A Jazz Piano Christmas

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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. Well, Merry Christmas. Here we are, December 23rd. Christmas Eve tomorrow, Christmas Day quickly approaching, and I hope everyone has their Christmas shopping done and can relax over the next couple of days.

But if that's not the case, if you still have shopping to do, hopefully this podcast episode will put you in the Christmas spirit, get you motivated, fired up to get out there and get your Christmas gifts for your loved ones so that you can relax and enjoy the next couple of days. Today's episode will indeed be a fun one, as you can tell by the title, Jazz Piano Christmas. How can it not be fun? But you know what? Before we get into today's episode,

Let's do a quick recap. Last week, we wrapped up our three week study of Vince Guaraldi's Christmas standard, Christmas Time Is Here. And as always, with every tune we tackle at Jazz Piano Skills, we completed a harmonic analysis, exploring the form, the changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course, our voicings, always our block voicings, traditional shells, contemporary shells, two handed structures.

We followed that up with a melodic analysis, exploring the melody of the tune, transcribed it, the fingerings, the phrases, target notes, and of course, melodic treatments. And last week we used Christmas Time Is Here to help us develop our improvisation skills. Our three-week study of every tune that we dive into is thorough and extremely beneficial for developing essential jazz piano skills. Now, of course,

the study and practice of these essential jazz piano skills. As you all know, especially you faithful listeners, these jazz piano skills must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies music for us conceptually so that we have a shot at developing physical skills. Right? Simple conceptual understanding gives us a shot at developing physical skills.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:55.458)
on the other hand.

complicated thought process, music difficult conceptually, then the odds are stacked against us for developing our physical capabilities. Now we achieve this crystal clear thought process at Jazz Piano Scales by making sure that all we do musically, conceptually, physically, plugs into and adheres to our seven musical facts. You knew I was going to go, go here, right? That I was going to

get these seven musical facts into this episode, even with a title, a jazz piano Christmas, even with it going to be a fun episode, you know, you know that I'm not going to let it go by without talking about the seven facts of music. So what are they? Say it with me. Number one, music is production of sound and silence. Of course, our sound being our primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half, diminished and diminished. Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically.

Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we're playing chords, voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios and or scales. And fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we're moving in one of two directions, up or down. That's it. Fact number six, we like to camouflage the fact that we're playing arpeggios and scales up and down. We camouflage this movement with tension or

what is affectionately known as chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study every single month, every single week, centering around these seven musical facts using three camps, soon to be four, but three camps.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (04:52.559)
harmonic analysis, melodic analysis and improvisation development. Now, with all that being said, I want to use this Jazz Piano Skills episode to share with you some plans for next year. And the change, I should say the addition, we will now include with every tune study. Right. So today, you are going to discover our 2026 tune study

edition. You are going to learn how this new edition will be implemented and included in every tune moving forward. And you are going to play and listen to five Christmas tunes, classics, as my way to introduce this new tune study edition. And of course, my way of saying Merry Christmas to all of you.

So as I like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player and advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, a Jazz Panel Christmas to be very beneficial and enjoyable.

But before we get started, before we dig in, want to, as I always do, welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you are a new listeners to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome. We're glad you're here. And I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership grants you many perks. Number one, your membership.

grants you premium podcast content, which means you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. Now the first half of every episode free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, the educational agenda, the lesson rationale. And then of course, the second half of the podcast episode for members only. I unveil the lesson content, the demonstrations, we explore the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:09.103)
podcast packets or educational materials that I design and develop to go along with every podcast episode to maximize your musical growth and, and help you get the most out of every single episode as well. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive, interactive, self-paced and sound-based sequential courses.

that you will thoroughly enjoy that help you harmonically, melodically and improvisationally. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have a reserved seat in my weekly online masterclass held every Thursday evening, 8 p.m. Central Time. And I know it's not the best time for everyone, but the masterclasses are recorded. And as a member, you can watch and rewatch the video of the class if you can't make it.

at your convenience and as often as you wish. Also as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to the private online Jazz Panel Skills community. Fantastic group of folks dealing with offering a variety of education forums. There are podcast episode specific forums as well as general forums. It's a great place for member feedback and assistance. And it is where we have our weekly

listening list put together and presented every week. A killer list to go along with every single podcast episode. And then finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have educational support, private, personal and professional support whenever you need it. So all of these amazing privileges, these perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play Jazz Piano. So check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com and of course, become a member.

Once you get to the site, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you, answer your questions and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel to begin receiving educational videos that I am publishing every week. Every week I put out the weekly recap

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weekly challenges, weekly quick tips, and these videos. If you're subscribed to the channel, of course, you will be notified that as soon as a video is released. So make sure you head on over to YouTube and subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. Now, I also want to make sure that everyone is aware of and subscribe to the email list.

to receive the blog post that is released every Saturday morning as well. Now, every Saturday, I publish that blog, it goes out about 9am Central Time. And it's a wonderful recap in writing of the week's podcast episode and all the work that we're doing throughout the week. It's always about about about a four minute read. Definitely worth reading every week.

to help you stay on track conceptually and physically. All right. Typically at this time, I deal with the question of the week, but you know what? We're going to bypass it this week because we want to just kind of relax and have some fun today and talk about what's coming up in 2026. I want to make sure we have enough time to get through everything that I have slated for today. All right. So let me begin by saying that as you all know, and I just

talked about it, our tune study, take every month, we take a tune and we break it apart and we study it three ways. We do a harmonic analysis of that tune, a melodic analysis of the tune, and then we use that tune to help us with our improvisation development. In 2026, we are going to add an additional study to our agenda.

So we will continue with our harmonic analysis and melodic analysis and a focus on improvisation. And then the fourth week, after we've done all that work, we will then turn our attention to solo jazz piano playing. You know, how to take those skills that we have worked on through the month, the harmonic skills, the melodic skills in our improvisation development.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (11:55.766)
to take those skills and utilize them to play the tune in a solo context, a solo setting. Because the reality of it is all of us are going to be playing piano in a solo context more than an ensemble context. There's no question about that. So we have to begin getting comfortable playing

a song sitting down at the piano all by ourselves. And I've always said that, you know, to be able to do this, you have to have some ensemble experience because as a solo pianist, you are actually trying to emulate the ensemble when you play. As a solo pianist, you are now responsible for bass, harmony, melody, rhythm, time.

all of it. Right? So how do you develop all those skills? How do you how do you get that landscape in place that you can begin to recreate it or create it on the piano as a solo pianist? Well, I've said it many times, the gateway to solo piano playing is through the ensemble. So it's your ensemble experience that helps

form you as a solo pianist. And that's why I think it's incredibly invaluable for you to be utilizing backing tracks. Backing tracks when practicing skills, isolated skills, using backing tracks when playing a tune. It's such great, it's wonderful technology that you should absolutely be utilizing when practicing.

Heck, when I was learning how to play...

Dr. Bob Lawrence (13:57.498)
There was no internet, there was no technology, there is none of this that we have today. There were no podcasts, there was nothing. There was you and the piano. You would practice and then you would go to the jam session to sit in with the band to get a accurate picture or accurate understanding of.

where you are in your developmental process as a jazz musician. In doing so, can tell you right now, there are quite a few embarrassing moments when you arrive at the jam session and beg to sit in to test your skills. You learn very quickly where you stand and unfortunately, you learn this lesson in front of a lot of people.

the technology today that allows you to have a simulated ensemble playing with you to develop your jazz skills. Wow, what incredible blessing this technology grants us. know, it's absolutely amazing. So our tune study will continue as we have been doing with the harmonic analysis and a melodic analysis and an improv.

development, all using backing tracks to help us develop our skills. Then in week four, we'll take the backing tracks and leave them alone and take those skills and then start incorporating them and utilizing them to help us develop our solo piano chops, right? So it's going to be a nice, I think a fabulous addition. And it will be

I plan on presenting it in such a way that everyone, regardless of where you are in your development, will be able to construct and put together a solo rendition of the tune that we're studying, whether it's the entire tune that you play, or even if it's just the A section of the tune that you play, or even if it's only half the A section.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:17.135)
that you play in a solo context, all of those are victories. And so we will take our skills and no matter where we are in our jazz journey, be able to utilize them to start getting a feel for what it's like to play solo piano. So what I thought I'd do today is take some Christmas tunes and talk about them a little bit.

and talk about them in a solo piano context and then play them. As an introduction to where we're heading in 2026. So the very first tune, this last month we took Vince Giraldi and we've been studying his Christmas Time Is Here from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, 1965.

And that tune has become a Christmas standard that I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've heard that tune in the last few weeks. You know, we have Christmas music playing in the lobby here at the school and throughout the school. And I swear, every time I step out of my office, Christmas time is here is playing. It's amazing. But, you know, there's another tune that's part of that Christmas classic, that 1965 Charlie Brown special.

that is loved by everyone as well. And that's Christmas Tree, which of course, originally a German folk song, Tannenbaum. And it's a simple, it's a cute little melody. It's perfect for jazz and, and Geraldi style that he used in the Charlie Brown special. It's just classic. There's a childlike simplicity.

to the tune with some nice, sophisticated jazz harmony, or I should say some classic jazz harmony. So what I want to do for you is kind of walk you through, I'm going to use that tune to start with, and walk you through how we should be thinking about solo piano. The first thing I would say is that it's really important to be able to play the melody and the harmony in time. Okay?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (18:42.093)
So one way that I practice this in prepping for solo piano is to what I call strum my chords in my left hand like a guitarist would do and play the melody in my right hand. So it sounds something like this.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:02.703)
I'm just strumming. I'm playing black chords.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:09.561)
keeping steady time.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:21.273)
right? So we want to be able to, when prepping for solo piano, we want to be able to represent the harmony, represent the melody in time. And there's no better way to do that than to strum the chords in your left hand with a nice relaxed feel and play the melody in your right hand. Now once we feel comfortable with the stride, I'm sorry, once we're comfortable with the strum,

we can turn it into the stride, right? Strum leads to stride. So I'm still going to be playing four beats, you know, when I was strumming the chords, I was playing all four beats, right? One, two, three, four, one, two,

Well, Stride, I'm just gonna go down and play the bass note, come up and hit the chord.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:21.497)
So it's the same kind of feel, now a little more complicated, right? Because I'm going down and providing that bass note. So it's going to sound like this.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:41.296)
so stride is strum. Now if I put it together

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:56.432)
So this is the basic approach that I'm going to use here when I play Christmas Tree for you. All right, I'm to play through it the first time, rubato, out of time, still providing bass notes, but playing it with much expression freely. Then I will establish time with a very simple stride, basically playing a bass note coming up.

and hitting the chord. Right? So we will be exploring this in more detail starting next year. But I just want to give you a little sample of it. So sit back, relax. Here's our first Christmas tune of the day, Christmas Tree.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:44.624)
Christmas tree. So yeah, I was just trying to use a nice simple, very, simple stride piano going down hitting the root of the chord coming up and hitting.

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coming up.

So again, we will be exploring this very simple stride approach to formulating a rendition, a solo rendition of tunes in the upcoming year. So get ready. Now, the next tune that I want to share with you is one I know everyone knows, Silent Night. Now, this tune was written in

1818 in Austria and it was performed believe it or not it was first performed with a guitar due to the fact that the church organ was broken. So they improvised there must have been a bunch of jazzers back then they improvised and went with the guitar and performed Silent Night in 1818 and it has been translated into over 300 languages.

300 languages. I don't know what it is. This song is very, very powerful. I'll share with you quite often at Christmas time, I like to go to nursing homes and play the piano for folks at the nursing home. And a lot of these folks, you know, it's sad. They are not even aware of where they are. A lot of them

not even aware of their own name. and most of them, a lot of times are like sleeping, right? I mean, are asleep, they're in their chair, but they're asleep. And I will start playing Silent Night. And it will, I'm telling you, you will get chills because the hair on the back of your neck will stand up because as soon as I start playing Silent Night, you hear throughout the entire room, every

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:59.318)
individual trying to sing it. Now it's a lot of groaning and moaning as they try to sing it, but they're trying to sing Silent Night. So this song is embedded into their memory from childhood through adulthood that even in the current state that they may be, when I start to perform Silent Night, they all want to participate and sing along.

So I want to demonstrate Silent Night in a solo context. You know, again, a very rubato intro. I'm going to be using sparse voicings, lot of long tones, a lot of space, and of course, a lot of reverence. So very different than a stride approach. This is in three, four time. I'm playing it kind of in a 6-8 feel. And so it's another approach to playing solo piano.

And so I thought I would demonstrate that this approach using Silent Night. So here we go. Silent Night.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (33:42.256)
Beautiful. I love playing Silent Night and it's a great tune to demonstrate this kind of sparse, this approach using sparse voicings, long tone, space, right? And again, we will be talking about all of this in 2026 with the tunes that we study as a way to approach playing that tune in a solo context.

Now for something completely different, we're going to turn our attention to Santa Claus is Coming to Town, right? Now this tune, this tune begs you to swing it. There's no question about it. Santa Claus is Coming to Town is a favorite amongst jazz musicians for that reason, right? For that reason. It's usually played in a medium swing and a very playful, with a playful articulation.

some fun facts about Santa Claus is coming to town. was written in 10 minutes, composed in 10 minutes back in 1906. I'm sorry 1934. So Santa Claus coming to town has been around for a while. Now, with this solo piano approach, I'm going to incorporate a lot of kind of blues style, kind of almost a boogie kind of blues kind of like again, entirely different way to approach a tune in a solo context. So you're going to hear a lot of blues and you're going to hear a lot of dominant chords to go along with that blues treatment of Santa Claus is coming to town. I'm going to have some fun with it. So here we go. Here's Santa Claus is coming to town.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (40:59.184)
you have it Santa Claus is coming to town. See that that's some what I mentioned earlier about the gateway to solo piano being the ensemble because as a solo pianist you're trying to emulate the ensemble right so when I'm playing that I'm literally hearing my drummer my bassist I'm hearing that that groove that feel

that I have played many, many times in group context. So it just sets me up for greater success as a solo pianist because I have experienced that feel that that approach many times and I'm trying to emulate it in my solo playing. So so there you have it. There's Santa Claus is coming to town. Next, I want to pull out a tune. It's classic. You've all heard it. Let it snow. And

you know, some fun facts about Let It Snow. It was written during a heat wave in California. Did not know that. Heat wave in California. And then here's something interesting. It doesn't mention Christmas at all. The lyrics does not mention Christmas, but it's become a Christmas classic, kind of like Die Hard. I don't know why Die Hard is considered like a Christmas movie, but it is. So anyway,

And this tune is frequently played in jam sessions. So it's a standard. now something that I want to mention, one of my favorite pianists of all time is Dave McKenna. And he has a Christmas album, Dave McKenna Christmas. If you're not aware of it you've not listened to it, by all means, track it down, get it. It is some of the best solo piano playing.

in the world and it's all Christmas and he does this Let It Snow and I'm going to try to emulate really his rendition. I'm nowhere close, believe me, nowhere close to Dave McKenna, but his feel on this tune is fabulous. So I'm going to play it for us here today to enjoy. here we go. You're going to hear a little stride in here, Roboto playing again at the beginning.

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play it through the first time and then I'll go into time with a nice relaxed stride feel. here we go. Enjoy, let it snow.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (49:15.816)
it snow, let it snow, let it snow. What a great standard. All right, so to wrap things up today, I want to close things out with the Christmas song, of course, composed by Mel Tormé and first performed 1946 by the Nat King Cole Trio. Wow, it is indeed a beautiful Christmas song.

perfect for solo piano. I'm going to play it hopefully, very expressively, rubato, going use some nice voicings, and really kind of what I call emotional pacing. You know, the hardest thing for pianists, and you'll discover this as we dive into solo piano playing in 2026, I think the hardest thing for solo piano players, two things. One, to slow down.

and two, to play space. That's why I always mention in our musical facts that fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence, space, right? And it's very difficult. I don't know why it is. I guess we get nervous with silence. I guess that's it. But as piano players, it's hard for us to slow down and it's hard for us to play silence. And the Christmas song is a

is a wonderful opportunity for us to practice those two crucial elements to solo piano playing. So, all right, so here is my Christmas gift to you. The Christmas Song by Mel Tormé, first performed by the great Nat King Cole.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (54:52.238)
Christmas to everyone. You know, a couple things before we wrap it up today. In your podcast packets, there are no backing tracks. No backing tracks, right? am your lead sheets. I am putting the lead sheets in your podcast packets with chord changes to these great standards today. And I will also in the illustrations,

include a template for you to do a harmonic analysis. These tunes would be great for you to do a harmonic analysis of these Christmas tunes and find out you know what they've include a lot of the exact same harmonic motion and progressions and characteristics of all the great standards that we've been studying the last couple years. So you'll find that template in your illustrations packet. But again, no backing tracks.

It's solo piano time. I want to remind everyone that no master class this Thursday evening. It's Christmas Day. I will be enjoying the day with family and friends and I hope you are doing the same. So no master class this Thursday. There will be a podcast again next Tuesday to wrap up 2025.

kind of a wrap up of the year and I look forward to 2026. So before I wrap things up today, I want to take just a moment to say thank you to all of you Jazz Panel Skills listeners and all of the Jazz Panel Skills members. Thank you for making this past year such a special one. Your support, your enthusiasm, your questions, your practice commitment and your love for this music are what

to make jazz piano skills what it is. And I'm incredibly grateful that you choose to spend part of your musical journey here with me. It truly means more than you know. And as we close out the year and look ahead, I'm excited about what's coming next. New music, the new studies, the new opportunities to continue growing together as musicians.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (57:14.044)
So from my heart to yours, I want to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, a joyful holiday season, and of course, many blessings in 2026. Thank you again for an amazing year. I will see you for one more time this year next Tuesday in the podcast, but enjoy the music, enjoy the moment, and as always, it's a great day to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now.

And until next week, enjoy a Jazz Piano Christmas. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn, play. Jazz Piano!