Blue Bossa, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.75)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Here we are again. The months just fly by. Week three, and of course week three of every month, is the week 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 melodic analysis, and of course week three, this week we work on developing our improvisation skills. Our harmonic analysis of Blue Bossa, as we do with every tune, explored the form, the change, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course our voicings. We always take a look at traditional block voicings, traditional and contemporary shell voicings, and of course two-handed structures.

Our essential melodic skills, right? Our analysis looked at the lyrics, if applicable, the melody, the fingerings, the phrases, target notes within the phrases, and of course, various melodic treatments. And today, our improvisation skills, this is going to be a fun day. Our improvisation skills are going to be challenged with our ability to successfully recognize and play various harmonic shapes needed for melodic

creation or improvisation. It's pretty cool stuff. Our three-week study of every tune that we dive into is very thorough and of course beneficial. Now the study and practice of these essential jazz piano skills as I have been preaching since the beginning of the year must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies music conceptually

so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical capabilities. And we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that all that we do musically, conceptually, and physically plugs into and adheres to the seven musical facts. And what are the seven musical facts? You can say it along with me. Number one, music is the production of sound and silence.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:52.873)
sound of course being major, dominant, minor, half diminished, Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. We have harmonic shapes, we have melodic shapes. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we are playing chords or voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing arpeggios or we're playing scales.

Fact number five, when playing our arpeggios and our scales, we can only move in one of two directions. We can either move up or down. Fact number six, we camouflage or decorate our scales and arpeggios with tension or chromaticism. And of course, fact number seven, we add rhythm to facts one through six to make it interesting. That's it.

the seven facts of music. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study centering around the seven facts of music and using these three distinct learning studies, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and improvisation development. We like to keep things very clean, very tidy, and we like to have an approach that's very effective.

So today we tackle improvisation development. Today we continue to discover Blue Bossa, but do so improvisationally. We're going to learn how to use harmonic shapes to construct melodic ideas for Blue Bossa. And we're going to play solos using harmonic shapes improvisationally over the entire form of Blue Bossa.

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're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, exploring Blue Bossa improvisationally to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to, as I always do, I want to welcome all the first time listeners to the Jazz Panel Skills podcast.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:10.765)
If you're a new listener, if you're new to Jazz Panel Skills, welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. Your membership has a lot of perks. Number one, you have access to premium podcast content, which basically means you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every episode is free for everyone to enjoy. I always deal with the question of the week, lay out the educational agenda and the lesson

The second half of the podcast for members only, the lesson content is presented along with the demonstrations, as well as an exploration and explanation of the podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, the educational materials that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode. And I mentioned it every, every month, every week that you want this, you want

these materials in your hands when listening to the podcast episode to get the most out of it. And of course you want this material sitting on your piano or music stand when practicing as well. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have access to the online courses, which are comprehensive, they're interactive, they're self-paced, sound-based, and sequential.

You also have access or reserved seat as I like to say in the weekly online masterclass which is held every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. Central time and I realize that this is not a great time for everyone around the world. That is why the master classes are recorded so that you can watch and rewatch the class at your convenience and as often as you wish.

As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you also have access to the online private Jazz Piano Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums. are episode specific forums as well as general jazz forums as well. It's a great place to meet new folks. It's a great place to receive some member feedback and assistance to help you with your jazz journey and also an opportunity for you to help others with feedback and assistance as well.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:26.685)
And finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have access to unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional support. So all of these amazing privileges are waiting and wanting to help you discover, learn and play Jazz Piano. So check it all out at jazzpanoskills.com and become a member. Of course, if get to the website, you have some questions, by all means, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take a few minutes to encourage you to subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. When doing so, you'll begin receiving harmony, melody, and rhythm challenges, jazz quick tips, as well as jazz talks. I'm starting to populate these playlists.

with new videos every week. again, be sure to subscribe so that you're notified when a new Jazz Panel Skills video is released. Okay, so let's get to the question of the week. You know, last week I shared with you a question submitted by Brianna Bradley living in Madison, Wisconsin. And I actually provided half of my answer last week and want to provide the second half of my answer today but

But before I do, let's quickly revisit Brianna's question and a quick summary of the first half of my answer. Now Brianna's question was this. She stated, Hi Dr. Lawrence, I recently became a Jazz Piano Skills member and I'm learning so much about music and jazz. I'm a lifelong classical pianist. With that being said, I'm curious to know your thoughts about what not to do.

or what to avoid as I start my jazz journey. It's easy to become overwhelmed. And when I do, end up confused and begin experiencing feelings of defeat. Help me coach. Your thoughts and guidance are appreciated. So I thought it was a great question and one that I gave a lot of thought to regarding my answer so much so that I felt it important to

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:43.441)
split it into two weeks so could cover half of my thoughts one week and the second half of my thoughts today. if you recall last week, I gave five signs, five things to avoid. Number one was not having a plan at all. You have to have a plan when you begin your jazz journey. No plan is sign number one that frustration and defeat is on the horizon. So a plan

must be in place. In fact, that's what we do here at Jazz Piano Skills. Sign number two, if you find yourself in a constant state of information gathering, not a good sign, right? That, you know, too much information can be, as Brana mentioned in her question, overwhelming. It can absolutely be overwhelming. So you want to make sure

that you're not constantly in a state of information gathering. As I mentioned last week, the honeymoon was soon wear off as and you begin to begin or be feeling overwhelmed with all the I call it jazz information vertigo, right? Just too much information. So yes, overwhelm, you'll become overwhelmed and the feelings of defeat will sneak in for sure. Sign number three.

your practice sessions being way too long. That's just another sign that you have too much on the plate, too much information that you've gathered. You're trying to cover it all. You're spending hours upon hours of practice time trying to address all the information that you have gathered and continue to gather. So be careful that you're not trying to do too much.

resulting in practice sessions being way too long. Sign number four I mentioned was playing songs all the time, right? I said that when you have no plan, sign number one, you spend too much time gathering information, sign number two, which causes long practice sessions, sign number three, which will have you eventually throwing in the towel and simply

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:08.683)
turn to try to play tunes in an effort to improve because well you have heard that you've read in the magic book or that you found it at the magic website or the magic app or the software that you can learn everything you need to know by just simply playing tunes. So if you find yourself in that kind of state where

right? Because you have no plan, you've gathered too much information, your practice sessions are too long. So you've kind of thrown in the towel and just started playing tunes, thinking that maybe that's all you need. Well, that's, that's another red flag that you need to be aware of. And the alarm is being sounded when that's happening that wow, changes need to be, changes need to be made. And then sign number five that I mentioned last week was neglecting

what I call grunt work, right? Again, when you have no plan, sign number one, and you've turned to information gathering, sign number two, which produces marathon practice sessions, sign number three, right? Causing practice fatigue, sign four, which then you end up just playing tunes, right? Well, when you reach this point, you come up with every, excuse, imaginable

as to why you do not want to think about doing essential and foundational grunt work. In other words, I'm talking about scales and arpeggios, right? So neglecting grunt work is sign number five. Wow. I said it last week. I'll say it again today. What a web we weave, right? Having no plan causes an avalanche, a domino effect that causes you to become, as Brianna stated, overwhelmed.

confused and of course battling feelings of defeat. So the first five signs that there's trouble in paradise, sign one, no plan, sign two, information gathering, too much information gathering, sign three, practice sessions are too long, sign four, playing songs all the time, and sign five, neglecting grunt work. Okay, so now for the second half of my answer.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:27.957)
the next five signs. So sign number five, or I said neglecting no grunt work, well sign number six is kind of similar. No paper practice. If you are not doing paper practice, which is a form of grunt work, mental grunt work, then there's problems. So when I speak of grunt work, I'm not just referring to physical effort. I am also referring to mental development.

time spent thinking, thinking about various essential jazz skills, time spent outlining, outlining those skills or drawing those skills, imagery, or practice verbally articulating those skills. In other words, explaining the skill in writing. Right? It's so important to unleash, listen to this, it is so important to

unleash the jazz scholar inside of you. And that's what paper practice is all about. If you cannot outline skills, draw skills, explain skills, then your physical efforts will be incomplete and thus insufficient. If you do not have a journal,

of musical thoughts organized into three distinct categories or camps, harmony, melody, improvisation slash rhythm. Wait a minute, those categories sound very familiar. So if you don't have a journal with those categories, then your conceptual approach to learning how to play jazz, I guarantee you is severely fragmented. And if your conceptual approach

is fragmented, then I guarantee it, your piano practice time is fragmented. In other words, you are all over the map. Right? So sign nine, sign number five, neglecting grunt work, physical grunt work, sign number six, no paper practice or neglecting mental grunt work. Okay.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:51.423)
Sign number seven, no role models.

no role models. I ask students all the time, who are your favorite jazz pianist? Who are your jazz heroes? Who do you want to sound like? You would be amazed at how many folks have a hard time answering that question. And honestly, this is stunning. Can you imagine, think about this, can you imagine a young kid who's dreaming of playing basketball at a high level?

not being able to name a pro player that they want to model their game after. Hard to imagine, right? Ask any young basketball player who their heroes are that they want to play like. I guarantee it. You're going to hear Michael Jordan, Dr. Che, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Will Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. The list goes on. They'll rattle off a dozen before you even know what hit you. Right? Same with baseball. Babe Ruth, Big Mano, Hank Aaron.

I want to play like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper. Right. Again, they'll rattle off a list. Same with any sport. So I ask who are your heroes? Who, who do you want to sound like? It's so important to have your list and then spend a lot of time listening to them both actively and passively and listen to this carefully. Listen very carefully.

There are no skills that come with the sound attached. There are no skills that come with the sound attached. You attach the sound. You attach the articulation to the skill. This is why Oscar Peterson plays a C major arpeggio and it sounds different than when Chick Corea plays the exact

Dr. Bob Lawrence (18:56.337)
same C major arpeggio. So I cannot stress enough how important it is to identify your musical heroes and begin modeling your sound after them when playing, when playing a C major arpeggio. That's where it begins. It begins with playing the grunt work with a specific sound.

in mind. Okay. So sign number eight, no recording of self.

recording of self. Do not make this mistake and if you're and it's a huge mistake. Do not make the mistake of not recording yourself playing. Nothing illuminates the truth about your playing better than a recording. I promise you what you think you sound like and how you actually sound are

quite often very different. Now recording can be very painful. It is without question a very humbling experience, but nothing pays bigger dividends when it comes to your musical growth than a recording. Recordings provide an opportunity for you to accurately, and that's the key, to

accurately assess how close you are to sounding like your heroes. Now, some of you may be thinking at this very moment, Hey man, I don't, I don't need a recording to assess this. I don't even come close to sounding like my hero. And to that, I would say, well, you, you are thinking about the act of recording yourself completely wrong. You are thinking about

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:02.87)
how your hero plays a tune, how your hero plays a song. And then you're thinking, how would I play that song? And then trying to compare the two, which is not how you should be assessing yourself. You should be listening to how you articulate notes when playing the piano. When you play that C major arpeggio, is it articulated like a professional jazz pianist? Right?

You want to be asking yourself, do I sound like who I want to sound like when I play that C major arpeggio? So when I speak of recording yourself playing, am not, I am not thinking about recording the recording of a song. Of course you can record songs, but a much better and much more productive approach to recording is to focus on specific skills and the articulation of those skills.

in such a way that they truly represents how you want to sound. How you want to sound and how you want to sound eventually when what when playing tunes. So it starts with again the skills. Maybe that's why this podcast is called Jazz Piano Skills. Okay, so now sign number nine, no rhythmic vocabulary practice.

This is a biggie. I can tell you that without question, without question, the hardest skill to develop, which is also the most neglected skill, which of course is no surprise. The hardest skill to develop is rhythm. Very few people devote time to developing a rhythmic vocabulary, which of course develops

your internal sense of time, which of course is the most important skill of all skills. If you have no rhythmic vocabulary that you can call upon instinctually, then you will have a very difficult time freely interpreting a melody and you will experience even greater difficulty when it comes to improvising. You must

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:31.59)
And I repeat, you must devote time to practicing rhythm. If that is if you hope to become the jazz musician you are aspiring to become. Now I would start with the 50 essential rhythms that I presented in a podcast on June 24th, 2025. Understand these rhythms academically.

In other words, you can count.

understand them physically by being able to clap the rhythms and then practice applying these rhythms to arpeggios and scales. Wow. So the neglect of practicing a rhythmic or developing a rhythmic vocabulary is a huge sign that you are not on the path that you're hoping to be on.

to become the jazz pianist that you are aspiring to become. Okay, and finally, finally, sign number 10.

no time spent making music. Every practice session, this is really important, every practice session should end with making music. Now, it's important to state that making music does not mean playing tunes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:14.726)
I'm going to say that again. Making music does not mean playing tunes. Of course, playing a song is a form of making music, but it is only one form of making music. Huh? What? Yes, you heard me correctly. It's only one form of making music. So what are other forms?

of making music. I'll give you two. You can make music harmonically, which is comping, and make music melodically, improvisation. Both of those forms, harmonic music making, melodic music making, should begin with the isolation of sound. Isolation of sound.

not absolutely necessary, but that is where I would begin. And honestly, that is where I find myself ending as well. I do not think, I do not think there is a higher form of music making than isolating a single sound and then spending time exploring that sound harmonically and melodically.

You know, you will probably hear me say this multiple times throughout this episode today, that creativity is derived from limitations, not from abundance.

creativity is derived from limitations, not from abundance. So when you isolate, you limit. And when you limit yourself, you can with greater ease, initiate self imposed constraints. And that combination of isolated sound with self imposed constraints. Wow, that

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:29.046)
is a winning combination. That is what I like to call sound centric and skill centric exploration that leads to an unleashing of your creative self. So make music after every practice session. Okay. I could go on, but

I only have so much time in this episode. I hope Brianna that my top 10 list of the things to watch out for, right? Or the things to avoid as you begin your jazz journey. I hope you find my top top 10 list to be helpful. Now be consciously aware of these tips and be vigilant, right? About avoiding these traps. And if you do, I promise you.

your musical growth, your jazz growth is inevitable. But as always, let me know if more clarity is needed. I'm happy to dig deeper with you. All right. Wow, that was a lot. let's, let's discover, learn and play jazz panel. Let's discover, learn and play blue bossa improvisationally. All right. You know, I

go through this little outline every week as well, because it's important. You know, when we approach learning a tune, and this goes back to sign number one, right? Having no plan. Well, here's our plan. Here's our plan. And I address it every week. Then when it comes to learning a tune, or the study of a tune, that I approach it the same way every single time, no matter, no matter

the genre of music. It doesn't matter whether it's like jazz, rock, pop, country, R &B, whatever, right? I go about learning a tune the same way. And maybe that's because my learning process is very skill centric. And that's what that's what where the real musical growth takes place. So I always look at every tune as an opportunity to grow musically, as long as it's skill set as long as

Dr. Bob Lawrence (29:52.366)
I don't have the cart ahead of the horse. In other words, my priorities are in the right place. My priority really is to use that tune to grow musically. And then and then second, second of all is to just increase my repertoire that I have another tune that I can play. But ultimately, ultimately, I want that tune to go beyond just having a tune to play, I want to grow musically from my study of that tune. So I have a plan a process that I utilize every time.

That plan always begins with what active listening, active listening to various artists, vocalist, instrumentalist, and of course, pianist, professional as well as amateur makes no difference. I want to hear every rendition of the song that I possibly can before digging in. Once I have done my due diligence and I've listened to a lot of interpretations of that tune,

I then will zero in on a harmonic analysis just like we do here every month where I'll study the form, the changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course voicings. After that, I turn my attention to a melodic analysis. I'll transcribe the melody. I'll understand that melody, the phrases of that melody and the target notes within those phrases. I'll explore that melody using various treatments. So I test my skills.

on my ability to creatively play that melody, whether it's in a ballad form or bossa or swing. And then finally, I'll turn my attention to improvisation development. I'll study chord scale relationships, arpeggio and scale movement through the sounds, tension, and of course rhythm. So it's a pretty thorough, it's a pretty complete approach that I utilize every single time I begin studying a tune. So we do it every month here.

and we've already completed our harmonic analysis of Blue Bossa. We've already completed our melodic analysis of Blue Bossa. Now it's time for us to do some improvisation development. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to definitive recordings of Blue Bossa. Number two, we are going to explore soloing over the form of Blue Bossa. And number three, we are going to do so by constructing

Dr. Bob Lawrence (32:16.794)
our improvisational ideas using harmonic shapes, harmonic shapes. So we're going to use harmonic shapes, we're going to isolate those harmonic shapes and to tap into our creativity. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to take just a few minutes right now, hit that pause button and download and print your podcast packets and you have access to this material because of your of your membership. So take advantage of it.

Download your illustrations, your lead sheets, your play alongs. And then once you have the podcast packets in front of you, then we are ready to get down to business. Okay. So now let's take a look at our lead sheets. Okay. I'll dress the illustrations and the play alongs a little later, but right now, as always, we start with our lead sheets. You should have three.

three lead sheets. Each lead sheet represents the solo shapes or harmonic shapes that I am going to be modeling or demonstrating for you using Blue Bossa. So lead sheet one, solo one, you can see these are harmonic shapes for each chord change within Blue Bossa that I'm going to demonstrate here shortly with improvisation. Lead sheet two,

a whole different set of solo shapes or harmonic shapes for Blue Bossa, and then lead sheet three, an entirely new set of solo shapes or harmonic shapes for Blue Bossa. Okay. So now, typically as always, we start with listening. And so I want you to hit the pause button again and head over to the forums, the community where we have compiled, Lisa has put together for us another fantastic

list to check out for Blue Bossa. So check it out, do the listening, get yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea, sit back and relax and enjoy the listening. And then once you've done the listening, then I want you to grab lead sheet one.

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