Jazz Improvisation Exercises, G Sounds

Dr. Bob Lawrence  0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play. Jazz Piano. Well, here we are, can you believe it? Month 12 December, month 12 of our year long exploration of fingering development, allowing us to properly phrase and articulate musical ideas melodies, so that we sound like jazz pianist. It's amazing. Right? Month 12. Wow. If you've been faithful to the process that we set in place back in January that I know, I know you have experienced much improvement with your jazz sound, they have absolutely no doubt. Our process uses five developmental improvisational type exercises that challenge us to continuously shift our right hand. When playing through each of the melodic ideas. Our fingerings force small hand shifts. The small hand shifting of our right hand allows us to avoid large leaps, which certainly interrupts phrasing, and without doubt increases the odds of mistakes, the odds of error. Now we've used these five developmental improvisation exercises which with each of the primary sounds of music, Major, dominant minor, half diminished and diminished Plus, we've used them for the altered dominant sounds as well, the sharp 11, flat 13, flat nine, flat 13, and the fully altered sound the flat nine, sharp nine, flat five, sharp five. We've done all this in relationship to each of the 12 notes of music. Wow. What a plan. What a challenge. What a journey. What an accomplishment. Again, here we are month 12. The final leg of our epic jazz fingering, freezing and articulation voyage. So let's finish strong right. So today we are going to discover five essential jazz improvisation exercises. We are going to learn developmental arpeggio and scale patterns for g sounds. And we are going to play five arpeggio and scale patterns focusing on fingerings and articulation. For the primary G sounds of music, again, Major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are, in your personal jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, I promise you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises, for GE sounds to be very beneficial. But before we get down to business, I want to as I always do, welcome new listeners to the jazz panel skills podcast. And if you are a new listener if you're new to jazz piano skills, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Your membership will grant you many privileges that will help help expedite your discover learn and play process. For example, as a jazz panel skills a member you have access to all of the educational weekly podcast packets, which include illustrations, lead sheets, play alongs backing tracks, right. These podcasts packets are designed and developed to help you get the most out of each weekly jazz panel skills podcast episode. Now you also have access as a member to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks, interactive learning medium there are very Your demonstrations and much more. As jazz panel skills member you also have a reserved seat as I like to say, in my online weekly masterclass, which is held every Thursday evening. Now if you can't attend no problem all of the master classes are recorded. And you will have access to those recordings to watch or rewatch whenever and as often as you wish. You also as a jazz panel skills member have access to the vibrant online interactive jazz community, which hosts a variety of engaging forms. And you know what, you'll also have access to the interactive jazz Fakebook, which contains the best jazz standards from the Great American Songbook with excellent chord changes chord scale relationships, harmonic function, analysis, and much more. And on top of all that, on top of all that, jazz piano skills members, enjoy unlimited, private, personal and professional educational support all of these perks, all of these privileges and benefits are waiting for you to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it out at jazz piano skills.com and become a member. Of course, if you have any questions, please 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. Now this week's question comes from Terry Miller, living in Glendale, Arizona, and Terry asks, I am new to jazz and trying to put together a Spotify playlist of jazz pianists. The problem I am having is finding jazz pianists that I can enjoyably listen to. What I'm trying to say is that it is hard for me to wrap my mind in ears around the stylings of some jazz pianists. They're too complicated for me. Can you recommend some jazz pianists? That would be good for me. That would be good for me to listen to, as I start my adventure into the jazz world and into becoming a jazz pianist. Wow, Terry? Great question. And I am sure that many listeners can 100% agree with you, and have experienced the very same frustration when diving into the jazz world for the first time. I know I did. And so your question really hits home. And I'm glad you had the courage to ask the question. Now, when I started listening to jazz, I was a young boy, 14 years old. And I remember being introduced. Here I am. I'm wanting to learn how to play jazz piano. I'm 14 years old. And I'm introduced to Oscar Peterson right out of the chute, the very first jazz musician, the very first jazz pianist that I was introduced to Oscar Peterson. I'm not kidding. The very first and of course, it was recommended that I start listening to ask her. So I did. I can also remember the very first time I listened to Oscar Peterson as well. It was in my mom and dad's basement. I carefully took the record out of the album sleeve and handled it like I was handling gold. So much anticipation. I placed this album on the turntable, gently place the needle at the beginning of the album. I put my headphones on. I sat down in this comfy beanbag chair that my mom and dad had. I close my eyes, and I began listening. I remembered I was about 30 seconds in to the album. If that 30 seconds sent to the very first time when I jumped on my feet and I thought whoa I do not know what I am hearing. I have no idea what is going on. I know I like it. I know I like it a lot. But I think I need to slow down and listen to something I can digest. The very first tune by the way was brotherhood of man from the asker Peterson trio plus one album no plus one was the great one and only trumpeter Clark Terry in in fact and back I want I want you to check this out right now I want I want to go back to being 14 for a second for just a couple minutes and I want to listen to this this is brotherhood of man the Oscar Peterson trail with Clark Terry the very first jazz recording I ever listened to here we go check this Out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  14:03  
Right energy, oh, a lot of energy. And for me at 14 years of age, that was a lot of notes. There was a lot of stuff happening between the drums bass ethic Ben Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson Clark, Terry. It was fantastic. Like I said, I knew I liked it. got me fired up. But I wasn't really sure quite sure what I was listening to. Just seemed like a lot of music flying by I love the energy. But wow. So much right. So I told my teacher Listen, I love this hour. But like you, Terry, I was needing something a little tamer to digest so so he turned me on to an album by Billy Taylor called cross section. And I remember he dropped the needle on Dr. Taylor playing this classic. I'll be around So listen to this and listen to the difference here we go?

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:51  
Ah yes, I can breathe. That's, that's a little bit more my pace, right? It's a slower pace. And I'm not talking about the tempo. I'm not talking about the tempo. I felt like I could actually breathe. So when I say I understand where you're coming from Terry, I mean it. So here's a list as you begin your journey as a jazz pianist. And you're getting started. Here's a list of my top 10 jazz pianist that I would add to your Spotify playlist, right? These are pianists that you will enjoy listening to and motivate you. And on top of all that, you will feel a sense of that. That may be obtainable. Right? That may be obtainable. So here's my list of 10 pianist number one, I would put Billy Taylor, Dr. Billy Taylor. In your playlist number two, George Shearing. Number three, Ellis, Marcellus number four. Red Garland. Number five, cedar Walton. Number six, Vince Guaraldi. Number seven. Wynton Kelly. Number eight. John Lewis. Number nine. Lenny Tristan Tristano and number 10. Bobby Timmons. Now there are others as well. But that's a pretty, pretty killer top 10 list to add to your playlist. Right I think begin with this list. I think you'll find that if your playlist is comprised of, of these 10 pianos, then you will be tapping your foot smiling from ear to ear and listening with enjoyment from the start to the end of your entire playlist. Terry, I hope this helps helps you begin your jazz piano journey in a way that does not overwhelm you, but gently welcomes you to an incredible musical world. Enjoy. Okay, onward with our exploration of jazz improvisation exercises, for g sounds. I have mentioned this many times throughout the year that poor fingering without question. Without question is the number one reason people have difficulty playing the piano. Quite simply, it is a lack of hand finger mobility, what I like to call a type of hand paralysis that makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines, scale and arpeggio practice. It's fantastic, right? Absolutely necessary, it's a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, melodies, melodies do just do not just simply ascend and descend in straight lines. Therefore, it's important to begin practicing melodic patterns, like the ones we have been exploring since the start of the year, that challenge us, challenge us to begin shifting our right hand across the keys, right, practicing intentional shifting begins to simulate a musical reality that pianist must address must deal with. And 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, and musical instincts muscle memory, that allows us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound like jazz. And this is precisely why the melodic patterns that we are exploring today, focus on intentionally creating hand shifts within the melodic line. Even if it's possible to play the melodic line with no hand shift, we insert hand chips, the objective is to begin establishing and developing hand finger mobility period. Right and in fact, some of the fingers I have notate fingerings, some of the fingerings that I have notated in the lead sheet actually include multiple hand shifts within one measure within one melodic idea. So throughout this entire year, we have been devoting our effort to exploring all five primary sounds of music for all 12 notes, using arpeggio and scale, developmental improvisational exercises that force us to deal with fingerings to develop hand mobility. Wow.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  23:20  
Like I said earlier, what a journey right? We are also utilizing that same approach not only for our primary sounds, but I've mentioned this earlier the altered dominant sounds as well. Right each month, we focus on one of the 12 notes, one week of the month devoted to the primary sounds, one week of the month devoted to the altered sounds. And then we always follow it up with a hip bebop tune to help us apply our fingerings and articulations to a real musical setting. So with all that being said, the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for the G sounds, we will play number two, we will play essential arpeggio patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th of the sound using 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 the 13th of the sound using our root, third, fifth and seventh entry points. In number four, I will be playing all the jazz improvisation exercises today using the minor sound G minor sound. And number five, I will be playing all the jazz improvisation exercises today using our traditional swing groove of 110. So if you already do As a piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button. I want you to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to all have the educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode, and I mentioned it every week that you should be using these podcast packets when listening to the episode. And of course, you should be using these podcast packets when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any other popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Stitcher, the list goes on and on, then be sure to go to directly go directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com jazz piano skills podcast.com to learn how to download your podcast packets, and you will find the act of download links in the show notes. One final but very significant point that I'd like to make an every podcast lesson that if you are listening, and you're thinking that the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary G sounds, and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play are over your head then I would say no worries, breathe in, breathe out, relax, continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz piano skills by doing just that by listening. Right. And by listening. We improve our jazz piano skills intellectually. Right, every new skill is technically overheads when first introduced but but this is how we get better. When we have the courage to place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations where we're hearing things that we have never heard before. We're hearing words that we've never heard before. Right. So it forces us to grow intellectually. We catch some of it, we missed some of it, but we but this is how we learn right? I say it all the time, all musical growth begins upstairs mentally can conceptually before can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back, relax, and listen to this podcast. Listen now to just simply discover and learn. That's it. The play, as it always does, will come in time, I guarantee it. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets in front of you in your hands, I want to point out a few things, you will see that lead sheets one through five, as always deal with arpeggio motion, and 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 major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. The exercises are the same. However, of course, they are modified to reflect the proper sound. You also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. And I've mentioned this every month as well that you can take some liberty, modify the fingerings to better fit your hands. But just be careful, right? Remember that the fingerings have intentional hand shifts. So if you're reworking the fingerings to remove the hand shifts, because you're thinking like look, I don't have to shift my and I can play this melodic idea. without moving my hand at all, well, then you're just working against the objective that we set out to achieve right. So just be careful when modifying your fingers and keep in mind that you might be thinking that you're modifying it to an easier option. But in the long run, it may end up making it harder. So just proceed with caution, right. Just proceed with caution. Okay, so let's dig in. I want you to grab from your lead sheets packet, and I want you to grab lead sheet three, skill three. And I want you to grab lead sheet eight, skill eight, lead sheet three deals with arpeggio motion for the primary G sounds, and lead sheet eight skill eight deal with scale motion for the primary G sounds. We are going to begin with lead sheet three arpeggio motion for the primary g sound. So you'll see on lead sheet three, we have section a Section B, Section C, D, and E. Okay? Those are five patterns that we have been dealing with throughout the year. So these should be very familiar to you. And we're going to start with letter A Of course and you'll see that as Just a four note simple four note arpeggio. The Root Entry taken us from the root to the seventh of the sound, the third entry from the third to the ninth of the sound, the fifth from the fifth to the 11th. And then the entry point of the seventh takes us from the seventh to the 13th of the sound, you'll notice that this is just a four note arpeggio. And this is exactly what I was talking about, you're thinking like, well, I can play this arpeggio without a hand shift. Of course you can. But that's not why that's not the point. And that's not what we're wanting to achieve here. So you'll see right away the very first arpeggio going up our G minor sound, G, B flat, D, F, we have a hand shift right there between the third and the fifth, right. So you'll see that for pattern number two, pattern number three, pattern number four, as well, or I should say entry point, the various entry points within this within this exercise. So let's bring the ensemble in. We're going to play G minor at the beginning just for measures to settle into the tempo settle into the groove. And then I will play each one of these melodic ideas each one of these arpeggios four times. So four times with the Root Entry four times with the third entry, the fifth entry, and four times with the seventh entry. Going to play nice and relaxed ascending motion. practice focusing on shifting that hand, seamlessly, right seamlessly as I ascend through the arpeggio and keeping it nice and relaxed. So here we go. Check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  33:03  
Pretty straightforward, right? Pretty straightforward. Not necessarily easy, but pretty straightforward pattern. It's just a simple four note arpeggio from various entry points within the sound of G minor. Now, if you look at letter B, same type of approach, we add just a little change to the pattern to create a little contour to the shape. So instead of having a straight now we get this. Again, we have our hand shift or fingerings, reflecting our small hand shifts that are taking place as we play this motif, again from the Root Entry, third entry, fifth entry and seventh entry. So without any further delay, let's bring the ensemble back in and let's check out letter B. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:26  
Nice. I love it. Right? So letter C, moving on the letter C, check out the fingerings. Right 141414. Right to one. Really? What's that all about? Well, this is why I've mentioned throughout the year, I love letter C, because it actually forces that hand shift, not only from short, shorthand shifts, but also hand shifts that forced you to move from white keys to black keys, and from the outer edge of the keys to the inner edge of the keys, right. So your hand is just not moving, left to right, it's moving in and out as well. Great little motif. So let's bring the ensemble in, we do keep our entry points as always the same the root, third, fifth and seventh. And we also, in doing so we explore the entire sound from the root of the G minor sound all the way through to the 13th to the south. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out Letter C here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:04  
Very cool, okay. So letter D, as you can see, deals with the eighth note triplet. And we have to deal with the eighth note triplet because it is laced throughout all jazz literature. So here's a here's an exercise that takes on the eighth note triplet head on. And so we have back to back to back eighth note triplet motifs that we need to deal with ascending some ascending and descending motion with these triplets, which makes it challenging again, check out the fingerings and follow those fingerings carefully otherwise, it becomes like musical twist of the hand the fingers will get all messed up our entry points as always remained the same the root, the third, fifth and the seventh, and we explore the entire sound from the root to the 13th. The goal the objective with these triplets, which is very challenging, is to play them relaxed, right to not rush. triplets are always I don't know what it is maybe it's just a visual thing when you see it written on on paper on a lead sheet. We we speed up not sure why. But everyone does it. So here we go. I'm going to bring the ensemble and I'm going to try to put proach these triplets very nice and relaxed utilizing the fingerings that are that are notated there in your lead sheet and play the melodic idea from the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh of the sound. So here we go. Letter D check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  41:08  
That easy, challenging, but we have to confront the eighth note triplet. We're gonna do that here a little later with the scale movement as well. So okay, we're down to our final arpeggio motion pattern to deal with today, letter E. And you'll notice if you're looking at your lead sheet, our melodic idea stretches over the bar line. So each of these melodic ideas have been getting slightly longer as we move throughout the exercises. So again, we have our hands shifts, and there multiple hands shifts to deal with as we move through our G minor sound. We keep the same entry point entry points, and we explore the entire sound from the root to 13th. But we're back to just eighth note movement. No eighth note triplets. Wow. Nice. So let's bring letter let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out letter E here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:34  
I love it, love it. Love it. Okay, now we are on to skill eight lead sheet eight. So let's grab that lead sheet. Now our attention shifts from arpeggio movement arpeggio motion to scale motion. And you will see with letter a pattern one letter a straight ascending scale movement right from the root to the seventh, from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th and from the seventh to the third team, right? Nice and easy scale movement with an intentional hand shift in each one of the scale patterns. So let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out letter A. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  45:48  
Okay, so just like we did with our arpeggio motion, we're going to add a little contour to our scale. So if you take a look at letter letter B, instead of having our straight scale now we had a little contour to it right? Nice. Check out the fingerings. As always try to play these eighth note motifs nice and relaxed while you ascend through the sound. Again, I should have mentioned this earlier, I'm playing everything at 110. Just for the sake of time, I would certainly encourage you as you get used to these patterns as you get used to applying these patterns not only to the minor sounds, the minor sound but the major dominant, half diminished and diminished as well. slower tempos, right, nothing wrong with 60. Love it. Nothing wrong with 70. Keep it nice and relaxed. I mentioned it all the time. Always play at tempos that allow you to succeed. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter B here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  48:28  
All right, just as we did again, with the arpeggio motion, we dealt with the eighth note triplet head on, we're going to deal with the eighth note triplet head on with our scale movement as well. And letter C does exactly that. Check it out, though, we have back to back to back to back, eighth note triplet ideas right ascending through the scale ascending through the sound from the root from the third from the fifth and from the seventh. Right lots of hand movement, the hand shifts taking place in order to pull this idea off, right. So let's bring the ensemble in paid careful attention to the fingerings and if you're modifying the fingerings that I mentioned earlier, do not be removing those hands shifts. Don't do it. So here we go. Let her see. Check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  50:00  
Okay. becoming comfortable with the eighth note triplet not easy, but worth every ounce of effort. As I mentioned earlier it is laced throughout the jazz literature. So time spent with the eighth note triplet is time well spent. Okay, so now let's take a look at letter D. And as you've already noticed that these melodic ideas just as, as they did with the arpeggio, movement, arpeggio motion, are getting longer, right or getting longer with with each exercise. So letter D, we're crossing over the bar line and to the second measure, we're back to straight eighth notes, no eighth note triplets. Again, as always, we keep our entry points the same and again as always, we explore the entire sound pay attention to the fingerings here we go letter D.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  53:15  
Well we are down to our last exercise for today letter E using scale motion. Again ascending scale motion with some nice contour. contoured shapes within the scale motion, keeping our entry points the same as always exploring the entire sound. The challenge is always with eighth notes, keeping everything relaxed with ascending or descending movement, right, keeping everything relaxed, lean back, not getting out in front of the beat, not rushing. So let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out our final exercise for the day letter e. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  55:24  
Well, we've done it again as always right? On packed an enormous amount of information in one very short, very, very fast hour now, even though I modeled everything today, I played all the jazz improvisation exercises today using the minor sound only. Be sure to practice these exercises for the major. For the dominant for the half diminished and diminished sounds as well, they are all laid out for you in your lead sheets podcast packet with fingerings included. Right. And as I mentioned earlier, you can make some modifications to those fingerings as long as those modifications are not removing hand shifts, right. And we want to make sure that we play all our motifs from various entry points within the sound from the root, third, the fifth, the seventh, that allows us to explore the entire sound all the way from the root again to the 13th. Right And remember, the articulation of each musical phrase within the sound regardless of the entry point should sound the same. Okay, so you got a ton to tackle this week, a ton to do. So use your time wisely. As always, next week, we jump into the jazz improvisation exercises for the altered dominant sounds, the G altered dominant sounds, okay. Again, I want to encourage all of you jazz panel skills members to use your podcast packets, right, the illustrations the lead sheets in the play alongs to guide you as you study and practice this episode. These are educational tools that will help you gain a mastery of the jazz panel skills that we've just explored conceptually, physically and of course, musically, as always Be patient. Developing mature professional jazz piano skills takes time. Honestly, it takes a lifetime. So begin structuring your practicing after the plain demonstrations that I modeled for you in this podcast episode and I guarantee it you will begin to see feel and hear your musical progress. Well I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for g sounds the primary G sounds to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. Don't forget if you're a jazz piano skills member I'll see you online Thursday evening at the jazz piano skills masterclass. It's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson, exploring the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary G 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, by all means you can reach out to me by phone 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 here at the Dallas School of Music, if you prefer email, Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found I believe on every single page of the jazz piano skills website. Well, there's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary G sounds. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!