Inverted Melodic Dominant Shapes

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 inverted melodic shapes for the dominant sound. You are going to learn how to construct inverted melodic dominant shapes using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion. And you are going to play inverted melodic dominant shapes, using enclosures in all 12 keys to develop jazz vocabulary for 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 an experienced professional, you will find this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring inverted melodic dominant shapes to be very beneficial. If you are a new listener to the jazz piano skills podcast, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. 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And last, but certainly certainly not least, you will have access to unlimited private, personal and professional educational support. Again, visit jazz panel skills.com to learn more about all of the educational opportunities and how easily it is to activate your membership. If you have any questions, any questions at all, please let me know I am always happy to spend time with you. And to help you in any way that I can. Okay, let's discover learning play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play the inverted melodic shapes for the dominant sound. Last week we explored inverted melodic shapes for the major sound. And I started that episode by stating that one of the biggest hurdles, if not the biggest hurdle that all aspiring jazz pianists have to face have to jump both mentally and physically is the ability to establish a Nexus a link between harmony and melody and to do so in such a way that the to actually become one. I also stressed that making this inseparable correlation between harmony and melody is a big time skill that begins with being consciously aware of this relationship. Knowing that it truly exists. Whether you can or cannot actually visualize it or orally identify So today we continue our exploration of inverted melodic shapes, and we do so by placing the dominant sound in the spotlight. Our goal today remains the same as it was last week to discover, learn and play harmony and melody as one. Another important fact that I pointed out last week is that all musical sounds can be played harmonically and melodically. In other words, all major dominant minor half diminished and diminished sounds can be played harmonically as a chord and melodically as an arpeggio or scale. And knowing this important fact, actually transforms the way you approach practicing. How so? Well, instead of practicing scales and arpeggios, as if they are some kind of musically autonomous technique exercise, which, which sadly, 90 plus percent of all students do because that is precisely how scales and arpeggios are typically taught. In fact, that is precisely how scales and arpeggios are taught. They are taught solely as a technique exercise that will help you develop good fingerings which is 100% true, however, that justification for practicing scales and arpeggios barely, and I mean barely scratches the surface. With regards to why you should be practicing scales and arpeggios. You however you on the other hand, now know that there is a nexus between harmony and melody, and that all musical sounds can be played harmonically and melodically. And because of this knowledge, you will begin practicing scales and arpeggios not as mere technique exercises, but as melodic lines, melodic lines that spawned directly from a specific harmonic sound. And not only that, you will begin to see and hear a single scale and arpeggio in relation to multiple chords, multiple harmonic shapes and sounds. C, a big time skill that radically changes how you approach the study and performance of music. If you remember, during last week's podcast episode, I also used in analogy to illuminate to magnify this inseparable relationship between harmony and melody. I presented a scenario of presenting to a classroom of kindergarteners students, a black of ice and a jug of water, and then asking the children if the two items were the same thing. Of course, their answer would be an emphatic No. And why? Well, because quite simply, they have not yet developed the cognitive skills, the cognitive abilities to understand that the same thing can appear in two different forms. So my point with that analogy was to as vividly as possible, establish the oneness, the sameness of melody, and harmony. So just as water can be both a solid and a liquid, musical sound can be both a solid and a liquid. Harmony is equivalent to the block of ice, the solid a chord, and melody is equivalent to the jug of water, the liquid arpeggios and scales. Once you conceptually understand music in this way, you begin to see harmony and melody as being one and the same. You see harmony and melody has the same thing. However, to solidify this relationship, to move it from a conceptual understanding to a physical reality, practical application, you must consistently practice this relationship. And that is exactly what we are going to do today with the dominant sound as we did last week. With the major sound okay, so today, I am going to deal with the dominant sound only. We explored the major sound last week, and we will tackle the minor sound next week, I will be modeling everything today using C dominant, C dominant in root position, C dominant and first inversion, C dominant and second inversion, and C dominant in third inversion. Again, if you are not familiar with inversions, or you simply need a quick refresher, then I would recommend spending some time with jazz piano skills curriculum. Spend time with that curriculum, specifically, course three that deals with each of the 12 dominant chords in root position, and inversions. You can watch video demonstrations which will help illuminate inversions very clearly for you, they will be very helpful. And as the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1000 words. So check it out jazz piano skills curriculum, the course is course three. So let's begin with C dominant in root position, C, E, G, and B for now, I'm going to play the C dominant sound melodically in my right hand using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion. I mentioned this last week and it's definitely worth mentioning again today. The fact that I'm referring to play in the C dominant sound in root position. melodically is unfortunately, an uncommon expression. Typically when we hear of anyone speaking of chords and root position, or any inverted shape, we tend to immediately begin thinking harmonically right, we began thinking chords. This is a very one dimensional way of thinking that if this is how you think needs to come to an end quickly as quickly as possible. And that is the entire point of today's jazz panel skills podcast episode, today's lesson to get you truly thinking about harmonic shapes, root position, first inversion second inversion third inversion, melodically and if you do if you take last week's lesson, this week's lesson and next week's lesson seriously, which I know you will, then your improvisational skills will begin to evolve and mature rapidly. I want to quickly mention last week I used contemporary shell voicings in my left hand when playing the major arpeggios and scales in my right hand. Today, I will be using traditional dominant shell voicings in my left hand as I am playing the harmonic shapes melodically and my right hand. But you could choose to use any voice in you wish because our focus is going to be completely and entirely on the right hand and playing inverted harmonic shapes melodically and again, if you need to do some voicing study, or a quick refresher on voicings, then spend time with the jazz piano skills courses 17 through 26, which will help you thoroughly learn the traditional and the contemporary left hand shell voicings. I am going to approach playing the C dominant sound melodically as an exercise, no improvisation. In fact, I am not going to try to do anything fancy at all. I want to focus on playing this shape melodically in time, no rushing no dragging, and using proper jazz articulation, and a proper jazz feel. So I'm going to begin with ascending and descending arpeggio motion. I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess my consistency. And then I will begin to play ascending and descending scale motion. Again, focusing on playing the shape melodically in time and using a proper jazz articulation and jazz feel. And once again, I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess my consistency. So let's bring the ensemble in and check it out. And then we can talk about. So here we go. Pretty straightforward, right? I always begin the process of practicing the shapes of a sound melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion, from the bottom note of the shape to the top note of the shape. And I want to stress again, how important it is to play the shape as an exercise, no improvisation, no doodling, no rhythmic variations play straight up and straight down the shape. That's it, period. You know, it's funny, the reason we want to doodle, or, as my old teacher used to say mess around, is because we want to whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we want to disguise our inability to play something over and over and over again, with consistency. And with steady time, and with a proper jazz fill. Now these are big time jazz piano skills that should not be ignored. Actually, it's quite the opposite. They need to be incorporated into every aspect of your practicing. Additionally, and this is a huge additionally, when playing harmonic shapes melodically as an exercise, with no messing around, it allows you It allows me to digest the sound and this shape, conceptually, orally and physically. And all three must be actively engaged and in sync with each other in order for progress to occur. Okay, with that being said, let's move on to the next harmonic shape. See dominant in first inversion, which is going to be B flat, and C. Now, I just said that I practice the harmonic shapes of sound melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion from the bottom note of the harmonic shape to the top note of the harmonic shape. So in this case, my first inversion arpeggio motion will begin with the bottom note the note E, and end with the top note the note C. And my scale motion will do the very same thing. Begin with the bottom note E and end with the top note C. And as I did last week, I am always going to remain faithful to the harmonic shape when playing the arpeggios and scales. In other words, my scale will use only the notes that fall in between the bottom note of the harmonic shape and that top note of the harmonic shape. So my C dominant scale and first inversion is going to go from E to C That's it. In doing so, I illuminate the entwined relationship between harmony and melody. I begin to see them as one. Let's bring in the ensemble and play the C dominant sound melodically in first inversion. Again, as I did with the C dominant sound and root position, I am going to begin with ascending and descending arpeggio motion. I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess my consistency. And then I will begin to play ascending and descending scale motion. Again, focusing on playing the shape melodically in time, no doodling and using a proper jazz, articulation and feel. And once again, I will repeat the shape several times. So I can accurately assess my consistency. So let's check it out. And then we can talk about it. Here we go. Pretty cool stuff. Now keep in mind, we are dealing with four note sounds. So therefore we have four distinct shapes to get under our fingers. We have four dominant harmonic shapes, root position, first inversion, second inversion and third inversion. I want to get a handle on each of these shapes melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion while focusing on the harmonic shape. And as always, I want to do so while playing in time using a proper jazz articulation and feel. Oh, and Have I mentioned no doodling absolutely no messing around. Okay, so we've looked at C dominant and root position in first inversion. So two melodic shapes down, and two to go. So let's tackle c dominant and second inversion, G, B flat, C, and E. And, again, as I did with the C dominant sound and root position, first inversion, I am going to begin with ascending and descending arpeggio motion. I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess my consistency. And then I will begin to play ascending and descending scale motion and again, focusing on playing the harmonic shape melodically in time, while using a proper jazz, articulation and jazz feel. See you're filling in the blanks awesome. And once again, I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess my consistency. So let's check it out. And then as always, we can talk about it. Here we go. Again, I want to stress that I practice the harmonic shapes of sound melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio on scale motion from the bottom note of the harmonic shape to the top note of the harmonic shape. So in the case of the second inversion, which I just played arpeggio motion started with the bottom note G, and ended with the top note E, and the scale motion did the exact same thing. I began with the bottom note G, and ended with the top note he remember, always remain faithful to the harmonic shape. When playing the arpeggios and scales, scales will only use the notes that fall in between the bottom note of the harmonic shape and the top note of the harmonic shape. And in doing so, will help illuminate for you the correlation between harmony and melody, we need to see them harmony and melody as one. The final harmonic shape is C dominant in third inversion. So we have B flat, C, E, and G. Different harmonic shape, same melodic approach. I begin with ascending and descending arpeggio motion repeating the shape several times, in order to accurately assess my consistency. Then I will begin to play ascending and descending scale motion again, focusing on playing the harmonic shape melodically in time, using the proper jazz articulation and a proper jazz feel correct. And once again, I will repeat the shape several times so I can accurately assess what my consistency here I'm not sure if I brought this up, but I want to stress, no doodling, no messing around. So let's check it out. See dominant and third and version, B flat C, E and G. And then we can talk about it. Here we go. Now that we have practiced each of the C dominant harmonic shapes melodically it's time to musically camouflage the arpeggios and scales as we did last week, with the major shapes. And once again, why is this important? Because of these two very important musical facts number one, there are only two types of melodic motion founded music arpeggio and scale. Number two, there are only two directions a melodic line can travel up or down. So you may be wondering, what exactly is the point? Well, the point Is that in music, we are always dealing with a finite set of options. Always. There are a finite number of nodes, a finite number of scales, a finite number of courts, a finite number of voicings, and so on. This only makes sense considering that the tuning system that we use to make music is finite 12 notes. That's it. 12 is actually a pretty small number. And what I'm saying is that a finite tuning system cannot produce infinite possibilities. Infinity cannot come from something that is finite. so important that you know, these two musical facts, two types of motion, two directions, and allow them to govern your practicing. In other words, your practice approach should always illuminate harmony and melody as one. And it should always encompass the two types of musical motion, arpeggio and scale. And the two directions that motion can travel, ascending and descending. But the question I always get asked, When improvising jazz musicians are not just simply going up and down arpeggios and scales, are they? Well, the answer remains the same as it did as it was last week. In essence, that's exactly what jazz musicians do, but but you would never know it. And why? Because professional jazz musicians who are proficient improvisers know how to artistically camouflage arpeggios and scales, so that they do not sound like arpeggios and scales. One way professional jazz musicians do this is with the insertion of enclosures lower and upper neighboring tones around specific target notes. And that's exactly what I want to do right now. Last week with the major sound, I added an enclosure around the first note of the shape, using an eighth note rhythm. Today, however, I'm going to add the enclosure to the second note of the dominant shape using a triplet rhythm. Now, this may be an aha moment for you. It certainly was for me when I was when I first realized that I could add enclosures to any note with in the shape and use various rhythms in doing so. Wow. Talk about camouflaging arpeggios and scales. This will certainly do the trick, as you are about to hear. But before we dig in, and as I did last week, as well, it's important that I take just a second to explain in closures and closures approach the selected target note using a lower neighboring tone, one half step below the target note followed by an upper neighboring tone, the closest diatonic note above the target note followed by arpeggio or scale motion of the sound. Now, enclosures do not have to always follow this rule of thumb. And in fact, I would encourage you to trust your ears and make musical decisions based on the sound and not on the theory. I had a teacher who would constantly remind me he used to say mom, does it sound good? Well, then it's good. balm, does it sound bad? Well, then it's bad. In other words, make musical decisions based upon how it sounds regardless as to whether or not it is theoretically correct or theoretically incorrect. So back to C dominant and root position we go. I am going to add an enclosure around the note E the second note of the shape, which will use the lower neighboring tone one half step below the note E which is the note E flat and the first diatonic note above the note E which will be the note f i am going to practice playing the enclosure around the note E, followed by ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Then I will begin playing the enclosure, followed by ascending and descending scale motion. I'm always inserting some space between my arpeggios and scales for assessing purposes, and I always repeat each arpeggio and scale so I can accurately measure my consistency, articulation, feel and time. And don't forget, I'm going to be playing the enclosure with my target note as a triplet. That should be fun. So let's bring the ensemble back in and check it out. Here we go. Wow. At this point, the point of adding enclosures around various notes within the shape using various rhythmic patterns, I can really begin seeing and hearing just how important it is to be able to see harmony and melody as one. In doing so I am capable of developing some very nice and iconic jazz vocabulary for improvising. So now let's continue the fun and utilize the same formulaic process. However, this time focusing on the dominant sound in first inversion. I'm going to add an enclosure around the note G, the second note of the shape, which will use the lower neighboring tone one half step below the note G which is the note F sharp and the first diatonic note above the note G, which will be the note a. I'm going to practice playing the enclosure around the note G followed by ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Then I will begin playing the enclosure followed by ascending and descending scale motion. Again, I'm always inserting some space between my arpeggios and scales for assessing purposes. And I always repeat each arpeggio scale so I can accurately measure accurately assess my consistency, articulation, my feel my time. Oh, and don't forget, I'm going to play the enclosure along with my target note as a triplet. Right. So let's check this out. Let's bring the ensemble and here we go. How awesome is this approach? Yes, we are using a formulaic approach to creating patterns to help us develop jazz vocabulary. remember from last week, formulas, to patterns to improvisation, or another way of stating this practice process is conceptual understanding, to physical development, to musical creativity. If you're a regular listener to jazz piano skills, you know that I never stop preaching this process. Your conceptual understanding determines your physical development, and thus, your musical results. It all begins upstairs mentally, before it can come out downstairs physically. Ultimately, it is your mind your mental approach to music that escorts your hands and ears to new musical ideas. And this is precisely why I constantly remind all of you all jazz piano skills listeners, that if your conceptual understanding of music is incorrect or skewed, slightly skewed in any way, your physical development, your musical results will be severely limited or simply non existent. Another important point I want to make having a formulaic approach to creating patterns to help us develop jazz vocabulary allows us to easily replicate the process not only for sound a sound from chord to chord, but within the harmonic structure itself. Listen very carefully. If you cannot replicate your practice approach for the jazz piano skill you are studying. From sound to sound chord, the chord key key, then your practice approach is severely flawed. give this some serious thought and always seriously critique your study and practice approach. Okay, let's move on to exploring the dominant sound in second inversion. I'm going to add an enclosure around the note B flat the second note of the shape, which will use the lower neighboring tone one half step below the note B flat which is the note a and the first diatonic note above the note B flat which will be the notes C. I'm going to practice playing the enclosure around the note B flat followed by ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Then I will begin playing the enclosure followed by ascending and descending scale motion. And again, I'm always inserting some space between my arpeggios and scales for assessing purposes. And I'll always repeat each arpeggio and scale so I can accurately measure my consistency. articulation, my feel and my time. Oh, one more thing. I'm going to be playing the enclosure along with my target note as a triplet. This should be fun. Some more fun. So let's bring the ensemble back in. And here we go. Pretty darn cool right? Now, a little side note, I am playing these examples today using a temple of 140 simply for the sake of time. 140 is actually a pretty fast tempo and I would encourage you to start at much slower tempos 85 101 10 it is so important that you practice at tempos where you can easily manage the patterns while maintaining a good sense of time, feel and articulation. Never, ever, ever, sacrifice time feel and articulation for speed is a very bad trade off. That not only sounds musically mad, but it is extremely detrimental to your musical development. Okay, on to the dominant sound using the third inversion shape. I'm going to add an enclosure around the note see the second note of the shape, which will use the lower neighboring tone one half step below the note C which is the note B be natural and the first diatonic note above the note C, which will be the note D. I am going to practice playing the enclosure around the note C followed by ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Then I will begin playing the enclosure followed by ascending and descending scale motion. And as always, I'm inserting some space between my arpeggios and scales for assessing purposes and always repeating each arpeggio on scale so I can accurately measure my consistency, my articulation, my feel, and my time. I know you know this. But just another reminder, I am going to be playing the enclosure along with my target note as a triplet. So let's bring the ensemble back in and let's do this here we go. Now, I want to take just a few minutes as I did last week with the major shapes to pull back the curtain for you just a little bit so that you can hear where all of this dominant pattern practice is going. To do this, I'm going to play a 251 progression key of F G minor seven to C dominant seven to F major seven so that you can hear these patterns within a musical context. I'm going to begin with arpeggio motion when playing the 251 progression I am going to play nothing melodic over the two chord and nothing melodic over the one chord. I am going to place my undivided attention on the five chord and the melodic shapes the patterns that we just established. So here is 251 in the key of F using camouflage ascending and descending arpeggios applied to the harmonic shapes of the dominant sound, the root position shape, first inversion shape, second inversion shape, and third inversion shape with triplet and closures around this second note of the shape I am going to slow down the template to 120. So that I am not moving through the shapes, the enclosures, triplets, too quickly. I want you to hear them. So let's bring the ensemble back in. And let's check this out. Here we go. I love it, you can really begin to hear the formation of melodic motifs, these little ideas that will eventually flow into longer melodic phrases. So now let's do the very same thing but this time you scale motion. And once again, when playing the 251 progression, I am going to play napthine melodic over the two chord and nothing melodic over the one chord. I'm going to place my undivided attention on the five chord and the melodic shapes the patterns that we just established. So here is 251 in the key of F major, using camouflage ascending and descending scales applied to the harmonic shapes of the dominant sound, the root position shape, the first inversion shape, the second inversion shape and the third inversion shape with triplet enclosures around this second note of the shapes. And once again, I'm going to slow the tempo down to 120 so that I am not moving through the shapes, the enclosures, the triplets too quickly. I want you to hear them. So here we go. Let's check it out. Wow. What can I say? At this point, I don't think I need to say anything. Between last week's podcast episode last week's lesson exploring the inverted melodic major shapes and this week's podcast episode. This week's lesson exploring the inverted melodic dominance shapes. You can really begin to see you can really begin to hear and experience how jazz musicians go about Practicing improvisation, how jazz musicians practice creativity. Now your job is to apply everything we just explored using the C dominant chord to the remaining 11 dominant chords. And now don't freak out. Remember last week I spoke about the difficulty with furniture that you have to put together that after you assemble a piece of furniture that literally took you all day to figure out where all the blasted pieces go, you can now assemble that same piece of furniture in a matter of minutes, if you had to do it all over again. Well, the same phenomenon holds true in music, especially when you're using formulaic approaches to practicing jazz piano skills that can be easily replicated. It gets easier and faster from chord to chord, from sound to sound. As always, we have covered a ton of ground today. So I want to take a moment to summarize to outline the takeaways from today's episode from today's lesson. Number one, you should always be thinking about practicing sound. When practicing music, Major, dominant, minor half diminished, diminished. Number two, you should always practice sound using the only two types of motion that exists in music, arpeggios, and scale. Number three, you should always practice sound using the two types of musical motion arpeggio and scale. Moving in the only two directions a melodic line can travel ascending and descending, up or down. Number four, when practicing melodic ideas based upon sound, motion and direction, you must be consciously aware of your sense of time, your jazz feel in your jazz articulation. These are essential jazz piano skills that need to be front and center. Always when practicing. And number five. When practicing the camouflaging of arpeggios and scales, you must have a formulaic process to add various approaches such as enclosures, so that you can easily replicate the camouflaging from sound a sound chord a chord, and key to key Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcasts lesson exploring inverted melodic shapes for the dominant sound to be insightful and of course beneficial. Don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass. 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson, inverted melodic shapes in greater detail and to answer any question that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Again, as a jazz piano skills member, be sure to use the educational podcast packets for this podcast lesson, and the jazz piano skills courses. To maximize your musical growth. Check them out at jazz piano skills.com likewise, make sure you are an active participant of the jazz piano skills community. Get involved and contribute to the various forums make some new jazz piano friends always a great thing to do. And as always, you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 extension 211 by email Dr. Lawrence Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com or by speakpipe found throughout the jazz piano skills website. Well, there's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week. Enjoy the inverted melodic dominance shapes. Enjoy the journey and most of them, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano