Celebrating 300 Episodes!

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.792)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, today is an exciting day for me and Jazz Piano Skills. Today, I can't believe it. I'm recording my 300th Jazz Piano Skills episode. 300.

I published the first Jazz Piano Skills episode on November 19th, 2019 and have continued to publish a Jazz Piano Skills episode every week thereafter. Every week exploring a specific Jazz Piano Skill, interviewing a guest, a lecture series, or doing a tune study. You know, regardless of the subject matter, I have thoroughly enjoyed recording each and

every episode, all 300. So today, what I would like to do, I would like to celebrate by doing three things. Number one, sharing some of my thoughts regarding the study of music. Number two, spotlighting some of mine and some of yours favorite episodes. And number three, presenting a jumping in approach for all new and recently new listeners.

How fun is this going to be? No need to worry about a new jazz piano scale being introduced. No need to worry about downloading and printing podcast packets or feverishly taking notes to make sure you don't miss anything. I want you to just sit back and enjoy Jazz Piano Skills episode 300. So I want to begin today just sharing with you

my thoughts about the study of music. And in doing so, I'm going to share with you my personal journey, my beginnings, my struggles, my frustrations, my aha moments.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:43.554)
my thoughts as a performer, my thoughts as an educator, my formation as an educator. And in doing so, I hope that my journey may ring a familiar bell and serve as a source of encouragement for you in your own personal journey. All right, so a little background. don't think I've ever shared this in a podcast episode. Some of you may know some of this information.

but I don't think I've ever shared it in a podcast. So let me start by saying that I come from a musical family. My great grandparents played music, my grandparents played music, my aunts and uncles played music, my parents played music, my siblings played, really everyone played. And as a young child, I actually thought that. I thought everyone.

played music because everyone in my world played music. So I thought everyone did. I thought everyone ate. I thought everyone slept. I thought everyone bathed. I thought everyone played music. That's it. Right. And I can remember in elementary school, you know, the time when most kids get bullied for playing music, right? Most kids, if it gets out, I'm taking piano lessons and you're 10 years old. Wow, could be a rough year.

But I actually, because of my background, because all my family played, I actually ended up being the bully. At least in my mind, that is, I was a bully. I can remember being stunned when I discovered that someone didn't play an instrument. I actually would think to myself, huh, what? You don't play an instrument? What are you, some kind of freak? Right? Because I just thought everyone played. I grew up around music all the time.

day in and day out. Now I started my musical journey as a drummer in fifth grade, 10 years old. I wanted to be the next Louis Belson or Buddy Rich, either one, didn't matter. But I favored Louis Belson, who actually came from my hometown and his parents, Louis Belson's parents actually owned the local music store.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:09.12)
I started, played drums all the way through college and I still play to this day. I love getting behind a drum kit and I love playing any genre, right? I love playing jazz, of course, but I still love playing some good rock, right? Whenever I have an opportunity to do so. And in junior high and high school is when I started playing with local jazz musicians, you know.

in fact, guys much, much older than me. And they were so kind. You know, I look back on it now. I just kind of shake my head because they were so kind to let me a kid sit in and play with the group. And I think about those days often and how grateful I am for the kindness and the encouragement all of them gave to me when I was just

a kid. And it was during this time that I started playing behind a local jazz pianist by the name of Warren Parrish. Warren Parrish, I'm not kidding, he played like Oscar Peterson. He sounded like Oscar Peterson. And here's the killer. He was a car mechanic during the day and a phenomenal jazz pianist at night. Not formally trained.

He was very much like Earl Gardner. Couldn't read a note of music. And he learned how to play. This is interesting. He learned how to play as a child. By ear. In his father's pool hall, his dad owned a pool hall in Chicago, Illinois. And he told me that his dad would take him to the pool hall during the day. Because Warren, he didn't. He never knew who his mother was.

So he was under his dad's care. His dad owned a pool hall, didn't know what to do with Warren. So he took him to the pool hall when he went to work. And he said that his dad had a old piano in the corner and in the pool hall, there was jazz piped in throughout the pool hall. So he, he used to sit in the corner and to occupy himself. He would try to imitate or learn by ear what he was hearing.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:34.722)
these jazz musicians playing, right? So he just tried to figure things out by ear and he sat there all day and that's what he did. And it's an amazing story and he was an amazing musician. So my amazing parents would take me to this club called Hunter's Club and so that I could play the drums behind Warren. And of course I was underage and so my parents would speak to the

cops monitoring the doors to allow me in because I just wanted to play. Of course, I had no desire to do anything else but that. So it was so frequent that my parents would take me to allow me to play. It got to the point that my parents would actually just drop me off at the club. I'm 14 years old, they're dropping me off at the club.

and the police would let me in because they knew me and they knew I was there. And then the musicians would watch over me until my parents came back to pick me up. What an experience. I look back on that now and I just, you know, I'm not even sure that would even happen today. But it happened for me and it was fabulous. And it was during this time playing the drums behind Warren Parish in this local jazz club.

that I actually became enthralled with jazz piano and decided that I wanted to begin learning how to play jazz piano. So it was me playing drums behind a fabulous jazz pianist that got me excited about playing jazz piano. So here I am, I'm 14 years of age when I started to study jazz piano. And I did so with actually another local jazz pianist by the name of Al Franzen.

And he got me started with the John Mahigan books. And I've mentioned these books in previous podcast episodes. I'm not sure if they're still in print, but you may be able to find a copy of the books online. But anyway, John Mahigan had a series called The Jazz Pianist. And Mr. Mahigan is the godfather of jazz education. He was the first.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:59.666)
attempt to put into print, to write down in writing, right? What jazz musicians do, how they think, how do they play. And those of you who are frequent listeners to this podcast hear me speak about the 60 chords of music all the time. I bring it up all the time. The 12 major, the 12 dominant, 12 minor, 12 half diminished, 12 diminished, right? The 60 chords of music.

I talk about the 60 chords being essential. I talk about the 60 chords being foundational when it comes to learning how to play. Well, in book two of the John Mahigan series, the Jazz Pianist, you'll find one page, a one page diagram labeled the 60 jazz chords. And I was introduced to that page as a 14 year old boy. And I've

talked about it ever since, and that would be 50 years. I have talked about the 60 chords for 50 years, and I had no idea at 14 years of age when I laid my eyes on that page for the first time that I would be talking about that page for the rest of my life. Amazing. So through high school, I played the drums and jazz piano.

And it was during this time that I decided that I was going to major in music. When I got to college. My dream school. Right, my dream school during my high school days was to attend. The renowned jazz program at North Texas State University, now called the University of North Texas.

But I was smart enough to know that I was not ready for that environment. So instead, I intended a small liberal arts school called St. Ambrose University where I could just focus on developing as a pianist and prepare, prepare for my journey south to North Texas State. And that's exactly what I did. Upon receiving my undergraduate degree, I

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:19.042)
packed my bags and I headed to Texas and began my jazz training at NTSU, which I have mentioned many times that is the greatest jazz program in the world and it is there's no question about it. To this day, it still remains king when it comes to jazz education. I was accepted into the graduate program.

and began my pursuit of a master's degree in jazz studies and ended up, was not the plan when I initially went to North Texas, but I ended up with my doctorate degree in music education with a jazz studies emphasis. So my time at North Texas are some of my favorite life memories. I think about them often. I had an amazing privilege to study

jazz with some of the best jazz musicians and pioneers in the industry, leading jazz educators, Dan Hurley, Rich Madison, Jack Peterson, to name just a few. And additionally, I had an opportunity to study with innovators within the field of education as well, primarily Dr. Hildegard Froehlich, who helped shaped my teaching convictions and my teaching approach.

Hildegard was my major professor overseeing my dissertation process. She was a major pain in the butt. I hope she's not listening, but if she is, she knows I'm saying that with great, great love. But anyway, after receiving my doctorate degree, I began teaching professionally and have been doing so for the past 33 years. And over those years, I have

discovered and learned a lot about the art of teaching and the art of learning, which I could devote an entire year of episodes presenting. But today, I thought that it would be a neat way to celebrate the 300th episode of Jazz Panel Skills. I thought I would share with you what I believe to be the most significant revelation.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:41.064)
that I have experienced as both a teacher and as a student. Okay, so I think I have always known this. I think I've always known this, but it took years before I could actually articulate it, or it took years before I was brave enough to articulate it. And that is there is such a thing as good

teaching and there is such a thing as bad teaching and The reason I say I think I've always known this is because you know when you are young And And you experience bad teaching All right in your childhood or even in your college days for that matter you automatically believe that

The reason your learning experience is going poorly is because of you. In other words, you are not learning because of your inability to comprehend the subject content. You accept the blame because after all, you're the student and the individual in the front of the room is the teacher and surely the teacher can't.

be the problem. Well, that is what I thought when I was young and struggled with any class, regardless of the subject matter. But after many years as a student and teacher, and by the way, I'm I'm still both student and teacher. I have come to realize that when I when I do understand something, or when something

When I don't understand something or when something doesn't make sense conceptually, I've come to realize that it's not my fault. So if it's not my fault, then whose fault is it?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:52.904)
correct. It's the teacher's fault. It's the teacher's responsibility to present and explain the material in such a way that I can understand it and begin to successfully apply it. This is so important to realize as a student, right, especially a music student. I see it all the time in music education. Teacher presents material, student doesn't

understand material, student accepts the blame, student becomes frustrated, student quits. Teacher thinks, wow, what a shame. They just didn't get it. And then they move on to the next victim, our next student. It's what I call an academic hit and run. Sadly, sadly, it's, it's a common

occurrence. So if you're listening to one of my podcast episodes, and what you hear me saying makes absolutely no sense to you, then I have great news for you. It's not you. It's me. My teaching approach is not resonating with you. And guess what? That's when you need

That's when you need to send me an email, a voicemail message, right, and say, hey, Bob.

You got to do better, Your teaching sucks. You need to explain what you're trying to teach in another way so I can comprehend what you are teaching. I'm not kidding. I'm serious about that. So if I if I'm ever teaching something that makes no sense to you, I'm just telling you right now it's not you. It's really the way I'm presenting it is not resonating. It's not making sense, so you do need to contact me. I'm not kidding about that.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:01.018)
Let me know this is, you know, when you do that, it's a huge favorite to me because it, makes me a better teacher. You see, I'm old school. I'm very old school. My goal is to teach you the student. Now I am very much, believe me, I am very much aware of the popular teaching trend that is so prevalent today. Right.

teachers teaching the ego, teachers teaching the camera, or teachers teaching both the ego and camera. As long as I focus on you, as long as I remain old school and I focus on you, the listener, the student, then my teaching remains student centered. And if my teaching remains student centered, then I will be successful.

I'll be a successful communicator and you will learn and achieve your musical goals. Wow. That's a win-win. Now on the flip side of the coin, my most significant revelation as a music student is very similar. Similar in that I must know what to focus on if I hope to succeed.

teacher needs to focus on student. Listen to this student needs to focus on music. Just as a teacher can lose focus and begin teaching the ego and or the camera. The student can lose focus by making their center of attention self instead of the music.

As soon as this happens, then the student becomes addicted to information gathering. And soon, as my dad would like to say, the student has the cart ahead of the horse. In other words, the student begins to dump into, and I literally mean that dump into each and every song they play the latest and greatest skill, lick, idea, fad.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:29.684)
regardless of their technical skills and their ability or lack of ability, right? Regardless of their technical skills, regardless of their ability, they want to try to execute the latest skill, lick, idea, or fat. The most important thing is for you to be impressed with them. That's that mindset. That's when you get the cart ahead of the horse.

The student believes the most important thing is for you to be impressed with them. And when this mentality ever so casually and typically without awareness happens to a student, the car, the head of the horse syndrome, then real learning, real advancement, real musical growth, real success comes to a screeching halt.

So I see my number one goal in teaching is to teach in such a way that prevents a student from becoming consumed by self and instead be consumed by the beauty of music and the successful presentation of a song, regardless of their self perceived level, whether you're a beginner, intermediate player or an advanced player. I want to say that again, because it's really important.

My number one goal in teaching is to teach in such a way that prevents you from being consumed by self and instead be consumed by the beauty of music and the successful presentation of a song, regardless of your perceived level, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, intermediate or advanced player, it makes no difference where you are.

on that scale. You can make beautiful music. This is what I'm trying to say. As long as you focus on the music. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I could devote an entire year of podcast episodes to the art of teaching. And I could devote an entirely, an entire, an additional year to the art of learning. Without question,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:57.596)
there would be a ton to unpack.

But when the unpacking is done, the bottom line after 33 years of teaching, the bottom line would come down to this. Number one, as a teacher, I need to avoid the academic hit and run approach to teaching, which focuses on teaching ego and the camera and ignoring you. And number two, as a student, I need to avoid the card ahead of the horse syndrome.

where my focus is on how good can I play to impress you. And instead I need to focus on the beauty of a song and literally present it as a gift to you, regardless of what level I play.

pretty cool. Okay, so those are some of my thoughts regarding this study of music from a teacher perspective as well as from a student perspective. Now, last week, I let you know that this week was going to be the 300th episode of Jazz Piano Skills and I requested a favor to all the regular listeners and I asked if you would be kind enough to send me some of your favorite episodes.

that I could revisit today with some additional thoughts for each of the episodes. And wow, be careful what you ask for because you might get it. And all I can say is, wow, you all stepped up big time. And I received a ton of emails with a ton of favorite episodes. So I tried to whittle it down a little bit. I compiled a summary for today's episode. So.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:47.312)
what I will do is mention each of the episodes that came in with the most votes and give you some additional insight about those specific skills that the episodes explored. So one of the most popular episodes, March 2020, part one and two, two-handed voicings. And you know what? I'm not surprised by this because learning how to voice

chords across both hands, I think is one of the most challenging skills for every jazz pianist to get familiar with and get comfortable with. And it's a skill that I think I've described it before. It's like fish in line can get tangled up very quickly. So in those episodes, I present an approach that

uses a five note voicing, two notes in the left hand, three notes in the right hand for all for all five sounds for major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. And two, two options for each sound to start, right? And I think that's where you cut your teeth. If you're working on two handed voicings, I think

self-imposed constraints where you where you say I'm going to use a five note structure two in the left three in the right so you standardize it and I think if you limit yourself to learning two options for each sound you are off to a phenomenal start and those episodes parts one and two back in March of 2020

those episodes, I lay those voicings out, and I'm thrilled that many of you have found that to be very helpful and beneficial. I will say this, a lot of times folks will think that the two-handed voicings are used only in an ensemble setting, which is not the case. You're going to use those voicings when playing solo piano quite a bit, but you learn

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:11.731)
you get familiar with them and learn them. I would recommend doing so using a backing track so you can hear those voicings in a musical context in a musical setting. And as I have mentioned before in the past, you know, the gateway to solo piano playing is through the ensemble because when you play solo piano, you actually recreating that experience that you're trying to recreate that ensemble experience.

on the piano by yourself, right? So you can't recreate, recreate what you've never experienced. So what's great about using a backing track using technology today, and these backing tracks that are now available, is that it allows you to be able to take a skill, not just two handed voicings, but any skill, and place it into a musical context right away in preparation for solo piano playing. So cannot stress that enough.

Two-handed Voicings was favored by a lot of listeners as one of the favorite episodes and I'm thrilled. So again, that was the date of those episodes go back to March 2020. Another very popular episode was from 2020 as well, April, Key Dependency. Key Dependency. And you know, I'm kind of surprised by that because that episode

That's a hard episode. Right? That's a hard episode. In the whole, the objective of that episode was to introduce you to harmonic function, right? That being able to think of a specific note or specific chord in relationship to a key functioning within a key. So you know, like for instance, taking the note C,

Obviously, C, the note C is the one in the key of C. It's the two in the key of B flat, the three in the key of A flat, the four in the key of G, the five in the key of F, six in E flat, seven in D flat. Being able to do that for every note, right? Being able to think function. And we talk about harmonic function all the time when we do our tune analysis. We look at common harmonic movement and harmonic function within that

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within that study every month. And it's, it's very important. You know, I, I say it's, it's challenge, because I think for a lot of people, it's the first time maybe, where you're introduced to thinking, thinking backwards, right? You know, it's like, people call it the circle of fists, because they think, you know, if I start on C, and I think up to G, C, D, E, F, G, you know, so they're moving clockwise around the

circle of fifths and they they call it the circle of fifths because of that. But that's not why it's called the circle of fifths. C is the five of F. C resolves to F. F resolves to B flat and so on. Two, five, one in the key of B flat is C, F, B flat. Which way is that moving around the circle? It's moving counterclockwise. So the circle of fifths moves counterclockwise. It drives me nuts when I hear people reference the circle of fourths and circle of fifths.

I don't get it. It's a circle of fifths moves counterclockwise, it represents harmonic movement, harmonic motion. And that's what that podcast episode key dependency was getting at your dependency on thinking, function, your dependency on being able to take any note and see it as a 1234567. So I was kind of surprised because that's a tough episode, but I had a lot of great

comments regarding that episode. So if you haven't checked it out, check it out. But be prepared to think a lot. All right. Okay, and along the same lines, another popular episode was Chord Family Scales, May 5 of 2020, Chord Family Scales. In fact, a lot of the episodes are coming from the year 2020 that everybody liked. But anyway, Chord Family Scales, same kind of thing, you have to understand function, right? That

You know, see dominant sound C is the five of F. So it's the F major scale, right? Starting on C. But in that in that particular episode, I take major dominant minor half-diminish and diminish and walk you through how to construct the scale that that applies to each of those sounds so that you can do that. Follow that process. Follow that formula.

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for all 12, for all 12 families. And again, I think the idea and I think I stressed it in the episode, I'd have to go back and listen to it again. But I think I stressed in the episode. You want to get to the point to where you think of dominant like you just think of the C dominant scale, you wouldn't think of it as the F major scale starting on on C. That's, that's a wonderful academic explanation of where it comes from.

I get it. That's fabulous. But you want to get to the point that where you think C dominant, you think the scale that goes with it. There's a scale that represents that C dominant sound. There's a scale that represents the C minor sound and the C half diminished sound and so forth, right? So that's a great episode for diving in and, and starting to get your feet wet with with what is commonly referred to as chord scale relationships.

And again, that's May 5 2020 chord family scales. Okay, and then we have Circle of fifths episode November 30 2021. And that that kind of coincides with the key dependency episode that I mentioned earlier back in 2020 April 28. That circle of fifths. That is, I would recommend that episode to listen to again, it stresses the importance of moving counterclockwise around the circle.

think in that episode, I dive into that that sir, if you're looking at the circle correctly, you can see five one relationships, you can see two five one relationships, you can see six two five one relationships, you can see three six two five one relationships, you can think you can see seven three six two five one relationships, and you can see sharp for seven three six two five one relationships, which is basically half this half the circle. So if you take the circle and you cut it in half,

you have what I call diatonic circles, right? You have this relationship like think in the key of C for a second, sharp four seven F sharp B, three six E A, D G two five, and then C one sharp four seven three six two five one circle movement. Those relationships sharp four seven three six two five. Those happen in standard after standard after standard.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (35:30.851)
so important to understand the circle from that perspective and understand so important to think of the circle moving counterclockwise. So check out November 30th, 2021, circle of fifths. Then we have this was kind of a shocker for me, locked hands, there was a locked hands

series that I did September through October of 2021, Locked Hands, kind of the George Shearing approach to playing voicings. And I did a whole series on Locked Hands for major, dominant, minor, half-diminished and diminished sounds. And that got a lot of votes as well. And that's again, that's September through October of 2021. It's a voicing.

thing. It kind of, I think it goes well with the two-handed voicings that I mentioned earlier. These are all ways in which to voice chords. But I'll tell you what, whether you're talking about the two-handed voicings part one or two or the whole locked hand series in 2021, I'll tell you what, if you don't know your block chords, major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, and diminished, and you don't, and you're not comfortable seeing those chords in inverted shapes, then I think you're going to find

the locked hands and the two-handed voicings to be very, very, very challenging and very, very unnecessary at this time, quite honestly. So those are great episodes. I would definitely encourage you to check them out, at least listening to them. But again, if you're at the point where you're working on your block chords and in their inversions, stay there. And you can listen to the two-handed voicings and locked hands in preparation for getting there, but I wouldn't worry about them.

until you had those blocks and inversions down first. But again, that's September through October 2021, the locked hands or the George Shearing approach to voicings. It's great episode. So check it out. Right next to that, had, I had a, we see a lot of votes on, I did an episode on turnarounds, March 16th, 2021, March 16th turnarounds. And that was

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one of my favorite episodes because it literally I tried to illustrate inside that episode how prevalent circle motion is with these turnarounds and how to actually convert circle movement into chromatic movement. Again, just stressing that, you know, chords move through one of three ways.

They move in circle motion. They move in diatonic motion and chromatic motion movement. That's the three ways chords move. That's it. You got circle, diatonic, chromatic. 90 plus percent of the time, are moving in circle movement. And then right behind that is chromatic movement because chromatic movement is really camouflaged circle movement.

And this is what this turnarounds episode tries to communicate, tries to unfold for you. And then of course, there's diatonic movement. but the turnarounds, that's a nice that episode goes nicely with the circle of fifths episode, and the key dependency episode. So check it out. That's the turnarounds is March 16 2021. So that's a nice one to check out as well.

Another popular episode that goes along with the turnarounds is the tritone substitutions that I did back on September 29th, 2020. Tritone substitutions. Again, tritone substitutions do what? They create chromatic movement. They turn circle motion into chromatic motion. Right? So that's a great one if you're into studying circle and chromatic movement.

Then the turnarounds, March 16th, 2021, and then the tritone substitution, September 29th, 2020. That makes a good combo, for sure. Now, this is no shocker. I'm not surprised by this at all. Another popular series, I did a minor blues and major blues, a minor blues episode, June 2nd, 2020, a major blues episode, June 9th, 2020.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (40:17.999)
I'm not surprised by that. Who doesn't love the blues, right? In fact, I'll tell you what, the blues are so important to jazz. Oscar Peterson said that a jazz phrase can't be a jazz phrase without a certain type of blues feeling to it. Wow. That's coming from the king, right? A jazz phrase cannot be a jazz phrase without a certain type of blues feeling to it. So

Those two episodes, the minor blues and the major blues would be very important to check out. Great for your melodic development and great for your jazz articulation and field development as well. Again, that's June 2nd, June 9th, 2020. You know, I'm not surprised by the next couple podcast episodes that were very popular that I heard.

from all of you that you liked and that was harmonic modes and melodic modes, believe it or not. October 27th, 2020 harmonic modes and then the melodic modes November 24th, 2020. You know modes are so popular because they're talked about all the time. We hear them all the time. So you as a student, you can't help but to think, man, I better know these modes. So in the both those episodes, though, I try to take

a little different approach. I'm trying to use how modes are an academic explanation of a sound. And I'm also trying to, in both of those episodes, explain why the harmonic minor and melodic minor modes are important to the altered sounds, the altered dominant sounds. And it's also

in the study of modes that we find our diminished chord, diminished sound as well. So it's a, those two episodes are fascinating from an academic perspective. So, so that you start to realize like, wow, you know, all these altered sounds that I see, you know, sharp nine, flat nine, sharp 11, flat 13, fully altered all this fancy schmancy talk that, that you hear jazzers talking about all the time and that you see notated in lead sheets.

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you know, you start to realize, wait a minute, they do not come from major scales. So they must come from the harmonic minor and melodic minor scales. So from that perspective, the study of the modes, so important, so that you you understand where not only the diminished sound comes from, but where all the altered sounds come from as well. you know, those episodes are a little heady, a little academic, but I think very necessary, right? So worth

if you're going to pair those up that make a nice combination. The harmonic modes October 27th 2020 and then the melodic modes November 24th 2020. Now the last two episodes that I'm going to mention were very popular as well. Inside Outside playing on April 15th and 20th of 2020 and then the hybrid arpeggios October 22nd and 30th.

I'm not surprised at all because both of these episodes work on linear development of your improvisational lines. And both of these episodes introduce the importance of being able to being able to play through a sound using various harmonic shapes, or play through various harmonic sounds.

playing a single shape. Right. So these two make a great combination as well inside outside April 15 and 20 2020. And the hybrid arpeggios 22nd and 30th. Again, both of these are very much improvisation prep type podcast episodes and require pretty good conceptual understanding of your harmonic shapes.

be successful with both of these episodes. So if you are still working on sorting out your chords and like I mentioned earlier your block chords and their inversions, then it's nice to be aware of these episodes, but I would definitely place them on the back burner. They're more on the advanced level, so I would certainly take care of

Dr. Bob Lawrence (45:05.137)
some harmonic studies first before diving into these melodic, these melodic podcast episodes that require, like I said, a very strong conceptual understanding of harmony. Okay. And again, that's Inside Outside April 15th and 20th. And then the hybrid arpeggios on October 22nd and 30th of 2024. Okay, so I want to just take a couple minutes.

tell you some of my favorite podcast episodes that I think are really, important. The very first episode I did was not... It's funny, man. I literally put it turned on a mic. I plugged the microphone into the computer. I turned on the microphone. just started talking about how to practice scales correctly. It's not a very good episode in terms of production by any means. And

But the content, the information is good. I'm and I think I redid the episode at some at some point. I can't remember. I think I did. But but if you listen to that very first episode, please know that it's pretty raw. But the information is very important in that you begin practicing scales. It's important to start practicing scales based on sound and not based on an octave. So

That's where I talked about playing a scale from the root to the seventh, as opposed to, like I said, going to the octave, so that you can hear the major seventh sound or the dominant seventh sound or the minor seventh sound, playing the scale to the ninth or playing the scale to the eleventh. In other words, your entry point, your destination point always being different, especially for ear training development. I think that episode is very, very important.

I think the episode on that that soon followed was the chord families being able to play your chords based on family. Your major dominant minor half-diminished and diminished sound for C, your major dominant minor half-diminished and diminished sound for F, and so on. Those two episodes, quite honestly, that is foundational. That is essential. That's big time stuff.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (47:33.071)
And so if you're just getting started, I would camp out with those two episodes and spend a lot of time there and get that data sorted out conceptually and get that data sorted out physically. You will be so glad that you did because it really is the gateway to all the other episodes that you are going to be exploring within Jazz Piano Skills. I did another episode

November 28th, 2019. So one of the early episodes, Chords by Key. I love that episode because you start to think within, learn how to begin thinking within a key, the one chord, the two chord, the three chord, and so forth. So I would encourage you to check out that episode as well. And then any of the episodes, I have the traditional shell voicings, the contemporary shell voicings. Again, those are some of the early episodes.

that I published. Again, harmonic development, which is very important. I would check out those and I believe those episodes, both the traditional shell voicings, contemporary shell voicings, those are some of the early ones. The traditional shell voicings December 8, 2019. The contemporary shell voicings December 16, 2019. So very close together.

And then I spent time with the primary dominant voicings, half diminished, major, minor voicings. All of those in 2020 are excellent to work again, all harmonic, which is so important. And I'll explain that here in a few minutes. All right, so there you have a listing of some of the favorite podcast episodes from

from a listener's perspective as well as from my perspective. It's a lot of content for sure. so the question I always get asked all the time, every single week from new members, can count on it. Every week from new members, I get it. Here's the question. Where do I begin?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (49:58.067)
So let me take a few minutes to try to make sense of 300 episodes. think a great place to start is episode one.

episode 100, October 26 2021. In that episode, I give an outline of how I would approach tackling the first 100 episodes. So if you are jumping in, if you are new this week, and you are jumping in, you've just joined Jazz Piano Skills, you see that there's 300 episodes, you don't have any idea where to start. I'd start with episode 100, October 26 2021.

It's a great first episode. beyond that, let me say that the way you want to think about the entire library, all 300 episodes at this time and growing because next week it's going to be 301. But the way to think about the entire library is to approach the library as we do with every tune study that we do.

every month. And every month we tackle a tune by doing a harmonic analysis, and then a melodic analysis, and then improvisation, slash rhythm. So if I was new to jazz piano skills, and I was looking at all 300 episodes, I would immediately separate them into three camps.

Again, just like we do every month with our tune study. I would say what episodes are dealing with harmony? What episodes deal with melody? What episodes deal with improvisation rhythm? And if I were to add another camp, it would be a theory, a theory camp, right? So, you know, things like circle of fifths, key dependency, etc. But but the most. The most important thing to remember is start.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (52:06.877)
with harmony episodes. So you have you have your camps harmony, melody, improvisation, rhythm, and then theory. But start with everything harmony, because everything flows from your understanding of harmony, your chords, your voicings. So all your chord episodes, all the voicing episodes, go into that harmony camp. And that's where you want to begin.

move from harmony episodes to melody episodes. These are episodes that are exploring scales and arpeggios. So take all the episodes with scales and arpeggios that comes after harmony. Then following a melody rhythm. mean, I'm sorry, improvisation slash rhythm. So things like inside outside playing blues modes. These are

these are all episodes that help us with our improvisation development. Okay. So again, harmony, melody, improvisation, rhythm, and then theory, you know, exactly the way we break down our tune study every single month, that format, that process, that sequence should be the sequence you utilize to navigate through

all 300 episodes. Start with episode 100, great place to begin, and then move from that to harmony, then melody, improvisation slash rhythm. Okay. All right. So next week, we begin a new month, we begin a new tune, and we begin episode

301. I want to take a moment to thank you, all Jazz Panel Skills members. You have been so supportive and so kind over the years. It has been a joy to get to know so many of you through your email messages, speak pipe messages, voicemails, phone calls.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (54:32.921)
And of course, the weekly masterclass. Al Franzen, one of my early jazz teachers that I mentioned earlier in this episode, used to say to me after every lesson, and I mean that after every lesson, as I was walking out the door, you would say, never forget, Bob, the greatest thing about music is the people you meet through it.

I think, Val, every time I spend time with you and welcome a new member to Jazz Piano Skills, you are indeed, without question, the greatest thing about music. And I hope, God willing, that I will be celebrating my 1,000th with you in about 13, 14 years from now. That would make me, let me see.

Okay, well, there's no way I am telling you. There's no way I'm telling you what, what age I would be at that time. But I will say, it's entirely possible that in about 1314 years, we'll be celebrating episode 1000. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the best part of jazz panel skills. There are simply no words. And I mean it, there are simply no words adequate enough to express my gratitude. I love you all.

and I'll see you Thursday evening in the master class, that's 8 p.m. Central Time for a fun evening of jazz talk and we'll begin a new tune study next week. Now remember if you can't make the class Thursday night, it is recorded so you can watch and re-watch the video of the class when convenient and as often as you wish. Well there is my cue. It's time to get busy. time to have some fun. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano!