Jazz Improvisation Exercises, Ab Sounds

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Hey, I want to start off today and thank everyone. For the kind feedback I received after last week's episode, it was so nice of so many of you to express encouragement about the new lecture series that I am launching. As I mentioned last week, the series may be a solo lecture, as I did last week, or it could be a panel discussion with jazz educators exploring a specific jazz skill. Either way, I hope this new series will help you discover, learn and play jazz in a more meaningful and effective way. So again, thank you all for your continued support, it fires me up. Now we devoted the month of April to exploring the primary sounds of music major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished in relation to E flat. In other words, the E flat sounds not only the primary E flat sounds, but the altered E flat sounds as well. As we have been doing all year, we used five specific melodic patterns to focus on developing mobile fingering fingerings that allow our hand our right hand to be in a constant state of movement, and why the constant state of movement and the shifting of the hand because by constantly moving and positioning our right hand, we are seeking optimal finger usage needed to produce a strong and authentic jazz articulation. And of course, making sure that we never run out of fingers in the middle of a musical phrase. So, we have utilized this intentional approach for primary and altered sound since the beginning of the year. And we will continue to do so for the entire year. So today we will follow the exact same format we used in April with E flat March and B flat February was F January see, the only difference today is we are exploring the primary sounds of music centered on the note A flat. So today we are going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises. We are going to learn developmental arpeggio and scale patterns of a flat sounds. And we are going to play five arpeggio and five scale patterns, focusing on fingerings and articulation for the primary sounds of a flat, Major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. 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 are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises for a flat sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, I want to as I always do at the beginning of every jazz panel skills podcast episode, I want to welcome first time listeners. And if you are indeed new to jazz panel skills if you're new to the jazz piano skills podcast, I want to welcome you and I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. There are various membership plans to choose from, so check out jazz piano skills.com To learn more about all of the perks of each membership plan now there are educational weekly podcast enjoy sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses there's an online weekly master classes online interactive Fakebook that private jazz panel skills community that you can enjoy every every day that we host a variety of engaging forums. And of course there's unlimited and private, personal and professional educational support to take advantage of as well. All of these perks are are waiting for you wanting to help you discover learn and play As panels so, take a moment visit jazz piano skills.com And of course, become a member. Once you get there if you have any questions whatsoever about any of the educational perks, or the various membership plans, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, let me know. I'm always happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have, and help you in any way that I can. Okay, so let's get to the question of the week. Now this week's question comes from Bill brazo. vich. Bill Brasov. It's bill. I hope I'm not butchering your name. If I am, please forgive me. But Bill lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota. And First things first bill, bro, how do you handle the cold? I mean, really, come on, man. Man, when it gets down to 40 here in Dallas, or even colder, I think of myself man, I did not move far enough south. And when I'm done teaching here at the Dallas School of Music, I'll tell you I am moving to some tropical paradise somewhere, some tropical climate where it never falls below 70 I have a brother in law who was in the Air Force and stationed in Grand Forks, North Dakota. And I went to visit my sister and her family over Christmas wine. This was years ago. And, and when when My visit was over, and upon my departure, I informed them that I love you all very much. But I will never ever, ever be back. So please do not take that personally, Bill. And that how you sure you do it. I'm not sure how you do it, man. But but the upside, I guess is that you spend a lot of time in the house during the winter, which means a lot of piano practicing. So there is an upside for sure. Okay, on to Bill's question. The question is this, I am spending quite a bit of time trying to learn my four note block chords and their inversions. Some of the shapes fall naturally under my hands, while others feel very uncomfortable. Some of the chords and inversions I have no problem remembering but others always give me difficulty. In what ways do you suggest I work on these shapes so that they become comfortable so that I become comfortable with easily grabbing any cord in any order. Thanks for your help. Fantastic question Bill. And I know this, it's 100% normal, what you're experiencing, I can tell you is 100% normal, I have taught for over 30 years and I can tell you that everyone and I mean everyone experiences this same struggle. So, the first thing I would encourage you to do is to be able to play your chords, when I call grouped by family. And in other words, your C chords all grouped together your C major C dominant C minor, C half the management C diminished, right. So, the way I teach it root position C major C dominant C minor, C half diminished, C diminished and then move on go to the key of the F family. So you get F major, F dominant, F minor, F have diminished, and F diminished, right and so on, I would encourage you to move that go in circle of fifths or it right counterclockwise C to F the B flat to E flat and so on. Now be able to play these shapes and sounds and both hands in root position and then once comfortable with root position begin playing the chord families in first inversion, second inversion third inversion. So now the same exercise the C family and first inversion, C major C dominant C minor, C half diminished, C diminished, right then you would move that to second version, C major C dominant, C minor, C half diminished, C diminished and so on. Okay. Now that's a start. That's a very good start. But what will happen I guarantee it what will happen is you will become very comfortable with the plat path Add on a plane, root, third five and seven for your major, then root third, five, seven, flat seven, for dominant, root flat, third five, flat seven, for minor, root flat, third, flat, fifth flat seven, for half diminished. And then of course, root root flat, third, flat, fifth double flat seven,

or a, for C diminished, right, so you can get used to that pattern, it's a comfy pattern, you lower the sevens, dominant, lower the third, minor, lower the fifth, half diminished, lower the seventh, again, diminished, right. So you'll get comfortable with that pattern from going from one chord to the next quicker than you do with actually being able to grab the chords on command. Right, so to counter this, I practice when I was going through this very same struggle that you're mentioning, when so when I practiced my chords, I did so using various patterns, right. So for example, I started practicing chords by quality. So I'd start with C major, and maybe move in half steps, D flat major, D major, E flat major, E major. And I would play through all 12, right, and I would do the same thing, I'd put my chords in first inversion, C major, D flat major, D major, E flat major than our plan and second inversion, C major, D flat major, D major, and so on, right. And I would do that for dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. I would then also practice my chords sorted by key. So in other words, the seven chords that belong to the key of C, so I'd play C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G dominant, a minor, B half diminished. And then I would end with C major again. And of course, I would put those in inversions as well. So I play C major, first inversion, D minor, first inversion, E minor, first inversion, F major, G dominant, a minor, all in first inversion, B half diminished. And then C major. And of course, I would go into second version, and third inversion. Okay, so now I've done my chords by family, I've done my chords by type or quality, I've done my chords by key. And then of course, I would practice my chords by progression, like 251, using my inversion, so D minor, G dominant, C major, I'd go to the key of F, G minor, C dominant, F major, key, B flat, C minor, F dominant, B flat major. And of course, I would play those starting my minor chord in different inversions, which would then change the inversion, I'd play my dominant and my major. Right. Needless to say, all of these various ways to practice the chords helped me begin seeing them from a different perspective, other than just seeing them C major to see down at the C minor, half diminished and diminished. Okay? Now, what I also used to do is I used to use like, the whole tone pattern. So we would create two exercises, so I would play a whole tone exercise, which would go C major, to D major, to E major, to F sharp major, a G flat major, A flat major, B flat major, C major. So I'm moving all my chords in using whole steps, right. And of course, then I would do I'd start on D flat major, and move in whole steps D flat major, if I major, F major, G major, a major, B Major, right. So that's another way I used to use minor third configurations. So I would do C major, E flat major, G flat major, a major and then back to C. And this would create three different exercises. So I would didn't go default major move and minor thirds, right, E major, G major, B flat major. And of course, I would do those exercises using different inversions as well. And then of course, I would do the good old fashioned circle of fifths, where I would start with C major If major, B flat major E flat major, A flat major, D flat major, and I'd go around the entire circle of fifths using root position, then I would change it to first inversion. So I'd go C major first inversion, F major first inversion, B flat major first inversion, E flat major first inversion, and so on. Wow, right, a lot of different ways, a lot of different ways to look at the same data. Right. So I think the biggest challenge for students is, the reason they have difficulty with the chords and inversions in these shapes is because they're always looking at them from the same perspective. So hopefully, some of these exercises and ideas will shuffle the deck for you, and force you to start looking at the data from a variety of perspectives. And in doing so, preventing you from just simply learning a chord construction formula, right. So these various patterns will also help you digest these shapes and sounds in a way that, that you can indeed get your hands on any chord coming from any chord with ease. In other words, you do not have to play C major in order to get to C dominant, and so on. So that's a lot of information very quickly. And I hope this helps bill. But as always, if further clarification is needed, by all means, give me a shout happy to spend some time with you. And again, help you in any way that I can. Okay, so let's talk about today's lesson here. Quickly. fingerings. Right, poor fingerings. Without question, as I've mentioned before, based on decades of teaching experience, is the number one reason people have difficulty playing the piano. Quite simply, it is a lack of hand, lack of finger mobility, right type of hand paralysis, if you will, that makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines right to improvise, right scale and arpeggio practices, of course, a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, scaling, arpeggio practice that just simply goes straight up and straight down doesn't get the job done. Because melodies, melodies do not simply move, ascending and descending in a straight line.

They don't. So therefore, therefore, it's important to begin practicing melodic patterns, like the ones that we have been exploring since the start of the year melodic patterns that challenge us to begin shifting our hands across the keys. Right. This intentional shifting begins to simulate a musical reality that pianist must deal with. Right, we must address this reality. And this musical reality, the need to always have fingers available, allowing us to move in either direction, up or down. Right must be practiced in such a way that it develops proper musical instincts and muscle memory, musical instincts and instincts and muscle memory that that allows us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound idiomatic to jazz. Now, this is precisely why the melodic patterns that we have that we are exploring today that we have been exploring throughout the year focus on intentionally creating handshakes within a melodic line. Even if it is possible to play a melodic line with no hand shift at all. We insert one. Now the objective is to begin establishing and developing hand finger mobility. In fact, some of the fingerings I have notated in the lead sheet include multiple hand shifts within one measure within one melodic idea. So throughout this year, we are devoting our effort to exploring all five primary sounds and music for all 12 notes using arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational exercises that will force us to deal with fingerings in order to develop hand mobility. We are also utilizing the same approach as I mentioned earlier to explore the altered sounds of music right on the dominant sound that flattened out Sharp nine sharp 11 flat five sharp five flat 13. Each month we focus on one of the 12 notes, one week of the month will be devoted to the primary sounds. One week of the month will be devoted to the altered sounds we then of course followed up as we had been doing with a bebop tune to help us apply our new fingerings and articulation to a musical setting. So the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for a flat sounds the primary a flat sounds. Number two, we will play a central arpeggio patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th for the sound using a root, third, fifth and seventh entry. Number three, we will play essential scale patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th of the sound. Again, using a root, third, fifth and seventh entry. Number four, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today using the major sound, the major sharp 11 sound right the Lydian mode. And number five, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises using our traditional swing groove of 110. Now, if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button. I want you to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Your membership grants you access your trio membership grants you access to all educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. And as I mentioned, every week, you should use these podcast packets, you should have them in your hands and following along when listening to this episode. And of course, you should have them sitting on your piano when practicing as well. Now if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories and there are countless number of them Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio Pandora, the list goes on and on, then be sure to go directly to jazz piano skills. podcast.com That's jazz piano skills podcast.com to access and download your podcast packets, you'll find the active download links in the show notes. One final, but one very important message. If you think that the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary a flat sounds and the various skills that we are about to discover and learn and play today are over your head then I would say to you please No worries. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. No worries. Alright, every new skill is technically over our heads when first introduced but you know what, this is how we get better, right? We place ourselves like I like I like to say we place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations where we don't belong, right? We think in loud I'm hearing things that I've never heard before. I have no idea what they're they are talking about. But this is how we are forced to grow intellectually. I say it all the time all musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually, before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So simply just sit back and listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn the play. No worries, it will come in time. I guarantee it. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets, your podcast packets in your hands I want to point out a few things. You will see that lead sheets one through five deal with arpeggio motion lead sheets six through 10 address scale movement. You will also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all five primary sounds for major dominant minor have diminished and diminished. The exercises of course, are modified to reflect the Proper sound. Now you'll also notice my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound, of course, you can modify the fingerings. But just be careful. Remember, we have to have hand shifts movement. So if you're adjusting fingerings to remove the hand shift, you're working against the process, right? Also remember that fingerings allow you to play proper fingerings allow you to play with proper jazz articulation. So you may be inclined to change fingerings because you think it feels more comfy or easier, at least initially. However, your easier may actually end up in the long run, making it harder for you to play with proper jazz articulation. So just be careful, right? Just throwing it out as a little caution to the wind if you will, just be careful before making fingering adjustments. Okay, let's dig in. So grab lead sheet number one skill one. Okay, A flat major again, I mentioned this earlier, I am using a flat major Lydian mode, which means there's a sharp 11 sound. Right so the D flat is D natural in this scale. Okay, so now the arpeggios, all the arpeggios and scales will be built and structured around this sound. So if you look at letter A the very first exercise and very first pattern, lead sheet one skill one, you'll see these are just simple, straight arpeggio motion from the root to the seventh, then from the third to the 9/5 to the 11th and the seventh to the 13th. You'll also notice there is a hand shift in every one of these four note arpeggios. So this is what I mentioned earlier.

Do not change your fingerings to remove the hand shift thinking that way. It's a four note arpeggio. Why do I need to shift my hand? Those are there intentionally right? So the very first pattern, the A flat major arpeggio starting on the root, starting with the second finger, then one to 4/3 to the ninth 1313 Right, and so on. So there's always going to be a shift. So let's bring the ensemble and let's listen to letter A. For note arpeggios from the root from the third from the fifth, and the seventh. Moving through the entire sound from the root all the way to the 13th. Okay, I'm going to start off I'm going to play a four measures of A flat major at the beginning to settle into the temple. Then you'll hear me play each arpeggio four times before moving on to the next arpeggio with a focus on my fingerings and playing with a nice relaxed jazz articulation and feel as I shift and move my hand through each one of these arpeggios. So here we go. Let's bring out Summerlin. Let's check it out.

Nice, right, just nice and simple. I've mentioned this before as well letter A, letter A, if all of these exercises have all these lead letter A on all of these lead sheets, your most important exercise, I know B's important C, D and E. So they're great. But letter A, if you had the practice one, practice letter A, okay, ascending arpeggio motion, from the root from the third from the fifth from the seventh, exploring the entire sound. Okay, let's take a look at letter B. Very similar, right, our arpeggio gets stretched a little bit because we we add a little contour to the arpeggio. So instead of a straight arpeggio, we get this now again, on the launch from the roof, and the third from the fifth and from the seventh, going all the way to the 13th. So each of these arpeggios now have a little more contour to them, but they also each arpeggio still includes a hand shift. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. We're going to utilize the exact same approach, right same format and play A flat major up front for about four measures, then each arpeggio four times before moving on to the next arpeggio. I want to play with a nice relaxed jazz articulation, jazz feel, and include a hand shift in each one of these motifs. Okay, so here we go let's check it out.

All right, so now let's take a look at letter C. Even though letter A is the most important, right, letter C, I think is my most my favorite. And the reason being is because we break some, some rules here right some traditional rules have been around for a long time. Number one is we are starting, we are starting our motif are A flat major motif with our thumb on a flat. Anyone with any classical background classical training has probably been taught, never begin to scale or arpeggio that begins with a black note with your thumb, right? Not the case, not always the case. And so letter C intentionally starts our motif with the thumb and then we have to shift our entire hand to play this idea, so we're going 141531 And again, we're going then start on the third and do the same type of motion, the same type of hand shifting. Then on the fifth, the hand is shifting across those those notes right you can feel literally feel it when you play these exercises. The movement of the hands so letter C is fabulous. Get comfortable with placing the thumb up on the block Back note on a flat and then again on E flat Believe me it may feel odd at first but it will start to become comfortable I promise so let's bring the ensemble and let's check out letter C.

All right on to letter D, and eighth note triplets right now the challenge here, right of course we have the handshakes but the challenge here is the stabilization of your wrist, right, you do not want to be moving your wrist like you're opening a jar. Alright, so if you can imagine placing your hand on top of a jar and moving your wrist to open that jar, your wrist should not be moving like that when playing these triplets right so the motif sounds like this. So how do we prevent our hand from opening the jar, we prevent our hands from opening the jar by shifting our hand so you're gonna have to let go of notes and shift the hand in order to play the motif. Alright, we get into trouble when we try to hang on to a note moving to the next note and so then the wrist rotates in order to compensate for that. So let go the notes play the triplets do not open the jar. Okay, do not open the jar so pay attention to the hand shifts keep that wrist stabilized and let's see what this sounds like when played properly so here comes the ensemble let's check it out.

If playing eighth note triplets challenging, wow. Well join the club. Right it they are for everyone. So, play at slower tempos. I'm playing everything again at 110 today, but that's just for the sake of time. I would encourage you to play these exercises at much slower tempos, right 60 7080 Nice and relaxed and paying attention into the shifting of the hand and the stabilization of that wrist right. Okay, so now letter II The last arpeggio exercise for today, our motif now extends the entire past measure one into measure two. So the idea the motif is longer right. But again, several hand shifts to deal with are moving from the Root Entry third entry fifth entry, seventh entry. So we cover the entire sound, but we have straight eighth note motion again, right? So we get Wow, so the hand again, like I mentioned with the eighth note triplets, the hand has to be shifting, not the wrist rotating, okay

same idea of the third same idea of the fifth same idea of the seventh. All right, let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to our last arpeggio exercise for today letter E here we go.

Okay, we're on to lead sheet six skill six. Now we shift our attention from arpeggio motion to scale motion. So if you take a look at letter A on skill six or lead sheet six, we have straight ascending scale motion from the root from the third from the fifth and from the seventh. Again, the scale motion has hand shifts incorporated into the fingerings. And again, we're exploring the entire major sound from the root to the 13th. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out straight scale movement from the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh here we go.

Just as I mentioned with letter A, of the arpeggio exercises, I'm gonna say the exact same thing about letter A of the scale exercises. If you're going to pick one out of the five exercises to focus on On letter A of your arpeggios, letter A of your scales, straight ascending arpeggio motion, ascending, straight ascending scale motion, right? If you get those down those exercises down those motifs now I should say in each one of those exercises from the root, third, the fifth and the seventh, you'll be doing yourself a great favor. All right, so now let's take a look at letter B. Again, scale motion now it's like basically scale motion again, with but a little more contour to the line, right, not just straight ascending motion, so we get something like this. Nice idea, we're gonna do the same thing again off the third. So the hand has to shift again, stabilize that that wrist and shift the hand across the keys. So let's bring the ensemble and let's listen to letter B scale scale movement from the root, third, fifth and seventh here we go.

You know that if we dealt with eighth note triplets with arpeggios, we're going to have to deal with eighth note triplets with our scales and sure enough letter C we do exactly that. Our motif as again getting longer, each motif gets a little longer. Now we stretch into measure two. But we were using the same format right all the way through whether it's arpeggios or whether it scales, we're exploring everything from various entry points within the sound from the root from the third, fifth and the seventh. Again, with these triplets. You have to let go the notes and you have to shift the hand. Do not hang on to the notes. If you do your hand, your wrist will rotate and make and we'll make it much more difficult to execute the motif the line. So let's bring the ensemble and let's check out these scale motion using eighth note triplets. Launching from the root third, fifth and seventh. Here we go.

All right, so we're on the letter D. And again if just eyeball it you can see that these motifs these lines get longer as the lines get longer and incorporates more shifting, more hand shifting right. But at least we're back to straight eighth note a straight eighth note pattern right it's a nice idea nice line. So pay attention to the fingerings pay attention to the wrist like go the notes and play with a nice jazz articulation and jazz feel nice and relaxed from the root from the third from the fifth from the seventh grade ear training to by the way, right hearing sounds from the root to the seventh from the third to the ninth from the fifth to the 11th from the seventh to the 13th Wow, such a great way to practice scales such a great way to practice arpeggios such a great way to incorporate the ears into the practicing right to activate the ears. Wow. Okay, let's bring the ensemble in let's check out letter D.

Well we are down to our final, final line for today exercise for today letter E. Scale motion again, our motif now is getting even longer into measure two. And but but again, right straight eighth note feel so we get something sounds like this now. So you get this nice ascending motion but there's some contour to the line which is going to require some hand multiple hands shifting. All right, but again, same format, root, third, fifth seventh entry. I mentioned it earlier I want to mention again because it's so important slow tempos, I'm playing 110 You do not need to play 110 Slow it down and focus on the hand movement. Focus on the fingerings the shifting, right articulation there's so much to focus on so many different aspects going on here at one time, right? So keep your temples nice and comfortable. So okay, let's bring the ensemble in it. Let's check out letter e. Here we go.

Well as always, we have unpacked an enormous amount of information in one very, very short, very fast hour. Now, I modeled everything today using the major sound, right all improvisation exercise sizes. Today I use the major sound. Be sure to practice these exercises. For the dominant, the minor, half diminished and diminished sounds as well. Right? They're all laid out for you and your lead sheets, right your podcast packets have has the fingerings included for every exercise for every sound. Now remember, you can indeed make some modifications to the fingerings the best seat your hand, but just be sure that whatever fingerings you choose allow you to play the exercises with an authentic jazz articulation and be sure that you're not eliminating hand shifts, all right, to not eliminate the hand shifts. And also be sure that you practice these exercises from the various entry points from the root from the third from the fifth, and from the seventh. You have a ton to tackle this week, right as always a ton to tackle. So use your practice time wisely. And next week. Next week we jump into jazz improvisation exercises for a flat altered sounds dominant altered sounds okay, make sure you use those podcast packets those lead sheets the illustrations check out the illustrations are very helpful right help you with the paper practice sorting out the information in the data conceptually before you get to the keys and try to apply it physically. So spend some times with the illustrations and also the play along files that are available for you to use as well. Most importantly, most importantly be patient Alright, developing mature professional jazz piano skills takes time. So begin structuring your your improvisation development begin structuring your practicing after the play in demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode, and I guarantee it that you will begin to see you will begin to feel and hear your musical progress. Well I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the A flat primary sounds to be insightful and of course to be very beneficial. Don't forget if you are a jazz panel skills ensemble member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills master class 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode exploring the improvisation exercises for a flat primary sounds in greater detail and of course the answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general, you can always reach me by phone if you have any questions 972-380-8050 My office extension is 211. If you're more comfortable using email my email address is Dr. Lawrence at jazz panel skills.com. That's drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is nestled on every webpage found within the jazz panel Skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the eighth flat sounds the primary sounds it most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!