Jazz Improvisation Exercises, D Altered 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, I hope everyone has been enjoying playing the improvisational developmental exercises patterns for the primary sounds of D. And of course exploring the various fingering patterns that require a conscious shifting of our right hand to establish a jazz articulation and to prepare the hand for continuous ascending or descending movement, right, it's not an easy task, not an easy task at all. As I have stressed throughout this entire year, it takes a serious commitment, endurance and patience to develop proper hand movement, in addition to nailing down the correct chord scale relationships, so congrats to all who have been doing this tedious but necessary grunt work from the start of the year. What a journey, you should feel very good about the work you have done and the commitment you've made to becoming an accomplished jazz pianist. I have reminded you on several occasions. And it's important to stress once again, you are a member of a very small group of determined people destined to achieve jazz success. So let's keep creating forward motion and tackle the altered dominant sounds for D sharp, 11, flat 13, flat nine flat 13. And of course, the fully altered sound, flat nine sharp nine, flat five sharp five, just as we've done with the altered sounds for C, F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, F sharp, B and E. Wow. So today you're going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises. For altered D sounds and you are going to learn develop mental arpeggio and scale patterns for altered D sounds. And you are going to play five arpeggio and five scale patterns for the altered D dominant sounds of music. Dominant sharp, 11, dominant flat, 13, dominant flat nine flat, 13 and dominant, fully altered. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises, for de altered sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, I want to as I always do, welcome new listeners to the jazz panel skills podcast. And if you are indeed new to jazz piano skills, listening for the first time, I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Now your membership will grant you many privileges that will help expedite your discovered learn and play process. For example, as a jazz piano skills member, you have access to all of the educational weekly podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play along backing tracks, all designed and developed to help you get the most out of every weekly jazz piano skills podcast episode. You also have access as a member to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks, interactive learning media, video demonstrations and much more. You also have a reserved seat in my online weekly masterclass held every Thursday evening, and if you can't attend no problem, the master classes are recorded and you can watch or rewatch Watch whenever and as often as you wish. You also as a jazz panel skills member have access to an online interactive Fakebook containing the best jazz standards with excellent chord changes, chord scale relationships, harmonic function analysis, and much more. As a jazz panel skills member, you can hang out with Old and New Jazz friends in the private jazz piano skills community, which host a variety of engaging forums. And finally, as a jazz piano skills member, you will enjoy unlimited, private, personal and professional educational support, all of these amazing privileges are waiting for you and wanting to help you discover and learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz piano skills.com. And of course, become a member. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have, and help you in any way that I can. Okay, on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Harold Friess, who lives in Arlington, Virginia. And Harold writes, you continue to stress the importance of knowing the major harmonic minor and melodic minor scales, because they produce the primary and altered sounds of music. Do you recommend any scales in addition to the major harmonic and melodic minor scales? And if so? Which ones? Harold? Excellent. Excellent question. And the the short answer is yes, I do recommend some additional scales that you should absolutely be aware of, right familiar with and comfortable using when improvise. But, but there are eight additional scales that I believe should be in your toolbox. But But before I unveil my list of the eight additional scales to discover, learn and play, I want to shed just a little bit of why on scale study and practice, I think you are probably probably aware, at least by now you're you are probably aware that scale study can become a bit overwhelming. Right? Regardless of the books you're using to study scales or the websites you visit to learn more about scales, it doesn't take long before you are running down many different rabbit holes in search of the scales that are going to transform your sound in like magic. Have you playing like a professional jazz pianist? Overnight? Well, you also probably know by now that unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. And in fact, there is not one scale, not one scale that is going to make you sound like an accomplished jazz pianist by simply playing up and down the scale. So how should you be thinking about scale study? Great question. A scale is simply a pool of notes that you can use as a foundation for developing melodic ideas. I'm going to say that again, a scale is simply a pool of notes that you can use as a foundation for developing melodic ideas. That's it, period. So if you have a scale that provides you a foundation for melodically playing major sounds, then you're good to go. No more major scales are needed. Likewise, if you have a scale that provides you a foundation for melodically playing dominant sounds, then you're good to go. No more dominant scales are needed. And if you have a scale that provides you a foundation for melodically playing minor sounds Guess what? You're good to go. No more minor scales are needed. To get my point. You simply need one scale For each of the primary sounds of music, Major, dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. I'm going to say that again as well. You simply need one scale for each of the primary sounds of music, major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. That's it, that's all you need. In order to improvise, like Pro. This is true because the scale

Dr. Bob Lawrence  10:30  
will illuminate the arpeggio, the root, third, fifth, and seventh for the sound, plus the additional three passing tones to complete the scale, which in turn will unveil the five tension tones. In other words, the notes that fall outside of the scale. When, when all is said, when all is done, your scale helps you properly order the 12 notes of music that you can use when improvising over a specific sound. Bottom line, one really good scale is all you need. To help you begin using all 12 notes. When improvising over any sound, I want to say that again as well. One, one really good scale is all you need. To help you begin using all 12 notes. When improvising over any sound. That's it, you do not need a library of scales for major chords, you do not need a library of scales for dominant chords, you do not need a library of scales for minor chords, and so on. So Harold, what I am saying is the major harmonic and melodic minor scales that I stress are all you need to improvise like a pro and develop into an accomplished jazz pianist. But nevertheless, here's my list of additional scales that you should become familiar with and who knows, you may find that you prefer utilizing some of them in lieu of the traditional major harmonic and melodic minor scales. The first four scales are what I call symmetrical scales because they have a regular recurring structure of intervals. They are one, the chromatic scale number two, the whole tone scale number three, the whole half diminished scale number four, the half whole diminished scale. And number five, the augmented scale. Now, one of my mentors and good friend DAN HURLEY has a classic book called The jazz language, which deals beautifully with each of the scales in chapter 10 of that book. So if you do not have this book in your library, then I highly recommend that you do so as soon as possible Dan does a beautiful job illustrating and explaining the chromatic scale, the whole tone scale, whole half diminished scale, half whole diminished scale and augmented scale. The other scales, which I believe would be more pro appropriately referred to as patterns instead of scales but nevertheless, the jazz world refers to them as scales. And they are number six. The blues scale major in minor, the major minor blues scale, number seven, pentatonic scale, the major and minor pentatonic scales, and number eight, the bebop scales, and that those would be the major dominant and minor bebop scales. Right. So that's eight scales in total that I would recommend getting familiar with pretty standard scales that jazz musicians refer to and reference. I would recommend getting used to getting familiar with all eight and the eight again our chromatic scale, whole tone scale, whole half the mini scale, half whole diminished scale, augmented scale, blue scale, major minor pentatonic scale major minor bebop scale, Major, dominant and minor. Wow. Well, I hope this helps Harold. If you of course have any additional questions or further clarification is needed. Please do not hesitate to let me know. I'm happy to spend some time with you. answer any additional questions that you may have to help you with this scale scale study. Who knows, I might may even do a podcast episode on each one of these scale groupings. So anyway, just remember, the best advice I can give you when it comes to scale study is to not go overboard. As the old saying goes, less is more. Okay, let's discover learn to play jazz piano Let's get after these jazz improvisation exercises for the altered D dominant sounds. As I mentioned in previous podcast episodes, students struggle with improvisation more often than not, because of poor fingerings. Not not a lack of skill, not a lack of theory, familiarity not a lack of, of talent, right? But just simply due to immobile hands, resulting from poor fingerings. Right, and this is why we've devoted the entire year, the entire year to finger studying, right and trying to answer questions like what constitutes good fingering? What should we look for when establishing a fingering? What What should we be trying to accomplish with our fingerings? Is there always a fingering option that is best that reigns supreme over all the other options? And what about that golden rule? I bring this up all the time? What about that golden rule of fingering which, which states that we should never ever use our thumb on a black note? All right, what about that? Is that true? The whole point of our journey this year, the whole point is to establish definitive answers for these types of questions. Of course, but but really, to circumvent any type of fingering dilemma is our ultimate goal. In other words, we need to establish a simplistic approach to fingering and in doing so establish mobility, for her right hand. Sounds good. All of it sounds good. Because deep down, you know, I know that if, if we can get our right hand to easily move around the keyboard, we'll be able to play the tunes that we love, and be able to embellish them with melodic improvisation using some of those scales that we just talked about, right. Again, this is the entire point, the entire objective of this year to simplify our fingering approach to establish a fingering conviction that that allows us to begin successfully practicing and establishing fingerings for all 60 chords using very typical jazz patterns. And of course, in doing so solidify a fingering muscle memory that ultimately frees us up to think about musical expression, musical emotion, musical articulation, musical creativity. All right, I'm fired up. So let's, let's get down. Let's get down to business. The educational agenda for today is as follows number one,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  18:58  
we are going to explore jazz improvisation exercises. For D altered dominant sounds. Number two, we will play essential D altered 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 point number three, we will play essential D altered scale patterns that you need to discover learn and play again from the root to the 13th of the sound using a root, third, fifth and seventh entering number four, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today, using the D seven flat 13 sound, love it. And number five I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises using our traditional swing group We've been using all year at a tempo of 110. If you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button. Take a few minutes to download and print, your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to all the educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode, and I mentioned it every week, you should be using these podcast packets when listening to this episode to get the most out of it. And of course, you should be using your podcast packets when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or 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 download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links in the show notes. One final but very significant message here that I include in every podcast episode, if you're listening, and if you're thinking that the jazz improvisation exercises for the D altered dominant sounds, and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play. If you're thinking this is all over your head, then I would say to you breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, relax, no worries, right. Continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually. By doing that by just simply listening to this podcast episode, every new skill. Every skill is over our heads when first introduced, but this is how we get better. We place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations where we are hearing things that we've never heard before. We're hearing words that we've never heard before. So we're forced to grow intellectually. And I say it all the time. Our musical growth begins upstairs conceptually, before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back, relax. Listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn the play, as it always does, will come in time. I guarantee it. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets in front of you, you have your lead sheets in your hands, I want to point out a few things, you will see that lead sheets one through four deal with arpeggio motion, while lead sheets five through eight deal with scale motion. You will also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all for altered D dominant sounds, the sharp 11 sound, the flat not a flat 13 sound, flat nine flat 13 sound. And of course the fully altered sound, which includes the flat nine sharp nine, flat five sharp five. Again, all the exercises are the same for all four altered D dominant sounds. The exercises are of course modified to reflect the proper sound. Now you will also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. And of course, you can take some liberty and modify the fingering slightly. But be careful. Right now remember, the fingerings have intentional hand shifts built in to the fingerings to help us develop hand mobility. So if you go in there and start restructuring the fingerings to eliminate hand shifts, you're working against our entire objective that we've set out to achieve right. So also remember that the fingerings are designed to help you play with the proper jazz articulation. So you may be inclined like I said, you may be inclined to change the fingerings because you think something feels a little more comfortable or is easier. However, your easier may actually end up making it harder for you to play with a proper jazz articulation as we move on down the road. So I'm just throwing some caution to the wind here right. Be careful. Okay, so let's dig in. I want you to grab lead sheet to skill to You and I want you to grab lead sheet, six, right skill six lead sheet to lead sheet skill to deals with arpeggio motion for the D seven flat, 13 sound. And lead sheet six deals with scale motion scale movement. For the D dominant seven flat 13 sound, we're going to tackle the arpeggio motion first. So let's take a look at lead sheet two or scale two, we have five exercises on this lead sheet, labeled A, B, C, D, and E. Okay, so letter A, exercise a or pattern A deals with as you can see simple ascending arpeggio motion, about four different entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. So the Root Entry Point explores the root to the seventh of the sound, the entry point of the third explores the third to the ninth of the sound, the entry point of the fifth is the fifth to the 11th of the sound. And the entry point of the seventh explores the seventh to the 13th of the sound. And of course, our 13th is flatted. So we have a B flat, right. So our D seven, flat 13 sound comes from the key of G major, D seven is the five and the key of G major. So our key signature has one sharp, F sharp, but of course, you'll see that B flat all the all the B's have the flat sign next to them to get our flat 13 sound. Now, one thing I will say as we explore these altered sounds, altered sounds mean that we have created tension, we have intentionally created tension. So what makes practicing altered sounds somewhat difficult, at least initially, is that we are creating tension that doesn't resolve, the tension doesn't come from somewhere, and the tension doesn't resolve, it just is suspended out there in time, this tension. So it could be hard on the ears, at least initially. So when I start playing some of these flat 13 sounds that do not resolve, your ears may perk up and go whoa. But you'll also find, as you explore this sound more and more and become familiar with it, that tension actually starts to sound pretty darn good. So I'm just warning you a little bit here as we move forward today that we are isolating altered dominant sounds we are creating tension that is just suspended, it doesn't resolve so keep that in mind. So okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. Let's take a listen to letter A. I'm going to play each pattern from each entry point four times before moving on to the next one. We'll start off with D seven. I'll just cop on a D seven chord for four measures to get used to the time to get used to the feel. And then I will begin playing each of these motifs. Okay, so here we go. Let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  29:56  
If you noticed on the fingerings of each of these motifs Seven each of these four note arpeggios, there's an attentional hand shift, this is exactly what I was speaking of earlier, you might be able to think, Well, I'm just going to play this arpeggio without the hand shift. No, don't do that. Right, we want the hand moving. So even on a simple four note arpeggio, ascending through the sound from the root to the seventh, third, to the 9/5, to the 11th, seventh to the 13th, we want those intentional hand shifts. And again, you may have noticed that flat 13 has a little bite to it. I love it may be hard on the ears, at least initially, but you'll get used to it, I promise. So now let's take a look at letter B, you know the, basically the same arpeggio we've added a little contour to it. So instead of a straight up, ascending right up the sound like now we have a nice little love it, again, are our intentional fingerings that create our intentional hashes are notated there, we have our same four entry points from the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh. Pay attention to that B flat all B's have to be flat to create our flat 13 sound. So here we go with letter B. Check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:56  
Nice I love it. Really simple little motifs. But with those intentional with those fingerings that are creating these intentional hand shifts, they pack a punch and there's a huge payoff by adhering to those fingerings and getting that hand moving and shifting across the keys. And I will say this, when I'm talking about the hands shifting, I literally mean the hands shifting. I'm not talking about placing the thumb under as soon as we placed the thumb under I'm going to tell you it happens all the time. Thumb goes under, elbow goes out, shoulder goes up. All of a sudden posture goes out the window, tension in the hand tension in the forearm tension in the shoulder, everything starts to happen. You're wondering what the heck, right? So we're not talking about moving the thumb under which forces the elbow out in the shoulder up. I'm literally seriously talking about shifting the hand over. Okay. All right. So now we're on to letter C. Check out those fingerings 141421. What? Yeah, I love it. So we have our same four entry points again, root, third, fifth and seventh exploring the entire sound, and intentionally playing altering the sound to include a flat 13 which would be our B flat. So here we go. Let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to the letter C

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:55  
All right, we are on to letter D. And we're on to dealing with the eighth note triplet. So all four of these motifs as you can see, we have eighth note triplet on count one count to count three back to back to back fingerings can get tricky, so pay careful attention to the fingerings. This this exercise, specifically feel free to well really with all the exercises, but certainly with the eighth note triplet, play at slower tempos, very relaxed and comfortable template so you can get used to the articulation, the rhythmic motif as well as well as the fingerings right. So do not shy away from playing letter D or any of the patterns that we are exploring today at much slower temples I know I'm doing everything at 110 but I encourage you to practice these at much lower temperatures temples initially, especially to get these fingerings under your belt. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble Lin let's check out letter D again same four entry points root third, fifth and seventh and we are inserting a B flat to create our flat 13 sound so here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:49  
All right, we are down to our final exercise today dealing with arpeggio motion for the D seven flat 13 sound. We're back to eighth notes, no triplets, in letter E but our musical phrase has extended now pass the bar line into the second measure. Again, we have quite a bit of hand shifting taking place so pay careful attention to that. But thank goodness our entry points remained the same remain consistent. Our root third, fifth and seventh. Again, the objective is to explore the entire sound of the seventh from the root through the 13th and of course we are inserting the flat 13 sound. So we are playing everything with a B flat here today. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's take a listen to our last arpeggio exercise today for the D seven flat 13 sound. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  41:16  
Okay, now onward to our scale motion. So I need you to grab lead sheet six, skill six. So this is remain, we're sticking with the D dominant flat 13 sound. But now we've shifted our attention from arpeggio movement to scale motion. Okay, so we're going to use the same four entry points, root, third, five, and seven, explore the entire sound root, the 13th, and of course flat RB, to create the flat 13 sound. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's get started with scale motion letter A D seven flat 13. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:27  
Whenever I practice scales, regardless of the entry point, my entry point my destination points are never the same. Right? So I never play scales. For those of you who've been following me for quite a while know this, but those who are new may not that I never play scales from octave to octave. Right? Never. it disengages the ear nothing disengages the ear more than playing a scale from the same entry point to the same destination point the same right octave, an octave apart. So you'll notice that the scales are always going from say root to the seventh of the sound or the third to the ninth, the fifth to the 11th, the seventh to the 13th the ear becomes intentionally engaged listening for these destination points, right the seventh, the ninth, the 11th the 13th. So it's very important that if you are not practicing scales this way, practicing it the traditional way from from the root to the root or from the octave to the octave, you know, an octave apart. Then I would say start rethinking that and start practicing scales as laid out here in skill six lead sheet six. Okay, so with that being said, let's move on to letter B. And again just like our arpeggios, we've added a little contour to our scale motion. So instead of having a straight scale going from the root to the seventh Now we have a little motion I should say a little contour, right, we have a little contour built into our scale. So again, the entry points remain the same, the root, the third, the fifth and the semeth. And our fingerings have intentional shifts built into it to keep our hand moving across the keyboard. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to letter B here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  47:05  
All right, just as we did with the arpeggio, we had to deal with the eighth note, eighth note, triplet with our arpeggio motion, we have to deal with the eighth note triplet, triplet. The eighth note triplet using scale motion, right scale movement. So as you'll see, in letter C, we have just that we have we have triplet triplets on count one count to count three, count four. So back to back to back to back tricky, not easy, right. So again, slower tempos if need be. Pay careful attention to the fingerings with our intentional hand shifts built in to our fingerings but you know what, thank goodness entry points remain the same always right, root, third, fifth and seventh as we explore the entire sound. And again, we've inserted our we've inserted our B flat to create that flat 13 sound which creates a little bit of tension but hopefully by now that tension is starting to not sound so tension like starting to sound a lot more normal. So here we go. Let's bring the ensemble in and let's take a listen to letter C.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  49:53  
The eighth note triplet can be tricky. So, if it's giving you fits Just know that you are not alone, it's pretty normal. Slow down the tempo, pay careful attention to the fingerings. And the articulation will start to settle in initially, typically, students will rush the eighth note triplet, right, you'll get faster and faster as you play each, each triplet gets faster and faster. So as I like to say, you ended up getting out in front of the beat, rushing, as they say. So, if this is what's occurring with you, when you're playing, I would just say to you, it's okay to slow the tempo down, relax, and it will start to settle in for you, I promise. Okay, so now on to letter D, we have straight eighths again. Okay, our musical phrase is stretching motif is stretching beyond the bar line and to the second measure now. So again, pay attention to the fingerings we have our intentional hand shifts built in there, you're starting to see probably a lot of 1313 patterns one to four patterns in our fingerings that's recurring quite a bit. Our entry points of course remain the same the root the third, fifth and seventh. And of course, our our B flats are inserted to create our flat 13 sound. So here we go. Letter D, let's have some fun check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  52:59  
Nice All right, so we are down Believe it or not, we're down to our final exercise, letter E for scale movement scale motion utilizing the D seven flat 13 sound. And again, our musical motif gets a little longer, stretches across that bar line to count to have measure to our entry points, of course remain the same as always root, third, fifth and seventh. Again, pay attention to those fingerings you might want to mark those with like maybe a little yellow highlighter to help illuminate those for yourself when practicing. And don't forget the B flat so that we create the flat 13 sound. So, here we go. Let's check out letter E

Dr. Bob Lawrence  55:18  
Wow. Every week, right, every week, we unpack a ton of information. And one very short one very, very fast our now even though I played the jazz improvisation exercises today using the dominant flat 13 sound only, of course, be sure to practice the exercises for the dominant sharp 11, the dominant flat nine, flat 13. And the fully altered dominant sound, the flat nine, sharp nine, flat five, sharp five, they're all laid out for you, all the exercises are laid out for you for all of the sounds, altered sounds. In your lead sheets, podcast packet, the fingerings are included as well. And remember, I mentioned this earlier, you can take a little bit of liberty and modify the fingering slightly to best, you know, fit your hand, but just be careful, do not remove the hand shifts do not do that. Right. So just be careful if you make any modifications, we want to make sure that we play all the exercises with an authentic jazz articulation through the entire sound. So in other words, regardless of the entry point, the root, the third, the fifth or the seventh, right, each motif should be articulated in the very same way, regardless of the entry point. So as always, you have a ton to do this week, a ton to practice, right, so use your time wisely. And next week. Next week we explore bebop tune right closely examining the various melodic shapes and the fingerings needed to play the head of course, and then any other little motifs that we can extract from that melody from that bebop tune to utilize as a launching pad for developing improvisational vocabulary. So once again, I want to encourage all you jazz piano skills members to use your podcast packets, your illustrations your lead sheet you're in play alongs to guide you as you study in practice, right? These are educational tools that will help you gain a mastery of the jazz piano skills. Conceptually, physically, and of course, musically. Most importantly, be patient and developing mature professional jazz piano skills takes time. Honestly, it takes a lifetime. So begin structuring your improvisation development after the plane demonstrations that I I modeled for you today in this podcast episode. And 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 D altered sounds to be insightful, and of course to be beneficial. Don't forget if you are jazz panel skills a member I'll see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass at 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode exploring jazz improvisation exercises for D altered sounds in greater detail and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Again, check out be sure to use those educational podcast packets. Check out the jazz panel skills courses to maximize your musical growth. And make sure that you are an active participant in the jazz piano skills community. Get out there, get involved, contribute to the various forums, ask some questions, introduce yourself, make some new jazz piano friends. Always a great thing to do. You can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 My extension here at the Dallas School of Music is 211 if you're if you prefer email, Dr. Lawrence drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget to send me a voice message that way. And that widget I believe is found on every single page of the jazz piano skills website. Well, there's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the altered sounds and most of all, have fun as you discover, learn, and play jazz piano!