. Anytime that you're beginning, beginning to work on any new jazz piano skill. Slow is much better. So keep your temples comfy. 60 7080 Okay, if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to download and print the educational, the jazz, the podcast packets, right, the illustrations, and the lead sheets. You have access to these podcast packets in and I remind you every week you should be using them when listening to the podcast episode and of course, when at the piano and practicing. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google, Amazon, Spotify, I Heart Radio, Pandora on and on and on. Then be sure to go to jazz piano skills podcast.com to download the podcast packets and you'll find the active download links in the show notes. And one final but extremely important note that I always take the time to stress in each and every episode that if you are thinking that the index finger improvisation that we are about discover, learn and play is in some ways, or even if it is all the way over your head. If you think it's just too much I would say to you relax. It's okay. No big deal continue to listen and continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by listening to this podcast episode, right all skills are over a head when first introduced. And that is precisely why the first step in gaining a command of any jazz piano skill is to relax sit back and listen. Right all musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and to learn. The play will come in time. Okay, so the very first chord scale relationship we want to look at today is C minor seven Dorian mode, right C minor seven Dorian mode so it's going to be C, D, E flat f be fun

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today I'm going to be using the road sound as opposed to the acoustic piano doing the you know eventually we're gonna end up doing Blue Bossa you know so nice basic groove with the road sound maps perfect. Love it. So the first chord scale relationship again is the C minor seven Dorian mode and I'm going to improvise, play that scale using one finger. Right. And of course, I can, I can jump around within that scale use arpeggio motion. Right or thirds. Right kind of leaps, arpeggio motion that I want to use scale motion, ascending and descending. So I'm going to bring the ensemble in, and I'm going to improvise right now using index finger only, and only the notes of the Dorian mode or the C minor seven scale. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble, and let's check it out and see what we think here we go.

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Pretty darn cool. And I'll be honest, right? Be honest, if you didn't know I was using index finger only, or if you were out enjoying an evening and you're listening to somebody playing, you couldn't see their hands. And you heard that you would not be thinking, Oh, that That dude is just using one finger, please, I don't think you would be able to. So now what I'm going to do to try to really illuminate the difference here between one finger or I should say illuminate no difference, hopefully, between one finger index finger improvisation. And now using my entire hand, when to do the same C minor seven Dorian mode, bring our sample back in, I'm going to improvise using my entire hand. Now the goal here again, want to stay with just the notes in the mode. And the goal again is to use what simplicity, space and stick to that scale. Right. And really, this should you shouldn't hear a whole big difference between what you just heard with the index finger only. And now me playing the same exact exercise with my entire hands. So here we go. Let's check it out and see what we think.

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Well, what do you think? Right? It's pretty interesting now. So what's the point? What really ultimately, what is the point here today is that, that regardless of whether you're using your index finger, or your entire hand, your improvisation should always include what should always simplicity, space, and a command of the scale. Always right. And that whether when you start using your entire hand after you play, and practice with just your index finger and you start using your entire hand, it doesn't mean that you have because you have more fingers, things should become more complicated. Right? That actually when adding more fingers, the job should become easier. It's not that you're trying to make it more difficult, it should become easier because you're playing, in the same way, utilizing focusing on simplicity, and space and adhering to the chord scale relationships. Right. So using more fingers should actually you should be breathing a sigh of relief and things should become easier at that point. So the rest of the day today I'm going to just introduce the remaining chord scale relationships and play two versions, index finger version only, and entire hand version. So the very next chord scale really Tip is my F minor seven. And again Dorian mode so F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D and E flat Okay, good improvise first with index finger only. So, bring the ensemble back in here we go, let's check it out

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not too bad, right? Index finger improvisation not too bad. Alright, so let's see what it sounds like when I incorporate the entire hand. So again, F minor seventh Dorian mode entire hand, I'm going to be focusing on simplicity, space, and adhering to the chord scale relationship. I'm not going to play any notes outside of that mode outside of that scale. Okay, so here we go. Let's check it out see what we think?

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It's true, right? It's true. Once I start using the entire hand, my approach remains the same. My improvisational approach absolutely remains the same simplicity, space, and adhering to the chord scale relationship. It just gets easier with the entire hand, it doesn't become more complex, I don't start trying to do fancier things. I tried to play mature melodic ideas, focusing on simplicity, space, and adhering to the chord scale relationship. So now the next chord scale relationship is the D half diminished D minor seven, flat five. And for this one, we're not going to use Locrian mode, we're going to use the second mode of the C harmonic minor scale. So it's going to be D, E flat, F, G, E flat, B, and C.

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Okay, second mode of the C harmonic minor scale. So index finger improvisation first. So let's bring the ensemble and let's check it out here we go.

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Absolutely love that sound, the half the mini sound with the second mode of harmonic minor scale so now going to improvise over that exact same sound that exact same scale mode and going to use the entire hand now and again Space, I'm sorry, simplicity, space and adhering to the chords get relationship, no notes outside of the mode outside of the scale. Okay, here we go, let's check it out have some fun

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again, what I'm trying to do is really focus on my melodic development on my improvisation, regardless of whether I'm using an index finger-only approach or my entire hand, I want to play mature melodic ideas and lines. And in doing so, I mean, to help me get there to initially restrict my physical capabilities by using my index finger only. And of course, also adhering completely to the CT scan relationship, no notes outside of the chord scale relationship. Okay, so with that being said, now let's move on to next chord scale relationship, which, which is the G dominant seven flat nine flat 13 sound, right? So we have a minor 251, that's going to take place we got the minor two, we just did the D minor seven, flat five, or the D half diminished, which is going to take us to a g7 altered sound flat nine flat 13 sound. And for this, we're going to use the fifth mode of the C harmonic minor scale. So it's going to be G, E flat, C, D, E flat.

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Right. Nice. So again, let's bring the ensemble back in, and let's explore some improvisation focusing on simplicity space and adhering to the chord scale relationship using index finger only when improvising. So here we go. Let's check it out. See what we think.

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Such a great way to get familiar with altered dominant scales right in time, you're tackling an altered dominant scale, which can be a challenge. When first introduced, great way to use that index finger used only the notes of the mode of the altered scale, and explore improvising, ascending, and descending, focusing on simplicity and focusing on space. And before you know it. You'll know that altered stamina scale, in this case, the dominant flat nine flat 13 sound. So now let's bring the ensemble back in let's open it up, use the entire hand we shouldn't hear a whole lot of difference right? Going to be the same approach whether I'm using my index finger only or my entire hand. So here we go. Let's check it out. Have some fun, see what we think. Here we go.

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So so far we've looked at four chords got relationships C minor seven Dorian mode, F minor seven Dorian mode D half diminished our D minor seven flat five second mode is the harmonic minor scale and the G dominant seven flat nine flat 13 Sound the fifth mode of the C harmonic minor scale. So now let's go to E flat minor seven Dorian mode so it's going to be E flat, G flat, A flat, B flat, D flat, E flat minor Dorian mode okay, we know the routine by now right index finger improvisation first so let's bring the ensemble in Let's improvise using some simplicity some space and adhere to that mode no notes outside of the scale. Alright, here we go. Let's check it out.

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Nice so now we've we've gotten become familiar with that mode. With that scale, we've improvised with our index finger only time to open it up and use the entire hands. So let's get after it right ensembles back in, ready to go and so here we go. E flat minor seven Dorian mode, improvising using simplicity space and adhering to the mode with my entire hand. So here we go. Let's check it out.

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So you may know, and you may not know but if you do know great, once we do a minor Dorian, it's typically going to be followed by a dominant Mixolydian and that's exactly what we're gonna do right now. Our next chord scale relationship is an A flat dominant Mixolydian mode so it's gonna be a flat, B flat, C, D flat, E flat, F, and G flat. Sound like this. Love that sound. So we know the routine. We're familiar with it by now. So let's bring the ensemble back in. Let's do some improvisation. First. Using index finger only. Here we go. Check it out.

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Nice, very nice. So now let's, I'm going to use my entire hand and again, I want to stress it again, doesn't change my approach to improvising, right? Just because I have more fingers that I can call upon that I can use doesn't change my approach. I want simplicity, I want space and I want to adhere to the chord scale relationship. I am trying to develop mature melodic ideas and I want to sound like a mature jazz musician, jazz improviser so here we go. Let's check it out see what we think?

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Love it so where do five courts take us five chords want to take us to one so now we're going to go to D flat major seven, D flat major seven Ionian mode. So scale is going to be D flat, E flat, F, G flat, E flat, B flat, and C

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right B flat major Ionian mode, index finger only improvisation. Here we go. Let's check it out see what we think.

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All right, index finger only improvisation we get the mode under our hands-on in our in our finger and our fingers should say under our finger and now it's time to open it up and use the entire hand now that I have a command of the D flat major Ionian mode so that's exactly what I'm going to do bring the ensemble back in gonna improvise on the D flat major seven Ionian mode focus on simplicity space and I'm headed to hearing to the scale to the mode only no notes outside of the seven notes of the scale. So here we go. Let's check it out see what we think.

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Okay, so what we have now completed, literally taken every chord from Blue Basa C minor seven F minor seven D half diminished, or D minor seven flat five, G seven, flat nine flat 13, E flat minor seven, E flat dominant seven and D flat major seven And I've explored each one of those chord scale relationships, each one of those sounds. Using first index finger only to get familiar with the mode get familiar with the scale, the chord scale relationship, improvising with just the index finger only. Then once comfortable with the mode with chords can relationship, open it up to use the entire hand, but in doing so, not changing my improvisational approach, still wanting to take a very simplistic approach, use space in my plane, and also adhere to strict adherence to the CT scan relationship. So now what I want to do is I want to take those two five ones, I want to take the half diminish the D minor seven, flat five, go into the G seven flat nine flat 13 Go into the C minor seven. And I want to do the exact same thing but now I want to do it instead of on an isolated chord I want to get comfortable with a chord progression. So what better progression than the 251 or start with the minor 251 found within Blue Bossa so I'm gonna bring the ensemble back in, we're gonna play that minor 251 D minor seven, flat five, the G seven flat nine flat 13 to C minor seven, I'm going to improvise using index finger only. Okay, here we go. Let's check it out. See what we think?

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Pretty cool, pretty musical, right? Pretty mature. I'm just using index finger only. So now let's do a little comparison. I'm going to open it up, I'm going to use my entire hands things get simpler say easier, right? Because I'm using more fingers. I'm not going to try to play more complicated. I'm going to play over this minor 251 Again, focusing on my simplistic approach with space and adherence to the CT scan relationship. So let's bring out sample and let's check it out here we go.

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Nice, nice. Nice. What a great way. By the way, just what a great way to practice two five ones. Index finger improvisation first followed by the complete entire hand. Okay? Hey, if that works for minor 251 certainly gonna work for a major 251 and we have one of those inside of blue boss as well. So we're gonna take that E flat minor seven, a flat dominant seven going to D flat major seven. We're gonna take that major 251 relationship when explored first with index only improvisation. Right? So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's do this and see what we think here we go check

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it out. index finger only improvisation over a major 251. Wow. Right, I would go as far as to say hey, if you can't do that, don't even worry about bringing more fingers into it right? If you can improvise with one finger, why would you think he could improvise with more than one finger? Think about it. Alright. So now let's, let's do our major 251 Let's bring the ensemble back in I'm going to use the entire hand and hopefully it sounds pretty much pretty much the same as what you just what you just heard but now I'm going to use the entire hand so here we go. Let's check it out. See what we think?

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Love it I absolutely love it. So you've probably picked up on the fact that we've been you know, picking up speed here steam right? Things are getting a little bit each step of the way. We're getting a little bit more involved right well we're taking a very methodical approach. First, we isolated each of the chords within the song Blue Bossa then we took the 251 progressions that are found within the song and isolated those. So now that we've looked at the steady the chord scale relationships, studied the progressions within Blue Bossa guess what it's time to put it together. So now we're going to have some real fun I'm going to play Blue Bossa and I'm going to play the head then I'm going to improvise a couple courses and play the head Guess what I'm going to do that with I'm just going to do it with index finger only. So right now I'm going to play Blue Bossa entirely with index finger only the head the melody followed by some improvisation followed by the head let's see how this goes here we go check it out.

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Pretty cool right? Hey, I'd much rather listen to somebody play with their index finger all night long. And play meaningful melodic lines in time with great feel great articulation, right? Simplistic with space and be adhering to chord scale relationship. I'd much rather have listened to that all night. And somebody's playing a lot of noise, right? Just playing a lot of garbage. Think about that. So now what I want to do is play blue bass again. This time we're going to open it up and use the entire hamburger Guess what not going to change the parameters here we're going to focus on simplicity space and guess what yes I'm going to adhere to the entire mode the chords go relationships I'm not going to go outside of the scale at all scale tones throughout the entire tune in the improvisation so here we go let's check it out see what we think?

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Wow, this has been a workout, but you know what it's been such a workout. Before we go, I'm going to play blue balls again. This time I'm going to open it up, I'm going to play whatever the heck I want to write the whole point being is if you practice like what I just laid out, you'll get to the point where you can add notes outside of the scale and outside of the mode, the outside notes if you will, right. Those will become much easier right? If you can't see the inside notes if you can't play notes that are within the harmony it's hard to play the notes that are outside the harmony in fact I had a teacher one time asked me Bob How do you teach students to play wrong notes right I said that's very simple. You teach them the play right notes right first and if they can play right notes right first, then playing the wrong notes will be a piece of cake. So are playing the wrong notes right will be a piece of cake. So that's what we've been doing all day to day it's playing the right notes. So now I'm gonna have I'm gonna have a little fun I'm gonna play Blue Bossa not gonna get crazy I'm still going to keep it simple. I'm going to use space and I'm going to hit here you know here to the courts care relationships but I'm going to use approach tones as I'm chromaticism have a little fun so here we go Blue Bossa.

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too much fun man. I tell you what have I'm exhausted. Right we have covered so much ground today we have unpacked a ton Within the hour as we do each and every week, and certainly, today was no exception as we explored index finger improvisation, I want to encourage you right I want to encourage all of you to take the time to map out CT scan relationships to CT scan relationships that I presented today. Use the podcast packets, the illustrations, and the lead sheets to guide you right the illustrations include some fabulous worksheets templates that you can use to map out these CT scan relationships. And if you've heard me say this over and over and over again, that conceptual understanding determines your physical development. So take the time to study to map out these chord scale relationships found in Blue Bossa it's time well spent. And believe me, trust me the return on your investment cannot be adequately expressed. And as always, I want to stress Be patient. Right, developing mature improvisational skills takes time. So begin structuring your scale practice after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode and I guarantee it you will begin to see you'll begin to feel and you will begin to hear your musical progress. Well, I hope that you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring index finger improvisation to be insightful, and of course I hope it is very beneficial for you as well. Don't forget if you are a jazz panel skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass 8 pm, central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring index finger improvisation in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. So, again, I'll see you Thursday evening 8 pm. As always, as a jazz piano skills member right. Be sure to use the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets in the play alongs not only for this podcast lesson but for all the podcast episodes that I have released over 100 of them. Also to take advantage of the jazz panel skills courses to maximize your musical growth. And likewise, make sure that you are an active participant in the jazz piano skills community get involved, contribute to the various forums, and make some new jazz panel friends. Many of you send me crazy I mean really great questions through email or through SpeakPipe, which is fantastic. I welcome that at any time. But I want to encourage you to post your questions in the community in the forums. So many people would benefit from the answers not only that I would offer up, but your friends in the community would offer and make available as well. So please get involved with the forums and contribute. As always, you can reach me by phone at 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 by email Dr. Lawrence Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com or by SpeakPipe found throughout the jazz piano skills website. While there is my cue, that's it for now, and until next week, enjoy index finger improvisation enjoy the journey. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano