Jazz Improvisation Exercises, E Sounds

0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Battle artists. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. I hope if you're living in the States, I hope you enjoy your Labor Day holiday yesterday. I had a great day with family relaxing, enjoying some slightly less hot weather. And of course, some prime ribeye steaks along with a cold Texas Shiner Bock Beer. As I watched my Texas Rangers leaves to the Houston Astros. But you know, other than that, it was a perfect day. But now it's back to the grind back to the grunt work as we turn the calendar over again and find ourselves in September, hard to believe. So what did we focus on in August? Well, we continued our exploration of various jazz improvisation exercises devoted to the primary B sounds of music major dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. And not only did we tackle the primary B sounds, but we also explored the altered B dominant sounds as well. Sharp 11, flat 13, flat nine flat 13. And of course, the fully altered sound, the flat nine sharp nine, flat five sharp five. Along with all that we had some fun with Dizzy Gillespie's, groovin high and Chet Baker's tangerine, plus an exploration of the harmonic minor modes man August was packed, we have been following the same format. Now since the start of the new year, we use five specific melodic patterns to focus on developing mobile fingering, right fingerings that allow our hand or 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 we never run out of fingers in the middle of a musical phrase as well. As I mentioned before, we have utilized this intentional approach for the primary and altered sound since the beginning of the year. And we will continue to do so for the rest of the year, in which there's not a whole lot left, right. So today, we will follow the same format again, that we used in August that we've used in every month since the start of the year. And we will apply the process to the primary sounds for E. So today we are going to discover essential jazz improvisation exercises. We're going to learn developmental arpeggio and scale patterns for the E sounds. And we're going to play five arpeggio scale patterns focusing on fingerings and articulation for the primary E sound. Sounds being major dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. So as always like to say regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player, an advanced player even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for E sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, I want to as I always do, take just a couple minutes to welcome new jazz panel skills listeners. And if you are a new listener if you are new to jazz piano skills, welcome, I want to invite you personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. There are various membership plans to choose from. So when you have a moment check out jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all the perks of each membership plan. There are educational weekly podcast packets, which include illustrations, lead sheets and play alongs for every weekly jazz panel skills podcast episode. There's also an online sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses. There's online weekly master classes online interactive Fakebook private jazz piano skills community, which hosts over idea of engaging forums. And on top of all of that, there's also Unlimited, private, personal, and professional educational support. All of these perks 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 and become a member. If you have any questions, once you get to the site, regarding the various educational perks and the various membership plans, please do not give it a second thought, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm always happy to spend some time with you answer any of your questions and help you in any way that I can. Okay, on to the question of the week. All right. I, I received this question from Tim wells in Riverside, California. And I gotta be honest, Tim, I gotta be honest, I gave some serious thought to avoiding this question altogether, and not even not even attempting to answer. I was very close. Very close to just flat out ignoring your question, because it could possibly be the most difficult question for a jazz pianist to answer. So I'm just giving, giving that disclaimer. Right, right from the get go. Right? Getting it out in the open? Before I attempt to answer your question. So Tim's question is this. I enjoy your podcast. And I am wondering, who are your top three favorite jazz pianist? Man, see, see what I mean? How to how do I begin to answer this right? How does a jazz pianist How does a jazz lover go about answering such a question? It seems like every jazz pianist I'm currently listening to quickly becomes my favorite jazz pianist. I'm sure you all know exactly what I mean. You know, I get in my car to head to work in the morning and turn on the radio. And I hear Herbie Hancock. And I say to myself, wow. That's how jazz panel should be playing. Played. Herbie is without question the very best. Then on my way home from work, I turn the radio on again. And I hear Art Tatum. And I'm left speechless. And I say to myself, wow. That's how jazz piano should be play. Art. Tatum is the best. Then I arrive home. Walk into the home. I hear Keith Jarrett plane. I settle into my favorite chair for the next hour. And I say wow, this is how jazz piano should be play. Keith Jarrett is without question. The best jazz pianist ever. So you see what I mean? I am so easily swayed by the individual by the jazz pianist that I am currently listening to. Not a bad thing I guess but it but it makes it very difficult to him to select three as my all time favorite. But you know what? I'll give it a try. Okay, here I go. Here are my three favorite jazz pianists listed in no particular order. Number one, Errol Garner. Number two Dave McKenna. Number three, Bill Evans. I bet that list shocks a lot of you right, because there's so many great jazz piano players that you would suspect that would be on that list. But they're not. So again, number one, Earl Gardner. Number two Dave McKenna. Number three Bill Evans. So you may be wondering why, why these three pianist? I mean, after all right shouldn't ask are Peterson beyond that list? Of course. What about what about Keith Jarrett or chick Korea? How about Felonious Monk or McCoy Tyner? But Pa? How about a ma Jamal. And of course the list goes on, and on and on. And again, all of those pianist and many, many others make my top three list when I'm actively listening to them. But today, I selected Harold Gardner, Dave McKenna and Bill Evans. And the reason why is that these three especially these three Gardner, McKenna and Evans they display much more than a mastery of technique, a solid command of time, an impressive vocabulary. Right? All important, right? But all three, win play, at least in my humble opinion. All three display a window into their soul when they play. Eric Garner pure joy, such gratefulness for everything. They McKenna contentment

10:35  
constant state of happiness and satisfaction. And Bill Evans, contemplative, very expressive prayer like, right. So I just want to take a moment, and just play a little snippet of all three of these pianos to kind of illuminate what I'm talking about. Right. So we'll talk we'll start with Earl Gardner. And I love his play. Because just joyful, really, really joyful. Like I said, I get the impression that he's just grateful for everything. So I want to I want to play just a little snippet of recording of his call, I want to be happy. And this is taken from a compilation album that was of tunes that we're recording is a previously were unreleased. Right? And the album's called ready, take one. But this tune here is called I want to be happy. So let's just take a couple minutes and check this out. And just experience His joy and his gratefulness here we go.

13:39  
Right, certain players, when they play, if you look at everyone in the audience, everyone's has a smile on their face, from ear to ear. And Eric Garner is one of those players played in such a way in which was such joy, that it literally spread to everyone in the audience, no question about it. Okay, so now Dave McKenna. What am I all time without question all time favorite pianist and maybe one of the most underrated jazz pianists two of all time. And I said David McKenna, he plays was such, he swings like no one else. But there's such a contentment, a state of happiness and satisfaction in his playing. So much so that David McKenna can take a tune like San Antonio rows, and feel completely comfortable in his skin as a jazz pianist playing San Antonio rows. And this is taken from this. I want to play just a little snippet of this as well. This is taken from his album has recorded it's called Dave fingers McKenna. Right Dave fingers McKenna. So Let's listen to David McKenna play in San Antonio ropes, right? Well, what jazz musician plays San Antonio rows, right? Who would select the make a recording of that? Well, David McKenna did. So let's listen to Dave play San Antonio rose. And just again state of happiness and satisfaction, pure contentment, he is totally 100% comfortable within his own skin as a jazz pianist playing any any literature. So here we go, Dave McKenna listen enjoy this San Antonio rose.

17:34  
Call Us air Ray. You know I once heard an interview with Dave McKenna, where the individual conducting the interview kept referring to him as a jazz pianist. And Dave finally stopped and said, Please stop calling me a jazz pianist. And it kind of stunned the interviewer. And he asked Well, how should I refer to you? And and David McKenna said I'm a song player. I play songs. Wow. Right? Again, such contentment, such happiness and satisfaction being comfortable in his own skin as a jazz pianist to where he plays songs. San Antonio rose is a great song. When under the hands of Dave McKenna, no question about it. All right, my final pianist selected today, Bill Evans there's so much that can be said here but Bill Evans, contemplative, so expressive, so expressive in his playing always reminds me such prayer like right all three of these all three of these gentlemen really provide a window into their soul as humans and this is why I love listening to all three of these so now let's listen to this is a little snippet of a song called some time ago taken from Bill Evans album you must believe in spring of course are several crate Bill Evans albums out there portrait and jazz everybody. Thanks, Bill. Bill Evans. I mean, the list goes on and on. But this is from his. You must believe in spring recording. And this is a tune called some time ago. Let's take a listen. And let's see if you do not agree with me how contemplative and expressive and prayer like his plane is. Here we go.

21:46  
Wow, simply beautiful. So are you happy now Tim Wright? Put me on the spotlight that what a challenge, indeed. And you asked me that question. If you asked me that question tomorrow may have three different players on my list. But today, it was Gardner, McKenna, and Evans. So hard to pick three, but I did my very best. Now keep in mind, right now, keep in mind, like I said, if you ask me a question again, tomorrow, it may be three different players. But I have listened to these three gentlemen all my life, and I can tell you that they are three of my all time favorite. And if you have not, if you're not familiar with a lot of their recordings and playing, I strongly suggest that you spend some time getting acquainted with all three of them. And all kidding aside, great question, Tim. And thanks. Thanks very much for being a jazz piano skills member. Okay, onward with our exploration of jazz improvisation exercises for E sounds. I have mentioned this several times throughout the year that poor fingering without question. Based on my decades of teaching experience, poor fingerings is the number one reason why people have difficulty playing the piano. Quite simply, it is a lack of hand finger mobility, a type of hand paralysis that makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines, right scale and arpeggio practice is of course a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, as you know, melodies do not just simply ascend and descend in straight lines. Therefore, it is important to begin practicing melodic patterns like the ones we have been exploring since the start of the year. That challenges us to begin shifting our hands across the keys, right. So these patterns intentionally force us to move our hands. So practicing intentional shifting, begins to simulate a musical reality that pianos have to deal with Monday must address in this musical reality, the need to always have fingers available, allowing us to move in either direction, up or down, must be practiced in such a way that it develops proper musical instincts proper muscle memory, musical instincts, muscle memory, right that allows us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound like jazz. And this is precisely why the melodic patterns that we have been exploring and that we are going to explore 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, we are intentionally inserting hand shifts. The objective of course is to begin establishing and developing hand finger mobility. In fact, some of the fingerings I have notated in the elite Elite sheets include multiple hand shifts, within one measure within one melodic idea. So throughout this year, we have been devoting our effort to exploring five primary sounds and music for all 12 notes, using arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational exercises that will force us to deal with fingerings to develop hand mobility we are using we are utilizing the same approach to explore the altra sounds of music as well right, the flat nine sharp nine, sharp 11, flat five sharp five, flat and so many alterations, we have so many alterations, so the fully altered right the sharp nine, flat nine and sharp five, flat five, so you get my point. So each month we focus on one of the 12 notes. One week of the month we we devote we devote to the primary sounds another week we devote to the ultrasounds Wow, we, we then always await right we always follow that up with a some kind of bebop tune to help us apply our new fingerings or new muscle memory or new

26:40  
musical instincts and articulation to a musical setting. Wow. So much. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises. For E sounds primary sounds. Number two, we will play essential arpeggio patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th and the sound. Using various entry points erode the third, the fifth and the seventh. Number three, we will we will play a central scale patterns that you need to discover learn and play again from the root to the 13th of the sound. And again, using various entry points, the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh. Number four, I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today using the half diminished sound, I'm just going into half diminished sound mood today. And number five, I will be playing all of the jazz improvisation exercises using our traditional swing groove tempo of 110. So if you are a jazz panel skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now I want you to hit the pause button. And I want you to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the player logs. Now remember, 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. And of course you should be using them 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 and the list goes on and on and on. Then be sure to go directly to jazz piano skills. podcast.com That's jazz piano skills podcast.com to access to download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links within the show notes. And one final but very sneaky. Significant message that I'd like to include in every podcast episode is that if you are listening, and you are thinking in the back of your mind, if you were thinking that the jazz improvisation exercises for E sounds, and the various scales that we are about to discover, learn and play in this episode are over your head then I would say to you relax. No worries, right. Just continue to listen continue to grow your jazz panel skills intellectually by doing just that by just simply listening to this podcast episode. Every skill, every new skill when when introduced is technically over our heads right? But this is how we always get better. We get better by making ourselves uncomfortable by placing ourselves smack dab In the middle of conversations, where we are hearing things that we have never heard before, we are hearing words where we have no idea what they mean. We are forced to grow intellectually. And I say it all the time, our musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So, relax. Take a deep breath, sit back, listen to this podcast. Listen 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 your hands, I want to just point out a few things before we get to the examples, you will see that lead sheets one through lead sheet five deal with arpeggio motion while lead sheets six through 10 deals specifically with scale motion. And you'll also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all five primary sounds major dominant minor have diminished and diminished. The exercises are of course modified to reflect the proper sound. You'll also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. And of course, you can modify the fingering slightly. But just be careful, right remember, the fingerings these fingerings have intentional hand shifts built in. So if you are adjusting the fingerings to remove the hand shifts, you are working against the objective that we have set forth to accomplish today, right. Also remember that fingerings are what allow us to play with the proper jazz articulation. So just be careful, you may be inclined to make some changes. Because you think it feels more comfortable or easier. However, your easier. Your easier may in the long run, make it harder for you to play with a proper jazz articulation. So just be careful, right? Just throw this out as always just this caution to the wind, be careful. Okay, so let's dig in. I want you to grab the lead sheet for skill four out of your packet. And I want you to grab lead sheet, nine skill nine out of your packet lead sheet for skill four deals with the half diminished arpeggio sound, and skill nine or lead sheet nine deals. Also with the half diminished, scale for with arpeggio motion scale nine scale motion, right. Okay. So lead sheet for scale for letter A, you'll see letter a letter B, letter C, letter D, letter E. So we have our five patterns dealing with our E half diminished sound letter, a simple arpeggio motion from the root to the seventh, and then from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th and from the seventh to the 13th for note arpeggio for each fragment of the sound and each four note arpeggio has an intentional hand shift incorporated into the fingerings. Alright, so that our hand is moving across the keys, you will be able to play these. This is a perfect example what I'm talking about, you could play all four of these arpeggios with no hand shift, but that's not what we're trying to do. Okay, we want to get comfortable get begin developing. begin developing a comfort with being able to move our hands through patterns like a four note arpeggio. So I want to bring the arpeggio in, I'm going to play the E half diminished sound up front for about four measures to get used to the time the grew the feel. Then I will play each arpeggio four times before moving on to the next arpeggio. Okay. So pay attention to the hand shifts. And keep in mind again, that they are intentional. Okay, let's bring the sample and let's check out letter A. Here we go.

36:06  
Nice, nice now, letter B, we have our arpeggio motion again from the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh for the sound. But now, the arpeggio has a little contour built into it right, so instead of going straight up we have a little contour motion here. But again, if you look at the fingerings, you'll see the hand shifts are incorporated into the, into the fingerings. So we want to bring the ensemble back in, we want to play this with a nice relaxed jazz feel, we want to use the fingerings that are notated there. And again, I'm going to play the half diminished sound up front for about four measures before I start to play each pattern and I will play each pattern of letter B as I did with letter A four times before moving on to the next one. All right, so here we got let's check it out.

38:37  
Nice, okay, letter C. Before even? Well, if you've been doing the program all year, you know what's coming here with letter C, right? Just check out the fingerings 141421. This is intentionally forcing you to move the hand, really not just up and down the keys. But in and out of the keys, right, moving the hand toward the soundboard of your instrument. And moving the hand back towards yourself, right? We don't talk about that enough. Quite honestly, in piano playing. We always think of it as a linear motion, left to right, if you will, but never inward or outward from the keyboard. So this pattern letter C actually forces the hand to move not only shifting, moving up and down, but also in and out as well. So let's bring up a letter. Let's bring the ensemble in. And let's listen to this. pattern being played from the root from the third from the fifth and from the seventh of the heat, ie half the many sound alright, here we go. Check it out.

41:28  
All right on to letter D, and of course the eighth note triplet. So we stick with our same entry points, thank heaven, right, same entry points root, the third, the fifth, the seventh, we're exploring the entire e half diminished sound from the root all the way through the 13th of the sound. But now we have our eighth note triplet. And the eighth note triplet is always challenging because it's so easy to get out in front of the beat with the triplets. It's so easy, in other words to rush instead of laying back, right, so let's bring the ensemble and again, pay attention to the fingerings absolute hand shift is needed to pull this pattern off. So pay attention to the fingerings and where those hand shifts are occurring. Not a bad idea maybe to take a little yellow highlighter and mark those as well when you're practicing. So let's bring the ensemble in let's check out letter D, E, half the many sound using arpeggio motion, four different entry points, the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh here we go.

44:10  
All right, we're down to our final exercise for the half the mini sound using arpeggio motion today letter E. We're back to eighth note movement. Our melodic line now has gotten our melodic idea has gotten longer it stretches into the second measure, we have some ascending and descending contour in our line. It's a really nice idea, requiring our hand to shift. So again, we stick with our same entry points and we want to make sure we explore the entire sound from the root to the 13th. All of these exercises are designed to do exactly that. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter E here. Here we go.

46:31  
All right, we are done with the E half diminished arpeggio movement motion now we're on to skocy lead sheet nine. And we're going to look at our E half diminished sound using scale movement. So let her a ascending scale motion from the root to the seventh from the third to the ninth from the fifth to the 11th and from the seventh to the 13th straight scale movement with intentional hand shifts built in so here we go let's check out letter A.

48:39  
Very nice, you know letter B. Now, just like we did with the arpeggios we build in little contour to the line, we're gonna stick with our ascending scale movement. But now instead of just going straight up the scale now we're intentionally creating some contour to go along with our intentional hand shifts. Just that little movement, right. It's fantastic. So pay attention to the where those fingerings are taking us with those hands shifts. And again, we stick with our same four entry points. And again, we're exploring the entire half the many sound from the root to the 13. So let's bring the ensemble then let's listen to letter B, pattern B. E half diminished sound check it out.

51:02  
Very nice. Well, just like we did with the arpeggio motion, we dealt with the eighth note triplet, we're going to deal with the eighth note triplet. Say, eighth note triplet using scale movement. Right. So now we were playing triplets on count one count to count three count for of measure one through the entire melodical idea, from the root to the seventh, third, to the ninth, and so forth. So we get something that sounds like this. But we had quite a bit of hand shifting taking place in order to pull that off, right. So let's bring the ensemble in, let's check out letter c, e half diminished sound scale movement, incorporating the eighth note triplet, here we go.

53:26  
The eighth note triplet, tricky, not easy. So with all these not just with the eighth note triplet, but with all these exercises all these patterns. Again, I'm playing everything at 110. Today, I would be playing this at a much slower tempo if I'm working out my fingerings and paying attention and really wanting to nail down my articulation as well. I would be playing at tempos like 60 7080, right, nice and slow, nice and relaxed, always play temples that will allow you to succeed and then gradually increase as as you become more and more comfortable with the pattern itself. So now let's take a look at letter D. Now we're back to eighth note movement. Again, our melodic line is longer it stretches in the measure too. But we have quite a few hand shifts taking place in each one of these patterns. But we stick with the same format, right for entry points, root, third, fifth and seventh exploring the entire sound from the root to the 13th. So here we go. Let's check out letter D

56:06  
All right, we are down to our final exercise for today the half diminished scale movement. So letter E, our musical phrase or musical motif idea is a little bit longer, we're dealing with eighth note movement again. And but again same entry points and same fragments of the sound from the route to the 13th. Pay attention to the hands shifts the fingerings that create those intentional hand shifts. And this should be a lot of fun so let's let's check out and listen to letter E here we go.

58:16  
Well as always, we have unpacked an enormous amount of information in one very short and very, very fast hour. Now, even though I played these exercises today, the jazz improvisation exercises using the half diminish sound only. Be sure to practice these exercises for the major dominant, minor and diminished sounds as well. Right? They're all laid out for you there in your lead sheets podcast packet with the fingerings included. And again, remember, you can make some slight modifications to the fingerings. But do not remove handshakes be great. And you can you can add more. Right? Absolutely. But do not take them away. Keep those in there to keep the hand moving. We do not want to work against the objective that we've set out to achieve. All right. Wow, you have a ton to tackle. You have a ton to practice this weekend to study right so use your time wisely next week, guess what we jump into the jazz improvisation exercises for the E altered sounds, the E altered dominant sounds. So again, I want to encourage you all of you jazz panel skills members to use your podcast packets, right your illustrations your lead sheet your play alongs to guide you as you study and practice these patterns, right as you as you study and practice any of the jazz piano skills with any of the jazz piano skills podcast episode, right? These are educational tool tools that that are designed to help you gain a mastery of the jazz piano skills conceptually, physically and of course, musically. And, most importantly, as always Be patient. Right patients, developing mature and professional jazz piano skills takes a lifetime. So begin structuring your practicing your study. After the plane demonstrations that are modeled for you today in this podcast episode and I guarantee it, you're going to begin to see, feel and hear your progress. Well, I hope you have found this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary sounds to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. And don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills ensemble member, I'll 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 e sounds in greater detail and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. If you have any questions between now and then you can always reach me by phone here at the Dallas School of Music. My office number is 972-380-8050 my extension is 211. Or if you prefer email Dr. Lawrence, that's drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found on every page of the jazz panel skills a website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the E sounds and most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!