Blue Bossa, Melodic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:33.326)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Here we are, week two of the month, which means, as week two always means, it's a melodic analysis week. Last week, we took our tune of the month, the beautiful standard blue bossa, and did our standard harmonic analysis, examining the form, the traditional changes, harmonic function, common harmonic.

movement, and of course voicings. Traditional black voicings, traditional three note shells, contemporary shells, and of course two-handed structures. We always follow our harmonic analysis with the melodic analysis to discover, learn, play the melody, the fingerings, phrases, and of course various standard treatments, ballad, bassa, swing. Every month we take a tune. We get comfy with that tune.

through a thorough harmonic, melodic, and improvisation study. These are the areas of study that every aspiring jazz musician, not just pianist, must gain a functional command of a conceptual and physical command. Right? And how do you accomplish this goal? It begins with establishing a well thought out and constructed practice strategy, a practice agenda, which requires a proper

conceptual understanding of music, of jazz. And if we do not have a proper conceptual understanding of how music and jazz works, well then how in the world, how in the world are we going to construct a practice strategy? Well, without a proper conceptual understanding of music, of jazz, you'll put together a practice strategy that is ineffective. People do it every day.

People have practice strategies that are flawed that get them nowhere. How frustrating is this, right? It's frustrating because it's kind of a catch-22. You need a proper conceptual understanding of music, of jazz, to construct an effective practice strategy, but you need an effective practice strategy that will illuminate musical facts needed to form a correct conceptual framework or understanding of music. I am not going to try to say that again.

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can just rewind it and listen to it again. Bottom line is it's not easy to put together a practice plan, a practice strategy that's effective. And that is exactly why this Catch-22 is precisely why jazz piano scales exist. To provide you with the proper conceptual understanding so you can indeed establish an effective practice strategy.

and as a result, experience physical success. In other words, you'll learn how to play jazz. In fact, the roadmap that we follow every month, our practice strategies, they've become very familiar to all of you jazz panel skills members and listeners. So familiar, as I mentioned last month, that the greatest compliment I hear from jazz panel skills members is I know exactly what to expect each and every week.

of each and every month. Now that's music to my ears. It is so important to have a well thought out practice plan, addressing essential skills and then consistently execute it. If you do, success will follow. You know, I also mentioned last month that ironically the major roadblock to establishing a successful practice strategy is the enormous reservoir of jazz information that's available today.

in print and of course online. This reservoir of jazz information often has a suppressive effect on the learning process and sadly most of the information, quite honestly, that's floating around is not needed in order for you to become an accomplished jazz musician. You know I find the information, the jazz information out there falls into one of three camps. Camp one

essential or foundational skills, right, that are clearly explained and taught, not just demonstrated, but explained and taught an educational path or processes presented to achieve the goal of student success. And hopefully, jazz piano skills falls into Camp one. Camp two is what I call grandiose information displayed with a single goal of impressing you the listener, right?

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there's usually typically no educational roadmap ever presented with this grandiose information. It's just displayed and somehow you're supposed to magically absorb that information and then begin using it. And then finally, camp number three is just what I call nonsensical information. It's just information disguised as educational content to produce profit. It's, it's a waste of time, in other words.

So I always strive, as I just mentioned, I always strive to each and every week and each and every podcast to fall into Camp One. Essential and foundational skills that are clearly explained and taught, not just demonstrated, right? I'm always trying to lay out an educational path or process to help you achieve the goal of learning how to play jazz piano.

And this is why we have a harmonic plan. We have a melodic plan, and we have a plan for developing improvisation skills and rhythm. We also have a compass that guides our and nurtures our conceptual understanding of music so that our practice plans, harmonic, melodic, improvisation, continue to evolve and properly form our physical development. A compass that prevents us

from strain off the path, right strain off course. Of course, our compass, you know what I'm referring to say it with me, as always, the seven facts of music and without the seven facts branded into your mind, you cannot formulate a coherent and strategic practice plan and agenda to produce the results that you are hoping to obtain without the facts.

You'll be in a constant state of information gathering a constant state of the pursuit of information with absolutely no idea what to do with it. So quickly the seven facts are as follows. Number one, music is the production of sound and silence. Sound, of course, being major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. I often refer to those

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the production of sound harmonically and melodically as shapes. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, are playing chords or voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing arpeggios and we're playing scales. Fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we are moving in one of two directions, up or down. In fact number six, we camouflage or decorate

the arpeggios and the scales with tension or chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make it all come together to make musical facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. That's it. Those are the seven facts of music. And I cannot stress this point enough. It is imperative that you think about these seven facts a lot. You think about these facts so much that you actually

see and hear these skills in the music that you play and you actually see and hear the music that you play and the skills that you are practicing. Music and skills shake hands. They are partners. Now once this tipping point happens for you, when you can

actually identify everything that you encounter musically is falling into one of those seven musical facts, then you can begin constructing a practice plan that actually produces the results that you are wanting. You are on a clear path leading to musical success. And this is why we approach our

you know, our tune study every week, every month, every year, centered around the seven facts of music using three distinct areas of study. Study one harmonic analysis, study two melodic analysis, and study three improvisation development. I'm thrilled because we have established this educationally sound three study approach that is formulated and anchored to the seven facts of music.

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course in the seven facts needed to illuminate the essential jazz piano skills needed of course to successfully discover learn and play jazz to play tunes. So all of that to say that today we are going to do our melodic analysis today. You're going to melodically discover Bluebossom and you're going to learn the melody, the phrases and the target notes found within Bluebossom.

and you are going to play the melody of Blue Bossa, supported by our voicings from our harmonic study last week, using three standard jazz treatments. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson exploring the great standard Blue Bossa.

be very beneficial. But before we get started, before we dig in, want to, as I always do, welcome first time listeners to the Jazz Panel Skills podcast. And if you are indeed new to Jazz Panel Skills, I want to welcome you and invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. Your membership comes with many very cool perks. Number one, as a member, you have access to premium podcast content, which means

that get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every episode, of course, is free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for members only, I present the lesson content and of course, the demonstrations. You also, as a member, have access to the podcast packets, which are

the educational content that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. And I always encourage you to have this material in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course, to have it sitting on have this material sitting on your piano on your music stand when practicing as well. As a member, also have access to the online courses. These are

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comprehensive sound based self paced and sequential courses, focusing on harmonic, melodic and improvisation development. And then as a member, you also have a reserved seat in my weekly online masterclass, which is held every Thursday evening at 8pm Central Time. And I know this is not the best time for everyone. So that is why the masterclasses are recorded so you can watch the video and rewatch the video of the masterclass.

whenever convenient for you and as often as you wish. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the private online Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums, podcast specific forums, as well as just general jazz forums as well. The forums are growing every day.

a great place to meet folks. It's a great place to get some member feedback and assistance when you need it. And then also to provide some member feedback and assistance as well. And then finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to educational support, private, personal, professional support, whenever you need it. So you know, all of 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.

If you get to the website and you have some questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have. You know, I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel. Once you do, you'll begin receiving harmony, melody and rhythm challenges. There are jazz quick tips to take advantage of as well. And then educational jazz talks.

All of that's waiting for you at YouTube. So I'm starting to populate these playlists with new videos every week. So be sure to subscribe so you are notified when a new Jazz Panel Skills video is released. Okay, so let's get on to the question of the week. Okay, this week's question comes from Brianna Bradley, living in Madison, Wisconsin. Brianna writes,

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Hi, Dr. Lawrence, I recently became a jazz piano skills member, and I am 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, I end up confused and I begin experiencing feelings of defeat. Help me coach.

Your thoughts and guidance are appreciated. That's a great question, Brianna. In fact, you know what your question is so good. I've given a lot of thought to this. Your question is so good that I realized I have a lot to share with you regarding this topic. so much so that I'm going to take two weeks, Brianna, two weeks to answer your question.

so that I leave no stone unturned. I want to really do a thorough job here for you. I have actually have come up with 10 points that I want to make. So I will address five points today. And then I will address the other five points next week. All right. So okay. So let me channel my inner newt Rockne.

Let me put my new Rockne hat on and see if I can.

You know, a lot of you may not even know who Newt Rockne is. Newt Rockne is the greatest football coach that ever lived. Coach of the University of Notre Dame football. Notre Dame football, who of course will be playing the Texas A &M Aggies this weekend. It's not going to be pretty. It's going to be a long weekend for Texas A &M Aggie fans. I guarantee you that. But anyway, Newt Rockne, in case you don't know, is a really famous Notre Dame football coach. So I'm going to put my Newt Rockne hat on.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:47.392)
and see if I can motivate you Brianna and give you some guardrails to help you remain focused and on track as you begin your jazz journey. Okay, here are the first five signs that I see from students who have become overwhelmed and on the brink of giving up as Brianna mentioned.

Okay, here are the first five signs. And of course, these are things we want to avoid, to not do. Sign number one, no plan. This should not be a shocker to anyone, right? Sign number one, no plan. I know it sounds really obvious, but you would be surprised. I meet with students weekly who have been studying jazz.

who express frustration with their lack of development. And when asking them what plan have they established, what plan have they put in place, what plan are they utilizing to help them achieve their jazz goals, they look at me like a deer in headlights. And this is not good. As I have said before in previous podcast episodes, people don't plan to fail. They just

fail to plan. So not having a plan that you can verbally articulate is sign one that you're in trouble before you even begin. And this is why at Jazz Piano Skills, as I just explained earlier in this podcast episode, we have a plan that we execute every month, every week when studying a tune.

And our plan uses a tune. This is important. Our plan uses a tune to illuminate the essential and foundational jazz skills that need attention and that need to be continually worked on. So again, no plan is sign one that frustration and defeat is on the horizon. Sign number two.

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what I call information gathering. If you find yourself spending way too much time gathering information, which is actually a sign that you have no plan, which was sign one, right? And it's so easy to do in this day and age to be constantly searching for the magic book, the magic website, the magic app, the magic software, the magic video that will unlock the jazz world for you. So if you

If you do indeed find yourself doing more searching than practicing, it's a sign that you are an information gatherer, which in the short run actually makes you feel really good because you actually have convinced yourself that you're doing something productive and that that you are accomplishing something by all of the information you have discovered. But the honeymoon soon wears off and you begin to

As you stated Brianna, you begin to become overwhelmed with what I call Jazz Information Vertigo, which soon follows with the feelings of defeat. So be careful not to become an information gatherer. That's sign number two. Sign number three, practice sessions are too long.

which is a sign that you are probably an information gatherer sign too. And as a result, it takes you forever to practice all of the information you have discovered in that magic book, magic website, magic app, magic software, magic video. So you end up putting in a lot of time practicing with very little results. In other words, your return on investment sucks.

just is horrible. If you have a plan, sign one, you can easily restrict each single practice session to a single practice objective, which allows you to get in and get out. In other words, your practices, your practice sessions are very focused and skill centric, which produces great results. Your return on investment is fabulous.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:46.364)
So sign three, if your practice sessions are too long, it's a sign. It's a sign that you're on a one-way road going the wrong direction. Okay, sign number four, playing songs all the time. Now typically, when you have no plan, sign one,

and you spend too much time gathering information sign two, which causes long practice sessions, sign three, then you eventually begin throwing in the towel and simply try to play tunes in an effort to improve because you have heard and read in the magic book and the magic website, the magic app and magic software, magic video.

that you can learn everything you need to know about playing jazz by simply playing tunes. Once you give it some thought though, you begin to realize, you know what, there isn't a tennis coach, a golf coach, baseball coach, basketball coach, football coach that would ever suggest or recommend that all you have to do is play the sport in order to get good at the sport. How incredibly ridiculous would that comment be?

Because we all know that professional athletes spend more time studying and developing the skills needed to play the game in order to successfully play the game. So if you have retreated to simply playing tunes with the hope of becoming better, then you suffer from sign four, playing songs all the time.

Okay, sign five, neglecting grunt work. When you have no plan, sign one, you turn to information gathering sign two, which produces marathon practice sessions sign, sign three, thus causing relentless practice fatigue resulting in just the playing of tunes, which is sign four, which then helps you rationalize

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come up with very creative excuses as why you do not want to think about doing essential and foundational grunt work, the scales and arpeggios, which is sign five. See? What a web we weave. Having no plan causes an avalanche domino effect that causes you to become overwhelmed, confused, and battling feelings of defeat.

Man, I am glad this is an upbeat podcast episode. I don't know if I did so well with my new rock beat motivational hat. But anyway, Brianna, the first five signs, signs that you want to avoid. Number one, no plan. Number two, information gathering. Number three, practice sessions are way too long. Sign number four, playing songs all the time.

resorting to just playing songs and then finally sign five neglecting the grunt work, the scales and arpeggio. Hey, there's five more, but we're going to deal with those next week. So I'm going to let you just chomp on those this week and digest those. And of course, if you have any questions between now and next week, do not hesitate to reach out to me. This is fun. This is a great question. I'm glad you asked the question and sent it to me and

I will complete it next week with five more signs to avoid to help you stay focused as you begin your jazz journey and not to begin having feelings of being overwhelmed. Okay? All right. So now it's time to discover, learn and play. It's time to discover, learn and play Blue Bossa. All right. Every week I present just

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a little outline, my outline of how I go about learning any tune, whether it's a jazz standard, a rock tune, pop tune, country, R &B, folk, regardless of what genre of music, right? I go about it the same way. Number one, I listen. I think the most important thing to do always is do a ton of listening, especially if you are wanting to learn a tune, add it to your repertoire, be able to play it. It's, it's

imperative that you spend time listening to various artists and not just jazz artists, artists from all genres, vocalist, instrumentalist and pianist, right? Soak in everything, every rendition of the tune that you possibly can. Number two, harmonic analysis, which we did last week. We looked at the form, the changes, the function, common movement, voicings for Blue Bossa. This week, we turned our attention to melodic analysis.

learn the melody by ear. We look at the phrases and target notes and we explore various treatments. And then next week, course, improvisation development. We'll dive into chord scale relationships, arpeggio scale movement through the various sounds within the tune. So my outline, whether I'm doing a podcast episode with you all or whether I'm learning a tune on my own, this outline is what I turn to. I listen.

harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation, development. It's pretty thorough, pretty complete. And it works, you know. So again, this month, we we've already completed our harmonic analysis. Today is our melodic analysis. And then next week, we will turn our attention to improvisation development. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to of course, listen to definitive recordings of Blue Bossa.

Number two, will learn the melody of Blue Bossam. We will then, number three, we will look at my suggested fingerings for Blue Bossam. Number four, we will identify the melodic phrases found within Blue Bossam. And number five, we will apply the voicings that we explored last week with our harmonic study. We will apply those voicings to the melody of Blue Bossam.

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And then finally, number six, we will take three standard jazz treatments, ballad, bassa, and swing, and apply them to blue bassa. So a lot to get done, no doubt about it. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to download and print your podcast packets. Again, these are the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. Your membership grants you access to this material.

So I want you to have it in your hands as you listen to the rest of the podcast episode to get the most out of it. And of course, I want you having it sitting on your piano when practicing Blue Bossa throughout the week as well. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets in your hands, I want you to grab the lead sheets as always. And I want you to notice or you should have in your lead sheet packet, should have seven, I'm sorry, seven lead sheets.

The first lead sheet is what I call a fill in the blank exercise where I just give you some guide tones and it's meant to help you transcribe the melody of Blue Bossa. Lead sheet number two is the actual lead sheet for Blue Bossa, the chord changes and the melodic line. Lead sheet number three are my fingerings that I recommend for playing Blue Bossa.

Lead sheet number four identifies the phrases found within the melody, and lead sheet number five dives a little deeper and looks at the various target notes within the phrases of Blue Bossa. And finally, lead sheet six applies the left-hand block voicings that we studied last week with our harmonic analysis, and lead sheet seven applies the left-hand shell voicings that we took a look at last week with our harmonic analysis.

So again, we have a ton to get to get done today. So we need to get after this. Now, typically, as always, the first thing we do is listen. And of course, this year, you all know that we've placed the listening within the forums, the community at Jazz Piano Skills. Lisa does a fantastic job for us in assimilating phenomenal

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materials revolving around Blue Bossa or every tune that we study. And we have posted those in the forums and I would recommend hitting the pause button and spending some time listening to all the various renditions of Blue Bossa that are now available for you to check out before going any further. All right, so now let's grab lead sheet one.

And let's take a look at how we're going to use this lead sheet to help us discover the melody of Blue Bossa using our ears.

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