Key of D Major Melodic Workout

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, last week we tackled the key of D major, focusing on harmonic development. This week, we continue our exploration of the key of D major, but we do so melodically. So today you're going to discover a key of D major melodic work, you're going to learn how to think within the key of D major melodically. And you're going to play the modes of the key of D major using ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion, launching from various entry points, such as the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh of the sound. On top of all that, you're going to play melodic lines over the 251 progression, using various rhythms common to jazz, focusing primarily on the 16th dotted eighth combination. Wow. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring a key of D major melodic workout to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to welcome as I always do, at the beginning of every jazz panel skills podcast lesson, I want to welcome new listeners. And if you are indeed new to jazz piano skills, I want to welcome you and personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. All you have to do visit jazz panel skills.com And once you arrive at the homepage, you can begin to explore the abundance of jazz educational resources, materials and services that are available for you waiting for you to help you significantly improve your jazz piano skills. For example, as a jazz panel skills member you have access to all of the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs now these are invaluable educational tools that I develop, produce and publish for every weekly podcast episode. You're gonna want to have these materials in your hands of course as you listen to the podcast lesson to get the most out of it. And you certainly want these materials sitting on your piano as you practice. You also as a jazz panel skills member have access to the sequential online jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses, using all of them using a self-paced format. There are educational talks for you to listen to and enjoy interactive media to test your conceptual understanding of the jazz piano skills being taught video demonstrations of the jazz panel skills in all 12 keys, play along, and much more. You also as a jazz piano skills member have a reserved seat in the online weekly master classes. These are in essence private lessons online lessons with me when that private because it's a group masterclass, but they're online lessons with me each and every week. You also, as a jazz panel skills member, have access to the online interactive Fakebook, which grants you access to jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, you'll be able to enjoy the chord changes lead sheets, there's harmonic function, lead sheets, play along files, historical insights, inspirational recordings, and much more. It's an ever-growing collection of tunes that you should absolutely discover, learn and play. And you also as a jazz piano skills member have access to the private online jazz piano skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums there are podcasts specific forums, core-specific forums, and of course, there are just general jazz piano forums for you to enjoy as well. You have access to all of the forums and you'll be able to contribute to them as well, right, which I encourage you to do, I want you to engage, share and grow. And last but certainly not least, you have access as a jazz panel skills member to unlimited private, personal and professional educational support provided by me whenever and as often as you need it. So once again, take a few minutes visit jazz panel skills.com To learn more about the excellent educational opportunities that await you and how to easily activate your membership. Now, there are several membership plans to choose from, and I am quite certain there is one that is perfect for you. So once you get there, if you have any questions whatsoever, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, let me know. I'm always happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can. Okay, now, it's time to get busy. And Let's Discover learn and play jazz piano Let's get after this key of D major melodic workout with the start of the new year. Way back in January we set out on a very ambitious, a very exciting, rewarding journey to travel through each of the 12 keys of music by yours in our game plan as it still is our game plan. One key a month for 12 months. So we are just about at the end of this journey. Next month. December will be our final month and the key G but the agenda for each month to thoroughly explore a key specific key both harmonically and melodically and rhythmically so back in January, we started with the key of C major, February F major March B flat April E flat May a flat June D flat July. No June. Yeah June D flat right July G flat. Then in August be September e October, a major and now in November, we had been attacking the key of D major. So of course, we've been traveling around the circle of fifths counterclockwise always. And we have been doing a very methodical exploration with each key now harmonically. We've been tackling for very specific, precise approaches to voicing the chords within the key block shapes and their inversions, traditional three-note shells contemporary quarter voicings, and five-note two-handed voicings melodically, we've studied each chords, scales, modes, and arpeggios using various entry and destination points with ascending and descending motion. Wow. With each harmonic and melodic workout, we applied essential rhythmic patterns, starting with fundamental whole half, quarter notes, and progressing each month to more complex patterns using various combination combinations of eighth notes and triplets and 16th notes and dotted patterns. So we just each month had been ratcheted it up and getting a little bit more involved, as I like to say, and again, everything very structured, organized, sequential, methodical, and repetitive. All of that all of those being essential characteristics of an excellent study and practice approach. That as that allows us quite simply allows us to discover, learn and play jazz successfully. Now, with all that being said, I still get I still get some feedback from some of y'all. That really, man all 12 keys. Is that really necessary? And of course, the answer is yes, in all caps. Yes. Moving through and experiencing all 12 keys. Essential,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  9:36  
there's no getting around it. It's not optional. I tell students all the time, if you want to become more comfortable with the key of C, then you better practice in the key of F. And if you want to get more comfortable with the key of F you better practice in the key of B flat and if you want to get comfortable in the key of B flat you better practice in the key of E flat and so on. And again, my point always is that we get better We get better in all keys when we strategically and continually move through the keys exactly has, as we have been doing since January. And as I have mentioned in previous podcast episodes, there's also some misguided thinking out there with regards to playing in all 12 keys that goes something like this, you know, I don't need to practice in all 12 keys, because, you know, in my experience in the jazz world, as a pianist, I don't gotta be honest, I don't really see many tunes written in the key of G flat or in the key of B, E, A, or even D. So why do I need to spend time practicing those keys, when in reality, I find myself spending more time in the key of C and F and B flat and E flat, which are like really common jazz keys. Right? I get it. That makes sense, right? Initially, that makes sense. But how can I say this politely? It's wrong. It's really horrific thinking. Because with a casual glance, I mean, just a casual glance at at practically any jazz standard, right? Any jazz standard, you'll notice that the tunes all the tunes, they weave in and out of various key centers. And this is a musical fact. Alright, it's not not my opinion, it's fact that that, that you can't escape again, you can't you can't scoot around it, you have to deal with it. So you'll spend more in fact, you'll spend more time waste more time looking for shortcuts to avoid practicing and keys that you're unfamiliar with than if you just buckled down and study each of the 12 keys, again, as we have been doing throughout the entire year. Now, I have stressed this point in previous podcast podcast episodes as well. Do not make the mistake of thinking that one key I don't want you to go the opposite direction, I don't want you to begin thinking that one key must be mastered before moving on to the to the next key. Again, this is this is another common misconception producing a very prolonged practice approach that produces minimal minimal results and impedes your musical growth. So the bottom line my goal with these strategic harmonic melodic, and rhythmic workouts since the beginning of the year, is to help you develop professional jazz piano skills, professional jazz piano skills, anchored with an internal rock-solid sense of time. Now last week, with our key of D harmonic workout, I introduced rhythms focusing primarily on the 16th dotted eighth note combination. And today we're going to follow the same game plan the application of rhythmic ideas and melodically, focusing on the same rhythmic motif. But as always, I want to stress the importance of doing the entire key of D major melodic workout and not just simply jumping to the last lead sheet in your podcast packet skill 25. To begin playing to begin attacking the melodic rhythms. Why? Because you have to have a functional command of your scales and arpeggios in the key of D major before you can begin applying rhythm to them. As I like to say you, you have to bake a cake before you decorate the cake. So as always remain disciplined and spend time with skills one through 24. before tackling scale 25 It's okay to take a sneak peek at 25 but then head back to the beginning skills one through 24. In fact, that's what we're going to be doing today is taking a sneak peek at skill 25. So you will find in your lead sheets, podcast packets as you did with with all of our melodic workouts since the beginning of the year. All 24 skills laid out for you. So let's just do a real quick review. Okay, scales one through four modes, ascending, right, launching from the root, third, fifth and seventh, scales five through eight modes again descending, and again from the root from the third from the fifth from the seventh. Scales nine through 12 arpeggios ascending from the root, third, fifth, and seventh skills 13 through six cane arpeggios descending, again, with our entry points being the root, third, fifth, and seventh skill 17 We turn our attention to the 251 progression using ascending scale motion, skill 18 251 progression again using descending scale motion, scale 19 to five one ascending arpeggio motion scale 20 251, descending arpeggio motion, skill, 21 and 22 36251 progression, skill, 21, ascending scale motion scale, 22, descending scale, motion, and skills 23 and 24 36251 progression again, using ascending arpeggio motion and using descending arpeggio motion. very methodical, right. So after you have thoroughly completed your workout skills one through 24 Then you can turn your attention to play and skill 25, which challenges you with 12 melodic lines using various rhythmic patterns again, focusing primarily on the 16th dotted eighth combination. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to explore the key of D major melodically. Number two, we will play 12 melodic ideas using ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion. Number three. All melodic ideas will be played over the 251 progression in the key of D major E minor seven, a dominant seven D major seven. Number four, all melodic lines will be played using a very relaxed swing group of 100. I'm kicking it up a little bit from last week at 90. And number five, all melodies will be played using a single note right-hand melodic treatment using shells in my left hand. And number six, each melodic line will be repeated four times as I always do, I like to play the first time through just state the 251 progression, then I'll play the melodic line four times. And then I'll end with just the 251 progression again. Okay, but before we go any further, if you are a jazz 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, your illustrations and your lead sheets. Now again, you have access as a jazz piano skills member you have access to all of the podcast packets. And again, you should be using them when listening to this podcast episode to get the most out of it. And of course, you should be using them while sitting at the piano as well. Now if you're listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories, such as Apple or Google Amazon, I Heart Radio Spotify, Pandora, the list goes on and on. Then what I want you to do is go directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com to access and to download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links in the show notes. In one final, and various central message a little critical note that I express in every podcast episode, if you're listening right now. And if you're thinking that the key of D major melodic workout and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play if you are thinking, if you even have an inkling of a thought that these skills are over your head that I would say to you sit back, relax, breathe in, breathe out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  19:15  
Continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by by just simply listening to this podcast episode. And again, keep this in mind all skills all skills are initially over our heads when first introduced. And that is precisely why the very first step always that you need to take to improve your musicianship is to simply sit back and listen. In other words, do not shy away from conversations discussing foreign topics. We're using big words that you're unfamiliar with, right, it's stepping outside of our musical comfort zone that actually spawns significant music growth. You've heard me say this a million times, all musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So I just want you to sit back, listen, now to discover and learn, the play will come in time, it always does, I guarantee it. Okay, we now have skill 25. In front of us our lead sheet, and you'll see A through L labeled there 12 lines labeled A through L. We're going to go through each of these today. And walk you through these so that you are familiar with them. So when it's time to come, and when it comes time for you to practice these lines, you are ready to go. Of course, like I mentioned earlier, I do not have the time in this podcast episode to go through all skills one through 24 In addition to skill 25. So, again, I'm trusting that you're going to spend time with skills one through 24. But now you have this lead sheet in front of you and I want to draw your attention to letter A, letter B, letter C, and letter D, as I often do with a specific rhythmic motif that we're focusing on. I always like to start off by placing that rhythmic motif intentionally placing that rhythmic idea on the various beats within the measure. So you can see and line a letter A, our 16th dotted eighth rhythmic rhythm is placed on count for the measure. And then letter B, that line you can see it's shifted that 16th dotted eighth is shifted over to count three, line C, the 16th dotted eighth is shifted to count two. And then in line D letter D, the 16th dotted eighth is now placed on count one. You'll also notice with letter A, B, C, and D, I'm using us ascending arpeggio motion through my two and my five and then descending arpeggio motion on my one so I have a nice shape ascending descending line. So what I want to do is just play through each of these lines and, and we'll go from there. So let's start with letter eight. Let's bring the ensemble and let's listen to our 16th dotted eighth pattern when placed on count four. Okay, so here we go check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  23:38  
Next, right, so you know a couple of things, you'll notice that I have the on that 16th dotted eighth rhythm on count four, I have that dotted eighth note tied to half note on my ace seven accounts one and two, the a seven. So make sure you hold that all the way through the first two beats of measure two. Okay. The other thing that I would draw your attention to right. Don't rush the quarter notes. I know that sounds funny. Make sure each of those quarter notes are played for their full value on counts one, two, and three. Now that dot that 16th added eighth. Now that kind of sounds like a rushed up a pair of rushed eighth notes. Okay, we spoke about this. We talked about this in last week's masterclass but, but do not rush the quarter notes on counts one, two, and three. Okay. All right. So now let's turn our attention to letter B. Again, we have a ascending arpeggio motion through our two and our five descending arpeggio motion on our one chord. We have now shifted our 16th dotted eighths over to count three. Again we don't want to rush our quarter notes on count one and two. We have a tied note on count for measure one Going into the first two beats of measure two with our a seven. So these are just the little, you know the details to pay attention to. So let's bring the ensemble in, let's check out letter B, here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  26:14  
Love it, you know, another thought here very quickly when you're playing these lines, especially a, b, c, and d, you know, it's easy. It's easy to fall into the trap of playing these treating these like exercises. And I don't want you to treat these like exercises, I want you to think of these as an improvisation improvisational musical live musical idea. And you should play it and approach it that way it should be very musical. So I just throw that out do not fall in the trap of plain A through L here as exercises. I want you to think of these jazz vocabulary, improvisational language improvisational ideas that should be played as such, okay. All right. So now let's take a look at letter C. We are now shifting our 16th dotted eighth pattern to count two. Again, we have our ascending and descending arpeggio motion ascending through our two and our five descending on our one we have tied notes to pay attention to in this line as well. So let's play this improvisational idea. Let's make it as musical as possible. Let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check it out here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  28:35  
Excellent, so we have now placed our 16th added eighth, eighth note, rhythm on count four on count three on count two. Now look at letter D. We now place it finally on count one. But again, we stick with the same formula of ascending arpeggio motion through our two and our five descending arpeggio motion on our one chord, our D major. So again, you know that 16th dotted eighth is kind of like a very rushed pair of eighth notes. But don't rush those quarter notes afterwards. All right, make sure you hang on to that half know for full two beats in measure two with that a seven. All right, so let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check out letter D here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  30:26  
Alright, so now that we've done some of the grunt work and and isolating our rhythm that we were focusing on and placing it on each beat within the measure. Now it's time to kind of open the floodgates a little bit, start incorporating some other rhythmic ideas that we've dealt with throughout the year. And bring them into the fold and have a little more fun. So check out letter E. Now we have up our you can see just quickly, you can see our 16th dotted eighth pattern again here in a couple of different places in measure one. And, of course, again, it appears in measure three, but also take out, take a really close look at measure three, we also have our dotted eighth 16th combination that we've dealt with last month, side by side, right, and look at count four of measure three straight eighth notes. So you should be able to hear a significant difference between the 16th dotted eighth, the dotted eighth 16th and to traditional eighth notes, jazz eighth notes. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out letter E and see what this sounds like here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  32:43  
Turkey tricky, right, you got to pay attention, especially you get over there in that measure three, right, you have to pay attention. So now look at letter F, I'm going to stick with the same kind of melodic idea. In fact, measure one looks almost identical with the exception of of count two and measure one right and in line II. Count two has our 16th dotted eighth, and letter F count two has our dotted eighth 16th. So I flip it on you Okay, we have nice ascending scale motion through our a seven. And then on our D Major again. We have our dotted eighth sixteenths and our 16th dotted eighths kind of flip-flop from what we did in letter E. But once again you're gonna have to pay attention right tricky little rhythm to play through. So let's bring the ensemble back in. And now let's take a listen to letter F here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  34:45  
All right, six down six more to go. So now we turn our attention to line G. Whoa. Right away we look at measure Why don't we go wait a minute. Well, I see a lot of eight note triplets ascending, right, eighth note triplets, US Sunday. Then in measure two, we finally get to the a seven, we have our 16th dotted eighth pattern. Interesting in measure to write all of it, all of the melodic line, a static melodic line to sit in on the note A, which is the tonic, interesting. Then we have a descending quarter note triplet with our D major seventh, followed by a 16th dotted eighth followed by a traditional pair of jazz eighth notes. Wow. So this line poses some different challenges thus far right, our eighth note triplets a quarter note triplets. So let's bring ensemble in and let's take a listen here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  36:52  
Challenging, right, not that easy at all ascending triplets, eighth note triplets, not not an easy pattern requiring some nice finesse and technique in our right hand for sure. But, you know, why do you think that's challenging check out letter H. You can just visually look at it and go wow, you know we have our descending eighth note triplets again in measure three on our tonic on our D major seven. But look at measure one for heaven's sakes 16th notes, grouping of 4/16 notes on count one another grouping of 4/16 notes on account two, followed immediately by a dotted eighth 16th followed by a 16th dotted eighth. Wow, ascending arpeggio motion on our a seven launching from the third of the dominant sound. And then again, like I mentioned, just mentioned our descending triplets, eighth note triplets in measure three on our D major seven. So once again, we have a ton of stuff going on here in line H so let's bring the ensemble in let's have a little fun and check this line out and see what we think here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:59  
Wow after that we need a little break we needed something simple, really? Good. Well, let's take a look at letter I. But don't be deceived. I've always said the hardest thing for a jazz pianist to play. Nothing. Look at measure one. You do not come in until the end of three I'm telling you right now. I predict it. Most of you in play in this line. You're going to come in early. You just are going to come in early. Right? But we do not start our melodical ie melodic idea or melodic thought until the end of three and measure one and then we have all this all this tied business going on on our a seven again just playing nothing until the end of four so you know what looks visually looks like it gets easier. I promise you. It doesn't. Plain silence is not easy. Measure three, we're back to wow, we haven't 16th dotted quarter followed by a dotted quarter. I mean, dotted, I'm sorry, 16th dotted eighth followed by a dotted eighth 16th Some tied notes in there. And then we have a traditional pair of eighth notes at the end of of measure three. Wow. So I thought we were catching a break maybe so maybe not. I don't know. Let's take a listen and see what we think here we go let her i.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  41:30  
Told you it's not, don't be deceived letter AI is not an easy line to play you may look at, but it certainly is not. Okay, so now let's turn our attention to letter J. Here's another rhythmic idea that we've dealt with throughout the throughout the year, we have a dotted quarter eighth on counts one and two of measure one followed by another dotted quarter eighth fall and then in the measure two on the A seven another dotted quarter eighth followed by another dotted quarter eighth combination. So we've dealt with this rhythmic pattern in the past shouldn't be too hard. And then measure three on our D major, we got a bunch of craziness happening again here, right, we have 16th dotted eighth, followed by a 16th dotted eighth followed by a 16th dotted eighth, followed by a traditional pair of jazz eighth notes. Wow. All right. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check out our dotted quarter eighth note descending line and measure one and two followed by all our 16th dotted eighth motifs in measure three. So here we go. Let's check it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:38  
Fun, I love it. Really nice. Now, letter K, we finally have to deal with our single eighth note falling on the backside of the beat. So check it out, measure one on our E minor seven. We have an eighth note on the end of one on the end of two on the end of three on the end of for checkout measure two on our a 7/8 note on the end of 1/8 note on the and a 2/8 note on the end of three tied to a quarter note on count four. Wow, a lot of syncopation going on here right. Then on our D major seven. We have a nice descending arpeggio followed by an eighth note triplet going into our fourth measure here with the 16th dotted eighth combination, followed immediately by a dotted eighth 16th combination. Wow, this should be fun. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter K. Here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  45:43  
Right, well, we are down to our final melodic line of the Day letter L. And this is an interesting line we have, you know, we're focusing on the 16th dotted eighth combination. And you can kind of see the melodic thought on the two chord, right? You can kind of see the same idea happening on the A seven chord, and it's all using ascending motion, right, so we have alternating, we have our 16th dotted quarter, dotted eighth, followed by a quarter note, and then a 16th dotted eighth followed by a quarter note that a measure to 16 dotted eighth followed by a quarter note, another 16th, dotted eighth, followed by a quarter note all of that entire line ascending, and this interval of a fourth the sound of a fourth, you know, the G to the D, and then the D to the A, and then we have the G to the D again, and then again, D to A, so this nice for the kind of sound ascending, then on our D major seven, we're back to our eighth notes now falling on the backside of our beats. So we have an eighth note, single eighth note on the end of one on the end of two on the end of three on the end of four on the backside of 123 and four, followed by a eighth note triplet arpeggio arpeggio motion to wrap things up in measure four. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's take a listen to the last line of the Day letter L here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  48:18  
Wow, wow, it never fails, right? We always unpack a ton of information and every single podcast lesson in every single podcast episode and today. Today was certainly no exception as we explored a key of D major melodic workout. Now I cannot stress enough how important it is that you spend time becoming familiar with the diatonic melodic shapes the scales and arpeggios. In other words of a key like we did today, having a command of ascending and descending scale motion within the framework of a key the modes if you will, a huge step a huge step towards developing mature improvisational skills and having a command of ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Outlining the harmonic shapes of a key is equally important right? After all, these are the two types of motion we have scale motion arpeggio motion. Then, with these two types of motion, applying the ascending descending scale and arpeggio shapes of a key to standard chord progressions within the key such as the 251 is a big time jazz piano skill that must be strategically studied and practiced. If you are serious, which I know you are, if you're serious about becoming an accomplished jazz pianist, now combined last week's key of D major harmonic workout with this week's key of D major melodic workout and you have Very powerful one two punch. It's an incredible combination that will help you that will have you and help you master the key of D major. And not only that, not only that it will continue solidifying a practice blueprint, which we have been establishing throughout the entire year will help you establish or solidify a burette practice blueprint that you can replicate from here on out in all keys. Right and this is precisely what we have been doing throughout this entire year. Most importantly, be patient. Developing mature, professional jazz piano skills takes time. So begin structuring your practicing after the demonstrations that I've modeled for you today in this podcast episode, and you will begin to see you will begin to feel and hear your musical progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcasts lesson exploring a key of D major melodic workout to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. Now don't forget if you are a jazz panel skills ensemble member I will see you Thursday evening online at the jazz panel skills masterclass. That's gonna be 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring our key of D major melodic workout in greater detail and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Likewise, another reminder, use your podcast packets, your illustrations, your lead sheets in your play alongs for this lesson, and also check out the jazz piano skills courses, right to maximize your musical gross growth. And you know what, and make sure I stress this every month, every week. Make sure that you are an active participant in the jazz panel skills community. Get out there, get involved, contribute to the various forums and make some new jazz piano friends do not be a scaredy cat. Get out there. Introduce yourself. You can reach me if you have any questions you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 My extension here at the Dallas School of Music is 211. If you prefer email, my email address is Dr. Lawrence, drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use this nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the jazz piano skills website. Well, there it is. There's my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy your key of D major melodic work. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!