Presented by Dr. Bob Lawrence

Jazz Piano Skills
https://www.jazzpianoskills.com

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Link to Rhythm Exercise Demonstrated in Video
https://www.jazzpianoskills.store/youtube/rhythm-exercises.pdf

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Keywords
music education, jazz piano, scale practice, ear training, improvisation, harmony, melody, practice techniques, music theory, jazz skills

Summary
In this conversation, Dr. Bob Lawrence emphasizes the importance of rethinking traditional scale practice in music education, particularly for jazz piano. He advocates for practicing scales with a focus on harmonic and melodic representation, encouraging musicians to engage their ears and understand the context of the sounds they are playing. By shifting the entry and destination points of scales, musicians can enhance their listening skills and improve their improvisation techniques. Dr. Lawrence also highlights the significance of using backing tracks or metronomes to create a sense of time in practice, ultimately aiming to foster a deeper connection with music.

Takeaways
Stop practicing scales from Do to Do.
Engage your ear while practicing scales.
Use harmonic and melodic representations of sound.
Focus on root to seventh for scale practice.
All sounds can be represented harmonically and melodically.
Make time audible in your practice.
Improvisation should be based on sound understanding.
Jazz Piano Skills is for all instrumentalists.

Transcript
Please stop practicing scales from Do to Do. One octave, right? Stop this.
several reasons for that. Number one, it disengages the ear, right? The ear keeps hearing this. And if the ears could speak, the ears would say, what is it that you want us, what are we listening for? What is it that you want us to retain? We just keep hearing Do and Do. Right? Always have, when you practice scales, your entry point and your destination point being different. Right? Now your ears have something to listen for So, I'm going to demonstrate for you what I mean by this. If I'm practicing a C major scale, I like to play a simple C major7 chord in the left hand, and I'll play the C major scale from my entry point being the root to my destination point being the 7th. I'm clearly hearing a major seven sound, right? I have that chord, my scale matches what I'm playing here with harmony. My harmonic representation of the sound, my melodic representation of the sound are the same. Look what happens when you go to the dominant and check out what your ears do. big difference. Minor. Half Diminish. Five primary sounds of music. Major, dominant, minor, half diminished, diminished, played harmonically, played melodically. Harmonically and melodically. All sounds can be represented harmonically and melodically. That's how you should be thinking about it and that's how you should play it, right? Play the sound harmonically in your left hand as a chord. Play the sound melodically in your right hand as a scale. Now I would recommend playing always with some kind of backing track, some kind of tool to help you keep time, track time, make time audible. It doesn't have to be a backing track. It can be a drum machine or it can be a metronome. Go old school. That's how I grew up, metronome, right? But I'm gonna demonstrate today using a backing track. Check this out, I'm gonna play a Bossa groove. So I want to hear this in the context of time, these sounds, harmonically and melodically in time. Major, now dominant. There you go. You know what? Before you even begin to think about improvising, you should be playing the sounds, major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, and diminished. You should be playing them melodically as a scale, and you should be playing them from root to seven, right? Later on, we'll talk about playing it from the third to the ninth, fifth to the 11th, seventh to the 13th. But right now focus on root, goal number one, root to seven, right? But stop playing your scales from root to root. Doesn't do any favors for the ears, okay? If you have any questions, let me know. I'm happy to help. I'll put my contact information is below that you can reach out to me. Also, if you're not a member of Jazz Piano Skills, I'd invite you to join. It's not just for pianists. All the skills that we deal with really are for all instrumentalists. I'm just a piano player, so I call it Jazz Piano Skills. So check it all out at JazzPianoSkills.com. I actually am including a coupon code down below as well if you decide to join for some membership savings. There you have it. Stop practicing scales from do to do. And if you have questions, let me know. Happy to help you discover learn, and play Jazz Piano.