Embraceable You, Harmonic Analysis

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.748)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. It's hard to believe. January's over and February has arrived. It's never a bad thing at Jazz Piano Skills, right? A new month. Because a new month always signals a new tune study. We just completed our tune study of the jazz standard, Stars Fell in Alabama.

which of course included a harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, and our new segment for the year, solo piano. Basically, our tune studies, no doubt about it, our tune studies leave no stone unturned. We pack a ton of information and jazz piano skills into every month, every tune study. So you know what?

I hate change, so let's do it again this month. Let's do it all over again. Why not? The only difference this month will be the tune we study. We will travel the same path and study the same essential jazz skills, approached in the same logical and sequential manner, but with a new and fresh perspective. See, this is what real study, real practice looks and feels like.

We've developed a process, we have an approach, we have a study system that allows us to experience a huge return on investment. You know why? Because we're not running around chasing information. Hopping from one trend to the next, one fad to the next, one empty promise of success to the next. No, that's not what we do.

we explore the essential jazz skills harmonically, melodically, improvisationally that require some good old fashioned grunt work that honestly

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:40.706)
most people try to avoid. Which is why they end up chasing endless trails of information and hop on the next bandwagon. That turns out to be the next trend, the next fad, the next empty promise. What a bummer. So here we are a new month, a new tune. But with the same reliable, tried and true formulaic approach that

that accomplished jazz musicians have been using for years to successfully develop their playing skills, their playing chops. So today we, we start a new four week deep dive study into the timeless George Gershwin jazz standard, Embraceable You. So here's how our four week study format will unfold this month. Week one,

harmonic architecture, right, our harmonic analysis, we're going to look at the form, the unique changes, the harmonic function and voicings for Embraceable U. Week two, we will focus on melody, melodic analysis. We will transcribe the melody, ear training. We will look at the phrases within the melody, the various

guide tones and target notes within those phrases. And of course, we'll apply various standard jazz treatments to the melody, Embraceable U. Week three is all about improvisation. We will look at chord scale relationships, melodic pathways, motif development, and of course, development of rhythmic vocabulary. And week four, solo piano technique.

This is our brand new focus for 2026. We'll do some strumming, striding, sliding, various approaches, bass lines, harmonic additions and substitutions, orchestrations for Embraceable U. So what I love about our monthly tune studies here at Jazz Piano Skills is that we're not just mechanically learning tunes. Right? Anybody can do that. Instead,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:03.587)
We're learning the skills necessary for successfully playing them confidently, musically. Whether you're comping, improvising, or sitting alone at the piano telling your own story, we are focusing on the essential jazz piano skills necessary for us to play jazz piano. And just as important as what we study is how we study it. I preach this all the time.

One of the things that makes Jazz Piano Skills truly special is that, you know what, we don't guess. We actually follow a process. We have an agenda. We have a weekly rhythm that keeps us moving forward with clarity and purpose. And here's what every week at Jazz Piano Skills looks like, except for last week with the ice storm. That threw a little wrench in the works. But typically, weather permitting,

Here's what a typical week at Jazz Panel Skills looks like. Monday, I love to release a YouTube recap video reviewing the previous week's study. On Tuesday, always a brand new podcast episode is launched, introducing the next phase of our study. Wednesday, a YouTube quick short video laser focused on the week's key skill.

Thursday, we have our live masterclass. I host masterclass every Thursday evening. And again, if you don't make those classes, no big deal, right? We record those classes so everyone can be part of the class whenever convenient for them. Then Friday is always another YouTube short video, a challenge that puts the week's skill into action. Saturday,

a fabulous blog post recap of the week. It's about a four minute read, which is wonderful. And then Sunday, hey, day of rest. I'm exhausted by Sunday. So we all just kind of chill out and get ready to do it all over again. So this structure matters. This consistency matters, because great jazz pianist, accomplished jazz pianist, aren't built by random practice.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:29.912)
possible. They're built by intentional study. And that's what we do. And of course, intentional study always begins conceptually. In other words, you better be thinking about music correctly or else you are already defeated. You are right. You've already lost the game. If you are not thinking about music correctly. Incorrect thinking leads nowhere.

Incorrect thinking, quite simply is a disaster. And what's really horrible, horrible about incorrect thinking is quite often you're not even aware of it. It's just, it's a, it's just silently keeps you from advancing. That's what it does from improving from accomplishing your goals. That's horrible. So that is why I take the time in every podcast episode.

to recite the seven facts of music because the seven facts of music are the bumper rails that prevent us from thinking incorrectly about music. Because without these seven musical facts, these critical bumper rails in place, I guarantee it, your thinking will evolve into a gigantic, fragmented garbage database. And as the old saying goes,

garbage in garbage out. It's so true. The seven facts of music allows us to maintain a clean and functional database that governs how we approach our practicing of music. And again, these seven musical facts that guide everything we do fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence.

sound of course being our primary sounds major dominant minor half diminished and diminished fact number two sound is produced harmonically and melodically fact number three harmonic sound harmonic shapes are chords or voicings fact number four melodic shapes melodic sounds are scales and arpeggios are melodies fact number five

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:51.61)
When we play our scales and our pedgios, we are moving in one of two directions, up or down. Fact number six, we decorate or we camouflage the fact that we're playing scales and our pedgios with tension or chromaticism or notes that fall outside of the key, all the same. And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, to make facts one through six

come to life, we add rhythm. Now, these facts are not simply my opinion. These facts are musical truths. And once you truly understand them, jazz piano, music stops feeling mysterious and starts feeling very manageable, very logical.

very achievable. And guess what? Very creative. So here we are a new month a new tune with a clear proven path forward. It's time to roll up our sleeves once again, it's time to focus, it's time to get busy, it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano, it's time to discover, learn and play, Embraceable You. So today,

You're going to discover the 19, I think it's 1928 standard by George Gershwin, Embraceable U. You're going to learn the form, chord changes, and harmonic function for Embraceable U. And you're going to play Embraceable U using my suggested voicings. Plus, we're going to look at the common harmonic progressions found with Embraceable U that we are going to use for ear training development.

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 are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Embraceable You to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're new to the podcast, if you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:19.535)
glad you are here. And I want to take this time to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership grants you many perks. Number one, you have access to premium podcast content. And what that means is that you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. Every Jazz Piano Skills podcast episode is free. The first half is free for everyone to enjoy.

I always deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast episode for members only lesson content, demonstrations, and of course, we have our podcast packets that we have access to. These are the educational materials that I designed and developed for every weekly podcast episode, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs.

And I always encourage everyone to have these in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course, to have them sitting on your piano or music stand when practicing throughout the week. Jazz Piano Skills members also have access to the online Jazz Piano Skills courses. These are comprehensive sound based, self paced and sequential courses, focusing on harmonic, melodic and improvisation development.

All Jazz Panel Skills members also have a reserved seat in the weekly online masterclass that I host every Thursday evening, 8 p.m. Central Time. And again, I know this is not the best time for everyone around the world. However, the masterclasses are recorded so you can listen to the class and enjoy the class at your convenience and as often as you wish.

Jazz Panel Skills members also have access to the online private Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums, podcast specific forums, as well as general forums. And it is also the location where we house our weekly listening list, which are absolutely fabulous that go along with each weekly podcast episode. And then finally, every Jazz Panel Skills members,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:36.365)
all the members have access to educational support, private, personal, professional support. So you know what all of these amazing privileges, all of these amazing perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So I encourage you to check it out at JazzPianoSkills.com and of course become a member to enjoy all of the privileges. Of course, once you get to the site, if you have any questions, give me a shout, please contact me. I am happy to spend time with you.

happy to answer any of your questions and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. I'm producing educational videos that I think you will find to be beneficial every week to help you to assist you with your jazz growth. I currently have weekly quick tips that go out, weekly challenges, and of course the weekly recaps.

I'm populating these playlists with new videos every week. once you're subscribed, you are notified when a new Jazz Panel Skills video is released. And finally, if you're not receiving the weekly blog, Jazz Panel Skills blog post every Saturday, take the time to join Jazz Panel Skills, the email list which you can do so at the website. And this will make sure this will assure you that you will not miss any of the blog posts that

to summarize the podcast episode lesson and does so in about a four minute read. So definitely worth reading to help keep you on track conceptually, as well as physically. All right, so on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Michael Evans living in Wellington, New Zealand.

And Michael writes, Dr. Lawrence, I have been a jazz piano skills member for a year and have learned a lot through our monthly tune studies. My question pertains to playing chords and harmony. I am still confused about what actually matters most when it comes to jazz harmony, the notes or the movement of the notes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:00.631)
Wow. Michael. Wow. This is a question of a very deep stinker, a very deep thinker. And I love it. Wow, Michael. You know, wow, you know, what actually matters most when it comes to jazz harmony, the notes or the movement of the notes? Okay, well, let me take a stab at this.

Jazz harmony, first of all, is not defined by how many notes you play. It's defined by how the harmony moves. So you can play the right notes and still sound stiff. That makes sense. And you can play very few notes and sound deeply musical.

difference is movement.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that jazz harmony is directional, right? It's not static. In jazz, chords are not isolated events. They are points along a path. And that's a great way to think about it. They are points along a path. Each chord, I've said this many times, comes from somewhere. And each chord is going somewhere, right? Each chord exists to create a

motion and resolution. And great players think in a horizontal motion, not vertical stacks of notes. That's really important. Great players think in horizontal motion, not vertical stacks of notes. And that's why shell voicings that we're about to study here with Embraceable U shell voicings just oftentimes just include the third and the seventh.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:05.037)
maybe the third, seventh and the ninth, or the seventh and the third and the fifth. Or again, like I just said, like, maybe it's just the third and the seventh. And then and with just the third and seventh, they ref that actually reveals the direction of the harmony, believe it or not, voice leading. So when when you strip jazz harmony down to its essence, that's what you find voice leading the smooth movement.

of thirds and sevenths, guide tones, one chord leading to the next chord, the path of least resistance, minimal motion, right? This is crucial when it comes to jazz harmony. And this path of least resistance, minimal movement is creating very smooth half step, whole step connection or motion between the chords, which

is what gives jazz harmony really its emotional pull. Jazz harmony actually speaks through the connection of the chords, not the density. Here's what every accomplished player understands. And they understand it intuitively, that the listener doesn't analyze chord spellings. The listener feels tension.

feels release, feels forward motion, feels resolution. You know what? Even non-musicians respond immediately to movement. That's why a simple 2-5-1 progression played with proper voice leading, strong voice leading, sounds more convincing than a dense chord played with no direction.

So this is where many young players get stuck. They focus on chord formulas.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:03.501)
so much emphasis on voicing shapes, memorization, that's a huge memorization, but harmony doesn't come alive until those notes connect smoothly from one chord to the next chord. You know, a single guide tone resolving by half step can say more than five extra chord tones, you know, crunched into a harmonic shape that doesn't move well.

In jazz notes, I want you to think that Michael notes are raw material movement is meaning notes are the raw material, the movement is the actual meaning. Now here's something really important for everyone to hear. When harmony moves logically, it feels right to the player. feels right under the hands when the harmony moves logically.

it feels right. And when it feels right, as a player, you relax. And when you relax playing, and this is what everyone is trying to figure out how to relax, right? When you relax as a player, guess what? Everything improves. Your time improves, your feel improves, you allow the music to breathe, you're not afraid of silence.

This is why great players sound so calm and so confident. They're not juggling notes. They're aware of embracing, riding the motion of the harmony. So Michael, what matters most in jazz harmony? Guess what? It's not notes. Not no, that's ironic, right? Cause we think harmony, we think notes. It's not notes. It's movement. Notes.

give us options. Right? Do I play a ninth? Do I not play a ninth? I alter the fifth? Do I alter the 11th? We have options. Notes give us options. Movement gives us music. And when harmony moves with purpose, jazz sounds. It's fabulous. It's inevitable. It's natural. It's alive. Right? That's what in fact, that's what brings

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:28.655)
jazz to life is this movement of harmony. So jazz harmony isn't about building bigger chords, which we often think of what most people think, right? Fancy or bigger chords. Jazz harmony is about creating forward motion with intention. This is best way I can say it. And once you feel that movement,

jazz harmony starts to be become natural stops, it stops being confusing. It starts to become natural and musical. Wow, Michael, I, I hope this helps. Again, I, as always, I hope I didn't cause more confusion than clarity. But but if I did, and if you want to kick this can around a little bit more, please let me know I'm happy to

dialogue with you to help you get a stronger conceptual understanding of this, which of course will lead to a better physical execution of it. So always happy to dig deeper with you to find clarity of thought, which as you know is needed, right to experience meaningful growth. So do not be bashful. Let me know. Reach out. All right.

Let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play the George Gershwin classic, the 1928 classic, almost 100 years old, beautiful tune called Embraceable You. Alright, so let's go through our sequence of events here that we do when learning a tune. And we talk about this every, every, every week as well. Because it's that important. And

the way we approach a tune. And again, if genre makes no difference. Of course, we focus on jazz here. But if you were studying a rock tune on your own or pop or country folk R &B, you should go about it the exact same way. And this is what I encourage everybody to do. Number one, listen. So important. And listen to various artists, whatever tune you're studying, Embraceable You.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:42.605)
listen to various artists, vocalists, instrumentalists, pianists, professional musicians, amateur musicians, it makes no difference. If they're playing Embraceable You and you're studying Embraceable You, you should listen to everybody playing that you can performing Embraceable You. Right? And this is why we have a killer listening list every week with every podcast episode so that you can bake into your practice routine throughout the week, some very intentional and strategic

listening. Number two, harmonic analysis. I always start there. I want to study form as we're going to be doing today, studying form, the changes, the harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course, voicings. Then I turn my attention to melodic analysis, which we will do next week. We will transcribe to the best of our ability the melody of Embraceable U. We'll look at the phrases of that melody, target notes within those phrases,

And also, various we will apply various treatments to that melodic, to the melodic line to the phrases to the melody of Embraceable You. And we typically stick to our traditional jazz treatments, a ballad, a bossa nova, and a swing style. And then finally, we will look at improvisation development, chord scale relationships, arpeggio scale movement, melodic pathways, motif development, and of course, rhythm. So you know, it's a

very thorough, very complete approach to tune study, which I would encourage everyone to utilize again, regardless of the genre of music that you're studying. So this week, we start with our harmonic analysis, which will have us of course listening, determining form, learning the chord changes, checking out the harmonic function and the voicings. We're gonna do all that here shortly for the Jazz Standard Embraceable U. Next week,

will tackle the melodic analysis, two weeks improvisation, three weeks solo piano treatment. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to spend time listening. See how I just keep pounding that listening, we are going to spend time listening to definitive recordings of Embraceable U. Number two, we will discuss the form of Embraceable U. Number three,

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We will discover, learn and play the chord changes for Embraceable U. Number four, we will discover, learn and play the harmonic function of Embraceable U. Number five, we will discover, learn and play my suggested voicings for Embraceable U. We will be looking at the block voicings and their inversions. We will be looking at left hand, traditional left hand shell voicings.

379-735 structures. We will be looking at two-handed contemporary voicings included with that as well, which are voicings built primarily off the interval of a fourth. And then of course, we will look at two-handed structures voicings spread out across both hands. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button. I want you to take just a few minutes to access and download

the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs again, your membership grants you access to this material. So be sure to take advantage of it. Once you have the podcast packets downloaded and printed, come on back and start the podcast episode and we'll continue on. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab your lead sheets.

We always start with our lead sheets. I'll talk about the illustrations and the play alongs at the end of the podcast episode, but you should have eight lead sheets in your packet. I just want to talk through them quickly. Lead sheet one diagrams the form of Embraceable U. Lead sheet two, we identify the unique chord changes found within this beautiful standard. Lead sheet three gives us a clean lead sheet.

the chord changes for Embraceable U. Lead Sheet 4 provides us the harmonic function of the chord changes found in Embraceable U. Lead Sheet 5 highlights the common progressions that we are going to extract from the tune and use for ear training development. Lead Sheet 6, block voicings, the block voicings and the

Dr. Bob Lawrence (30:28.323)
versions that I recommend when playing the melody of Embraceable You. Lead sheet seven, the shell voicings, which include traditional shells, two-note shells, thirds and sevenths, traditional three-note shells, 379, 735, as well as contemporary shells, shapes that are built off the interval of a fourth. And then lead sheet eight, I give you the two-handed voicings that I use when

playing Embraceable You. So we have a ton to get through today to get through all eight of these lead sheets. So let's get busy. Let's discover, learn and play Embraceable You. So grab lead sheet one and let's take a look at this form. It's different than what we are typically used to.

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