Jazz Improvisation Exercises, D Sounds

Dr. Bob Lawrence  0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bobby Burns. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. How bout those Texas Rangers? Can you believe it? I can't believe it. The Texas Rangers are World Series champs. I'm gonna say that again. The Texas Rangers are World Series champs. I don't think anyone saw it coming. You know, I gotta tell you, I grew up a Chicago Cubs fan. And of course, if you're a Kobe fan, you are used to losing and you're used to disappointment. And when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, it was a huge shock. However, as much of a shock as it was when I when my beloved Chicago Cubs were crowned champions, I can honestly say I think the Rangers winning the World Series is even a bigger shock. I am still in shock. And I'm a static as well. I've been following the Ranger since 1984 When I arrived in the Lone Star State. So I'm thrilled to see how far this franchise has come. Since the days of Ruben Sierra OTB, McDowell, Larry Perry's Charlie Huff. Jose Guzman Jim Sunberg. Right some of the oldies, right. So congrats to the Texas Rangers. I can't wait to see you repeat in 2024. Okay. Enough about baseball, and the Rangers. Today, we are going to explore the primary sounds of the note D apply in our jazz improvisation exercises. For D major, D dominant, D minor, D half diminished, and D diminished. We have followed the same format since the start of the start of the year, right. since way back in January, we used five we have been using five specific melodic patterns to focus on developing mobile fingerings and fingerings that allow our hand our right hand to be in a constant state of movement. And we all know by now that by constantly moving and positioning our right hand, we establish optimal fingerings needed to produce a solid and authentic jazz articulation. And of course, making sure that we never ever run out of fingers in the middle of a musical phrase. Now, as I have mentioned, we have utilized this intentional approach for the primary and for the altered sounds since the beginning of the year. And we will continue to do so for the rest of the year which we're quickly coming to the end right. So today, we will follow the same format we used in October with the A sounds and apply them to the primary sounds of D. So today we are going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds. And we're going to learn develop mental arpeggio and scale patterns of the sounds. And we are going to play five arpeggio, five scale patterns, focusing on fingerings and articulation for the primary D sounds of music. The major, the dominant, the minor, the half diminished, and D diminished. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in before we get started, I want to take a few minutes as I do at the beginning of every jazz panel skills podcast episode to welcome new listener And if you are indeed new to jazz piano skills if you're a new listener to the jazz panel skills podcast welcome I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. There are several benefits to becoming a member of jazz piano skills. For one you have access, you will have access to all of the educational podcast packets. These are the illustrations the lead sheets, the play along files that I produced to go along with every weekly podcast episode. You will also have access to a sequential online jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses. You will also have access to an online weekly masterclass, online interactive Fakebook and of course, an online private jazz piano skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums, all that plus Unlimited, private, personal and professional, educational support all of these perks, all of these benefits are waiting for you wanting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So when you have a moment, visit jazz panel skills.com Check it out, and of course, become a member. Once you get there, if you have any questions about any of the educational perks, or about the benefits of becoming a jazz panel skills member by all means, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have, and of course help you in any way that I can. Okay, on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Randy Peterson who lives in Bettendorf Iowa, and Randy ass, I am curious about the best way to begin learning and practicing the locked hand style. I hear George Shearing playing. I love the sound. But I have to admit, I am somewhat confused and intimidated with regard to how best begin learning this style. Thanks for any direction you can provide. Already I am a huge lover of George Shearing and that sound, the lock the hands as well. In fact, I dedicated several podcast episodes to lock hands back in October, September, October of 2021. So if you haven't checked out those podcast episodes, I would highly recommend doing so. There's an episode dedicated to each of the primary sounds major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished, that are pretty thorough, so be sure to check those episodes out. But let me take a few minutes right now, to give you some quick pointers, some ideas on how I recommend starting the process of getting familiar with and learning lock hands to begin. Lock hands, for those of you who may not be familiar with this style of playing is where the melody of a tone or improvisation is doubled in octave apart and split between both hands. Typically the melody is played with the little finger in your right hand and your thumb an octave lower in your left hand. The rest of the sound is played within the octave that you've created with both hands using the remaining fingers of your right hand. So for example, the C minor sound with the notes C functioning as the melody is played like this, I have my little finger with C an octave above middle C with my little finger and my right hand and my left hand I have middle C with my thumb. So I haven't I've created an octave using both of my hands. Now I'm going to actually insert the third, the fifth and the seventh of the C minor with the remaining fingers in my right hand. So now I get this. So that's the C minor sound played locked hands with the melody note being the note C That's it. The concept is pretty simple. The melody is played in octaves, with the rest of the sound squished in between the octaves, right, a little side note, Glenn Miller, Glenn Miller used to voice his saxophone section using this approach, so no doubt it's been around for a rock out for quite a while, right.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  10:26  
So now that you know how to create the lock hand sound, I would recommend doing so starting with the four primary notes of the sound, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. So once again, using C minor, the C minor sound as our model, practice ascending and descending through the sound, root, third, fifth and seventh, using locked hands. In other words, play an arpeggio. This step is so important that I would not even begin worrying about the next step until you can do this for all 12 major chords, all 12 dominant chords, all 12 minor chords 12, half diminished chords and diminished chords. Right? Let me say it again, I wouldn't even worry about the next step until you can play locked hands, root, third, fifth, and seventh arpeggio using the lock hand style. So it will sound like this C minor

Dr. Bob Lawrence  11:50  
just going straight up route seven, coming right back down seven and doubling that melody and an octave and playing the remaining of the rest of the minor sound within the octave. Okay, again, step number one. And once you can create and play the locked hand style for all 12 Major 12 dominant 12 minor 12 half diminished, and 12 diminished chords, you can then begin to turn your attention to the three remaining scale tones. Again, using C minor as our model, we have the notes D, F and A to learn using the lock hands approach. Now the best and most efficient way to begin thinking about adding the second fourth and sixth to your root, third, fifth and seventh. To create the entire scale using a locked hands approach is to pair your root with the second, your third with the fourth, the fifth with the sixth and the seventh with the route so we ended up with something like this your route with your second so I'm doing that the guts the inner workings of my sound remain the same. I'm just changing the octave from C to D. Okay, now I go to my third and I'm going to pair it with my fourth. Again, the inside of my minor sound remains the same the octave is the only thing changing the E flat up to the F then my fifth with my six my G with my a and again the inside of my minor sound remains the same in my hand I'm just changing the octave right now I can play my Sabbath I like to pair it with the route so I have these groupings written second third and fourth fifth and sixth seventh now I can begin once I have those pairs worked out now I can begin practicing the entire scale using a locked hands approach and there was something like this

Dr. Bob Lawrence  14:43  
let me do that

Dr. Bob Lawrence  14:53  
now I wouldn't even think about how to approach plan the remaining five Non scale tones or tension tones, until I can play all 12 major scales 12 dominant scales 12 minor scales 12, half diminished scales and 12 diminished scales using the white hand style. Wow. So once you can do that, Randy, shoot me another question about adding the non scale tones. And I will dress it at that time. Until then, until then, you have your hands full thinking through formulating and practicing the locked hands approach. And again, I would recommend going back to the September and October of 2021 to check out my podcast episodes dedicated to locked hands. Nevertheless, I hope this helps you get started with learning lock hands. It's a great question, Randy. And as always, let me know if you have any additional questions or would like further clarification. Okay. Onward with our exploration of jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds. Okay, poor fingerings. Poor fingerings without question. And again based on decades of teaching experience, is the number one reason number one reason why people have difficulty playing the piano. No doubt about it. Quite simply, it's a lack of hand, lack of finger mobility, a type of hand paralysis. That makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines, whether those lines are red, or whether those lines are improvised right. Now, scale and arpeggio practice is of course, a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, melodies and melodies, whether they're again, written or improvise, do not just simply ascend and descend in straight lines. Therefore, it's important to begin practicing melodic patterns, like the ones that we have been exploring since the start of the year, that challenge us to begin shifting our hands across the keys. Right, in other words, practicing intentional shifting, which begins to simulate a musical reality that pianist must address. And this musical reality, the need to always have fingers available, allowing us to move in either direction, up or down. Right and this must be practiced in such a way that it develops proper musical instincts and muscle memory, musical instincts muscle memory, that allows us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound idiomatic to jazz so they sound like jazz. And this is precisely why the melodic patterns that we are exploring today focus on intentionally creating hand shifts within a melodic line even if it is possible to play the melodic line with no hand shift at all. Right, the objective is to begin establishing and developing hand finger mobility. And in fact, some of the fingerings I have notated in the lead sheets include intentionally include multiple hand shifts within a single measure of music within one melodic idea. So throughout this year, we have been devoting our effort to exploring the five primary sounds of music for all 12 notes using arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational exercises that will force us to deal with fingerings and force us to develop hand mobility. We are utilizing the same approach. To explore the altered sounds of music write the flat nine sharp nine, sharp 11, flat five sharp five flat 13 as well. Now each month, we focus on one of the 12 notes, one week of the month devoted to the primary sounds like today, in one week devoted to the ultrasounds like next week. We then follow it up as always with a bebop tune to help us apply our new fingerings and articulate articulation to a musical setting. So the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds. Number two, we will play essential arpeggio patterns that you need to discover, learn and play from the root of the sound to the 13th of the sound. And using various entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. Number three, we will play essential scale patterns that you need to discover, learn and play again from the root to 13 to the sound using various entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. And number four, I will be playing all the jazz improvisation exercises today using the pure dominant sound. And number five, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today using our traditional swing groove with a temple of one hit. Now, if you are a jazz panel skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now 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 as I mentioned 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 these podcast packets

Dr. Bob Lawrence  21:49  
when practicing as well. Now, if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and so 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 act of download links within the show notes. Okay, one final but very significant, very important message. If you are listening, and you are thinking at this very moment that the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds. And the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play are over your head that I would say to you, please no worries, breathe in, breathe out, relax, continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by doing just that by just simply listening. Every new skill I say it every week, every new skill is technically over our heads when first introduced. But this is how we get better. We do not run away from conversations where we are hearing things that we've never heard before, right that we're forced to grow intellectually. Right, I say it all the time all musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out downstairs, physically in your hands. So sit back, listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn. The play as it always does, will come in time. Okay, guaranteed. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets 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. You will also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all five primary sounds major dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. The exercises are of course modified to reflect the proper sound to reflect the proper chord scale relationship. Now you will also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. Now of course, you can modify the fingerings slightly. But as always Be very careful. Remember the fingerings are what allow you to play with proper jazz articulation. So you may be inclined to change the fingerings because you think it feels more comfortable or is easier however your easier may end up making it harder for you to play in the long run and to play with a proper jazz articulation And, and by all means do not alter fingerings to remove the hand shifting that is built into the fingerings. That's the entire objective of the entire podcast lesson of all of these exercises for each of the primary sounds, these intentional hand shifts are built in to help develop hand and finger mobility. Okay, so let's dig in. Once you to grab, lead sheet two, and I want you to grab lead sheet seven, pull them out of your podcast packet lead sheet to lead sheet seven skill to skill seven. You'll see that skill two deals with arpeggio motion for the dominant sound, the D dominant sound, and lead sheet seven skill seven deals with scale motion. For the D dominant sound. We are going to begin with lead sheet two skill two. So you'll see we have five patterns. These are the five patterns we've been dealing with all year laid out for you, letter A, B, C, D and E. letter A. begins with just simple four note ascending arpeggio from the root from the third from the fifth and from the seventh. From the route we are for note arpeggio takes us to the seventh. From the third, we traveled to the ninth, from the fifth, we ascend to the 11th and from the seventh, Our destination is the 13th. Very straightforward for fragments of the D dominant sound for entry points route third, five and seven. Simple for note ascending arpeggio. But look at the fingerings each one of those four note arpeggios has a hand shift built in. And you can see the primary fingerings are 1313 and 2124. Very interesting, right? So I want to bring the ensemble in, I'm going to play letter A start off I'll play the D seven sound up front for about four measures. I will play each each fragment four times before moving on to the next fragment. Okay for time so let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter a tempo is 110 Swing groove here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  29:12  
Very nice right for for note arpeggios, each arpeggio with an intentional hand shift, I cannot stress enough how important letter A is for getting used to hand mobility and hand shifting, playing with the proper articulation simple for note, ascending arpeggio through the D seven sound. Now, letter B we stick with the same idea except we add a little contour to our arpeggio. So instead of a straight arpeggio going up the seven we now have a little contour built in. Again, our entry points remain the same route Word five and seven are exploring the entire sound from the root to 13 are fingerings. Check them out carefully, there are hand shifts built into each one of these motifs. Do not eliminate those hand shifts, if you make any adjustments to the fingerings, we want those hands shifts in there. Okay? Again, swing groove, again tempo of 110. So let's bring the ensemble in, and let's listen to the letter B here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:03  
Very nice now, again, I'm playing everything at a tempo of 110. Today. By all means, I mentioned this quite often in these podcast episodes, play at slower tempos, as you're getting used to these patterns as you're getting used to the fingerings. And the hand shifts, not a problem playing at 60 7080 always play at a tempo that allows you to succeed. Then once you have the pattern and the fingerings well under control, then you can begin exploring various temples and even various groups for that matter, right. But keep things very relaxed and very comfortable as you're digesting these new patterns, these new skills these new fingerings Okay, so let's take a look at letter c. Now, I love letter C, because the hand shifts are really, really obvious, right? Like look at fingering the fingering for the very first motif. 141421 Right. So you have our hand is shifting, we're getting a thumb up on an F sharp on a black note, I absolutely love it. Right? Quite often we're told to avoid doing that. Not the case, not the case at all, especially when it comes to playing jazz. So I want to bring the ensemble in. Again, we're going to play at a tempo of 110 Swing groove. Same same four entry points as always route 35 and seven. We have our hands shifts built into these patterns. So pay attention to those mark those if you need to. And let's check it out. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:25  
Alright, so letter D as we all know if you've been doing the program since the beginning of the year with all these exercises all these patterns, letter D always deals with the eighth note triplet, rhythmic pattern. So, we have our eighth note triplets that we are playing here. Really great little idea. Again, same for entry points, root, third, five and seven, a lot of hands shifting going on with these triplets. So be very, very careful. The triplets are tricky. So again, much lower temples if need be to get the field to get the fingerings to get the articulation correct before you start playing at faster tempos. So let's bring the ensemble in I'll play D seven up front for about four measures to get into the field and then I will play each motif each melodic idea four times before moving on to the next one. So here we go. Letter D, eighth note triplets here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:00  
All right, we're down to our very last pattern exercise. Today for arpeggio motion exploring the D seven sound using arpeggio motion. Our melodic line now is getting stretched beyond a measure we're into the second measure. So we're crossing over the bar line which is great. What pullback to eighth notes note triplets. Thank heaven, right. So our entry points as always remained the same the root third five and seven. Again, we have quite a bit of hand shifting taking place in in this motif. So be very, very careful. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's have a little fun with letter e. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  40:16  
All right, so that does it for arpeggio motion, exploring the D seven sound using arpeggio motion. Now, again, I'm just modeling it today for D seven, you need to utilize your podcast packet explore these same arpeggio patterns for the major sound, D minor, D half diminished, and D diminished as well. They're in your podcast packets, the fingerings are notated for every note for each of the patterns for each of those sounds. So you got a little work to do, right. So now let's move on to skill seven lead sheet seven, still exploring the D seven sound but now our attention shifts to scale movement scale motion, as opposed to arpeggio motion, and you'll see letter A, we have a straight ascending scale movement. Again a same for entry points route third five and seven, each entry point the route travels to the seventh, this third to the ninth, the fifth to the 11th and the seventh to the 13th and we have hand shifts taking place of course, traditional kind of traditional hand shifts are actually taking place with this scale motion the scale movement. So let's bring our sample in again I'm going to play D seven up front for four measures then I'll play each scale I should say the dominant scale from each entry point four times so here we go. Let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:22  
Just as I stressed with letter A with regards to arpeggio motion I want to stress it here letter A was scale movement cannot cannot stress enough how important it is to practice letter a simple scale movement ascending various entry points playing with great finger hand shifting hand movement with a proper fingerings the proper articulation cannot stress it enough. Okay, so letter B, just as we did with the arpeggios, we now add a little contour to the motif or to the scale. So instead of st scale right we're gonna get a little contour to our line. Little bit right, what a difference that makes. So again, mark those handshakes the fingerings if need be. Again, same four entry points, root third five and seven tempo 110 Swing groove. Here we go letter B scale movement for D seven

Dr. Bob Lawrence  46:05  
Well, just as we did, you know, just, we had to deal with the eighth note triplet with with arpeggio movement have to deal with the eighth note triplet with our scale movement. And you look at letter C, it can look visually a little scary. And I guess it is right we have eighth note triplets back to back to back to back, right. So again, slow tempos with these eighth note triplets, get the fingerings under control, get a nice articulation at a nice tempo that allows you to succeed before you start increasing the tempo. Okay, so if 110 is too fast, not a problem, slow it down. So here we go. Letter C, same entry points, root, third five, seven, the D seven sound using triplet movement through the scale, here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  48:34  
Not easy, right? Not easy at all, whether you're playing the eighth note triplet using arpeggio motion, or eighth note triplets using scale motion makes no difference. It's a tough little pattern to rhythmic motif to play, to pull it off to make it sound correct not to not rush it. And not to get out in front of the beat when playing triplets, which is easy to do. So if it's challenging to you just know you're not alone. It's very common, very common. So all right, letter D, our musical line gets longer goes crossed the bar line. We have back to eighth notes. No eighth note triplets right back the eighth notes, a lot of hand shifting taking place. But as always we find comfort in knowing that we're dealing with the same entry points. Again, with the root, third, fifth and seventh. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out scale movement. Letter D, D seven. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  51:12  
Wow, we are down to our very last pattern for today letter E skill seven dominant D dominant sound, again, ascending movement through the scale the D dominant scale moving past or overthrew the bar line into measure two. So we have quite a bit of fingering going on here, it's all marked, not a bad I did take the little yellow highlighter and mark where those shifts are taking place. And one thing I will say real quick when I'm talking about hand shifting, I mean, literally hand shifting, we're not doing quite often we talk about or you'll hear teachers talk about thumb under, I'm not talking when when our hand shifts, I'm not talking about thumb under because when you do thumb under, what happens is elbow goes out, shoulder goes up. It's, it's inevitable. thumb under, shoulders out, I mean, elbows out, shoulder up. So when I talk about hand shifts, I'm I'm literally talking about the hand shifting, moving across the keys, not this thumb under stuff that you hear teachers say all the time. Okay. So okay, letter E, same four entry points would do that intentionally keep that consistent root third five and seven. We have nice ascending scale movement, lots of hand shifting taking place be aware of that tempo of 110 Here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  54:20  
Wow, well, as always, we've done it again, right? unpacked an enormous amount of information in one very short, one very fast hour. Now even though I played the jazz improvisation exercises today, using the dominant sound only be sure to practice the exercises of course for your major for your minor half diminished and diminished sounds as well. Again, they are all laid out for you in your lead sheets, podcast packet fingerings included right now remember, you can make some modifications to those fingers greens, right but do not eliminate the hand shifts, those fingerings are in there in tensional. Right? They're in there to help us develop the right kind of muscle memory. That's going to allow us to play with an authentic jazz articulation through the entire sound through the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh entry. That gets us all the way to the 13th. To the sound, right. And remember, the articulation of each musical phrase regardless of the entry point, regardless of the entry point should sound the same. So you have a ton to tackle this week. So use your practice time wisely. Next week, of course, we jump into jazz improvisation exercises for the D altered sounds right. As always, I want to encourage you all to use your podcast packets. If your jazz panel skills a member get those podcast packets print downloaded and printed out the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play locks. They're there to guide you as you study and practice. And these are educational tools that will help you gain a mastery of the jazz piano skills conceptually, physically and of course, musically. As always, always be patient. Developing mature, professional jazz piano skills takes time. It takes a lifetime. So begin structuring your improvisational development after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode, right? And I guarantee it, you will begin to see, feel and hear your progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds to be insightful, and of course to be beneficial. Don't forget, if you are a jazz piano skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass. That's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds in greater detail. And of course they answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. If you're unable to make the class Thursday evening, you will be able to catch a recording of it. View a recording of it through your jazz piano skills account and membership account. You can reach me if you have any questions whatsoever. My number here at the Dallas School of Music is 972-380-8050 my extension is 211. If you prefer email, you can reach me Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the entire jazz piano skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary D sounds. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!