Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Melodic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:33.474)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. I hope everyone enjoyed this past week exploring the harmonic structure of the Christmas classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town. As always, we tackled a ton of essential jazz piano skills last week. We looked at the form of Santa, the standard chord changes of Santa, harmonic function of Santa, the common harmonic movement found within Santa, and of course, last but certainly not least, my suggested voicings for Santa. As always, right, as always with our harmonic analysis, there is a ton of information. But hopefully, hopefully the processing of this information conceptually and physically is getting easier and quicker. After all, that's the goal. Right? That's why we have a blueprint that we follow every with every harmonic analysis of any tune, whether it's a Christmas tune or jazz standard or any tune from any genre. The fact is, we have a blueprint for everything we do. Whether it's a harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation develop.

we have a blueprint. Since the start of the year, we have solidified a three tier approach to tune study. And of course, our tune study is simply a veil that we use to make skill study appear more attractive. That's what's going on here. And that is, course, if it's done correctly, right? Which of course we do. We do do it correctly.

So step one of our tune study, aka skill study, is a harmonic analysis, form, changes, function, harmonic movement, voicings. Step two, which we're going to do today for Santa, is a melodic analysis, Melody transcribing, fingerings, phrases, target note awareness, various treatments. Step three,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (03:01.442)
which we tackle next week is improvisation development, quarter and eighth note strings, mathematical and random silence, approach tones, tension, right? So our three tier approach to tune study, again, aka scale study, is a logical and sequential orderly process that allows us to successfully discover, learn and play a tune.

It allows us to successfully discover, learn and play essential jazz piano skills. Now I have mentioned on several occasions that that if you've been a faithful jazz piano skills listener for the past five years, you've become intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to begin tune study. I've also mentioned that if you haven't been grinding along with us over the past five years, well, no big deal, right? No worries. This is a great time to jump on board.

begin develop developing and enhancing your jazz piano skills right now. The tune study skills study that we do every month will help you sift through and prioritize the last five years of podcast episodes so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano skills right now immediately. So if you're a jazz panel skills vet, fantastic. If you're a jazz panel skills rookie, fantastic. You're in the right spot at the right time, the right place at the right time.

to begin a jazz piano journey that will have a profound impact on your understanding of music and of course on your jazz piano playing as well. So today, wow, we march on, right? We march on with melodic analysis. So today you're going to discover a melodic analysis of the Christmas standard, Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And you're going to learn melody, guide tones, fingerings, phrases, target notes found within Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

you're going to play three different melodic treatments of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, ballad, bossa, swing. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced pro, you know what? You're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, Exploring Santa Claus is Coming to Town, to be very beneficial.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:26.786)
But before we get started, before we dig in, I want to, as I always do, welcome first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. And if you are indeed a new listener to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome. I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership grants you a ton of great benefits. Number one, your JPS membership grants you premium content access for each

weekly podcast episode. In other words, you get to hear the entire podcast episode. Plus, you get access to the podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs that I developed for every weekly podcast episode, so that you get the most value out of each episode. Number two, you get access to the sequential online courses. And all of the courses at Jazz Panel Skills, there's educational talks,

interactive learning media to help you conceptually digest the jazz piano skill being explored. And there are video demonstrations of the skills in all 12 keys. They're fantastic. Number three, master classes. Master classes are held every Thursday evening, 8 p.m. Central Time. And if you can't make the class, it's no big deal because the master classes are recorded and you can listen to them as often as you wish and re-listen to them as often as you wish.

Number four, you have access, your membership grants, your access to the community, and all the various forums that the community hosts, which they host a variety of engaging podcast specific forums. And of course, just general jazz forums and jazz topics are explored in the community as well. And finally, last but not least, number five, you get unlimited private, personal and professional educational support whenever and as

often as you need it. All of these amazing benefits are waiting to help you discover, learn, play jazz piano. So check it all out at JazzPianoSkills.com. And of course, become a member to improve your jazz piano skills significantly. Of course, once you get to the site, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm always happy to spend a little time with you, answer any questions that you may have, and help you in any way that I can.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:51.52)
Okay, so on to the question of the week. And this week's question comes from Anna Ward, Anna Ward, living in Greenfield, Wisconsin. And Anna writes, I have been a Jazz Panel Skills member for three years, and I am happy to report that my Jazz Panel Skills have improved 100 times over. Thank you. However, I am still having trouble

with rhythm. play all the correct notes when I improvise, but it still sounds blah. I've come to realize that I am rhythmically boring. How can I improve this area of my playing? Thank you again for all that you do. I look forward to many more years of growth with jazz piano skills. Wow. Anna?

First of all, I am thrilled that you are benefiting from Jazz Piano Skills. You made my day. Thank you. And I'm also very impressed with your self-diagnosis of your improvisation skills. Right? It's commendable that you have reached a point in your development where you can recognize that the secret

The secret to creating, to improvising interesting and enjoyable melodies is found within your rhythmic ideas. Within your rhythmic ideas. Not your notes, not your chords, not your theory understanding, not your ability to hear intervals.

not your ability to play at a certain level of difficulty, but instead your rhythm. Wow. I'm impressed. I'm impressed that you've come to this self-diagnosis. So congrats. That's huge. That's a big tipping point actually. without hearing you play, my guess is that you feel your rhythmic ideas are blah, as you put it.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:11.298)
because your rhythmic ideas are probably, they're probably not real rhythms. So let's think about this. Even the most basic rhythm played correctly is anything but blah. For example, if played correctly, four quarter notes in four, four time played on counts one, two, three, and four,

sound very hip when articulated correctly. Hip, not blah. Again, good rhythm is good rhythm. It has nothing to do with the level of difficulty. So four quarter notes can be played and sound very hip. Instead, I would suggest that there's two criteria needed to turn blah rhythm into

exciting rhythm. Number one, I already mentioned this number one, it must be a real rhythm. If if what you play cannot be rhythmically transcribed, guess what? It's not a real rhythm. And believe it or not, I hear students quite often trying to fake rhythmic playing, right to play something that sounds like they're playing rhythm.

But if I was asked to transcribe it, I'd go, huh, what? Wait a minute. Right? You know, I've told this story before, you know, like when I was a little boy, remember I was fascinated with cursive. I don't even know if anybody, nobody uses cursive anymore. I was fascinated with cursive. I was just a little guy, man. I was like, you know, four years old. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table, and I took a pen and I scribbled. Literally, just imagine like a scribble.

followed by a space, followed by another scribble, followed by a space, followed by another scribble. And for me, that's what cursive looked like. At four years old, cursive looked like a scribble, followed by another scribble, followed by another scribble. So I took a piece of paper and I scribbled several scribbles on the piece of paper. And I went to my mom and I said, mom, what does this say? And she says, that says nothing. And I said, huh, what? What do mean that says nothing? She goes,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:40.97)
She goes, it says nothing. So I went back to the table. I did another scribble, followed by another scribble, followed by another scribble, went back to mom. said, Hey, mom, what does this say? And she started laughing. She goes, honey, look, that doesn't say you're gonna learn how to read. You're gonna learn how to write when you get to school. So you don't need to worry about it right now. Well, I was heartbroken because I actually thought I was I was imitating what I saw. I was imitating what I saw adults.

write on paper. And so I did my scribbles, but I found out that it was fake cursive. It wasn't real cursive. And that's what happens in music, right? A lot of students play fake rhythms, right? They're scribbling rhythms. They're not real rhythms. So number one, right, in order to make sure that your rhythm is not blah, make sure first of all, it's a real rhythm. And number two,

a real rhythm, right, regardless of difficulty, right, a real rhythm must be articulated correctly to sound hip, not rushed, not played, not played too far behind the beat, and certainly not pounded. In other words, played with a nice touch, as we say, in the piano world, right. So Anna, to begin,

improving your rhythmic plane. Right after you've given thought to number one and number two that I just mentioned, I want you to check out two Jazz Panel Skills podcast episodes that I did back in 2021. Rhythmic Vocabulary, Part One, August 3rd, 2021. And Rhythmic Vocabulary, Part Two, August 10th, 2021.

Now these two episodes are going to help you begin practicing rhythms using various quarter note and eighth note patterns. You will begin with playing quarter notes on all four beats, and you'll end with playing eighth notes on all four beats. And of course, there are many permutations that I walk through between these two bookends, right? Going from all quarter notes to all eighth notes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:06.562)
right? And all these permutations will help you develop your rhythmic articulation, right? In fact, they'll help you play real rhythms, right? And of course, your rhythmic articulation. And there are also vocalization tips to help you develop the correct articulation as well. Now, this is so important because your command of the quarter note

in the eighth note is the key to developing a strong rhythmic vocabulary. That is anything but blah. I'm saying, I guess what I'm saying, Anna, really, is do not overthink this aspect of your jazz playing development, right? We tend to overthink every aspect of our jazz piano playing, but specifically do not overthink

your rhythmic development, right? Like all jazz piano skills, right? Rhythm must become easy, conceptually, in order for you to have a shot at developing it physically. Now, with that being said, it's important to know that without question, and I mean without question, learning how to play quarter note and eighth note relationships seamlessly

is the key to you playing rhythmically interesting melodic lines. I'm going to say that again because it's so important that without question learning how to play quarter note and eighth note relationships seamlessly is the key to you playing rhythmically interesting melodic lines. Not too long ago, just a

maybe a month ago, two months ago, I did a couple podcast episodes on hybrid scales, hybrid arpeggios, hybrids and that they are combining quarter note and eighth note relationships, helping you helping you develop this seamless flow between the two rhythmic values of quarter notes and eighth notes. So

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:31.182)
begin with these two Jazz Piano Skills podcast episodes from 2021. And of course, check out the hybrid arpeggios and scales as well. And then we can go from there. Check them out. And let me know if you have any questions. But Anna, really impressed. You should be very pumped up and very encouraged that you're at that point in your development improvisationally, that you're turning your attention to rhythmic development.

and starting to understand that that is where the gold is. That's fantastic. That's a tipping point for you, and I'm very excited for you. again, if you have any questions or further clarification is needed, please let me know. Do not hesitate to contact me. As always, I'm happy to spend some time with you, dig a little deeper, and help you in any way that I can.

Okay, so let's discover learn and play piano. Let's discover learn and play Santa Claus is coming to town. It's part two, right? A melodic analysis. Okay, so last week, as I do every week, I present my outline for studying and learning tunes. And again, right genre makes no difference, makes no difference whether it's a jazz tune, rock tune, pop tune, country tune, R &B tune.

makes no difference what genre the tune comes from. I follow the same approach and here's the outline. Number one, I listen. Listen, listen, listen. Various artists from various genres, right? Vocalist, instrumentalist, and of course pianist. Every version of this tune that you can get your hand on, every rendition, get your hands on it and listen. Number two, determined form.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:52.448)
And number five, explore various treatments. And of course, follow that up with improvisation. The reason we play various treatments is because we're forced to address the melody using a different groove and different tempo. And that in and of itself is the beginning of improvisation development. Right? So that's it. Right? That's the outline. Listen, determine form, learn chord changes and voicings.

melody, explore treatments and improvisation. Nothing more, nothing less, right? Last week, we focused on gaining a harmonic familiarity with Santa. So we listened, we checked out the form, we explored the chord changes, the harmonic function and the voicings. This week, we turn our attention to the melodic analysis of Santa.

right. So our goal, as always, whether it's a harmonic analysis or melodic analysis or improvisation development, our goal always is to keep things very simple, very clean, very tidy with our approach. And again, it makes no difference whether we're studying a skill, or we're looking at that skill within a tune or tune study, right, we approach it the same way. We have to get it simple conceptually, so that we have a shot at it.

physically. Right? I always say that, you know, music is complicated upstairs. If it's complicated, foggy, fragmented, difficult upstairs in your head, in your mind, then it's going to be complicated, fragmented, foggy, difficult in your hands downstairs on the piano. It's just pretty logical, right? So we're going to keep things simple. We're going to keep things structured.

and we're going to keep things replicatable today with our melodic analysis of Santa Claus is coming to town. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we begin part two, a melodic analysis to discover, learn and play Santa Claus is coming to town. Number two, we're going to listen to a definitive recording of this Christmas classic. Number three, we will learn the melody of Santa Claus is coming to town by ear transcribed.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:11.578)
Number four, we will discuss the melodic fingerings for Santa Claus is coming to town. We will number five, we will discover, learn and play the melodic phrases found within the melody of Santa Claus is coming to town. Number six, we will discover, learn and play the melodic target notes of those phrases. And number seven, we will discover, learn and play the melody with the voicings that we addressed and looked at last week.

Santa Claus is coming to town. Finally, we'll put it all together with three various treatments of this tune, bossa, a ballad, and a swing rendition of this tune. So we have a ton to do, right? As always, we have a ton to get through. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member right now, I want you to just hit the pause button and I want you to take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets.

illustrations, your lead sheets, your play alongs, and again, your membership grants you access to this information. So please take advantage of it. You should have this these packets in your hands when listening to this episode to get the most out of it. And of course, you're to want to have them sitting on the piano when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google,

there's a million of them, right Spotify, our radio and Amazon Pandora and so on. Then go directly to jazz panel skills podcast.com. And you will find an active download link for each of the podcast packets in the show notes. Or you can just log into your jazz panel skills account. And from your dashboard navigate to this episode, where you'll find one convenient link.

to download all three podcast packets in one bundle. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab your lead sheets. And you should have six of them in your packet, the lead sheet one. I'm going to walk through them here real quickly. Lead sheet one. It's a great template for learning the melody. I give you some, some little tips, right? We're gonna transcribe that melody by ear, but I give you some, some, you know,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:31.854)
target notes in there to utilize to help you with filling in the blanks, if you will, with your ear development and with your transcribing. Number two provides you with the melody of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, a very simple melody, notation of the melody, which you can compare against what you've transcribed to see how well you're doing. Number three, I provide you the fingerings that I would recommend using when playing the melody of Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Number four, lead sheet four highlights the phrases that we will zone in on to use for practicing the melody of Santa Claus is coming to town. Lead sheet five illuminates to target notes, the entry points and destination points of those phrases that we want to be aware of for melodic and improvisation development. And number six, lead sheet six combines

I mentioned earlier, combines the voicings from last week with our harmonic analysis, the shell voicings, with the melody of Santa Claus is coming to town. So a wonderful packet to help us complete our melodic analysis today and help us develop our jazz piano skills. no question about it, right? We got a ton to do, so we need to get busy. So what is the very first thing we do every week?

We listen. We did it last week and we're going to do it again today because we should always be doing it. Always. I stressed last week that listening to various renditions of the tune is not only the first but most important step. I can't, you know, I can't even imagine, right, trying to learn a tune without listening. So we want to absorb it. We want to listen to it as much as possible. And I mentioned I typically turn to vocalist first, followed by instrumentalist, followed by pianist.

But regardless, right? I do a lot of listening. And that's what we're to do right now before going any further. Now, last week we checked out Dave Brubeck, Dave Brubeck's swing and rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. This week, we turn to the one and only, and I mean the one and only Mr. Ray Charles, giving us a very hip vocal and piano treatment of this Christmas classic. So we kind of get a twofer here, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:55.778)
So as always, I want you to grab your favorite beverage. I want you to sit back and it's time to get into Christmas spirit. I want you to enjoy this very soulful, as always with Ray Charles, this very soulful treatment of Santa Claus is coming to town. Enjoy.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (30:40.108)
Wow. Is that good or is that good, right? Without doubt, Mr. Ray Charles is an American treasure. Everything he did, right? Everything he did from pop to country to jazz was absolutely fantastic. He's a musical legend in every sense of the word. And I've always loved his love for the Fender Rhodes. He was just playing right there in that rendition of Santa, the Fender Rhodes. In fact,

Listening to Ray Charles is how I discovered this instrument and fell in love with it as well. So you know what? Today, in honor of the great Ray Charles, I will play the various treatments of Santa Claus is coming to town using the road sound as well. It's my small way of tipping my hat to the greatness of Ray Charles. So now let's explore those lead sheets.

Grab lead sheet number one, and let's discover how to properly begin learning the melody of Santa Claus is Coming to Town using our ears. So, okay, lead sheet number one, as we discovered last week, Santa Claus is Coming to Town is an AABA form. So we're looking at really transcribing 16 measures of melody.