Jazz Improvisation Exercises, Bb Sounds

Dr. Bob Lawrence  0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence, it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Well, here we are a new month. And it's time to move on and begin exploring our improvisation patterns and fingerings. In a new context, last month, we thoroughly dissected the primary sounds of music major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished for F. And not only that, we tackled the F altered dominant sounds as well, with our set of jazz and proper patterns and fingerings. Now it's time to move on. And some of you may be thinking, Wait a minute, we can't move on. I still lack a solid command of the improvisation patterns and fingerings for F. You know what? You bring up a good point. And now that I think about it, right, it only makes sense that we shouldn't rush our development we should. We should probably just stay put until everyone feels comfy. With the improv patterns and fingerings for F before moving on the B flat, right. Wrong. To bad. bucket up we're. We're moving on man. With or without your we're moving on. Regardless of where you are in the process of mastering F. We are going to intentionally create for word motion, so that we actually can rush our jazz piano playing development. Listen, nothing causes development, stagnation, more than staying put in one location until we think we have a doubt. Which by the way, never truly happens. Right? Here's a little news flash. Here's a little public service announcement for you. professional jazz pianists are always thinking they need to improve their plane in every conceivable way possible and are constantly thinking about the various skills they are focusing on and constantly creating forward motion in order to continue improving. In other words, professional pianists do not stay put in one key in one sound on one note, they do not stay put and neither do you. So all that to say too bad so sad. Today we move on to exploring the primary sounds of music major dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished for the note B flat so today, we are going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises and we are going to learn developmental arpeggio and scale patterns of B flat sounds. And we're going to play five arpeggio and scale patterns, focusing on fingerings and articulation. For the primary B flat sounds of music, 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 consider yourself an experienced and seasoned professional, you're gonna find this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for B flat sounds to be very beneficial. Now, before we dig in, if you are a new listener to jazz panel skills podcast if you are new to jazz panel skills, I want to invite you to become a jazz panel skills member. Now there are various membership plans to choose from, so check out jazz piano skills.com To learn more about the perks of each membership plan, educational weekly podcast packets, sequential jazz piano curriculum loaded with comprehensive courses. Online weekly master classes online interactive Fakebook private jazz panel skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums, and unlimited private, personal and professional educational support. All of these benefits are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz panel skills.com and become a member. Okay, on to the question of the week. Before we dig in. I've actually had this question asked several times by several different folks over the past several years. So I thought I would answer the question on a podcast episode because I suspect that many of you may have the very same question. The question is this. Why do you teach students to use the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale when playing a diminished chord? And not the whole half diminished scale that the rest of the entire jazz world teaches? Great question. The answer has two parts. Part one, I like it better. Part two. I like teaching the origins of sound before presenting any additional options. So the Dominie sound originates from the harmonic minor scale the seventh mode. Therefore, just as you learn that the dominant sound is the fifth mode of the major scale mixolydian, you should know that the diminished sound is the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale. Are there other scale options to use for diminished Sound Of course, of course there are. And the whole half diminished scale is probably probably the most commonly referenced. But it is a symmetrical scale, like the whole tone scale, or the augmented scale of the chromatic scale and so on. It's not, it is not the origin of the diminished sound. So think about this, the half whole diminished scale can be used. Now there's two scales, right, the whole half diminished, and the half whole diminished, okay, can get a little confusing, but the half whole diminished scale can be used over a dominant chord. And I do not know any jazz educator, any jazz educator that would present that scale as the scale to use over a dominant sound, before teaching students about the MixoLydian mode, and the origin of the dominant sound. So I like to teach the origin of each of the primary sounds of music before presenting other alternatives. And honestly, I'm baffled as to why jazz educators love teaching modes. Except when it comes to the diminished sound, then it's really too bad because the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale, the diminished sound is a very hip sound, which should be part of your jazz scale arsenal, as you'll find out today.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  8:38  
So I hope this helps, right, I hope, I hope it helps. I teach the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale because it's the origin of the Dominie sound. And we want to learn that first before learning alternatives, just like we do for any other sound major dominant, minor and half diminished. Now, if further clarification is needed, please feel free to reach out to me as always right. I'm happy to spend time with you. And of course, explore any jazz questions that you may have in greater detail. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about today's lesson rationale before we get into it. I have mentioned this before, and it's certainly worth mentioning again, if someone challenged me to create a top 10 list of the most important jazz piano skills. I would have no problem listing number one and number two, numbers three through 10 I I'd have to give some thought to some serious thought but numbers one and two. There are no brainers. Number one, the most important jazz skill to develop number one is time. Hands down. Number one, and right behind it in the number two slot would be articulation. In other words, being able to play musical phrases melodies, Whether they're composed or improvised, to play these melodies in such a way that sound like jazz, and I have come to discover over the past 30 plus years of teaching that the reason jazz piano students have difficulty articulating correctly articulating a correct jazz feel, and sound. It's because of fingerings. If the student comes from a classical background, right, which they typically do, if they come from that classical background, they soon discover that traditional classical fingerings don't always lend themselves to proper jazz articulation. Right. In other words, one size does not fit all. And in fact, the ways in which we instinctively instinctually approach playing scales and arpeggios learn from our classical training. Oftentimes, to be quite honest with you oftentimes, if not, the majority of time need to be modified or chill slightly changed in order for us to play our scales and arpeggios with a proper and authentic jazz articulation. Now, ironically, I believe all professional jazz pianist educators understand this reality. However, however, as I've mentioned before, we rarely talk about or address the importance of fingerings in order to articulate correctly and I think we all have this kind of mentality of hey, I, I had to figure it out. And you will, too, right good luck, you'll, you'll get it though, just just hang in there. I get it. Plus, we like to all also use the reasoning that fingerings. Alright, we also use this logic that fingerings depends on the size of one's hands. So it's, it's difficult to talk about fingerings when it is more than likely different for everyone because our hand sizes are different, I get that too. But here at jazz piano skills we have committed since the beginning of the year, we are that we're going to approach this elephant in the room head on this year by utilizing various arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational patterns to address fingerings, which in turn, will refine our articulation skills. And of course, the number one jazz challenge as well time, right. So throughout this entire year, we have been and will continue to devote our effort to exploring the primary sounds of music for all 12 notes the major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. Using arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational exercises that will focus help us focus or force us to deal with fingerings. And our fingerings will help us begin moving our right hand or the keyboard properly, which in turn will help us develop an authentic jazz articulation. Right. Now we're going to utilize we have been utilizing the same approach to explored explored the altered sounds as well write the flat nine sharp nine sharp 11, flat five sharp five flat 13. Each month, we focus on one of the 12 notes back in January, we started with C, February F and now the month of March be flat

Dr. Bob Lawrence  13:41  
one week of the month will be devoted to the primary sounds, one week of the month will be devoted to the altered sounds. And then of course, we follow this up with a tune typically a bebop tune, which will help us apply our fingerings and articulate articulation to a musical setting and nothing better than a bebop tune to challenge us with our fingerings and articulation. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for B flat sounds. Number two, we will play essential arpeggio patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th of 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. And again we'll be using a root third, fifth and seventh entry number four, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises. Is today using that diminished sound based on the sub mode of the harmonic minor scale, let a coincidence. And number five, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises. Using a funky little kind of, I don't know Memphis groove of 110 you'll see you'll hear. Okay. So if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to hit the pause button right now, I want you to take a few minutes to download and print your weekly podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Right. For this episode, your membership grants you access to all of the educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. And as I mentioned, every week, you should use these podcast packets when listening to the episode of course, right. And you should definitely be using them when practicing as well. Now, if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories, and there's many of them, Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and the list goes on. Be sure to go directly to jazz panel skills podcast.com That's jazz piano skills podcast.com to access to download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links within the show notes. Okay. And one final but very significant note that I mentioned every week as well, that if you think the jazz improvisation exercises for B flat, if you're sitting there listening, and if you're thinking that these improvisation exercises for B flat, and the various skills that we're about to discover, learn and play are over your head, then I would say to you, okay, so what? No worries, I want you to continue to listen and grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by just simply listening to this podcast episode. Every new skill every skill has over our heads when first introduced. But this is exactly how we get better. We place ourselves smack dab in the middle of uncomfortable conversations where we're hearing things that we've never heard before. We're hearing words that we've never heard before. We have no idea what what's being discussed. And so we're forced to grow intellectually. And I say it all the time. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally, conceptually before can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back, listen to this podcast. Listen now to discover and learn the play, I guarantee it will come in time. It always does. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets in front of you, 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 deal with scale motion. Now you'll also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all five primary sounds major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. But the exercises are of course modified to reflect the proper sound. You'll also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. And of course, you can modify the fingerings but be careful, right remember, our fingerings are what allow us to play with proper jazz articulation. So you may be inclined to change fingerings because you think it feels more comfortable or is easier. However, as I have mentioned, sometimes you're easier may actually end up making it harder for you to play these patterns or these ideas with proper jazz articulation. So just be careful. And the other thing we always want to make sure that if you do modify these patterns, there's always got to be a hand shift that's taking place. These are built into these fingering exercises to get your hands moving across the keyboard correctly. Okay. All right. So let's dig in. Okay, I mentioned earlier that I am going to be modeling every did everything today using the diminished sound. So I want you in your lead sheets packet I want you to pull allowed skill five, skill five and skill 10. Skill five deals with arpeggio development, developmental patterns, skill 10 deals with scale developmental patterns, okay. And these are for the diminished sound. And of course, I do not have time in the podcast episode to play through all the major and dominant minor and half the many sounds as well. But they're, they are there for you to practice. And so everything I model for you today is applied and approached in the same way for your major dominant minor and half diminished sounds as well. So looking at a scale five, you'll notice that I actually have everything labeled as a sharp diminished, not B flat diminished the same thing Correct? Yes, I get it. But I'm notating as a sharp diminished, because that diminished comes from the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale, which is going to be the B harmonic minor scale, right, which is spelled using sharps not flat. So I'm just being theoretically correct here to reference it as a sharp diminished, instead of B flat diminished. Now, just so you know, the easiest way to think about a harmonic minor scale, is to think of it as the major scale with a flat third and a flat six. So if we take our B major scale, and we flat the third, which would be the D sharp and we flat the sixth, which would be the G sharp we now have our B harmonic minor scale, and it sounds like this. Right again

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:03  
I'm playing it from the root to the seventh of that sound. So we're going to take the top note of that B Harmonic Minor Scale, which is the A sharp, and we're going to place it on the bottom, and now we get this

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:23  
which goes perfectly with our B flat diminished or a sharp diminished chord.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  22:33  
Beautiful sound, seven mode, harmonic minor scale. So you'll see on your lead sheet, A, B, C, D, and E, five patterns, these are all primarily using arpeggio motion, ascending arpeggio motion. So I want to bring the ensemble in, I want to I'm going to play through each one of these pay attention to the fingerings that I have notated below each of these patterns. I'm going to play each idea, the Root Entry, the third entry, the fifth entry, and the seventh entry four times before moving on, right, so you're gonna hear me play the A sharp diminished or B flat diminished with a Root Entry four times. And then with a third entry, four times fifth entry, four times seven entry four times, okay? So I want to bring the ensemble and letter a simple arpeggio from the root to the seventh. from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th. And from the seventh to the 13th. Wow, Planet diminish sound from the root through the 13th. Wow. Oh novel, is that right? So okay, the ensembles coming in. We're going to play this exercise four times on each entry point. And we're going to be using kind of a Memphis blues kind of groove, which gives us a straight eighth feel right now to swing eighth but a straight eighth field. You'll get it you'll hear here we go. Check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  25:52  
Very cool, right? Right. You know I've mentioned I think this I mentioned this maybe last week's episode or a few episodes ago that whenever I'm learning a new skill jazz panel skills maybe it wasn't a masterclass, I mentioned this. I typically Believe it or not, I typically like to use a groove with a straight eighth feel like a bossa nova groove. You know, rock groove or something like what I'm playing today with like a Memphis blues kind of thing with a straight eighth feel before actually applying a swing groove or swing field to it. So I thought with us getting familiar, many of you probably getting very familiar with the many sound in the seventh motor, the harmonic minor scale, that I'd use some kind of groove that had a straight eighth feel. But I didn't want to use the, you know, the bossa nova groove we, I've done that many times, but thought I'd try it something a little different. So it's fun. So okay, so we just played the diminished sound from the root to the 13th with using four entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. So now we're going to modify that just slightly and let her be pattern number two. And you'll see that it's the same kind of idea right route entry, third entry, fifth seventh entry arpeggio motion, but now we have a little descending snd movement within the pattern, we have sorts has a little bit more shape to it, as opposed to just straight ascending. So we're going to keep the groove the same, it's the tempo is 110. We're going to keep this straight eighth feel. And now let's listen to letter B and pay attention to those fingerings. Notice how I'm starting with that index finger when I'm on a black note when I'm on that a sharp or that B flat or that C sharp right, starting with my index finger. So all right here, here's the ensemble let's check out pattern number two letter B here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  29:24  
Nice right torch it's got a little more shape to it. I love it. So now, let's take a look at letter C. It gets a little funkier here and I want to talk about some of the fingering options here I have for instance, on the very first pattern, the Root Entry, I have a fingering marking there to 514 to one the pattern goes like this right again feel free If you'd like to start with your thumb, you certainly can. I know, the rule of thumb is that we try to avoid our thumb on a black note when starting a musical line or phrase and in true, but that's not always the case that is not set in stone. So if you feel more comfortable, instead of going to 51421, you can do something like a one, four, and then shift to one, four again. Get that nice hand movement in there. Anyway, these are the areas that I'm talking about that you can modify slightly if you prefer to do so. But anyway, let's bring the ensemble in. Let's listen to pattern three letter C, and see what we think again, Root Entry, third entry fifth and seventh entry each pattern I'm going to play four times here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:32  
All right, so moving on to letter D. And we have the dreaded eighth note triplets to deal with in this pattern. So, again, straight eighth feel, Root Entry, third entry, fifth entry. Seventh entry. Again, I'm playing these at 110. Today, and I mentioned this every week, that's honestly, that's a snappy temple. I would encourage you to play these exercises, these patterns at much lower tempo at first, especially if you're getting familiar with the scale. You're getting familiar with the fingerings you're trying to play with the proper articulation. There's a lot of stuff going on, right? So slow the tempo down, make it manageable, make it comfy, so that you can indeed focus on fingerings you can indeed focus on articulation. You can indeed focus on the notes of the of the scale and the arpeggios, right? So I'm no I'm playing at 110. But by all means begin at much slower tempos. So let's bring the ensemble and let's listen to pattern for letter D, eighth note triplets. arpeggiated motion, okay, each entry point root third, fifth and seventh will be repeated four times. Okay, here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:27  
All right, we are down to our final pattern using arpeggio motion letter E, pattern five. And something that you may have noticed I've mentioned it before that each of these phrases, these patterns keep getting a little longer. And if you look at letter E, you can see that we've crossed over the bar line, right, we've, we have a phrase here that lasts not just an entire one measure but into account one of measure two as well. So again, following the same format, right, root, third, fifth seventh entry. And, again, it's up pay attention to the fingerings and the movement of the hand the hand shifts that are taking place within these phrases, it'd be a good idea if you really want to zero in on these hands shifts. So maybe take a red marker or highlighter and highlight where the hand is shifting. Be aware of that. Okay, so let's listen to letter E, our last pattern for arpeggiate motion for a sharp or B flat diminished sound using the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale so here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:13  
All right, we have now officially wrapped up all five patterns for using arpeggio motion for our diminished, B flat diminished a sharp diminished sound using the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale. So now we're actually on to scale, scale movement. So we're now looking at lead sheets 10, scale 10. All of these patterns, we have five again, A, B, C, D, and E, we have five patterns, but the primary motion and each one of these ideas is scale motion, not arpeggio motion, letter A, as we did with the arpeggio, we're going to start off by just simply playing the scale from the root seventh, from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th, and from the seventh to the 13th. Okay, so same kind of idea, but using scale motion instead of arpeggio motion. Pay attention to the D and the G's. The note D is natural, the note G is natural again, we turn a major scale into a harmonic minor scale by lowering the third one half step by lowering the sixth one half step. All right, so let's bring the ensemble and let's listen to pattern one letter A scale motion using the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale to satisfy our B flat or a sharp, diminished sound. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  41:21  
How cool is that right? I told you the seventh motor, the harmonic minor scale is a very cool sound to use with a diminished chord, it should definitely be in your jazz scale arsenal. Okay. So now let's look at pattern to letter B. And just like we did with the arpeggios, we're going to now basically play the scale again, but we're going to have a little angle little motion to it shape to it, right. So you can see we have interval leap right from the very beginning on count one of each of these of each pattern from the root, the third, fifth and the seventh. And we have a little descending followed by ascending scale motion. So just a little bit more interest, right, typically, I mean, it's still the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale, it is the scale, but now we've given it a little shape, right, which is what we do when we improvise. So let's bring the ensemble and let's check out pattern to letter B, A sharp diminished using the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  44:01  
Very nice now if you thought we were only going to use eighth note triplets when dealing with arpeggio motion, you were sadly mistaken because here we are again, right, letter C, pattern three, we have eighth note triplets moving through our scale using eighth note triplets from the root to the seventh, third to the ninth, the fifth to the 11th and the seventh to the 13th. So we have our a sharp diminished chord, B flat diminished, we have our seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale. Now we're adding some rhythmic interest right to this to the scale again as we do when we improvise. So let's listen to patterns three letter C, and see what we think of these eighth note triplets moving through that harmonic minor sound over our diminished chord. So here we go. Let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  46:30  
Nice thing I want to point out that I want you to do on your own as you look at these lead sheets, you know, pay attention to the fingerings just visually, right? And notice the repetition that the dominant use of your third finger, the first finger, right, one and three, one and three, one and three, you know, look at that a sharp diminished look at the pattern starting on the third entry. Look at the fingering 3131231343134, right. So kind of eyeball these finger patterns and see the numbers that jump off the page to you right that you can visually see that the primary use of the fingerings one and 3123 throughout these patterns throughout this using this scale and arpeggio motion. Alright, so now let's take a look at pattern for letter D. Again, our phrases our musical lines are getting longer, right we're past over the bar line we're in measure two now again, and but we're going to follow the same format Root Entry, third entry, fifth and seventh entry. And now we have these nice long scale phrases that we're playing. And of course we're using the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale that that plane over a sharp diminished or B flat diminished chord All right, so here we go. Let's bring on Salena let's check this out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  49:43  
All righty, we are down to our final scale pattern of the Day letter E pattern five. And again, our musical line just gets a little bit longer, nice scale motion again from the Root Entry. third, fifth and seventh covering the entire sound, the diminished sound from the root to the 13th. Okay, you know, I gotta be honest, most people when it comes to the diminished chord, you rarely hear people talking about a diminished ninth or diminished 11th or diminish 13. And again, that's unfortunate as well, because every sound, every sound major dominant minor, have diminished diminished, ranges from the root to the 13th. Every sound has a root, third 579 1113 including the diminished sound. And that's what we've been dealing with all day today. So let's wrap it up with pattern five letter E, A sharp diminished B flat diminished seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale using scale motion from the root, third, fifth and seventh here we go, let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  52:29  
Well, we've done it again. Right, we do it every week. I say it every week. You know, I'm running a sprint through this podcast episode to get through all the material. And, as always, we've unpacked an enormous amount of information. And just one very short very fast hour. Even though I played these exercises today, using a diminished sound, only, I want you to be sure to practice the exercises for the major and the dominant, the minor and the half diminished, as well, of course, right. They're all laid out for you in your lead sheets, podcast packet, all of the exercises, all the patterns, all the sounds, all the fingerings are included. Now remember, you can indeed make some modifications, as I've discussed throughout this episode, to the fingerings. to best suit your hand, but just be sure that whatever fingerings you choose, right, whatever fingerings you choose, they allow you to play the exercises with an authentic jazz articulation through the entire sound, the root, the third, the fifth, the seventh entry, right? Remember, the articulation, the musical phrase, regardless of the entry point should remain the same. And your fingering should always include hand movements, there should be a shift and intentional shift taking place somewhere within that musical phrase. All right. You have a ton to tackle this week, this month, right? So use your practice time wisely. Next week, of course, we jump into jazz improvisation exercises for B flat, altered sounds. Alright. Once again, I want you to encourage all of you jazz panel skills members out there to use your weekly podcast packets, right your illustrations and your lead sheets and your play alongs to guide you as you study in practice. These are invaluable educational tools that will help you gain a master the jazz piano skills, not just conceptually, not just physically, but musically, okay. And as always Be patient. I mentioned that every week. Be patient, developing mature professional jazz piano skills takes time. So begin structuring your improvisation development practicing after the plane demonstrations that are modeled for you today in this podcast episode I guarantee it, you will begin to see, feel and hear your musical progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for B flat sounds the primary sounds B flat, major dominant minor half diminished and diminished to be insightful and beneficial. Don't forget if you are an ensemble member jazz panel skills ensemble member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills master class at 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for B flat sounds in greater detail. And of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Wow, you can reach me by phone with any questions 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 you can re reach me by email Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is nestled on every page within the jazz panel Skills website to reach out to me. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for B flat sounds. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano.