A Beautiful Friendship, Harmonic Analysis

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.494)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. So here we are again, the start of a new month. And as all of you regular jazz piano skills listeners know, the start of a new month means we begin studying a new tune. But as I like to say, a new tune, but the same familiar and comfortable approach. How awesome is that?

an approach that is thorough, it's organized, it's structured, it's logical, and skill-centric. Hence the name of the podcast, Jazz Piano Skills. Right? So, you know, all of this is needed for studying and learning a tune correctly. And skill-centric is without question the key. And here's why. Because that's exactly what tunes expect us to be.

right? Those of you listening that have been through our monthly process can attest to the fact that it does not take very long when trying to learn a tune, the Jazz Piano Skills way to discover the skills needing some more attention, right? Discovering the skills that are needed to successfully play a tune. You know, tunes have a funny way of illuminating our weaknesses.

very, very quickly. So a logical question is, well, what are the essential skills needed to play tunes? And it's a question that we all should be able to answer. And hopefully all of you can by now. You should have no problem answering the question because we answer it every month as we execute our three week tune study. And not only do we answer this

very important question. We organize our answer into three camps. We have our harmony camp, a melody camp, and improvisation camp. When we're studying harmony, we're looking at our ability to determine form, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course to play the sounds of music using the various voicings, our blocks, our

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59.713)
traditional and contemporary shell voicings as well as our two handed structures. When we are in the melody camp, we are testing our ability to melody, determine and properly articulate melodies, phrases, recognize target notes within those phrases and be able to then apply our articulation of the melody using various treatments. All of this requires

some pretty mature technique, no question. And then finally, when we visit our improvisation camp, which we will do in a couple weeks, we're testing our ability to formulate and explore rhythmic and melodic patterns in time, based of course on proper chord scale relationships. So the bottom line is it really it makes no difference what tune you want to play. If you are not capable of executing the essential jazz piano skills found

within each of these camps, harmony, melody, improvisation, then you're going to have a very difficult time playing tunes. That is why at Jazz Piano Skills, we use tunes to illuminate and validate the skills needed to play jazz piano. And then we attack those skills, right? It's not really about the tune. It's really about the skills. We start with a new tune every month, simply to gain a new perspective on how well

we are developing the essential jazz panel skills. Different tunes, same skills, new perspective. These camps, harmony, melody, improvisation, allow us to organize and methodically practice these essential jazz panel skills. And that is the key, right? How do we practice? Once we know and have organized the essential jazz skills, we need to know how to properly practice the skills.

Proper practicing begins with a proper conceptual understanding of music. And there is no way you can have a proper understanding of music until you can, with confidence, verbally articulate what music is the study of. And this is precisely why I stress it over and over and over again. Every single week, of every single month, of every single year,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:26.688)
the seven facts of music. It's these seven facts that give us a very clear understanding of what music is. So as all of you know, we take a minute every week to present the seven musical facts. So say it along with me. Fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence. Fact number two, sound, the primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished.

They're produced harmonically and melodically. Fact number three, harmonic shapes are chords or voicings. Fact number four, melodic shapes are arpeggios and scales, which are the melodies. Fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we can only move in one of two directions, up or down. And fact number six, we decorate or we camouflage our arpeggios and our scales with tension.

notes that fall outside of the key, or often referred to as chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make all of this facts number one through six interesting, we add rhythm. Everything we do, everything we do should be able to be plugged in to the seven facts of music. I've stressed it in every episode since the beginning of the year that if you are unable, if you are

unable to see essential jazz panel skills framed by the seven facts of music, then there is a very high probability that you are not accomplishing what you think you are accomplishing when practicing. Why? Because you have a skewed understanding of what music is and how music works. And if you have a skewed understanding, then your practice is skewed.

then you're not accomplishing what you think you're accomplishing. It's that simple. Here at Jazz Piano Skills, we prevent that from happening. We take an essential skill, we examine it harmonically, melodically, and then use it to develop our jazz skills, our improvisation abilities through the study of rhythmic melodic patterns. So with all that being said, today, we continue our study of essential jazz skills.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:51.692)
organized into three camps harmony, melody, improvisation using another classic jazz standard. And as well, as we always do, we will begin with a harmonic analysis. So today, you're going to discover the 1956 standard by Donald Kahn and Stanley Stein, a beautiful friendship, you are going to learn

the form the chord changes harmonic function for a beautiful friendship and you're going to play a beautiful friendship using my suggested voicings. We will also look at common harmonic movement, common harmonic progressions for ear training development. So as I 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 a beautiful friendship to be very beneficial. But before digging in, want to as I always do, I want to welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're new to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, if you're new to the Jazz Piano Skills website, well welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Now your membership grants you many perks. Number one,

As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to premium podcast content, which means that you get to listen to the entire episode. The first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, the educational agenda, the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for members only lesson content is presented as well as demonstrations. Members also have access to the

podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs or backing tracks that are designed and developed for every weekly podcast episode. So important to have this material in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course, to have this material sitting on your piano or on your music stand when practicing throughout the week. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you also have access to the online Jazz Piano Skills courses. These are

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:11.436)
comprehensive, sound-based, self-paced, and sequential courses focusing on harmonic, melodic, and improvisation development. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have a reserved seat in my online weekly masterclass, which is held every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. Central Time. And I know many of you have let me know that this is not a great time for everyone around the world, but it's no big deal.

the master classes are recorded so you can watch the class at your convenience and as often as you wish. And then finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, have access to the online private Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of episode specific forums, general jazz forums. It's a great place to meet new folks, help folks get provide assistance and feedback and also receive some assistance.

and feedback as well. again, you have access to that as a member. And then finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional support. You can access this support through the Jazz Piano Skills website. There's a speak pipe button on the homepage where you can send me a message. There's a web form that you can fill out. You can also call my number here at the Dallas School of Music and talk to me on the phone.

or if you're old school, you can send an email. anyway, lot of perks to becoming a Jazz Panel Skills member. So check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com. And of course, if you have any questions, once you're on the site, you're poking around, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have regarding membership and the various perks and services that you will receive. So do not be bashful, give me a call or reach out to me.

via email or through the web form or speak pipe. All right. Okay, I also want to encourage everyone to subscribe to my YouTube channel, the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. I'm producing educational content video that I think you'll be that you will find to be very helpful in your jazz journey. I continue to populate a variety of playlists or weekly challenges that go out and quick tips, as well as jazz talks.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:39.486)
So again, take a moment if you haven't already done done so please subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills website so that you are notified every time a new video is released. Alright, so let's move on to the question of the week and this week's question comes from Dave Reynolds living in Allentown, Pennsylvania. And Dave writes, Hi, Dr. Lawrence, I recently joined Jazz Panel Skills.

and have quickly discovered how much there is to learn. I have so many questions. I'm not sure which ones to ask first. That's funny. But we got time, You stress the importance of knowing harmony. And I am wondering what you believe is the best and most effective way to approach studying and practicing harmony. Thanks for taking

the time to answer my question. And thank you for the excellent Jazz Piano Skills podcast and resources. Well, David, first of all, thank you for your kind words. And welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. Great question. And I appreciate you asking it. The best and most effective way to approach studying and practicing harmony. Wow.

Let me see if I can unpack this in a way that makes sense first and foremost conceptually, then physically. To begin, let's define harmony.

What is it? Well,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:23.88)
put simply, inaccurately, harmony is the sound of two or more notes played together. Harmony is the sound of two or more notes played together. So if you sit at the piano, and you press down any two notes at the same time, guess what? You're playing harmony. Now, what you play

may be considered by some as good harmony, while others may find themselves squinching their eyes, tilting their head and proclaiming ouch. That sounds awful. Right. So just because you hit two notes together, I mean, it is harmony. Right. Now, with that being said, we could spend hours diving into thoughts about what constitutes good harmony versus bad harmony, but

that can be a topic for discussion another day. The main thing to understand is that harmony is the sound of two or more more notes played together. So okay.

So let's talk about the best and most effective way to approach the studying and practicing of harmony from a jazz perspective. All right, the first thing I would encourage you to think about David is this. Musical sound is produced harmonically and melodically.

And harmony and melody are the same thing.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:13.032)
Okay, let me say that again. Musical sound is produced harmonically and melodically and harmony and melody are the same thing. This is really important. Harmony is the solid form of sound and melody is the liquid form of sound. So just as ice and water

are the same thing in different forms. The same can be said about harmony and melody. They are the same thing in different forms. Harmony is our solid and melody is our liquid. So David, if you begin your study of harmony with this premise in mind, then your study of harmony is going to be much more meaningful and applicable.

Now, the second thing I would encourage you to think about is this. Each of our primary musical sounds, major, dominant, minor, half diminished, consists of seven notes. In other words, to play any primary musical sound in its entirety harmonically, you need to play

seven notes. And if you want any primary musical sound, if you want to play any primary musical sound melodically in its entirety, guess what? You need to play seven notes, the same seven notes. They're just organized differently, right? So all seven notes played together harmonically is called a chord. Right? So if I take C minor,

There's the entire C minor sound. Seven notes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Or root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth. Now if I play all seven notes played sequentially or melodically, right, it's called an arpeggio or scale. So same seven notes melodically. One, two, three.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (18:41.096)
right? 1234567. That's an arpeggio. Or I can play seven notes sequentially like a scale. 1234567. So armed with this understanding, David, you begin to see harmony as a chord, arpeggio or scale. It's all three. I want to say that again, too, because that's really important. With armed with this understanding,

right? It's so important. The goal is to see when we talk about harmony, we see harmony as a chord, as an arpeggio, or a scale. It's all three. Therefore, it is important to know that the study of harmony is the study of chords, arpeggios, and scales. This is a complete understanding of what harmony is. And as I like to say, I say it a lot,

that your conceptual understanding is what drives your physical development. So if your conceptual understanding of harmony is incomplete, so will your practicing of harmony be incomplete, which is a nice way of saying it's inadequate. And if your practicing is inadequate, so will your development as a jazz musician or jazz pianist be inadequate?

Therefore, it is really, really important to have a complete picture of what harmony is before you begin strategically assembling a practice approach or agenda. Now, the third thing I would encourage you to think about is this.

Now that you have a complete understanding of what harmony is, then your practicing approach to harmony must include melody. Remember, they're the same thing, right? Just in different forms. So your harmony practice focuses on chords, voicings, and your melody practice focuses on ascending and descending arpeggios and scales, all of them.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:02.694)
chords, arpeggios, scales, harmony, equals harmony, right? You need to devote a great deal of energy mentally and physically to bring these three musical skills, chords, arpeggios, and scales, skills that are often taught as separate entities, right? We want to bring them together under one canopy called harmony.

So David, begin with paper practice, which develops your conceptual understanding, right? You need to be able to answer the following questions. These two questions. Number one, can I spell the 60 chords, arpeggios produced from the primary sounds major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished from the root?

to the 13th, all seven notes, can I spell all 60 chords or arpeggios from root to 13th major dominant minor half diminished and diminished? Question number two, can I spell the 60 scales produced from the primary sounds major dominant minor half diminished and diminished from the root to the seventh again, all seven notes?

Now time spent, right? Time spent doing paper practice so that you can answer both of those questions with a resounding yes for, for both, right? That is time very well spent. And once you can, once you can do that, you will see the massive impact it has on your study and practicing

of voicings, as well as your technique study and practicing your arpeggios and scales. All again, under the canopy and understanding of harmony. So David, wow, I hope this quick, very quick and macro answer to your question of what is the best and most effective way to approach studying and practicing harmony. I hope it's helpful.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:29.306)
I cannot stress enough how important it is to see harmony and melody as one, realizing that harmonic shapes in their entirety consist of seven notes and melodic shapes in their entirety consist of the same seven notes. Once you do have this understanding, you can successfully begin practicing

harmonic and melodic fragments commonly extracted from the entire harmonic and melodic sounds, major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, and diminished, you can practice these harmonic fragments that jazz musicians use while performing.

that that is it's well that is its own question quite honestly that needs to be answered as well but first things first your study of harmony begins with intellectually knowing chords arpeggios and scales

better known as and simply known as harmony.

Wow. That was a that was a lot of information very, very quickly. So David, let me know if more clarification is needed. And if so, I'm happy to jump on the phone with you and talk about all of this madness in a little more detail. But but it's a great question. It's a fabulous question. I can tell you that without without question, I can tell you that you are on the right track. Otherwise, you would never ask.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:05.69)
such a profound question. Right. They used to have a teacher that a teacher that used to say to me all the time, I know how you're progressing by the questions that you ask and the statements that you make. When I was young, I had no idea what he was talking about. Now that I'm old with a lot of teaching experience under my belt, I know exactly what he was talking about. So it's a great question. And tells me you're thinking, you're thinking in the right way, you're on the right road. And so it's just a matter of time. So

keep cranking. All right, let's discover learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover learn and play a beautiful friendship. Well, what's first thing that we do when learning a tune regardless of the genre, right? Regardless whether it's a jazz tune, rock tune, pop tune, country tune, R &B makes no difference, right? The very first thing we do listen, and I mean a lot of listening. We want to listen to various artists, vocalists, instrumentalists,

professional musicians, amateur musicians, it doesn't make it quite honestly makes no difference. We if somebody's performing the tune that I want to learn, I'm going to listen to every rendition I can get my hands on. So we're going to do some listening. I'll talk about that here in a little bit. To we

want to do a thorough harmonic analysis where we look at the form changes harmonic function, common harmonic movement voicings. That's what we're going to be doing today devoting this entire episode to our harmonic study. Then we turn our attention to melodic analysis, which we will do next week. We'll transcribe the melody. We will illuminate the phrases and the target notes within those phrases and we'll apply that melody to various treatments. Typically, the three

standard jazz treatments, ballad, a bossa, a swing. And then finally, we like to take a tune and look at it improvisationally, help us with our improvisation development. We'll do that. This will attack this, this area in a couple weeks when we do look at chord scale relationships and various arpeggio and scale movement through the various sounds as well as tension and rhythm. So it's a pretty thorough, it's a pretty complete approach that we

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:23.425)
we utilize every single month with every single tune that we tackle. We listen, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development. So again, as I mentioned, harmonic analysis this week, we'll be doing our listening, determining form, learning the chord changes, harmonic function, and voicings for a beautiful friendship. Next week, melodic analysis, two weeks, improvisation. So,

The educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to listen to definitive recordings of a beautiful friendship. Number two, we're going to discuss the form of a beautiful friendship. Number three, we will discover, learn, and play the chord changes for this great standard. Number four, we will discover, learn, and play harmonic function for a beautiful friendship. And number five, we will discover, learn, and play

suggested voicings for a beautiful friendship. We're going to look at block voicings, traditional left hand shell voicings, contemporary left hand shell voicings, and then of course our two handed structures. If you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button right now. Just take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs. Again, I stress it every week that this

this material is part of your membership grants you access to this content. So please take advantage of that. You have access to every weekly podcast, the podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. So please make sure that you access that material and download it and have it sitting on your piano when practicing. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets, I want

you to grab as always, we start with the lead sheets, and you should have eight lead sheets in your packet. And I want to take just a minute here to walk through them quickly before we do a deep dive. So number one, lead sheet one diagrams the form of a beautiful friendship. Your lead sheet two, as you can see, identifies unique chord changes found within the tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (29:45.973)
Lead Sheet 3 is a very clean lead sheet, just chord changes only for a beautiful friendship. Lead Sheet 4, this is our harmonic analysis, harmonic function of the chord changes found within a beautiful friendship. Lead Sheet 5 highlights or illuminates the common progressions, common harmonic movement that is found within this tune.

that we use for ear training development. This movement is not only found in a beautiful friendship, but basically every standard that you are going to play from the Great American Songbook. Then finally, sheet six, seven, and eight all deal with voicings. Lead sheet six are the block voicings and inverted shapes that I recommend if you're using those to play this tune. Lead sheet seven presents the left hand shell voicings where I draw upon

traditional shells, three note shells or contemporary shells, or even two note shells in the left hand. And then finally, lead sheet eight, two handed voicings that I use when playing a beautiful friendship, not only in a group context or ensemble setting, but also solo piano as well. So it's a great packet of that we're going to use for our harmonic analysis packet. This packet is packed with a ton.

of stuff. So we need to get after it. Now, the very first thing we do, right? Listen, so I want you to hit the pause button again and visit the online Jazz Panel Skills community. We have another phenomenal listening list put together by Lisa this week to enjoy with a beautiful friendship. it's well worth your time.

to access the community, go to the forum for a beautiful friendship harmonic analysis, sit back, relax, listen, and enjoy this beautiful tune. Once you have done that, I want you to grab lead sheet one. Lead sheet one, let's look at the form of a beautiful friendship.

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