I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.632)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, here we are again, week three of the month of February, February 25. And of course, week three of every month is the week we dedicate ourselves to improving our jazz improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of a tune.

followed up in week two with a melodic analysis. And of course, week three, this week, we work on developing our improvisation chops. How cool. You know, our harmonic analysis of I've grown accustomed to her face, the harmonic analysis that we do every, every month with every tune, explored the form, the changes, harmonic function, the common harmonic movement, and of course, voicings are essential melodic skills.

Our melodic analysis study that we did last week always examines the lyrics, melody, fingerings, phrases, and various melodic treatments. Today, our improvisation skills, well, they're going to challenge our ability to create melodic lines using quarter, eighth rhythms, outlining the chord changes, the harmony, and heightening our awareness of the importance of playing silence.

That's correct. The importance of playing silence. Our three-week study of every tune that we dive into is, I gotta admit, it's pretty thorough. And of course, it's incredibly beneficial if you actually do each analysis, the harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and the improvisation development. and on top of all that, we have our weekly rhythm challenge.

a challenge that has us doing some transcribing, some transposing and transforming of our approach to melodic playing. Of course, the study and practicing of all of these essential jazz piano skills must be governed by crystal clear thought, right? That simplifies music at least conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical capabilities.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:58.702)
You know, we achieve this crystal clear thought by making sure all that we do musically, conceptually and physically, plugs into and adheres to, say it with me, the seven musical facts. And what are the seven musical facts? Fact number one, music is the production of sound. Major, dominant, minor, half diminished, diminished.

Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. We call these shapes. We have harmonic shapes, melodic shapes. Fact number three, the shapes of harmony are called chords. These are our voicings. Fact number four, the shapes of melody are scales and arpeggios. Every melody is made up of scales and arpeggios. Fact number five, when playing scales and arpeggios, we can only move in one of two directions. Of course, right? Up or down.

In fact, number six, we need to camouflage our scales and arpeggios. We do so with tension, chromaticism, notes outside of the harmony. In fact, number seven, to make musical facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. That's it. Those are the seven facts of music. And this is precisely why

we approach our tune study centering around the seven facts of music using these three distinct tuning learning phases, our harmonic analysis, our melodic analysis, and our improvisation development. And of course, this year we're adding an emphasis to each of these phases, each of these analysis with a specific focus on fact number seven, which deals with rhythm.

You know, again, each phase moving forward incorporates a rhythm challenge that I will be posting or that I do post in the private jazz panel skills community. The harmonic rhythm challenge, week one, always involves some kind of rhythmic transcribing that we then use to work on our comping skills. And the melodic rhythm challenge, week two, that we did last week, always involves some kind of

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:21.088)
transposing of melodic motifs to various key centers and the improvisation rhythm challenge that we're going to do today stretches arpeggio and scale motion through the various segments of the sound thus transforming our soloing vocabulary. You know this is why more than ever I'm excited about this entire year because

We have an amazing educationally sound three tier three phase approach that is formulated from a very crystal clear understanding of the facts of music, the seven facts of music, the seven facts needed to illuminate essential jazz piano skills needed to successfully discover, learn and play tunes to play jazz. Right? It's gonna be great year.

it's going to be a great year. So today we tackle improvisation development. Today we continue to discover the great standard, I've grown accustomed to her face. We're going to learn how to build quarter and eighth melodic ideas using the changes for I've grown accustomed to her face. And we're going to play eighth and quarter, I'm sorry, quarter and eighth lines over the changes of I've grown accustomed to her face.

using of course, sound and silence. And of course, you're to be given a rhythm challenge to develop your improvisation skills as well. 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 I've grown accustomed to her face.

some improvisation development to be very, very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to, as I always do, I want to welcome first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. And if you are indeed new to Jazz Piano Skills, you're a new listener to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership keeps the Jazz Piano Skills podcast ad free.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:42.658)
which has been my goal from day one. I wanted a podcast that was 100 % educational content, no ads. And additionally, your membership grants you many perks. For example, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to premium podcast content. In other words, you get to listen to the entire episode, the entire podcast episode. The first half of every episode is of course free for everyone to enjoy.

We always dive into a question of the week. We lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. And the second half of the podcast for the members contains all of the lesson content, demonstrations, exploration of the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs, and of course, the weekly rhythm assignment and the rhythm task as well. You also, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, have access to the past

current and future podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode to help you get the most out of every episode. as I always say, these should be in your hands when listening to the podcast lesson. And of course, you should have them sitting on your piano when practicing as well. As a member, you also have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive, interactive, self paced and sequential courses.

all of them packed with interactive learning media to help you digest the jazz panel skills conceptually. And of course, physically, there are video demonstrations of the skills in all 12 keys to help you physically get a command of the skills as well. As a member, you also have a reserved seat in the online weekly masterclass, which I host every week, every Thursday evening, 8pm Central Standard Time. And of course, if you cannot make that

time, no big deal. The master classes are recorded and you can watch the video or listen to the audio of the class as often as you wish, whenever you wish. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have access to the online private Jazz Panel Skills community which hosts a variety of forums, episode specific forums as well as general jazz forums. Great members membership there, member feedback and assistance is available.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:07.31)
It's a great community, which I know you will thoroughly enjoy. And finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have unlimited educational support, private, personal, and professional, whenever and as often as you need it. So all of these perks are waiting for you, wanting to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazzpanoskills.com. And of course, become a member.

you get to the site and you have any questions about the various plans, we have four different plans, a weekly plan, a monthly plan, an annual plan, and a lifetime membership available. If you have any questions regarding the various plans, I'm always happy to help answer any of your questions, so please do not hesitate to reach out to me. And I look forward to getting to know you soon, as soon as you become a member. Okay, so on to the question

of the week. I selected this question for this week because it fits perfectly with our week three improvisation development exploration that we do every month. And so it's the perfect question. So I thought, yes, let's share this today and let's explore this question. So this week's question comes from Bart Tucker living in Kansas City, Kansas. Bart Tucker, Kansas City.

Dude, it's been a rough couple of weeks, hasn't it? Right? I want to extend my condolences. I'm sure that you are a Chiefs fan and they completely choked last week in the Super Bowl. But you know what? I'm not sad about that because we're tired of the Chiefs winning. They're winning every year, right? It was great to see them lose. However, I'm totally bummed because they lost to the Eagles for heaven's sakes.

And I'm a Cowboys fan and that's extremely, extremely painful. So it was not a good Super Bowl. It just was not a good Super Bowl. So I'm offering my condolences really, I guess, for both you and for me. Okay. But anyway, Bart, enough football talk. Let's get to your question, which is a great one. And I know everyone listening, I know everyone listening has asked themselves,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:30.936)
this very same question multiple times throughout their jazz journey. And actually, I think everyone probably continues to ask this question on a daily basis. So Bart wants to know, I have been playing piano for most of my life, primarily classical music. I have always had a fascination with jazz and jazz piano. I recently recently started taking some lessons and joined Jazz Piano Skills. Good.

I'm excited, but must be honest. Deep down, I have doubts that someone, me, can learn how to improvise. I tend to believe that you can either do it or you cannot. My question is, can someone really learn how to improvise? Thank you for your help and for your honesty. And he put honesty in all caps. Okay, right.

Well Bart, great question and I thank you for your honesty and I promise that I will be 100 % honest with you with my answer to your question. To answer your question quite simply, the answer is yes. Yes, of course you can learn how to improvise. If, and it's a big if, if you approach learning how to improvise correctly.

just like anything else Bart, is a correct way and a wrong way to approach learning how to improvise. So let's take a few minutes and explore both approaches, the correct approach and the wrong approach. But let's begin, let's begin with the wrong approach. Okay. So the wrong approach begins with the premise that learning to improvise

is the process of assimilating as much how to play jazz information as possible. And then undergo the process of trying to place the information that you have assimilated in some kind of sequential order, like an academic connecting of the dots game, right? Connecting the dots. All in hopes

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:56.258)
that you can mentally retain the information so that you can begin practicing the information so that you can begin to play jazz and improvise like a pro.

The process of assimilating as much jazz information as possible goes on and on and on and on. It never stops. It never stops because you never learn how to play. And because you never learn how to play, you continue to search for more resources because you you hope

that you will eventually find the book, the book, or the transcription, or the backing tracks, or the app, or the software, or you know what? The YouTube video. That video. If I can only find that video that unlocks it all, that reveals the secrets of how to play jazz, how to improvise.

See Bart, this approach, this entire premise is wrong. The entire premise is based on the assumption that you need to continually find information to absorb, to put into you. Instead of understanding that learning how to play jazz, how to improvise is about pulling your musical ideas out of you and not

about putting external musical ideas into you. I hope that makes sense, right? So it's back ass words. It's just flipped. It's wrong. And so once you have this revelation, this realization that the study of jazz is a lifelong journey of discovering your musical voice,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:11.034)
your musical ideas, your creativity, your improvisational skills, you begin to travel at that very moment, you begin to travel the correct path to learning how to play jazz, how to improvise.

So how do you do this? How do you begin?

the task of discovering your musical voice, your musical ideas, your creativity, your improvisational skills. Well, how do you begin to successfully tackle any task? And I think we would all agree that any job, any task becomes a whole lot easier if you have the correct tools.

So what are the correct tools for learning how to play jazz? What are the correct tools for learning how to improvise? Well, Bart, I'm going to tell you, and guess what? You won't have to purchase a bunch of books, study a thousand transcriptions, or watch a million YouTube videos to be made aware of the essential jazz tools

needed for becoming an accomplished musician. Are you ready? Here are the tools. Listen very carefully. Jazz, jazz improvisation is the study of sounds and shapes. The sounds are major, dominant, minor, half-diminished and diminished. The shapes are harmonic and melodic. Harmonic shapes are chords.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:04.76)
melodic shapes or arpeggios and scales. I wonder where I've heard that before.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:14.304)
No need to go any further. These are the tools, the sounds and shapes of music. These are the tools, sounds and shapes of jazz and improvisation. Without this understanding, without these tools, you will never learn how to play jazz. You will never improvise, ever, ever, ever. But if you possess these tools, these essential jazz piano skills,

These sounds, these shapes, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished, harmonic, melodic, chords, arpeggios, scales. If you possess these tools, then you have what you need to begin playing jazz, to begin improvising. Again, if you do not have these tools, you're host. If you have a functional command of these tools,

these essential jazz panel skills, then all of the other jazz concepts that you have heard about in those books, and you've heard about through those videos, right? And you've seen at websites that you've read about, right? All those different concepts, chord scale relationships, modes, altered sound, substitutions, the list goes on and on. All the fancy schmancy jazz concepts. Guess what?

will make sense and will be easily understood and applied if, if you have a functional command of the tools. The tools again, the sounds, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished, the shapes, harmonic, melodic, shapes, harmonic shapes, chords, melodic shapes, arpeggios, and scales. So bar

first order of business for anyone wanting to launch their jazz journey and begin discovering their musical voice, their musical ideas, their creativity, their improvisational skills. The first order of business begins with learning how to play the 60 chords of music harmonically and melodically, the sounds of music harmonically and melodically, the shapes of music, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:37.58)
Without these tools under your fingers, you will never ever play jazz and you will never ever improvise. Without these tools, you're left with nothing but the unending search for the book, the transcription, the backing tracks, the app, the software, the YouTube video that will show you the way, which they never do.

Well, Bart, that was a great question. I got to go on a little rant. I love rants. I love rants. Great question. And I hope my answer just cut to the chase and got down to the nitty gritty. And I hope it helps clear up any misconceptions that you may have regarding this study of jazz and improvisation. And as always,

If more clarification is needed or you just simply want to dig a little deeper together, I'm happy to do so. Just let me know. All right, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play. I've grown accustomed to her face. All right, quick review as always when studying when learning any tune, I approach it the same way. And again, genre makes no difference to me. Makes no difference with this jazz tune. Rock.

pop, country folk, R &B, whatever, right? I go about learning the tune the same way. Number one, listen, always listening. Various artists, not just jazz musicians either, right? Don't fall into that trap to only listening to jazz musicians. Listen to musicians from various genres. Take it all in, take it all in. Vocalists, instrumentalists, pianists. After I do my share of listening,

I turn to a harmonic analysis. I'm always checking out form, changes, function, common movement, voicings. Then I turn my attention to melodic development, melodic analysis, where I'm always, I transcribe the melody always, right? Never reading it from a fake book, ever. I check out phrases, various treatments, you know, various standard jazz treatments like a ballad, bossa, swing. And then I always,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:58.562)
utilize every tune to help develop my improvisation skills. I like to explore it improvisationally. I like to study the chord scale relationships. I look at arpeggio and scale movement through the sounds. I explore tension, the notes that fall outside the harmony as well. you know, this is my roadmap. This is what I use. Like I said, regardless of the tune or regardless of the genre, right? I find it to be

pretty thorough, pretty complete approach and of course incredibly beneficial. It's beneficial from a music development standpoint, helping me to really secure my tools that I need to develop as a jazz player. So this week, we focus on our improvisation development. So the educational agenda.

for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to, of course, listen to definitive recordings of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Number two, we will construct stationary quarter and eighth note strings through the changes of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. And number three, we will insert mathematical and random silence into these strings as well. And number four, we will wrap things up

with of course a rhythm challenge that will help us develop our improvisation vocabulary using various quarter eighth combinations or patterns. Okay. So when we're done with this lesson, we will have experienced literally experienced the evolution of developing jazz improvisation language, of course necessary for improvising.

So with that being said, if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button, take a few minutes right now to download and print the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play longs. And again, your membership grants you access to the podcast packets each and every week. And as I mentioned earlier, you should absolutely have them in your hands while listening to the podcast to get the most out of it. And of course have them

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:19.166)
on your piano when practicing and studying as well. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets, I want you as always to grab your lead sheets and you should have eight eight lead sheets in your packet. Let's walk through them quickly before we do a deep dive. So number one or lead sheet one, you're going to see that this is a quarter note string.

quarter note string through the A section of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Lead sheet two, we have motion, a quarter note string utilizing motion. Again, moving through the A section of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Lead sheet three, the insertion of mathematical silence into our quarter note string. Lead sheet four, random silence is now inserted into our quarter note string. Now,

Lead Sheets 5 through 8 deal with quarter and eighth note combinations. So if you look at Lead Sheet 5, we have a stationary string through the A section of the tune, utilizing quarter notes, alternating quarter notes and eighth notes. Lead Sheet 6, now we have motion inserted into our quarter and eighth note, alternating quarter and eighth note string. That's Lead Sheet 6. Now Lead Sheet 7.

We have the insertion of mathematical silence again, and then lead sheet eight, we have the insertion of random silence. All right, so you're going to see how this all unfolds from a focus primarily on quarter notes, establishing a quarter note string through the A section, and then the inclusion of eighth notes. So you're going to start to see improvisational lines shape and develop.

as we move through each one of these lead sheets. Wow, so a lot to dissect today, so we need to get after this. Now, typically in the past, I would play a definitive recording of our tune of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face, but as you all know that this year, I've decided to place my listening suggestions in the Jazz Panel Skills Community Forums. And again, a couple reasons for doing this. Number one, I

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:42.956)
I want to be able to suggest more than one tune to check out because there are so many great renditions of every tune that we explore. And number two, I want to preserve as much time as possible for educational content within the podcast, right? So right now I want you to head on over to the community, spend some time listening to the various recordings that I have selected, that I've placed within the community, within the forums. Check them all out.

listen to them, enjoy it, get your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy some fantastic renditions. Piano focus this time. The renditions that I've picked this time are all pianist. So head on over to community and check that out. And then once you have listened to my recommended recordings, I want you to grab your lead sheets again. We're going to start with lead sheet one. So let's take a look at how to begin developing our jazz improvisation vocabulary. Bart, you're going to want to check this out.

It's going to be very helpful, right? And we're going to use the chord changes for I've grown accustomed to her face. Okay, so lead sheet one . . .

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