Stop Thinking Way Too Hard

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Okay, before we go any further today, I want to take care of a little housekeeping and give you all a quick update regarding some of the technology madness that I'm sure some of you have experienced this past week trying to access some of the podcast packets

And of course, other educational services available at Jazz Piano Skills. My apologies for this inconvenience, but here's the deal. The Jazz Piano Skills website and all of the educational content is being moved to a new, bigger and better server. they tell me, right? A bigger and better, that's what they keep telling me. And I was told this migration would be a snap, no problem. It would be over before you know

fact you won't even know it's happening they told me well it's not exactly how it's going going down I think we may be back up and going 100 % business as usual by the end of the day but we shall see okay all of this to say thank you for your patience as Jazz Panel Skills experiences some serious growing pains but I do believe the headache will be worth it when it's all

Anyway, that is what's been happening and it will be over soon. Let's hope. Okay? All right. So now, the last three weeks, we have thoroughly explored the great jazz standard, Have You Met Miss Jones? Our approach, as always, was to break our exploration into three parts. Part one, a harmonic analysis. Part two, a melodic analysis.

And part three, an improvisation study or an improvisation approach. As always with every jazz standard that we study, we tackle, we tackle a ton of essential jazz piano skills. We then take the last week of the month to enjoy an interview with a special guest. Well, this month, however, we have two additional weeks before moving on to a new two.

So this week, I thought it would be nice to present another episode for the Jazz Piano Skills Lecture Series before having a guest join me next week. How nice is this, right? Two weeks! We get two weeks to focus on the various harmonic, melodic, and improvisation skills that we studied using Have You Met Miss Jones? And simply enjoy a couple Jazz Piano Skills podcast episodes

without any additional work. Wow, man, life is good. Well, no additional work for you. But for me, however, I had to decide what I wanted to lecture on today, which is not as easy as one would think. However, last Thursday evening, during the masterclass, right, the math, actually, the masterclass made it easy

Our conversation last Thursday evening centered around improvisation and we touched upon many important conceptual and physical skills that all of us must have a command of if we hope to develop our jazz piano playing and of course our improvisation capabilities. You know, after the master class concluded, I couldn't stop thinking

are stimulating discussion and on the way home and I mean literally on the way home in my car driving I said to myself that is exactly what I'm going to talk about Tuesday. I'm going to talk about simplifying improvisation with an episode titled stop thinking way too hard. And boy now more than ever.

Are we thinking way too hard? Right? We think way too hard in this era of information overload. There's so much information now at our fingertips that quite honestly, it's overwhelming and confusing. So many theories, so many concepts, so many books, so many websites, so many videos. All of these options so easily become like fishing

tangled together so tightly that we end up feeling like we just stepped into jazz quicksand and we're sinking quickly with no conceivable way out. I get it. And that is precisely why last week's masterclass fired me up and why I want to devote this podcast episode to simplifying improvisation. So today,

you are going to discover a study and practice approach to simplify improvisation so you can stop thinking way too hard. And you're going to learn how music works. So you can say it with me, stop thinking way too hard. And you're going to play several improvisation exercise exercises designed

to help you, again, say it with me, stop thinking way too hard. 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 professional, I promise you, you're gonna find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lecture immensely beneficial.

as we embrace the challenge of simplifying improvisation so that we can stop thinking way too hard. But before we dig in, as always, I want to welcome first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're new to the podcast, if you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership has many perks.

many privileges. You will be able to access the premium content for all of the podcast weekly podcast episodes, right? Premium content helps you thoroughly and correctly discover, learn and play the jazz standard that we are currently exploring. Right? For example, as a jazz panel skills member, you'll have access to the past, current and future educational weekly podcast packets. That's of course, if the server

But that's another story. You'll have access to the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, the backing tracks, right, designed and developed to help you get the most out of every weekly podcast episode. Now you also have access to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses and all the courses containing educational talks. There's interactive learning media to help you digest

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help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazzpiano skills .com and become a member and begin enjoying premium podcast content, as well as all of the other privileges that I just mentioned. Of course, once you land on the site and you're poking around a little bit, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Reach out. I'm always happy to spend some time with you, answer any questions that you may have and help

in any way that I can. Now, typically at this stage of the podcast episode, I'd like to answer the question of the week. However, I'm going to skip this segment this week, so we can get after simplifying improvisation, and of course, stop thinking way too hard. So we we had a lot to get done today.

It was actually last week's question of the week that ignited the great conversation that we had in the Jazz Piano Skills Masterclass last Thursday evening that inspired me to devote an entire podcast episode to simplifying improvisation. If you recall last week's question dealt with the challenge of practicing improvisation and feelings of being overwhelmed.

during the process. You may also recall that I approached answering the question by assuring everyone that the difficulty in developing improvisation skills did not stem from a lack of technique or rhythmic issues, poor ears, or not enough transcribing. Instead, I proposed that the number one challenge

all aspiring jazz musicians wanting to develop solid improvisation skills is their solidification of an accurate and simple conceptual understanding of how music works. In other words, we all need to stop thinking way too hard. I went on to stress

If you do not have an accurate and simple conceptual understanding of how music works, you will chase one theoretical idea after another, after another, after another. You'll chase one book after another, after another, after another. You'll go to one website after another, after another, after another.

You'll watch another video after another after another after another. You'll purchase another app after another after another after another all in hopes of finding the mythical jazz improvisation secret. The secret, the treasure chest with the secret inside it that once you find

All you have to do is unlock it, open it, and the jazz improvisation mystery will finally be over. The puzzle is solved.

hate to break it to you. We all know this to be untrue. And yet, we all fall into this treasure hunt trap. Let's admit it, we all do. We fall into this treasure hunt trap, which only leads to what? To becoming overwhelmed and frustrated. Why? Because this kind of wild goose chase approach leads us to thinking way.

too hard. That is why having an accurate and simple conceptual understanding of how music works and how improvisation works, it will govern everything that you do on the piano. Everything. It reveals what and how to practice and guides your practice in such a way that it prevents you from running down blind

It allows you to stop thinking way too hard. Now without an accurate and simple conceptual understanding of how music and improvisation works, are again, you're just simply grasping at straws, hoping something magical will happen. You know, I went on to present a very concise outline of what an accurate and simple conceptual understanding of music and improvisation

what it looks like. Right? So let's, let's do a quick review. Number one, music consists of 12 notes. That's it. 12 notes. So in other words, what's important about that is we have a finite tuning system. It only presents 12 notes and something finite cannot give birth to infinite possibilities. In other words, infinity doesn't come from something finite. Does that make sense?

I hope so. Right? It's pretty liberating once you understand that our tuning system, 12 notes, that's it. So that means every question that you have in music has a very specific answer. Okay. Number two, these 12 notes produce the five primary sounds of music. Major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. Okay. These five sounds can be played harmonically or melodically.

We play the five sounds harmonically using 60 chords, 12 notes times five sounds, 60. We play the five sounds melodically using arpeggios and scales. Okay, arpeggios for now equals four notes. Okay, either the root, third, five and seven. We've also talked about arpeggios being the third to the ninth, the fifth to the 11th, the seventh to the

Right, but right now think of an arpeggio as a four note chunk. We also have scales. Think of the scale as a seven note chunk. We have the four notes of the arpeggio plus the three passing tones, seven notes. melody, arpeggios and scales can only travel in one of two directions, up or down. And musicians disguise ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion using notes.

that are not found in the arpeggio and scale. These are tension notes, commonly referred to as upper and lower neighboring tones or half step approachments. That's it. That's how music works. That's how jazz improvisation works, right? 12 notes in a tuning system, five sounds that are played harmonically and melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion.

that is embellished with half -step approachments to create tension. That's it. If you do not have a clear conceptual understanding of the data that makes up the musical database, the outline that I just presented, then how do you know what you should be practicing? The truth is without a clear understanding of the musical data in the musical database,

then you have no idea what you should be practicing. With all that being said, we all have to accurately determine how well can we play the five primary sounds of music, major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished, harmonically and melodically. That's what it comes down to. How well can you play the five primary sounds of music, major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished? How well can you play those sounds?

harmonically and melodically. Can you play the sounds harmonically using root position and inversions? How well can you play the sounds melodically using ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion? If you need to improve these essential jazz piano skills, right, then I would not concern myself with practicing anything else.

Once you feel you have a command of the sounds harmonically and melodically, the next step then of course is to begin disguising your arpeggio and scale motion using half step approaches, tension tones. I guarantee you, we can take any transcribed solo, and mean any transcribed solo, and label everything in that solo as ascending and descending arpeggio and scale

embellished with half step approachments. I guarantee it. Right. So today I want to present and discuss various exercises that I recommend to help you begin developing ascending and descending arpeggio motion, ascending and descending scale motion, and the insertion of half step approachments. It only makes sense

that if we're looking at transcribed solos of the great jazz musicians, in doing so that we discover ascending arpeggio and scale motion with the insertion of half -step approachments to create tension, then I think we should intentionally begin practicing, I don't know, ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion with the insertion of half -step approachments. No theory concepts needed.

No books needed, no websites needed, no videos needed, no transcriptions needed, no podcasts needed. Hey, wait a minute. Well, wait, wait, except for jazz piano skills, of course, right? Except for jazz piano skills. But you get my point, right? You get my point. We think way too

So the educational agenda for today is as follows. I'm going to present five exercises. Is that right?

Yes, five exercises that I use to practice arpeggio motion, scale motion and half step approachments. And these exercises are as follows. Number one, I like to call it solo changes. Number two, duo changes. Number three, quartet changes. Number four, sextet changes. And number five, full ensemble changes. Right? These are just cute little names. But the point being is solo changes is where I isolate a chord.

and practice arpeggio motion, scale motion, half step approaches. Dual changes is where I will pair up chords, right? Two chords side by side so that I can practice arpeggio motion, scale motion, and half step approaches moving in and out of those two chords. The quartet changes, right? Four chord changes now instead of two. Again, so I

zero in and focus on practicing arpeggio motion, scale motion, half step approaches, moving in and out of four different chords. The sextet changes, whole tones. I use whole tone pattern, so it creates six chord changes that I can practice arpeggio motion, scale motion, and half step approaches. And then the full ensemble, that's all 12.

And typically I will use circle movement or chromatic movement to practice all 12 chords using arpeggio scale, scale motion, plus the half step approaches. Obviously, I do not have time in this podcast episode to model each exercise thoroughly. So I will be, I will be devoting upcoming episodes to each of these exercises, each of these five exercises.

throughout the remainder of this year. So today, I'm going to though use the quartet changes, a set of four chord changes to introduce you to how I like to practice arpeggio and scale motion with the inclusion of half step approachments. So we have a ton to do, right? So let's get busy. So the very first thing I want to say when when creating a set of four chord changes, I like to use minor thirds.

as my template. Minor thirds as my template. Or you can use the diminished chord, right, which is built on all minor thirds. So in other words, if I take the C diminished chord, I have a C, Eb, Gb.

I have those four notes that comprise the diminished, C diminished chord, and those will be my roots. So today what I'm going to do is I'm going to focus in on the major sound. So in other words, I'm going to focus on playing C major, E flat major, G flat major, and A major. Those are going to be my four chords that I utilize today to practice my arpeggio motion, my scale motion, my half

approaches. Okay. And again, for the sake of time today, I'm going to model everything using arpeggio motion. So you get the idea of how I think and work through these four chord changes using ascending descending arpeggio motion, and then eventually the inclusion of the half steps. Okay. But whatever you hear me doing today with arpeggio motion is exactly how I how I would approach

if I were using scale motion as well. Okay? Same process. So what I want to do, the very first thing I want to do is I'm going to play each of these chords C major, E flat major, G flat major, and A major. Two measures each. I'm going to use a bossa nova groove today. Pretty relaxed tempo of 120.

Anytime that I start working on a specific skill, I like to use the bossa nova groove because it's a straight eighth feel. Okay, to me, it's just easier for me to lock into that feel and focus on the skill at hand that I'm trying to get under my hands. Okay, so I'm going to use again bossa nova groove about 120. And each chord will be set up and played for

measures each. So I have an eight measure exercise, right? Two measures for C major, two measures for E flat major, two measures for G flat major, and two measures for A major. Okay, so the first exercise I want to do is I want to focus on ascending movement, ascending motion, all the way through all four chord changes. So an ascending line moving from C major through E flat major through G flat major through A

way I'm going to do this, I'm going to start with my C major in root position. So I'm going to play C, E, G, B. The next note, the closest note found in E flat major on the ascending side of that B is the note D. So now I continue with the note D and unfold my E flat major chord.

The note on the ascending side of that B flat that is found in the G flat major chord is the note D flat. So now I begin on D flat and I ascend through that chord.

next note on the ascending side that is found in the chord A major that is closest to my B flat is the C sharp. And now I'll start there and unfold my A major. Okay, so what I why I set the exercise up to be two measures on each chord is I want to play my arpeggio, I want to rest, determine what comes next with my next chord.

Unfold that arpeggio, rest for a measure, move on to the next chord, unfold that arpeggio, and so on. Okay? So basically what I'm getting is C major. I have a measure rest before going on to my E flat, a measure rest before going on to my G flat, a measure rest before going on to my

right? One long ascending line. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to this. I think once you listen to the first exercise, you'll understand the concept and how we're approaching it today. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check this out.

So you probably picked up on the fact first time through I just play the chord changes to settle into my feel and my groove. Then I play those ascending arpeggios on C, E flat major, G flat major, A major, ascending all the way through all four chords. I go through that three times, then I end with my chord changes and finish out the exercise. That measure in between each chord of rest.

allows me to assess what comes next with my arpeggio eventually right that measure goes away in real life when we're playing tunes. But we're intentionally practicing this ascending arpeggio motion, creating one seamless line that goes through all four chord changes. So that measure of rest in there is intentional and is very much needed to help think through the entire process. Okay, so you

The old saying, right, what goes up must come down. So I will take the same thing, same process, right, and I'll start with my C major, starting on the note C and descend.

right through my E flat major to my G flat major.

goes up must come down. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to this as well. And again, two measures each with a measure rest after I play the arpeggio to assess what comes next. So here we go. Check it out.

nice. Now, just a little side note, this will be the easiest of the exercises playing everything. All four of those chords are going to be actually played in first inversion coming down, right? So you'll probably pick up on that rather quickly as you start doing this exercise, but that's okay. Right? You still have to see this descending line moving through C major, E flat major, G flat major, A major. Okay. So notice so far, right? Everything's been ascending motion. Everything's been descending motion.

using arpeggio motion, right? Ascending or descending in our movement using just arpeggio motion. That's it. Keeping things very clean and very tidy, as I like to say. So now what I'm going to do is going to alternate that movement, right? So I'm going to ascend arpeggio motion on my C major, descend on my E flat major, ascend on my G flat,

descend on my A. And I'm going to use the same criteria. So if I'm going up C major, and I got to come down B flat major, E flat major, the closest note on the descending side of my note B where I end my C major, the closest note on the descending side is B flat. So start on B flat and unfold my E flat major.

The note on the ascending side for G flat major is going to be the note F, unfold F, unfold G flat starting on F. The closest note on the descending side for A major is going to be A, right? Now descend A major.

how I formulate this process so I can get used to moving through these chord changes using ascending descending ascending descending movement. Okay, let's bring the ensemble in again two measures each for each chord with a measure of rest right on the second measure of each chord. So here we go. Check it out.

Yes, indeed, right? It's great. Once we start getting a balance between ascending and descending motion, it starts to sound more and more like improvisation. But again, right? No half step approaches at this time. I'm working on my ascending and descending arpeggio movement. Now, now I'm going to actually reverse that process. I'm going to descend, ascend, descend.

So if I descend on my C major, starting on the note C descending, going to ascend on my G flat major, the closest, I mean, I'm sorry, on the E flat major. So the closest note on the ascending side for E flat major is the note G. Closest note on G flat major on the descending side is D flat.

closest note on the ascending side belonging to A major is the G sharp.

nice line descending ascending descending so let's bring the ensemble back in and let's check out how this sounds

you

Very nice. So, so far we've done our minor third pattern, C major to E flat major to G flat major to A major. We have focused on arpeggio motion, ascending through all four of those chords, descending through all four of those chords, then alternating our motion, our movement going ascending, descending, ascending, descending, then descending, ascending, descending,

and no half step approaches, no half step approaches, right? But that's what comes now, half step approaches. So remember our first exercise, we did C major to E flat major to G flat to A major, and it was all ascending motion through the entire line. Well, we're go back to that now. But now we're going to insert half step,

half -step approachment below our target note. So if on C major, if I'm starting on C, now my C major arpeggio is going to sound like this. So I'm actually going to play C, the note C first, slide down a half -step, and then use that half -step approachment back into C to finish out my arpeggio. So I

continue to ascend. My next note in the E flat major on the ascending side is D. So I'm going to play my D, slide down a half step, back to my D and finish my E flat arpeggio.

So I'm going to do that exact same approach for G flat major and A major. So I'm playing what I played the very first exercise. I'm playing it again, but now I'm intentionally inserting a half step to the entry note of the arpeggio for each chord. Let's listen to it. You'll hear it. Okay, let's listen to it. Check it

Wow, right? Starts to sound completely different with the insertion of a half step below a specific target note. Okay? Starting to sound more like jazz improvisation. So now we're going to do descending movement all the way through all four chords. Again, exercise number two that we did earlier. And we're going to do the exact same thing. We're going to insert half step movement after we hit our entry point.

So our C major arpeggio descending now is going to sound something like

What?

bring the ensemble in. Let's check out what this sounds

Yes. What a difference, right? Adding that half step approach meant that little bit of tension begins to camouflage our straightforward arpeggio motion, right? So now what I want to do is do that exact same thing, except I want to use ascending, descending, ascending motion with our half steps, right? So

our C major is going to sound something like this. E flat's going to be...

G flat.

than my

Again, we're using the approach that I'm going to use the note on the ascending side or on the closest note on the ascending side or the closest note on the descending side, depending on which direction I'm heading moving into each of these chords. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble back in. Let's check this out and see what we think. Here we go.

Right, so now when we get ascending descending motion back to back with our half step approachment to create a little bit of tension, talk about starting to sound like improvisation. And indeed it is right? Because this is the formula. This is how we create interesting melodic lines, whether those melodic lines are composed or improvised. Again, all we have is arpeggio, scale motion,

that goes up or comes down. That's it. Okay, so now I'm going to reverse it, right? I'm to start with descending motion, followed by ascending, descending, ascending. And once again, I'm going to insert a half step approachment after I play my entry point and move through each of these chords, always looking for the closest note in the next

from where I'm located, right? Whether it be on the ascending side or descending side. So let's bring the ensemble in once again and listen to this descending ascending descending motion, arpeggio motion with half step approachments. Okay, here we go.

you

you

love it. Absolutely love it. You know, I get asked by students quite often when I lay out a practice agenda or a practice approach such as this. That's very formulaic. It's very structured. It's very predictable because you set up the variables ahead of time. So you know exactly what you're going to be doing, right. And oftentimes I get students will ask, Wow, do you do you really think like that when you play?

My response always is, no, no, no. I think like that when I practice. When I play, I'm completely relying on muscle and aural memory and the emotion of playing with others or even playing solo for that matter. I'm relying on muscle memory, whether that be physical hands memory or aural memory, right? But you can't develop muscle

memory or oral memory without having some approach that you have practiced that helps cement that for you, right? So the whole idea here then, with this kind of approach to practicing, you know, very calculated arpeggio motion ascending or descending and then eventually with the insertion of the half step is to be able to improvise using this approach entirely, right?

So what I want to do is I want to bring the ensemble back in. And now I'm going to improvise through these four chord changes using our ascending descending motion, right, and half step approaches, half step approaches. So now let's listen to it and see what you think. Let's see if this sounds like real improvisation. Let's see. Check it out.

think it sounds like real improvisation, right? In fact, I tell students, and I mentioned it earlier in the podcast, if you are at the stage where you're working on learning how to play the five primary sounds of music, major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, and diminished, using arpeggio motion, ascending and descending arpeggio

That's a fantastic place to be because the reality of it is you could go out and solo all night long, working off arpeggio motion and half step approaches to the target notes within your arpeggio motion and you'd sound fantastic. I promise you, you would sound fantastic. And on top of that, you can stop thinking so hard. Because there you have

Right? It's important to keep in mind that right these melodies, melodies, whether whether they're composed or whether they're improvised can only use arpeggio and scale motion that ascends and descends. Right? We we decorate our ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion using what using the upper and lower neighboring tones called half step approachments. So again, stop thinking so hard that this is it. This is it. And today,

I demonstrated how I like to focus on a motion like arpeggio motion, a direction, ascending, all ascending or all descending or some combination, right? And then determine a specific insertion of half steps, right? Now there are many different options that you can establish before you begin using this technique, but I would encourage you to do just that. Determine your options.

the roadmap before you begin to practice? In other words, are you going to focus on arpeggio motion or scale motion? Are you going to focus on moving in one direction or alternating directions? What target note are you going to use for inserting a half step approach? Right? Is your half step approach going to be below or above your target note? Today, I used below, right? In other words,

have a very specific game plan that you want to execute when you sit down to practice. Otherwise, if you do not, you will end up doodling and not maximize your practice session to gain maximum results. I guess what I'm trying to say is be sure to have a game plan. Well, I

I hope you have found this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson. Stop thinking so hard. An exploration of simplifying improvisation. I hope you have found it to be insightful and beneficial. Don't forget, I will see you online Thursday evening at the Jazz Piano Skills Masterclass. That's going to be 8pm Central Time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring stop

thinking so hard in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. And if you cannot make the class right, you can always watch the video of the class, which will be able to access through your Jazz Piano Skills account through your dashboard. If you have any questions, please post them in the Jazz Piano Skills forum so all the members can benefit. And if you need to reach me, you can do so my office number

You can do so by phone. My office number here at the Dallas School of Music is 972 -380 -8050. My extension is 211. If you prefer email, my email address is drlaurence at jazpianoskills .com. Or you can use the SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the Jazz Piano Skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for

And until next week, stop thinking so hard. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn, and play jazz piano.