Tea for Two

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. In the last two weeks, we have relentlessly attacked a key of A flat major harmonic workout, and a key of A flat major melodic workout. Our harmonic workout, as it always does, explored four different approaches to voicing the courts found in the key of E flat major right seven chords found in the key of A flat major, plus various rhythmic comping patterns, and our melodic workout, as it always does, methodically tackled the scales, the modes and arpeggios for each of the chords in the key of A flat major, plus various linear lines to help us develop our improvisational vocabulary. And for those of you who are faithfully doing the workouts, you know firsthand that the workouts require a ton of work.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  1:39  
But as is always the case, when you practice correctly, the proper skills, the proper approaches, the payoff is always huge. And how do we test the development of our skills? Well, there's no better way to test our improvement than by playing a tune. And that is exactly what we are going to do today. So today, you're going to discover a popular jazz standard from 1924, basically, 100 years ago, a great tune called T for two and you're going to learn the chord changes harmonic function, and musical form of t for two and you are going to play various voicings and correct chord scale relationships for the Tea for two, which will be cultivated into a jazz solo. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player advanced player even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you will find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring the jazz standard T for two to be very beneficial. I want to take a moment as I always do at the beginning of every jazz panel skills podcast episode to welcome all of you first-time listeners. And if you are indeed new to jazz panel skills a first-time listener to the jazz piano skills podcast, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. All you have to do visit jazz piano skills.com You'll learn more about all of the educational materials, the resources, the services that are available and awaiting for you to use to help you along your journey to becoming an accomplished jazz pianist. For example, all jazz panel skills members have access to the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. These are educational tools that I develop and produce and publish every week for every weekly podcast episode. These are invaluable educational tools that you want to have in your hands as you listen to the podcast episodes. And of course, you want to have them sitting on your piano as you practice as well. You also as a jazz panel skills member have access to the sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses, all of them using the self-paced format. There are educational talks for you to listen to and enjoy interactive media there are video demonstrations in all 12 keys of the jazz panel skills being taught there are play alongs and much more. You also as a jazz piano skills member have a reserved seat as I like to say to the online weekly masterclasses which are in essence a one Our lesson with me each and every week and you also as a jazz panel skills member have access to the online interactive Fakebook of which this fake book contains tunes from the Great American Songbook right, you'll be able to enjoy the lead sheets. Outlining the chord changes the harmonic function of each tune. There are chord scale relationships to be aware of and study, play along files, historical insights, inspirational recordings, and much more. And the interactive Fakebook is of course, an ever-growing collection of tunes that you should absolutely discover, learn and play. You also as a jazz piano skills member have access to the private jazz piano skills community which hosts a variety of engaging forms, there are podcasts specific forums, and course-specific forms for you to enjoy. And last but certainly not least, as a jazz piano skills member you have on limited I'm going to say that again on limited private, personal and professional educational support provided by me whenever and as often as you need it. So again, take a few minutes, visit jazz piano skills.com. To learn more about all of the educational opportunities that await you and how to easily activate your membership there are several plans to choose from, and I am quite confident that there is one that is perfect for you. Nevertheless, if you get to the site, you poke around, you have some questions, please let me know. I am always happy to help you in any way that I can. Okay, let's discover learning play jazz piano let's discover learn and play the great 1924 jazz standard T for two. Okay, as I mentioned earlier, the last two weeks have been pretty, pretty intense with our key of A flat major harmonic workout and our key of A flat major melodic workout. Now our harmonic workout, as always was an extensive exploration of four very specific approaches to playing sound harmonically. In other words, playing chords. And our exploration was not simply about playing the seven chords found in the key of A-flat major it was about how to approach voicing the chords so that you are playing sounds that are stylistically Correct. Sounds that sound like jazz. In other words, your chords have to sound like jazz.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  7:59  
If you're going to play jazz, so, so we looked at basic block shapes and root position inversions, we looked at traditional left-hand three-note shell voicings, we looked at contemporary quarter voicings, and we also looked at two-handed shapes, all of them, all of them need to be in your arsenal they need to be at your fingertips. And our melodic workout was a thorough investigation of ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion, again through each of the seven chords of the key of A-flat major. Our primary focus was to begin developing what I like to call root independence by shifting the entry points of our scales and arpeggios from the root of the sound to the third to the fifth to the seventh. And needless to say, if you have never if you have never intentionally played scales and arpeggios, varying your entry and destination points, which by the way, most people never do. If you've never done this kind of practicing, then last week's melodic workout in the key of A-flat was indeed probably very challenging. So the whole point of our key have A flat major harmonic workout and our key of A flat major melodic workout. The whole point is to prep us for applying our skills to what to tunes. So we are going to take the practice approaches that we have explored over the past two weeks and we are going to apply them to T for two. And not only are we going to put our heart harmonic and melodic piano skills to work within a jazz standard. We are also going to use our jazz piano skills to construct and play a jazz piano solo over the chord changes of t for too. Too much fun. So, the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to explore the jazz standard T for two, we're going to look at the chord changes and harmonic function. Number two, we're going to discover learn and play various voicings for T for two, our basic blocks, traditional shells, contemporary shells, and two-handed shapes. And number three, we are going to discover learn and play the chord scale relationships for T for two, in other words, the appropriate ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion. Number four, we are going to discover, learn and play a jazz piano solo for T for two using 100% diatonic scale and arpeggio motion and using various whole note half note quarter an eighth note rhythmic values. And number five, we are going to be using a jazz tempo standard tempo today of 120.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  11:40  
Okay, so 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 illustrations and lead sheets, your podcast packets, please print those, you have access to all of the podcast packets. And you should absolutely as I mentioned earlier, be using them following along with them as you listen to this podcast episode. And of course, you should be using them when practicing as well. And if you're listening to this podcast episode on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora and the list goes on and on. Then be sure to go directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com To download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links for the podcast packets within the show notes. Okay, and one final but extremely important note that I take us a few minutes to mention every episode. If you are thinking that today's lesson for Tea for Two, and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play. If you are thinking that this information is over your head, then I would say to you just sit back, relax, continue to listen, and continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by listening to this podcast episode. That's all you have to do. Just listen. All the skills all the skills that exist in the jazz world are over our heads when first introduced. And that is, that's precisely why the first step that we all need to take when being introduced to a new jazz panel skill is to just simply listen. And this is how we improve our musicianship do not shy away from conversations discussing foreign topics or using unfamiliar terms. Stepping outside of our musical comfort zone which we must always be doing spawns significant growth. And as you all have heard me say a million times over and over and over again. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out and downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back and listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn. The play will come in time as it always does. Alright, now that you have your jazz panel skills, podcast packets in front of you, I want you to grab the lead sheets packet and within that lead sheets packet you're going to find 11 different skills laid out for you 11 Different lead sheets. Let's just go through them to make sure you have all of them in your hands. Skill number one it's going to be lead sheet with all of the chord changes. Skill number two, a lead sheet with all of the harmonic function laid out. Skill sheet number three skills lead sheet number three has all your block voicings lead sheet number four your traditional shells, lead sheet, five contemporary shells, lead sheet six, your two-handed shapes. For T for to lead sheet seven, you have ascending scale motion, lead sheet, eight descending scale motion, lead sheet nine ascending arpeggio motion, and lead sheet 10 descending arpeggio motion. And then finally lead sheet 11 is our solo over T for two. So let's take a look at skill one lead sheet one, the chord changes your basic lead sheet for T for two, a couple of things I want to point out to you number one, we are in the key of A-flat major right only makes sense since we've done our A flat major harmonic workout and our E flat major melodic workout that we attack tune in the key of A-flat and a flat is the standard key for T for two, the form 40 for two is an A B, a C form. Now do not let the rehearsal letters on your lead sheet be confused with the form. So I have your lead sheet divided out into four sections there A, B, C, and D but those are rehearsal markings that they do not denote the form of the tune. The form is an A, B, a C form. So rehearsal letter, a rehearsal letter see, basically the same chord changes, letter B different and letter D different, right. So a B, a C, you'll notice right away

Dr. Bob Lawrence  17:06  
there's a lot of circular motion, a lot of two, five motion in T for two. In fact, we begin with 251 and measures one, two, and three, right we have a 2 5 2 5 resolving to the one and then we have classic the one chord go into our four and then down to our C minor our three chord, then go into a six. Sometimes there's a diminished chord in there, but I actually use the six chord there to create another two five relationship. At the end of the first eight measures measures seven and eight, notice nice diatonic motion, the A flat major going into the B flat minor to C minor to the D flat major, taking us to the very next section, our B section of the tune, which goes into the key of C major. And not only are we now in a different key, the key of C major but we have our two five relationships going again, right. So we have our D minor seven, the G sevens gone and resolves to our C major. And again, once again, we have our one, go into the four go into three going to the to the six with that C major go into the F seven to the E minor seven to the a seven. Okay, and again on that a seven a lot of times you'll see a diminished chord in there like an E flat diminished, but I use the A seven because I like that circle motion that C D, F and then e to the a. All right, so now look at letter C, we are back to our original A section, we're back to the key of A-flat and our 251 motion. And then finally, the last section you rehearsal letter D or R C section. It's a little different, right? We have some nice altered sounds in in that section that I've put in there. Again, there's I think in the original there's a lot of diminished mode emotion but I have elected not to use the diminished sounds except in one situation here at toward the end. But you have altered dominance that we have to contend with here and then the very last line of your lead sheet there you'll see that descending chromatic motion, the C minor, go into the B diminished finally to the B flat minor to the E flat seven to the A flat major to 251. So you know I pick T for two because tons of circle motion tons of two, five ones. I love the fact that we're start off in the key of A-flat, we dip our toes into the KSC and then we're back into the key of A-flat again for the second half of the piece. So there's a lot of different a lot of different little challenges to deal with contend with. but perfect song to test our A our key of A flat major harmonic workout in our key of A flat major melodic workout to test our voicings and to test our chord scale relationships. Okay, now let's look at lead sheet number two, this is the harmonic functionally cheap. So you'll see here, you have in your hand what I like to call the harmonic DNA of the piece. It's laid out using Roman numerals or harmonic function, all of it in relationship to the main key Center, which is the key of A flat major. I've mentioned this before in podcast episodes, when you really want to learn it to really understand a song harmonically so that you could easily play it in any key, then, a harmonic function lead sheet is an absolute essential tool that you must develop or having your hands when studying a song. Another reason that it's absolutely essential, other than just playing it in different keys, is it develops your ear. There is no better ear training than understanding a song using Roman numerals because you've now have established relationships within the chord changes the two chord go into the five chord go into the one your ear now hears that relationship and gets used to hearing that relationship. The one chord going to the four dominant going to the three minor go into the six dominant now your ear starts to hear what that sounds like.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  21:47  
If you only learn chord changes of a song like off a lead sheet like B flat minor seven to E flat seven to A flat major seven, you establish no relationship for the IRS to retain. In other words, B flat minor to E flat dominant A flat major means nothing to the IRS 251 does. So, I cannot stress to you enough the importance of playing T for two or any tune for that matter to play in the tune using a harmonic function lead sheet so that you number one, truly learn the harmonic DNA of the piece. And two, you do your ears a huge favor, and you start to retain these vital relationships, chord relationships progressions that you need to know not just conceptually but orally as well in order to successfully play jazz. Okay, so now let's grab lead sheet number three. Let's begin our exploration of our voicings applied to T for two. So lead sheet three, we have our have laid out here our basic four-note, block shapes, using root position first, second, and third inversion. Okay, you'll see a little note there at the top, next to rehearsal letter A, that voicings not intended to handle upper extensions or alterations. So in other words, when you get down to Section D, or you have an F seven sharp nine and you have an F sharp nine, these altered sounds or upper extensions of the sound, these voicings are not intended to handle so do not try to squeeze them into the voicing. So often students will try to play some kind of musical Twister with their fingers in order to get these upper extensions or alterations somehow within the four-note block shape. Do not do that we have other voicings that are going to be used to handle other extensions and alterations, these voicings are not intended to do that. Okay, so I want to bring the ensemble and I'm going to play T for two using these basic block four-note block shapes, route using root position first, second and third inversion first time through I'm just going to play the voicings as notated on your lead sheet. I'm not doing anything fancy with them or trying to do anything rhythmically with them or copying with them. I'm just playing the voicing so that you can hear them within a musical context within a tune, T for two, the second time through, I will then play melody over the top of these four-note shapes, these classic four-note shapes Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in two times through again a tempo of 120 T for two using four-note block shapes here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  27:27  
Pretty nice, right, pretty nice. I've mentioned this before that if this is where you are in your jazz journey playing these chords, playing your chords using these four-note, classic shapes, using root position first, second, third inversion if this is where you are, congratulations. It's fantastic. These voicings work, they get the job done, they sound beautiful. If you can play these shapes and put melodies over the top of them playing tunes, you are good to go you are on your way to becoming a very accomplished jazz pianist. Okay, let's look at lead sheet number four. I'm gonna do the same thing now with T for two. But now we're going to use traditional shell voicings, these are three-note shapes using 379 and 735. Structures through T for two. And once again, I'm going to play it T for two twice. First time through I'm going to play these traditional shells. In my left hand, I'm not going to be doing anything fancy. I'm just playing the shells so that you can hear them in context. And then the second time through I'll drop the melody in on top of the shell so you can hear them in the melody in relationship to these structures, these voicings Alright, so let's check out our traditional shells. Let's bring the ensemble back in and have a little fun with T four two here we go.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  31:04  
Classic sound, right a classic sound indeed. So now let's take it a step further, right we've done our traditional shells. Let's take a look at what I like to call our contemporary shells where we are building our voicings using primarily an interval of a fourth. If you notice what the traditional shells, we always had an interval of a third in there in our shapes and our voicings, in these quarter shapes, it's just the opposite our primary voice, our primary interval, is the fourth, a couple. I want to draw your attention to a couple of things on your lead sheet number one, you'll see that some of these shapes I have notated as two-note voicings instead of three-note voicings, and I do this so the hands can play nicely with one another when I'm playing the melody with the chords so that they coexist without clashing. Okay, so those are notated on your lead sheet. The other thing that I would like to mention is just pay attention to as you follow along and as you begin playing these shapes yourself for T for to, you know, the overlap. And of course, you've you've recognized this and you've picked up on this when doing the workouts as well, that a lot of these shapes, right, a lot of these shapes are the same shapes that are used for the different chords, right? So pay attention to that. It just creates a really nice minimal motion in your left hand when you're playing these when you're playing these type of voicings. In other words, the left hand actually works less. Right. So okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check out t for t using these contemporary choral shell voicings. Again, I'm going to play the first time through just the voicings, I'm not going to be doing anything fancy with them nothing rhythmically with them. I just want you to hear them in context. The second time through, I'm going to bring in the melody and place the melody on top of these shapes so you can hear that as well. So here we go t for two

Dr. Bob Lawrence  35:20  
I love it right I love these shapes. Now granted these shapes. If you're new to the quarter voicings, if you're new to these left-handed shell voicings, then they can get out they can be a little hard to get used to at first write because we're so used to hearing thirds, but I promise you stick with these shapes, they will become your favorite, I guarantee it. Okay, so now let's look at lead sheet number six. These are our two-handed voicings, our two-handed shapes. And, again, I have these laid out for you on the lead sheet as I play them. I'm going to bring the ensemble and I'm going to play them again the first time through just as notated on the lead sheet. I'm not doing anything fancy with these voicings, I just want you to hear the beauty of these voicings when played in context. A second time through I will play the melody but I'm going to use a trumpet sound so that you can hear these voicings kind of in a comping situation where they're playing these shapes behind an instrumentalist. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. Let's listen to T for two again to tempo is 120. Let's listen to these two-handed voicings and then the melody with the two-handed voicings as well here we got for two.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  38:55  
Nice really nice. Okay, so we've looked at our block voicings, we've looked at our traditional shell voicings, we've looked at our contemporary shell voicings and we have now looked at our two hand voicings as well. lead sheets, seven, lead sheet, eight, these are our ascending and descending chord scale relationships. And if you notice on these lead sheets, I don't have time to play through all of these today. But I want to have these in your hands. If you notice that I've gone through each chord in T for to laid out scale motion for you. And I've also notated the mode, the mode that I'm using that I'm playing or that I use when I play or when I improvise over T for two. Now why chord scale relationships are so important right the chord scale relationships denote which notes are The correct notes are the diatonic notes to use with the harmony with the court. You have to know the right notes before the wrong notes can be illuminated. There's no way to distinguish between or to identify the wrong notes if you do not know, the right notes, right. I've mentioned this before I had a teacher asked me one time, how do I teach, asked me the question, how do you teach students to play wrong notes, right? And I said, easy to teach them to play right notes right first. So the whole point, whenever you hear anybody talking about CT scan relationships, the whole point of that conversation is to illuminate for you the correct notes. So the wrong notes can eventually be identified. And you can use those wrong notes to create intentional tension. Right, that's very high-level thinking very high-level skill. So for right now, I really want you to think diatonically, just think completely right notes. And this is exactly what skill lead sheet seven and lead sheet eight is doing for you using ascending and descending scale motion to identify for you to illuminate for you the correct notes. And likewise, lead sheet nine and lead sheet 10 layout for you ascending and descending arpeggio motion. Okay, so these four lead sheets, lead sheet 789 and 10 are intended for some serious melodic work over the chord changes of t for two, I would practice my scales my arpeggios as we do in our melodic workouts, use various entry points. These are all laid out with an entry point of root position, but use your entry points of thirds, fifths, and sevens as well. Practicing your ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion. If you notice on the lead sheets, I have each of the chord changes isolated. Right, they all have their own individual line. In other words, what I'm trying to communicate is that isolate that chord and practice it over and over and over again with proper scale and proper arpeggio motion ascending and descending. All right, a lot to do there. Now let's take a look at lead sheet 11 This is my solo over T for two. Again using 100% diatonic motion diatonic notes, nothing outside of the chord scale relationship. I want you to draw your attention to a couple things look at a lot of eighth note rhythms that we've been focusing on in our key of A-flat melodic and harmonic workouts. We have classic dotted quarter eighth combinations, we have a lot of eighth notes that fall on the backside of the beat. Right on the end of one and of two and a three and four. We have eighth quarter eighth rhythms in this solo we have dotted eighth dotted

Dr. Bob Lawrence  43:27  
quarter rhythms to contend with as well. And we have tied notes in there to pay attention to and to navigate through as we play as well. We have ascending scale motion and descending scale motion, arpeggio motion ascending, descending, right, all the things that we've been talking about all the things that we've been studying, not only in the key of A-flat with our harmonic and melodic workouts, but from the beginning of the year with the KSC key of F k, a B flat and key of E flat as well. So this is going to be fun, right? I want to play T for two. I'm going to play it three times through now I'm going to play I'm going to state the melody first I'm gonna play the head. Then I'm going to play the solo. And then I'm gonna play the head again. All right, so let's bring me ensemble and let's have some fun here we got for two

Dr. Bob Lawrence  47:32  
Nice, really nice. Now, just like with any transcription that you have in your hands, remember I've mentioned this to you as well transcriptions are devices or tools to help lead you to your melodic ideas, right to your melodic ideas, what I don't want you to do is try to take the melodic ideas that I played in Tea for Two that you will be studying and applying, and somehow try to digest that in such a way that it becomes yours that you can now, you know, drop into any tune that you're happen to be playing. That's not how you should approach it. What you should do is approach, study this transcription, take any melodic motif that you are drawn to that you're attracted to practice that motif in such a way that it becomes a launchpad for you to discover your ideas based off of that idea, right. That's what transcriptions are supposed to do. They're supposed to be gateways to your musical creativity. Wow. Wow, it never fails. We always unpack a ton of information. Each and every podcast episode and today was certainly no exception. As we set out to discover learn in play T for two, as I tried to do with every tune study that we do, I want to model for you how to begin truly learning a tune and how to connect what and how you are practicing to an actual piece of music. In other words, how do the jazz piano skills you're practicing translate to real plane and of course, I'm saying real plane with air quotes. And my tongue in cheek because a real plane is actually having a command of jazz piano skills, which in turn, allows you to eventually add a melody, melody to those skills. And once we add a melody to our jazz piano skills, we give it a fancy name like T for two. We call it a tune. And now everyone's happy, you're happy because you're playing a tune, and the listeners are happy because they're hearing it too. But they are jazz piano skills, no doubt about it. So I want you to think about this if you are unable to apply your practice approach To the learning of a tune, like we did today, I would say that you need to seriously seriously examine the what why, and how of your practicing. Another way of saying this is, if in the tunes you are playing, you do not see the jazz piano skills you are practicing, then you have a disconnect between the two, which is not good. You've heard me say this many times on many different occasions, that harmony and melody are one and the same. And indeed they are. I can also say that jazz piano skills and tunes are one and the same, which indeed they are. And what I am saying is that if you do not practice jazz piano skills, then you will not be able to successfully play tunes. I will say that again. If you do not practice jazz piano skills, then you will not be able to successfully play tunes. Hopefully, you're beginning to see that jazz piano skills are tunes and tunes are jazz piano skills. The only difference one has a fancy name like T for two, and one does not. So if you are beginning to see jazz piano skills as tunes and tunes as jazz piano skills, then you are right. On track, you are on the correct path. For sure. I've said this in previous podcast episodes and I, especially since the beginning of the year. And I want to stress it again today that if you hang in with me hang in there with me this year, you're going to experience a ton of jazz piano growth. Here we're going to love where you are musically a year from now, as we navigate through all 12 keys. Once again, I want to encourage you to use your podcast packets, the illustrations, and the lead sheets to guide you. Right, you've heard me say this over and over again too. I repeat myself a lot on a conceptual understanding determines your physical development. So the time that you invest in studying and mapping out your voicings and ascending descending scale and arpeggio motion from various entry points is time very well spent the return on your investment

Dr. Bob Lawrence  52:21  
cannot be adequately expressed. As always be patient, right be patient developing mature professional jazz panel skills takes time as I know you know, begin structuring your practicing after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode and you will begin to see feel and hear your progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring tea for to be insightful and of course to be very beneficial. And don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass. That's 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring tea for to in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Once again, be sure to use those educational podcast packets, your illustrations, your lead sheets, your play alongs for this podcast lesson, and also be sure to dive into the jazz piano skills courses to maximize your musical growth. always made sure you are an active participant of the jazz piano skills community. Right? Make that a habit. Get out there, get involved, contribute to the various forums, meet some new jazz piano friends, you'll love it. As always, you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 by email Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com. That's drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com or by SpeakPipe, which has a handy nifty little widget found throughout the jazz piano skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the classic jazz tea for to and most of all, have fun as you discover, learn, and play jazz