Jazz Improvisation Exercises, Db/C# 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, we devoted the month of May to exploring the primary sounds of music major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished in relation to a flat. In other words, the A flat sounds. And not only the primary, a flat sounds right major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. But the altered a flat sounds as well. Now, we've been doing this all year, right? We used five specific melodic patterns to focus on developing mobile fingering fingerings that allow our hand our right hand to be in concert to be in a constant state of movement across the keys. Why the constant state of movement? Why is that so important? Why the shifting of the hand, because by constantly moving and positioning our right hand, we are seeking optimal finger usage needed to produce a strong and an authentic jazz articulation. And of course, making sure that we never run out of fingers in the middle of the musical phrase as well. Now we have utilized this intentional approach for the primary and altered sounds, like I said, since the beginning of the year. And we're going to continue doing so for the entire year, through all of the various keys the notes, so today, we will follow that exact same format that we used in May with a flat and that we've followed since the start of the year, with C, F, B flat, and D flat. We're going to do that today. However, with primary sounds of music centered around the note, D flat, or in some cases C sharp. So today, you're going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises. And you're going to learn develop mental arpeggio and scale patterns of D flat, C sharp sounds, and you're going to play five arpeggio and scale patterns, five arpeggio and five scale patterns focusing on fingerings and articulation. For the primary D flat, C sharp sounds a 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 are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises for D flat, C sharp sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, I want to as I always do, I want to welcome new listeners. And if you are indeed a new listener to the jazz panel skills podcast if you are new to jazz panel skills, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Now there are several membership plans to choose from. So check out jazz piano skills.com. To learn more about each of the plans and all the perks of each membership level. There are educational weekly podcast packets, the illustrations lead sheets, play alongs there's a sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses online weekly master classes online interactive Fakebook and a private jazz piano skills community hosting a variety of engaging forums. There's unlimited private, personal and professional educational support on top of all that as well. So all of these perks are waiting for you waiting to help you discover learn and play jazz panel. So check it out at jazz panel skills.com And of course become a member. If you have any questions once you're there if you have any questions about the membership or any of the perks, please do not hesitate to reach out to me I'm always happy 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, I received this email from Jim Molan, Jim Moen, living in Watertown, South Dakota. And Jim reached out to say, I am relatively new to jazz. And I've worked up the courage to begin to attempt to learn how to improvise. So far, I've struggled with playing anything that sounds good to my ears. I'm not asking for a shortcut, but wondering if there is an easy way to begin this process to begin learning how to improvise. Again, no shortcut. Just want to speed up the process a little. All right. Well, great question, Jim. And congrats. You've taken the most challenging step, starting the journey of developing improvisational skills. I say journey because that is exactly what it is. It's a lifelong endeavor that you will continue to explore, to experience and refine forever. So we are all on this journey together, some of us a little further down the road than others. But we are all students of improvisation, which is exactly why I love it. There is always something to discover something to learn something to play forever. So with that being said, allow me to take a few minutes to try to unpack a game plan for you. And for all listeners, regardless of where you find yourself on the developmental improvisational road to begin when practicing improvisation, which by the way always involves taking musical risk. You will play what what I like to call The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly. This is something we all need to embrace and realize that this is part of the process that will never ever change regardless of our experience. So Jim, do not be discouraged in the least when you play the bad and the ugly. After all, you're not excused from experiencing the trauma that we all have to go through. When practicing improvisation, right? We all experience it. Now, the timing of your question is perfect. My podcast episode last week was called chunks, shapes and sounds. It presented a bottom up approach to applying a top down understanding of how jazz improvisation works. So let me take a minute to explain the top down conceptual understanding of improvisation that you want to have sorted out as soon as possible. Here it is. Number one, music is all about the production of sound. Right it's an oral art form. It's not a visual art form. Number two, there are five primary sounds found in music. Major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. Number three, the primary sounds can be played harmonically. And melodically harmonically as chords, melodically scales and arpeggios. Number four, melodic sound. scales and arpeggios can be played using two motions, ascending motion, and descending motion. Number five rhythm is then applied to melodic and harmonic sound to create musical interest, songs, composition or improvisation, spontaneous composition. That's it.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  9:46  
That is how music works. That is how jazz works. That is how improvisation works. If you have a command of this truth, this outline that I just laid out if you have a command of this Truth intellectually. Then the bottom up approach I am going to tell you about that I'm going to tell you to begin using when developing improvisation, improvisation skills will make a ton of sense. It is also important to realize that melody flows from Harmony. Melody flows from Harmony. So in other words, the stronger your understanding of harmony harmony harmonic shapes, the easier it will be to create melodies, whether those melodies are composed or improvised. So in last week's podcast episode, I discussed the most petite, the smallest harmonic shape in music, the major and minor third, I call them chunks. And this is precisely Jim where I would encourage you to begin your improvisation journey. With these chunks, start with the root, and the third of each of the primary sounds. So for example, using the primary sounds of C, you would begin improvising with the notes C and E, the root and third of the C major and C dominant sounds. And the notes C and E flat, the root and third of the C minor, half diminished and diminished sounds. Begin by applying various rhythmic patterns to the root and third of each of the primary sounds. Now I modeled this approach in last week's podcast episode. So be sure to check it out. Now, what I love about this approach, what I absolutely love about this approach is that not only does it help you comfortably approach improvising in a non intimidating way, but it also by default, forces you to automatically begin incorporating the two most important traits, characteristics laced throughout every crate jazz soul. Those two important traits, space, silence and repetition. You have to use spaced repetition, right, you have to because you only have two notes. You have two notes to use. So you have to lean on creating musical interest by injecting space and repetition into the rhythms that you are using when playing the two notes. Wow. If you want to sound like a pro right away, start with musical chunks. rhythms, which forced you to utilize space and repetition. So jam once you are comfy with the root and third of the sound, then begin exploring the third and the fifth. And then the fifth and the seventh. Use the same approach, regardless of the chunk you are exploring. The other thing I like about this approach is that it shields you from having to worry about chord scale relationships, modes, passing tones, approach tones, and everything else that you simply should not be worried about when starting out on your improvisation journey. Again, your timing and the timing of your question is perfect. And I would strongly recommend listening to the left to last week's podcast episode, chunks, shapes and sounds to gain a deeper understanding of this approach. Wow. As always, another great question from another wonderful jazz piano skills member. Now Jim, if further clarification is needed, or if you just have some follow up questions, then please let me know. Always happy to help you in any way that I can. Okay. Onward with our exploration of jazz improvisation exercises. For D flat, C sharp sounds. Wow. Did you hear? Did y'all hear the thunder in the The lightning, I guess we're in the middle of a credible thunderstorm here in Dallas. So I'm glad I'm inside safe and sound and talking about jazz piano. So let's talk about fingerings for a second. You know, I've brought this up before, that in all my experience in teaching the number one reason people have difficulty playing the piano, right? It's not due to lack of talent, or lack of skill. It's not due to a lack of motivation, or even a lack of time practicing. It's, I find that the greatest challenge, the greatest hurdle for people to jump is the development of mobility, hand mobility, finger mobility, right. It's almost like a hand paralysis that makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines to play the piano. Musically, right. Now, scale and arpeggio practice is of course a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, as I have mentioned, melodies do not just simply ascend and descend in a straight line, like we practice scales. Therefore, it's important to begin practicing patterns, melodic patterns, like the ones that we've been exploring since the start of the year. Now, that Checkmat challenge, right, the challenge and doing these patterns is to begin developing hand mobility to begin this feeling of shifting our hands across the keys. Alright, so by practicing intentional hand shifts, that are built into these patterns, we begin to simulate a musical reality that pianos must deal with when playing. Now this musical reality, the need to, to always have fingers available. allowing this to move in either direction, up or down, must be practiced in such a way that it develops proper musical instincts and muscle memory, musical instincts and muscle memory that allow us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound right, the whole point is so that they sound like jazz. This is precisely why the melodic patterns that we are exploring today and have been throughout the year focus on intentionally creating these hand shifts within a melodic line. Even if it's possible, play the melodic line with no hand shift, right we are intentionally inserting hand chips. The objective again is to begin establishing and developing this hand this finger mobility. In fact, some of the fingers fingerings that I've notated in the lead sheet, and the lead sheets and these patterns have multiple hand shifts within one measure one measure of music, right. So throughout this year, as I mentioned, we are devoting our effort to exploring five primary sounds of music for all 12 notes using arpeggio and scale patterns, improvisation exercises that will force us to deal with fingerings to develop hand mobility. And we're also utilizing the same approach to explore the altered sounds flat nine sharp nine sharp 11 flat five, sharp five flat 13 right each month we focus on one of the 12 notes. One week of the month we we devote to the primary sounds and other week we devote to the ultrasounds and then we follow it all up with a bebop tune to help us apply our new fingerings

Dr. Bob Lawrence  18:51  
to a musical setting. So the agenda for today the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for D flat, C sharp sounds. Number two, we will play essential arpeggio patterns you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th through 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 to the sound once again using a root third, fifth and seventh entry. In number four, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today using the minor sound. And number five I will be playing those minor sounds the jazz improvisation exercises for the minor sound using the traditional swing groove of 110. Now if you're a jazz panel skills member I want you to take a few minutes right now to download it To print your podcast packet, so I hit the pause button to access your illustrations, your lead sheets and your play alongs. And again, your membership grants your access to all of the podcasts packets for every weekly podcast episode. And as I mentioned every week, you should be using these podcasts packets when listening to the episode and of course, you should be using them when practicing as well. So if you're 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 access, download your podcast package, and you will find the active download links within the show notes. One final but very significant message that I include in every podcast. If you're sitting here and listening, and thinking that the jazz improvisation exercises for D flat, C sharp. You're thinking that these exercises and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play are over your head, then I would say to you no worries, sit back, relax, right. Just continue to listen and grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by simply listening. Every new skill that we tackle is technically over our heads when introduced. And but this is how we get better, right we place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations where we're hearing words, we're hearing things that we've never heard before words that we've never heard before. And we're forced to grow intellectually. I say it all the time. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally, conceptually before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back, listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn. The play, as it always does, will come in time. 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 sheet 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 for the major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. The exercises are, of course modified to reflect the proper sound. And you'll also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. And of course, you can, as I've mentioned before, you can modify the fingerings slightly, right. But be careful. Remember, the fingerings have hand shifts built into them intentionally. So if you're thinking wait a minute, I can just remove this hand shift and make it easier. You're missing the point. So just be careful, we do not want to be taking hands shifts out, you can always add them, that'd be great. But we do not want to be taking them out right in the fingerings. That specific fingerings is what allows us to play with a proper jazz articulation. So again, you may be inclined to change the fingerings you may be careful. But just keep in mind too that you're easier may actually end up making it harder, right? So I'm just throwing that out there. As just a little bit of caution. Just be careful. Okay, so let's dig in. Grab lead sheet three, skill three. Okay, this is arpeggio patterns for C sharp minor. Right? I've been saying D flat all along. But here we go C sharp minor. Now, I've done this intentionally because I'm hoping that we can just talk about this briefly. Every chord comes from somewhere right. So, minor sounds are found within the major scale produced by the major scale, the second degree, the third degree and sixth degree of the scale, right. So if we take a look at the note D flat or C sharp and we ask ourselves question, what what scale does that come from? That note comes from the B major scale, B major is a sharp key. Therefore, we should refer to this note as C sharp, not D flat. If we pretend that this note D flat or C sharp comes, is functioning as a three, that means it would be coming from the key of A. Again, a is a sharp key. So therefore, we should refer to it as C sharp minor, not D flat minor. Now, it was pretend that this note C sharp, or D flat or C sharp is the sixth degree of the scale. If it's the sixth degree of the scale, it means it comes from the key of E. Once again, key of E is a sharp key. So, therefore, it's appropriate for us to refer to it as C sharp, not D flat. So, theoretically speaking D flat minor simply does not exist. C sharp minor does because it belongs it comes from either the key A be the key of A, or the key of E, all three sharp keys, no matter how you look at it, its origin where it's coming from, it's coming from a sharp key. So therefore, my minor sounds here today are all referred to as C sharp minor. Hope that helps. And I will be treating this C sharp minor as if it is coming from the key of B major, B major. So if you look at the key signature here on your lead sheet, you'll see five sharps so I'm treating these patterns today, as if this C sharp minor belongs to the key of B major. Okay, so let's take a look at pattern number one letter, a simple four note arpeggio with a Root Entry, and then a third entry, fifth entry and a seventh entry. So our route entry goes from the root to the seventh. Our third entry from the third to the ninth. Our fifth entry from the fifth to the 11th and then the seventh entry from the seventh to the 13th. Okay, so we're exploring the entire C sharp minor sound from the root to the 13th. Each one of these arpeggios, you'll notice the fingerings. Again, each one of these arpeggios has an intentional hand shift built into the fingerings. Right. So that's what I was talking about earlier. Don't change the fingering to take the hand shift out. All right, we want those we want this shift in here, even though we're only playing a four note arpeggio. Okay, we want to get used to moving our hands right hand mobility is what we're after. So let's bring the ensemble in. I'm going to play through each of these patterns each of these arpeggios four times, I'll start off four measures up at the top, just kind of getting into the field of swing field at 110. Then I will start playing pattern number one there with the Root Entry four times then to the third entry four times and so on. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble and let's take a listen to pattern one letter A. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  30:11  
Nice write, great little exercise to practice. I love it simple arpeggio focusing on a nice articulation nice feel nice fingerings nice movement from the root of the sound through the 13th to the sound. Now pattern to letter B, expands that arpeggio just slightly, right, we create a little contour to the arpeggio. So now we get something that sounds like this. Right, but we're going to follow the same process, third entry, fifth entry, seventh entry from the root to the 13th. Okay. So again, if you look at the fingerings, carefully, you'll notice there's hand shifts in there, okay, forcing our hands to move across the piano. Even with these little motifs, we're still incorporating hand movement. Alright, so let's bring the ensemble back in. And let's listen to arpeggio movement from the root to the 13th of the sound, opera, our C sharp minor here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:52  
Very nice, now, letter C gets a little trickier, intentionally right? Still again, root, third, fifth seventh entry. But now our hands we have these interval leaps. You'll see like in pattern one, we're moving from the C sharp to the G sharp from the e to the b, we have these fifths. And I can think of no better way to play these motor motifs. Then with the fingerings that I'm using there that I'm rotating there, right, we're moving that thumb from the root to the third. Literally moving the hand across the keys. Okay, and the same thing, same fingering for the third. Check it out for the fifth and for the seventh. Really focusing on moving the hand and moving that thumb. All right. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter C. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:27  
Right doesn't get any easier, right, because take a peek at letter D, we've been dealing with eighth note, eighth note triplets for a long time we dealt with them all last year with our rhythmic exercises. Here we have the eighth note triplets in here. Now, our our melodic line is getting longer, you notice, right? But we have these eighth note triplets. Therefore, again, I'm playing everything at 110. Today, I mentioned it every every week every month, of course, begin practicing these patterns, especially with the new new shapes, new keys at slower tempos, right 60 7080 Especially letter D here with these triplets right. Not easy. Of course, the hand shifts will make it a lot easier but nevertheless not easy. So again, we follow the same format we have a Root Entry third entry fifth seventh exploring the entire minor sound from the root all the way through the 13th through the sound. So let's bring the ensemble and let's see and let's hear how these eighth note triplet sounds sound using these fingerings here we go let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:13  
Challenging in deed, so Okay, now we're down to our last arpeggio exercise today exploring C sharp minor letter E, you can see that our melodic idea now is stretching over the bar line into measure two. So we have a much longer melodic motif to deal with, we have quite a few hand shifts taking place and each one of these lines. So pay careful attention to the fingers fingerings also get comfortable with thumbs landing up there on the black notes. That's another dimension of these patterns. Getting us especially all of us who are trained classically who have been avoiding the thumb on black notes for a long time, right? It's okay. It's gonna feel it's gonna be feel fine and it's okay, it works. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's take a listen to letter to letter E. Our last arpeggio exercise today for C sharp minor, but again, root, third, fifth seventh entry, so that we explore the entire sound from the root all the way to the 13th. So here we go. Check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  40:57  
Alright, on to scale movement. Next, so we need to grab a lead sheet eight, skill eight. And here again, we have C sharp minor seven that we're dealing with treating it as the two chord coming from the key of B major. And pattern one or letter A, starts with our root entry and plays the scale literally from the root the seventh than the third entry to the ninth, fifth entry to the 11th, and then the seventh to the 13th. Pretty straightforward, just like we did the arpeggios, route the 730 9/5 11th seventh to 13th ascending motion through the entire C sharp minor sound, we're gonna do the exact same thing with the scale. So now let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to letter a pattern one, C sharp minor seven, here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:38  
Very nice letter a pattern one of the scale movement letter a pattern one of the arpeggio movement probably the two most important exercises that you'll do, right. Once you get those under your hands, then patterns two through five become a whole lot easier. So speaking of pattern two, let's look at letter B, we have our C sharp minor again root the 13th Our entry points, root, third, fifth and seventh. We had a little contour now to our scale motion. So we get something that sounds like this. Right but we have our hands shifts in there that we need to deal with. So pay attention to the fingerings right pay attention to the fingerings and make sure that you are playing with a nice legato feel even with the hand shifts, okay. So let's bring the ensemble endless. Listen to letter B. pattern number two. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  46:11  
Okay, on to pattern three letter C, we dealt with eighth note triplets with arpeggio motion. So of course, we're going to deal with eighth note, triplets with our scale movement, it gets a little tricky here, our line gets extended into the second measure, our motifs are getting longer now. And of course, we have these triplets to deal with, as well as our hand shifts, right. Right. So again, I plan at 110, just for the sake of time here in this podcast episode, but certainly with these eighth note triplets, feel free to lower that tempo 60 7080 Right, create a tempo, select the tempo that a lot that's going to allow you to succeed with these rhythms before you begin increasing the tempo. Okay, so with letter C, we follow the same format that we've been doing all day Root Entry, third, fifth seventh entry, exploring the entire C sharp minor sound from the root to the 13th. So let's bring the ensemble back in and let's check out these eighth note triplets here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  48:57  
Not easy, not easy at all. But certainly well worth the effort to stick with these fingerings and stick with these patterns, they will pay huge dividends for you. So now let's take a look at letter D. pattern four, we're back to straight eighth note movement are our melodic idea again those stretches into the second measure. We have root third, fifth and seventh entry as always, quite a few hand shifts taking place within each one of these motifs. So pay careful attention to the fingerings and once again as always, even though these are not eighth note triplets feel free to play at slower tempos, right. So in your left hand I have not mentioned this and your left hand feel free to use any voicing that you would like you can use a traditional black voice and you can use a three note traditional shape out contemporary shell and the left hand or you know what, you don't need to use a shell at all You don't need to play a voicing at all in the left hand, focus on the right hand first then add the voicing any voicing in the left hand Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out pattern for letter D C sharp minor route to 13 Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  51:55  
All right, we are down to our final scale exercise for today pattern for today. Pattern five letter E, C sharp minor our melodic line gets a little longer but we're dealing with eighth notes again as ascending motion. And again, multiple fingers shifting taking place hand shifts taking place with our fingerings intentionally right we're trying to develop hand mobility with each one of these patterns whether we're using arpeggio motion or scale motion and mobility is the name of the game. So let's bring our ensemble and let's take a listen to our very last pattern for today letter E here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  54:10  
Well as always we have packed a ton of information into a very quick very fast one hour episode. And again even though I play these jazz improvisation exercises for you today using the minor sound alright the minor sound Be sure to explore these patterns these very same patterns for the major for the dominant for the half diminished and the diminished sounds as well. They are all laid out for you in your lead sheets podcast packets with fingerings included in remember, you may make some modifications to the fingerings to best suit fit your hand. But just be careful right whatever fingerings you choose Always make sure that you're not removing hand shifts in the fingerings, because that's the whole objective of these exercises. And make sure that the fingerings allow you to play with a proper jazz articulation through the entire sound, whether you're, whether you're launching from the root, or the third, or the fifth or the seventh, right remember, the articulation of each musical phrase, regardless of the entry point should sound the same. Wow, you have a ton to tackle this week with these primary sounds for D flat, and C sharp. Next week, of course, we will be jumping into exercises dealing with the D flat, altered sounds. Okay. So once again, I want to encourage all you jazz piano skills members, make sure to use your podcast packets. The illustrations are invaluable tools to help you digest this information conceptually, right which will make the plane so much easier. Get your lead sheets, get your fingerings there are play along files for you to tap into as well. These are educational tools that will help you gain a mastery of these jazz piano skills conceptually, physically and of course, musically. Most importantly, most importantly, be patient. Developing mature and professional jazz piano skills takes time takes a long time. So begin structuring your improvisation development you're practicing after the plain demonstrations that I've modeled for you today with C sharp minor and I guarantee it you will begin to see you will begin to feel in here your progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for D flat, C sharp sounds to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. Don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills ensemble member I will see you online Thursday evening. At the jazz panel skills masterclass. It's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises for D flat C sharp in greater detail and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Wow, okay. You can always reach me by phone at 972-380-8050. My extension here at the Dallas School of Music is 211 if you prefer email, my email email address is Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use that nifty little SpeakPipe widget. I always love getting speed pipes SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the entire jazz panel Skills website. In fact, I think there's practically a link on every webpage of the site. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the D flat C sharp sounds. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano