Learning Jazz Tunes

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. I know it's hard to believe, but today, today we begin week four of 2024. Wow. And for jazz piano skills, the first three weeks of the year have been a whirlwind, to say the very least. And that is why today, I'm pumping the brakes, at least a little bit. To recap the first three episodes, I want to and I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and improvisation Development Study, the process of tune learning that I unveiled in the last three podcast episodes, I think y'all would agree we covered a lot of information quickly. So it only makes sense and, and certainly, it does educationally to circle back around through the past three episodes to bring all the information together into a concise outline, that can serve as our tune learning flute blueprint. Now, this blueprint will allow us to utilize our study and practice time in such a way that we maximize the development of these critical and essential jazz piano skills as we apply them to tunes. You know, at the end of last year, I announced that moving forward jazz piano skills episodes would be primarily devoted to learning jazz standards, learning jazz tunes. And of course, learning jazz tunes, through applying the various jazz piano skills we have studied over the past four plus years, right? skills like scales and arpeggios, voicings, rhythms, vocabulary, harmonic movement, improvisation techniques, to name just a few, right? It makes sense. We're taking our skills to the tunes, and not vice versa. In other words, we didn't jump in to tune tune learning four years ago, hoping that somehow magically, the tune would teach us the skills needed to play jazz. That is truly having the cart ahead of the horse. It's just plain and simple. It's, it's backwards. Now, I made a point to mention, over the past three weeks on several occasions, that there is a sequential order to learning jazz tunes, which really shouldn't surprise anyone. There is not one high level skill that you can successfully develop without having a strategic and formulaic gameplan. I can confidently guarantee you that a scattershot approach or what I like to call a YouTube approach to trying to learn how to play jazz piano. To learn how to play jazz tunes, will only cause frustration, confusion. And ultimately, as I mentioned last week, you're raising of a white flag. So my goal from from day one with jazz panel skills has been to not only introduce you to the essential jazz piano skills discover, but to also provide you with a way to successfully study the skills learn and a process for developing a physical command of the skills play Majan that discover, learn play. I have also mentioned over the past few weeks that if you have been a faithful jazz panel skills listener for the past four plus years, you have become intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to begin to study. Now I also mentioned that if you haven't been grinding along with us over the past four plus years, no worries. This is a great time to jump on board to begin developing and enhancing your Jazz Piano scales, the tune study we are going to be doing every month, we'll help you sift through and prioritize the last four years of podcast episodes, so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano scales immediately. So if you're a jazz piano skills old timer, or a jazz piano skills newbie, regardless of which one you are, you are in the right place at the right time to begin a jazz panel journey that will have a profound impact on your understanding of music, your overall jazz piano playing, and of course, your approach to learning jazz tunes. So we started 2024 with a bang, week one Wow, a harmonic analysis of the jazz standard, there will never be another you followed by another bang, week two with a melodic analysis of there will never be another you followed by yet another bang, week three, with improvisation development of there will never be another you. Bottom line. We didn't waste any time ramping up the new year. Again, a ton of information covered in a very short and very fast three week period, which is precisely why today. Today we're taking a deep breath, we're taking the time to intellectually walk back through this three stage process the last three weeks, this three stage process of learning jazz tunes,

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so that we can move forward with clarity, and confidence. So today, you're going to discover a concise, yet thorough blueprint for learning jazz tunes, you're going to learn an organized three tier process for learning jazz tunes. And you are going to play conceptually, the jazz panel skills needed for learning jazz tunes successfully. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your personal jazz journey, a beginner intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring the correct way to approach learning jazz tunes to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to as I always do welcome first time listeners to jazz piano skills. And if you are indeed 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 grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode and every weekly podcast episode. premium content will help you thoroughly and correctly discover, learn and play the jazz standards that we are studying, or the jazz piano skills that we're studying. And as the old saying goes so much more. For example, as a jazz piano skills member you'll have access to the past current and future educational weekly podcast packets. Now these are the illustrations the lead sheets in the play along the backing tracks that I developed and produced for every weekly podcast episode. Right these podcast packets help you get the most out of each weekly jazz panel skills podcast episode and of course you should be using listening to them when when using having them in your hands when listening to the podcast of course, and have them on your piano when practicing. You also have access as a jazz panel skills member to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks interactive learning media, there are video demonstrations in all 12 keys and the skill jazz panel skill is being explored and much more. You also have a reserved seat in my online weekly master classes which are held every Thursday evening. If you can't attend, no problem master classes are recorded. And you can watch and rewatch the class the video whenever and as often as you wish. You also as a jazz panel skills a member with premium content access have access to an online interactive Fakebook containing must know jazz standards with excellent chord changes, chord scale relationship maps harmonic function analysis, listening suggestions, historical insights and more. As a jazz panel skills member, you can hang out with old jazz friends and make some new jazz friends in the online private jazz panel skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums. And finally, your jazz panel skills membership grants you unlimited private, personal and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. Now, all of these amazing privileges are waiting for you wanting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz piano skills.com. And of course, become a member to enjoy premium podcast content, and all the other privileges that I just mentioned. Of course, if you have any questions, any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have. Okay, on to the question of the week. And this week's question comes from longtime jazz piano skills listener. Richard Killman Richards residing in the Caribbean, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Richard's question is a good one, and one that I know many of you have as well. It comes at the perfect time considering we will be doing a harmonic analysis of some tune every single month. Now Richard writes, although I'm taking my time to work through the approach and material, I am keeping up with listening to the podcast and class recordings, which are a lot of information delivered in a fun learning environment. I have a question that came to light as I listened to the last masterclass. In the first episode of the year, I followed your advice of thinking of the chord changes in relation to the Home key. However, in trying to rationalize and memorize the five key progressions that you highlighted with there will never be another you I got stuck. For example, harmonic pattern number one, which is the seventh half diminish, going to the three dominant to the six minor doesn't work for me because the three isn't the three minor from the E flat major scale, harmonic pattern number two, five minor seven to one seven to four major seven, again, doesn't work for me as the five isn't the five chord from the scale. Instead, I thought of the progressions in Section A is 2512, the minor six and 251 to the major fourth, then to continue a backdoor dominant to the tonic, the D flat major, D flat dominant seven to E flat major, followed by a two five of the dominant five. And finally a 251 to the tonic. Is this acceptable? Or would it get me into difficulty later on? For example, I noticed in the last class, this may have some impact on the scale used for improvisation. I think Jeff may have raised a similar question, but I'm not sure. Wow, is that is that question? Is that question loaded? Or? It's very well thought out, Richard. And I'm sure many other folks are thinking, what would what did i What did you just ask? And other folks are thinking right on I get it. Right. And actually, you are spot on when it comes to doing CT scan relationship analysis, however, and I think this is at the core of your question right here. CT scan relationships are not the same as harmonic function analysis. And when we try to combine the two into one or make them the same, that's where the confusion when you say you got stuck, that's when that confusion or you get stuck happens, right. So allow me a few minutes to explain in measure three, and measure three of there will never be another you. The chord changes D minor seven flat five or D half diminished. And it's analyzed as the seventh half diminished of the key.

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The next chord and measure for G seven flat nine flat 13. The harmonic analysis that's a three seven, that's a three dominant flat nine flat 13. And then of course measure five is the C minor seven, which is analyzed as the six minor. Now, the problem that Richards talking about is that G seven, that G dominant 737. That's not that doesn't shake hands with music theory that the G and E flat major supposed to be G minor seven, not G dominant seven. So I want you to keep this in mind. All one chords can be major dominant, minor, half diminished, or diminished. All two chords can be major dominant minor, half diminished, and diminished. All three, or four or five, all six, all seven chords can be major dominant minor, half diminished or diminished. Right. In other words, every chord every function 1234567 can be any quality. Keep this in mind now, primary, the next the next progression that Richard is speaking of is in measure seven, the B flat minor seven, that the harmonic analysis of that is the five minor seven, going into an E flat dominant seven and measure eight, which is a one dominant and an A flat major and measure nine, which is the four major Richard wants to think of that as a 251 in the key of A flat, which it is, it's a nice chord scale. That's chord scale relationships. Alright, that's understanding what key senators that that progression is pointing you to. For improvisation purposes. However, harmonic analysis is something completely different. Again, all chords can be major dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. Alright, all 123456 and seven, the function right, so again, remember, all chords can be major dominant minor, half diminished, and diminished. I know theory, I know. I know that music theory tells us that the one chord and the four quarter Major, the two, three and six chords are minor, the five chord is dominant and the seven is half diminished, right? This is correct. And music theory. However, tunes are not that clean and tidy. It is important to remember that harmonic analysis is about hearing root movement first, then the quality of the sound. Second, whether it's major or minor, and so on. harmonic analysis is fantastic and necessary. ear training. Chord scale relationships for improvisation is a completely different skill. So when doing chord scale relationship analysis, you determine the pool of notes, the scale that will serve as a framework when improvising over a grouping of chords, right. So both skill sets, harmonic function, and chord scale relationships are important. Confusion occurs. Once again, confusion occurs when we try to think of both skills as one or when we think that the expression harmonic function is another way of saying CT scan relationships. It's not there are different terms referring to different skills. Now, I hope that helps, Richard, that's a fantastic question. And it takes some reflecting, and re reflecting to have it all sink in. But I promise you stick with the program. And as we go through the year with our analysis, and as you continue to work on harmonic function, and hearing root movement, you will start to understand the difference between these two skills. Great, great question, Richard. And I hope my hands are helps. And as always, if, if further clarification is needed, please do not hesitate to reach out to me, you know how to get in touch with me. So please do so. You know, I think it's great, right? I had a teacher that used to say to me all the time. I know how you're progressing by the questions you ask and the statements you make. I know how you're progressing. But the questions you ask in the statements you make, which is 100%. True. And Richard, you're asking great questions, which tells me you are studying the right materials and in the right way. Otherwise you would never ever ask questions like you're asking. So congrats. You're on the road to becoming a very accomplished jazz pianist. Okay, So let's discover learning play jazz piano let's discover learning play. A much needed recap of the past three weeks that officially launched our learning of jazz tunes a comprehensive approach. Over the past three weeks, I presented and reinforced my outline for studying and learning any tune. And again, the genre genre makes no difference right? It makes no difference whether it's a jazz tune, a rock tune, pop tune, country tune folk r&b. This outline for studying and learning tunes is the same. Now here's here's a quick refresher number one, I always listen. First step, and I always listen to various artists performing the tune. I usually start with vocalist, then instrumentalist. And of course, finally, pianist. Number two, I always determine for when I'm listening, I'm listening to form first, is it a BA, form a B, A, B form a B, a C form? Every tune has a form. So I want to find its form. Number three, I turn my attention to harmony. So I learned chords, voicings, you know, what are the common harmonic progressions that I'm hearing in this song, like 251, or one, four, or five. Number four, after I have my chords in place, my voicings number four, I learned the melody, I learned the melody by ear, I learned the melody and apply treatments. So when I say learn melody, I'm listening for guide tones, phrases, target notes, I pay attention to my fingerings right treatments, I'm referring to interpreting that tune several ways, you know, as a ballad, bossa nova, swing. And then finally, number five, I explored improvisation approaches. I like to look at various zones within each of the sounds, about my patterns within each of those zones, which within each of the sounds like to develop motifs, study tension. So there's a lot going on within the improvisation approach, right. So listen, determine form, learn chords, voicings, learn melody, apply treatments, and explore improvisation approaches. That's it, nothing more, nothing less, right. So over the past three weeks, we use that outline to focus on gaining a harmonic familiarity, a melodic interpretation, and improvisation approach, for there will never be another you. Our goal, our goal has been since 2019, when jazz piano skills launched to the current day. And going into the future, our goal has always been to keep things conceptually simple to keep things clean and tidy upstairs with our approach to studying music, whether it's a skill, or whether it's a tune, right? Again, it makes no difference. Our conceptual understanding of all that we do musically must be structured and must be simple. So that it can be replicated, right? repeatedly. Now, you all y'all can attest that I have said it many times over the past four years. If your conceptual understanding of music, or any musical skill is not structured, not simple, then it must be the opposite. It's unorganized, and confusing. And if it's unorganized and confusing conceptually upstairs.

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I got some bad news for you. You have no shot at executing it in your hands on the piano downstairs. No shot. Therefore, we will keep our tune steady. Right conceptually simple. formulaic ly structured and easily replicatable. That's the winning game plan. Okay. So the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we are going to rediscover learn and play our harmonic analysis approach. form changes function, common progressions, voicings number two, we are going to rediscover learn and play our melodic analysis approach guide terms, phrases, target notes fingerings treatments. Number three, we are going to rediscover learn and play our improvisation development approach, right zones patterns, motifs tension. Wow. So there's a lot to sort out and get through. So let's get started. If you are a jazz panel skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to download and print the podcast packets. Right your membership grants, you access the premium content for every weekly podcast episode, which of course includes all of the educational podcast packets. And as I mentioned it every week, you should use these podcast packets when listening to this episode, to get the most out of it. And of course, when practicing now, one little caveat regarding the podcast packets for today typically episodes that are part of my lecture series, which today is have no podcast packets, but there is an exception today. The illustrations right are available, and they visually outline my lecture today. Right that you will find to be very helpful. Every month as we begin to dissect a new jazz standard a new jazz tune, I would definitely encourage you to have this in your hands as we go through this podcast and have this illustration sitting on your piano for quick reference when we are diving into harmonic analysis, melodic analysis and improvisation study of the tunes that we will be studying every month. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple, Google, Spotify, I Heart Radio, Amazon, Pandora, so on and so on, and go directly to jazz panel skills podcast.com And you will find the active download links for each podcast packet in the show notes or, or you can log into your jazz piano skills account. And from your Dashboard, navigate to this episode, where you will find one convenient link to download your podcast packets. Okay. All right. Now that you have your podcast packet, your illustrations in your hands. I want to begin with a quick overview of today's lecture outline before we break it down section by section in great detail. Okay, so on page one, you'll see the harmonic analysis outline. And the here we have letter a structure and content which is discover letter B, ear training and time learn and letter C shapes and sounds play. Okay, those are our headers. You'll also see within under each one a detailed outline. So under structure and content, you have listen, you have form you have harmonic structures, which we'll go into detail here shortly. Under ear training and time we have the practice chord changes, standard harmonic movement will go into that in detail as well. Shapes and sounds letter C deals with our voicings, okay, this is these are the categories, the content for our harmonic analysis that we will follow. For every jazz tune, we learn for every jazz standard that we look at. This will be the harmonic analysis outline that we use. Okay, so now let's look at page two of the illustrations. Page two is the melodic melodic analysis letter a melodic excavation of the melody with guides, letter B phrases and targets which is learn and literacy treatments and tempos play now under letter A with the melodic excavation with guides, you'll see we have finding melody using guided notes and tones we deal with fingerings letter B phrases and targets identifying and numbering unique phrases and then practicing those phrases using target notes. And then later see our tempos and our treatments and tempos which this play deals with are matching up our voicing and Melody together utilizing three different treatments. And again, I'll go into great detail with these here shortly. Now, I want you to grab page three of your illustrations, page three, and you'll see that this is covering and outlining our improvisation development that we will use for every tune throughout the year. Okay. So we have A, B, and C, again, letter A zones and patterns discover the letter B, motifs and tension learn and letter C improvisation exploration, which is play. Okay. Under our zones and patterns, we have our our four zones that we are familiar with. And then our two patterns that we're going to be dealing with the motifs intention, oh my goodness, we have, you know, looking at things from a harmonic centric perspective, with our motif development, and isolating the sounds to do that. Okay, and then focus and intentional focus on motion. And we'll talk about that here in great detail here shortly as well. And letter C with improvisation exploration play. We're dealing with etudes here, right, we have our arpeggio, and we have our skill etudes. And we'll walk through that section as well. Okay, now, that's just a quick overview. I wanted to do that, because that outline with the harmonic analysis, the melodic analysis, and improvisation development, this is our outline that we are going to use forever. Okay, for every tune for every month, for every tune that we study, for every jazz tune, we learned, okay, so we're gonna get really good, you're gonna have this outline memorized, because we're going to continue to go through it each and every month. All right. So this is the, this is the big picture. Now let's move from a macro perspective, to a micro perspective. How exciting is this going to be? It's always fun, I think at least it's always fun to go through something with a fine tooth comb. Okay, so let's go back to page one at a harmonic and our harmonic analysis. I always begin with my tone study. 

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