What a Difference a Day Makes, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.738)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Here we are again, week three of the month of March, 2025. And of course, week three of every month is an exciting week. It's exciting because we dedicate ourselves to improving our jazz improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of a tune.

followed up in week two with a melodic analysis, and week three this week, we work on developing our improvisation skills. Our harmonic analysis of what a difference a day makes, the timeless classic, you know, we do this with every tune. We explored the form of what a difference a day makes, the changes, the harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course the voicings, the left hand shell voicings, as well as the two-handed structures.

Our Melodic Skills Study looks at lyrics, melody, fingerings, phrases, melodic treatments, and today our improvisation will challenge our ability to create melodic lines using cyclical quadruplets. Whoa, that's a big word. We'll talk about cyclical quadruplets here in a moment, but that's what we are going to be studying to do. You know, our three-week study

that we do every month, right? Our harmonic analysis of a tune, melodic analysis, our improvisation development is pretty thorough and of course very beneficial. and on top of all that, I keep forgetting we have a weekly rhythm challenge that we have to deal with. A challenge that has us doing some transcribing, some transposing, and some transforming of our improvisation of our approach to melodic playing. Of course, the study and practicing of

These essential jazz piano skills must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that actually simplifies music conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing physical capabilities. Right? Must be simple upstairs if it's going to come out downstairs. Now we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure all that we do musically, conceptually, physically

Dr. Bob Lawrence (03:00.493)
plugs into and adheres to the seven facts of music. And what are these seven facts? Well, we've been pounding them pretty heavy since the start of the year, but let's go through it again. Number one, music is the production of sound, major, dominant, minor, half diminished, diminished, and of course, silence. Number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. We have shapes, harmonic shapes, melodic shapes.

Fact number three, the shapes of harmony are called chords or voicings. Fact number four, the shapes of melody are called scales and arpeggios. Fact number five, when playing our arpeggios, when playing our scales, we are moving in one of two directions. We only have two options, right? We can either go up or we can come down. That's it. Fact number six, we have to camouflage those scales and arpeggios, right, with tension.

chromaticism. And we do that because of fact number seven. Fact number seven is we want to make musical facts one through six interesting. So how do we do that? We add rhythm. Right? Those are the seven facts. And everything, everything that we do must be centered around these seven musical facts. Right? And we do that using our three distinct tune

phases, right, or stages of learning, our harmonic analysis and melodic analysis and our improvisation development. And that course, I just mentioned it this year, we've added an emphasis to each of these phases, educational phases, learning phases, with a focus on fact number seven, which is rhythm. Now again, each phase, right, moving forward, each phase incorporates a rhythm challenge that will be that I post

in the private jazz piano skills community. The harmonic rhythm challenge, week one, always involves some kind of rhythmic transcribing to improve our comping skills. And the melodic rhythm challenge, week two, always involves transposing a motif to various key centers. And our improvisation rhythm challenge, like today, week three, stretches arpeggio or scale motion.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:28.831)
or both like we will be doing today with our cyclical quadruplets through various segments of the sound, thus truly transforming our improvisation by improving our vocabulary. And this is why more than ever, I'm excited about this year. We have an amazing, educationally sound three tier, three phase approach that is

formulated from a clear understanding of the seven facts of music. The seven facts needed to illuminate essential jazz piano skills, which are needed to successfully discover, learn, and play tunes. Discover, learn, and play jazz. So today, we tackle improvisation development using the standard, what a difference a day makes.

So you're going to discover even more intimately what a difference a day makes. You're going to learn how to use cyclical quadruplets to improve our ability to see fragments of chord scale relationships using harmonic movement found within what a difference a day makes. And you're going to play a series of exercises designed to help you melodically play through the changes

of what a difference a day makes. And of course, you're going to be given a rhythm challenge to develop your improvisation skills. 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 are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, exploring what a difference a day makes improvisationally to be very beneficial.

But before we get started, want to, as I always do, welcome the first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. And if you are new to Jazz Piano Skills, if you're listening to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast for the very first time, welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Now, your membership has a ton of benefits. Number one, it keeps Jazz Piano Skills, the podcast, 100 % ad free, which has been my goal from day one.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:57.101)
100 % educational content, no ads, zero. Now, additionally, your membership grants you the following perks. Number one, you actually receive premium podcast content. In other words, you get to hear the entire podcast episode. The first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. We deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda, we look at the lesson rationale.

100 % free. The second half, premium content for members only. The lesson content is presented. The demonstrations are available as well as your ability to explore, download and explore the podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the backing tracks or play alongs that I developed for every weekly podcast episode so that you get the most out of every podcast episode.

And course, you also get the weekly rhythm assignment as well. The podcast packets I already mentioned, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, you want to have this material in your hands when listening to the podcast. And you want to have this material, of course, sitting on your piano when practicing. You also as a Jazz Piano Skills member have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive, interactive, self-paced and sequential courses

with video demonstrations and interactive learning media that will be very beneficial in your educational development. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have a reserved seat in the weekly master classes. I hold a master class every week, live on Thursday evenings at 8pm Central Standard Time. Now know that's not the best time for everybody around the world. However, all the master classes are recorded.

and you have access to the video and the audio file of those classes to watch at your convenience or to rewatch at your convenience. And finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional support. There are variety of ways to reach out and get a hold of me through the Jazz Panel Skills website. You can do it either through the SpeakPipe widget, there's a web form,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:25.629)
My office number, I always give out at the end of every podcast that you can contact me here through the Dallas School of Music. And of course, if you're old school like me, hey, you can send me an email. That's a great way to reach me as well. All of these amazing privileges, these perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check them all out at jazzpiano skills.com. And of course, become a member to not only enjoy the premium podcast content, but all of the other privileges that I just

Of course, if you get to the website, you're poking around, you have some questions, please contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you, help you in any way that I can and answer all of your questions. Speaking of questions, we are on to the question of the week. And our question of week this week comes from Casey Strickland. Casey Strickland living in Tacoma, Washington. And Casey wants to know,

When reading lead sheets, I've noticed chords are notated a variety of different ways. I have a handle on most of the variations, but I am confused as to why a chord one time is labeled as a sharp chord, and another time it is labeled as a flat chord. For example, I see F sharp seven in one song and G flat seven in another song. I don't know.

why this bothers me, but it does. These are the same cord. Yeah, these are the same cord, but they are labeled differently. Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Does this matter or can cords be labeled either way as a flat or sharp cord? Thanks for your help. Wow. Fantastic question, Casey. And the answer to your question is yes.

It matters. It matters big time. Some people might not think it matters, but it does. The proper labeling of a chord is determined by how it is functioning and functioning. In other words, the key from which it comes. Okay, so let's go through a few examples. Okay, C sharp minor seven or D flat minor seven.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:54.903)
which one is correct. The chord is C sharp minor seven, always. Any labeling of this chord as D flat minor seven, which I'm sure you've seen in lead sheets, is wrong. It's just flat out wrong. And here's why. The major scale produces seven chords, all right? Seven notes in a major scale and a chord is constructed from each one.

of the notes. So each major scale produces seven chords. Some of these chords are major chords. Some are minor chords. One is a dominant chord and one is a half diminished chord. Now, I'm not going to get into the music theory as to what makes a major chord a major chord and what makes a minor chord a minor chord and so on. But I will tell you that first the first chord produced by a major scale is a major chord.

The second chord is a minor chord. The third chord is a minor chord. The fourth chord is a major. The fifth chord is a dominant chord. The sixth chord is a minor. And the seventh chord is a half diminished. So our C sharp minor seven is found in three different major scales, right? Because major scale produces

minor chords. That therefore C sharp minor produce is found in three different major scales. It is the second chord in the B major scale, it is the third chord in the A major scale, and it is the sixth chord in the E major scale. Now what do all three of these scales have in common?

They are all spelled using sharps, not flats. Sharps. B major scale. B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp, A sharp. A major scale. A, B, C sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp. E major scale. E, F sharp, G sharp, A, B, C sharp, D sharp. What I am saying here is that it is impossible

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:15.127)
for a sharp scale like B, A, and E to produce a flat chord. Let me say that again. It's impossible for a sharp scale like B major, A major, E major to produce a chord that is labeled as a flat, a flat chord.

Therefore there is no such thing as D flat minor 7 the chord it does not exist It doesn't exist So Casey if you are seeing a D flat minor 7 notated in a song that you are playing Please know that it is wrong Right it is labeled incorrectly I would suggest scratching it out and writing it in the correct way C sharp minor 7

You want to see the chord labeled correctly because this is going to help, right? This is going to help you think of the chord in relationship to the scale from which it comes. Likewise, there is no such thing as a G flat dominant seven chord. Why? Because G flat F sharp is the fifth chord in the key of

B major, which is a sharp key, therefore it's F sharp dominant seven, because G flat seven doesn't exist. It's just not real. Okay, even if you see it labeled G flat seven, it's labeled incorrectly because it comes from the key of B, which is a sharp key. Now, with all that being said, there are chords that can be labeled either way, depending on how it is functioning.

In other words, what key center is being played? For example, D sharp minor seven or E flat minor seven? Which one is it? Well, it can be both. Right now, again, minor chords are the second, third, and sixth chord of any major scale. Now, knowing this, we can take the note D sharp E flat, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:35.359)
and we can determine that it is found in the keys of D flat major, B major, and E major. Right? It is the two chord from the coming from the key of D flat major. And therefore it should be labeled as E flat minor seven, because it's coming from D flat major, E flat minor seven coming from D flat major. If it's the three chord coming from the key of B major, well, we already determined that B major is spelled using sharps.

then it should be labeled D sharp minor seven, because that's the key center from which it is functioning. And if it is the sixth chord coming from the key of G flat, well, then it's E flat minor seven, because G flat major is a flat key. Right? Bottom line, bottom line, all chords should be labeled in accordance with the major scale or key center.

from which they come. This is so important from an improvisation standpoint because you want to be thinking of the chord of the sound in relation to the scale from which it comes. This is called having the correct chord scale relationship and you need to know the correct chord scale relationship so that you know the correct notes to draw from

when improvising. So Casey, yes, it matters how a chord is labeled. It's a big deal. It's a really big deal. Some people will make light of it, but it's not. It's a big deal. You know, a great exercise, this would be a great exercise for you to do. This is a great exercise for everyone to do is to take all 60 chords and label them correctly based

based on the proper understanding of chord scale relationships. I'll do the first chord family for you. So grab a piece of paper and a pencil and make some notes here if you can. Right? So let's look at G flat major or F sharp major, G flat seven or F sharp seven, G flat minor or F sharp minor, G flat half diminished or F sharp half diminished, G flat diminished or

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:02.506)
F sharp diminished. Let's make some decisions. Here we go. Okay, G flat major 7 or F sharp major 7. I'm going to go with G flat major. Technically, it could be either. It could go either way, but I'm going to go with G flat major because I tend to see A flat minor 7, the two chord, and D flat 7, the dominant D flat 7, the five chord.

more frequently in lead sheets than I see G sharp minor 7 or C sharp 7. Plus, on top of all that, I'd much rather think in the key of G flat instead of F sharp major, right? I'd rather think in G flat major. So G flat major or F sharp major, I'm going with G flat major 7. Now, the rest of them are not that flexible or debatable. G flat 7 or F sharp 7? Easy.

Now and forever it's F sharp seven. We've already talked about this. Why F sharp is the five of the note B, B as a sharp key debate over F sharp seven. If you see it as G flat seven and you will, you'll see it as G flat seven. Just know that it's wrong. You should be thinking in the key of B cause F sharp seven is the five chord in the key coming from the key of B. Okay. G flat minor seven or F sharp minor seven. Again, easy.

Now and forever, it's F sharp minor seven. Why? Because F sharp is the two coming from the key of E, which is a sharp key. F sharp is the three coming from the key of D, another sharp key. And F sharp is the six of A yet another sharp key. Again, debate over F sharp minor seven now and forever. Okay.

Okay, G flat half diminished or F sharp half diminished. Again, now and forever it's F sharp half diminished. Why? Because F sharp is the seven of the note G. G of course is a sharp key. Again, debate over. F sharp half diminished forever. Okay, and finally G flat diminished or F sharp diminished.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:27.108)
Now, no doubt you will see both of these notated in lead sheets, but just because you see it both ways does not make either option correct, right? It's not an either or. I'm going to go with F sharp diminished because again, F sharp is the 7th of G and the G harmonic minor scale, the scale from which the diminished chord originates,

right, is spelled G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F sharp. So for me, again, debate over F sharp, diminished seven, now and forever. All right, so we just completed the G flat, F sharp family. Like I said, good exercise would be to do this for the remaining 11 families. It's a great exercise to think through these chord scale relationships.

so that you know the correct way to not only, not only should you be seeing the chord labeled, but the correct way in which you should be thinking about that chord in relationship to the scale from which it comes. So Casey, it does matter. Yep. It bugs. You said it bugs you and it should, because it matters. Should be correct. And I've said it many times in many podcast episodes, all chords.

come from somewhere. Just think about that for a second. All chords come from somewhere they don't exist. They don't enjoy autonomy, they don't exist on their own. They all come from somewhere. And you need to know the somewhere from which the chord comes in order to understand the correct way to notate the chord. And even more importantly, the correct way to think about the chord, especially if you hope to develop your improvisation skills.

as of course all jazz musicians do. Wow, that was a lot quickly. Casey, great question, and I hope my answer helps clear up any misconceptions that you may have regarding the proper labeling of chords. So happy that you submitted that question because it's a great one. And as always, if more clarification is needed, please let me know.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:51.896)
I'm happy to dig a little deeper with you on this topic and have some fun with it. So let me know. All right, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play what a difference a day makes. Improvisation development. All right, I do it every week of every month. It's worth doing. It's worth going over. It's my approach to learning a tune. And again,

genre makes no difference. I don't care whether it's a rock tune, a jazz tune, pop, country, folk, R &B, whatever makes no difference. I approach it the same way. Number one, as always, listen. I listen to a variety of artists, not just jazz artists. Any tune I want to listen to as many artists from as many genres as possible to really appreciate the creativity that artists are bringing to the table when playing.

the tune that I am interested in learning. So I will listen to folks from all genres. I will listen to vocalists, instrumentalists, and pianists, everyone. Okay, that's number one. Number two, I then turn my attention to harmonic analysis. Always lock in on the form, the changes, the function, common movement, voicings found within the tune. Then I turn my attention to melodic development.

I will transcribe the melody, in other words, learn it by ear. I will make note of the phrases, the target notes of those phrases, the entry and destination points of each of those phrases. I will explore various treatments, and I typically turn to, you know, the big three, the standard treatments that are found within the jazz realm. You know, a ballad, some Latin or bossa groove, and the traditional swing groove. And then finally, once I have a handle on my

harmonic skills, my melodic skills. I then turn my attention to improvisation and I study the chord scale relationships just like I got done talking about here with the question of the week. And then I will look at various ways to move through that sound using chromaticism tension. I like to explore sound the chords within the tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:15.696)
from the root to the 13th, the entire sound. So it's a pretty thorough, pretty complete approach from listening to harmonic analysis and skill development, melodic analysis and skill development, and then of course improvisation development as well. Right? So this week, right, we've already done our harmonic analysis for what a difference a day makes. We've already done our melodic analysis for what a difference a day makes. So guess what?

today we turn our attention to improvisation. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to definitive recordings of what a difference a day makes, of course. Number two, we will, in an effort to not only understand chord scale relationships, but to actually see the chord scale relationships, we will construct and play cyclical quadruplets over the changes.

of what a difference a day makes. And number three, we will wrap things up with a rhythm challenge that will help us develop our improvisation vocabulary using chord scale relationships, fragments, cyclical quadruplets that move through the entire sound. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to

download and print your podcast packets. These are again, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the backing tracks, the play alongs that you as a member, you grant your access to this content, right? So I want you to take a minute right now. Grab your podcast packets, the illustrations, lead sheets and play alongs. All right.

All right, so now that you have your podcast packets in your hands, I want you to grab your lead sheets and you should have eight, you should have eight lead sheets in your podcast packet. Okay. So let's just kind of talk through these quickly. Lead sheet one is an example of applying cyclical quadruplets

Dr. Bob Lawrence (29:31.586)
a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. Okay? Lead Sheet 2, right? So Lead Sheet 1 is an example. Lead Sheet 2 is an exercise requiring you to apply cyclical quadruplets to a melodic line, again moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. Lead Sheet 3 is an example of applying another cyclical quadruplet

to a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. And of course, then lead sheet four is an exercise requiring you to apply the very same cyclical quadruplets to a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. Lead sheet five, we're back to an example. I give you an example of applying yet another cyclical quadruplet to a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. And lead sheet six,

is the exercise requiring you to apply that cyclical quadruplet to a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a Difference of Day makes. And of course then lead sheet seven is an example of the final cyclical quadruplet that moves through a melodic line over the changes of what Difference of Day makes. And of course that's going to be followed up lead sheet eight with an exercise requiring you

to apply the cyclical quadruplet to a melodic line moving through the chord changes of what a difference a day makes. We're going to go through these lead sheets here in a minute in greater detail, but as you can see, we have a ton to dissect today, a ton to go through, so we need to get busy. Now, typically at this time, I would in the past play a definitive recording of our tune, of what a difference a day makes, but this year we've changed up the format, of course.

I place my listening suggestions, plural, in the Jazz Panel Skills Community forums, right? And again, there are a couple reasons for this. Number one, I want to be able to suggest more than one tune to check out, right? And number two, I want to preserve as much time as possible for educational content in the podcast. want education in the podcast. Okay. So for the listening, I want you to head over to the community.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (31:58.388)
log into your account, check out the community. There's a form there with the listening list that you can easily access. Spend a little time listening to the various recordings. And of course, I have artists coming from all genres performing this great timeless classic, What a Difference a Day Makes. Once you have listened to my recommended recordings, grab those lead sheets, right? Grab lead sheet number one. Let's take a look.

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