Embraceable You, Improvisaton

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.386)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, week three of the month is here. Week three of the month at Jazz Piano Skills, we all know what that means. It's a month that we dedicate ourselves to improving our jazz improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of tune.

Followed up in week two with a melodic analysis, and here we are week three. We work on developing our improvisation chops. How fun is today going to be? Our harmonic analysis of Embraceable You that we kicked off the month with two weeks ago. We explored the form, the changes, the harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course all of our voicings. Our block voicings, root position, and inversions.

We looked at the traditional shells, the 379, 735 structures, the contemporary shells built primarily using the interval of a fourth, and of course, our two-handed voicings. Our melodic analysis last week looked at the melody, the fingerings, phrases, the target notes, or guide tones within the phrases. And of course, we explored a variety of melodic treatments. You know, a classic

ballad treatment, a bossa nova groove, and then of course, the traditional swing groove. Now today, we turn our attention to improvisation, and we will be exploring those phrases of Embraceable You in much more depth and using those target notes to help us create melodic pathways to help us develop our improvisational skills.

built around the phrases and the guide tones and target notes within the phrases. In other words, improvisation is not guessing. And we're not going to guess. We have a plan. We always have a plan. Every month, we execute that plan beautifully. Harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, today improvisation, next week, solo piano approaches. Now, of course, the study and practice

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:57.871)
of these essential jazz piano skills, as you all know, must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that actually simplifies music conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical capabilities. And we also know that we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that everything that we do musically, our conceptual understanding, our physical execution,

everything that we do plugs into and adheres to the seven facts of music. And what are those seven facts? We all know them by now. 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, when sound is produced, it's produced harmonically and or melodically. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically,

we're playing chords or what we often refer to as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing scales and arpeggios. In fact, number five, when playing scales and arpeggios, we're moving in one of two directions, up or down. And then fact number six, we camouflage the fact that we are only playing scales and arpeggios that move up and down by adding tension or

notes that fall outside of the harmony or what we call chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study here at Jazz Piano Skills centered around these seven musical facts using our distinct studies, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis,

improvisation development, and solo piano approaches. It's quite a lineup. It's fantastic. So today, today we tackle improvisation development. And today we continue our exploration of George Gershwin's Embraceable You, but we do so improvisationally. Today we are going to learn how to create melodic pathways using melodic phrases that we find

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:21.106)
in Embraceable You. And we are going to play three melodic pathways or improvisational lines for each of the, well, I shouldn't say each of the six phrases. We're going to do four of the phrases today found in Embraceable You. And the study of these phrases will help us significantly improve our improvisation skills. So as I 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 gonna find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Embraceable You to be very beneficial. But before we get started, before we jump in, I want to, as I always do, 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, we're glad you're here. I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member.

membership grants you many perks. For one thing, it allows you to access premium podcast content, which basically means you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every Jazz Panel Skills podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for members only premium content,

We deal with the lesson materials, lesson content, demonstrations, and of course, access to the podcast packets. These are the educational materials that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. I always stress that this material should be in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of every episode. And of course, you should have this material sitting on your piano or on your music stand when practicing throughout the week.

As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive, sound-based, self-paced, and sequential courses focusing on harmonic, melodic, and improvisation development. You also, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, have a reserved seat in the weekly masterclass that I host every Thursday evening, 8 p.m. Central Time. And now I realize that that's not the best time for everyone. However,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:45.817)
The master classes are recorded so you can watch and rewatch the video of the class at your convenience and as often as you wish. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the Private Jazz Panel Skills Community, which hosts a variety of educational forums. are episode-specific forums, there are general jazz forums. It's a great place to...

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whenever you need it. So all of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazzpianoskills.com and of course become a member. If you have any questions once you get to the site, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm always happy to spend some time with you and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel.

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:08.503)
OK, so let's get on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Sophia Bennett living in Melbourne, Australia, and Sophia writes. Doctor Lawrence, I need your help. Why do my improvised lines? Sound like I'm running scales like exercises instead of music. Any insight, any guidance, any help that you can give?

will be very much appreciated. Thank you." Well, Sophia, you know, I think we've dealt with similar questions in the past along these lines. So right away that lets you know that you're not alone. But let's talk about this honestly, because this is one of the most common stages of jazz development. And actually, it's something to actually celebrate.

So the first thing I would say is the idea that running scales is bad. It's not. In fact, if you're running scales, that tells me that you've already done a ton of work. It tells me that you've studied chord scale relationships and you've done so well enough that when you see a chord, you know what scale family it comes from and what...

the chord scale relationship is and in which one would be the appropriate scale to use. You know, that's, that's something to celebrate. That's real work. And that's real progress. So we're not going to call that wrong. I would never call that wrong. In fact, I think that's a really, a great stage to be at your ability. If you're able to play through chord changes, running scales. Well, congratulations.

know, what you're really, what you're really saying is that you have a great skill that just hasn't been turned into great music yet. Okay. So let's talk about why it still sounds like an exercise, why these scales sound like you're just playing up and down the piano and sounding like an exercise. So as I mentioned, it's the issue isn't that you don't have scale knowledge. Because obviously you do.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:35.152)
you know the right scales to play. So fantastic. I'm going to tell you what it is like 99.9 % of the time. If your improvisation sounds just simply like an exercise or like a scale, then I can say with great confidence that you probably don't know the melody well enough. You simply do not know the melody of the tune.

that you're trying to improvise on. And this is huge, right? This is huge because the melody is actually the blueprint as we're going to find out today in our study, improvisation study of Embraceable Youth, the melody is the blueprint for musical improvisation. So if you do not know the tune's melody, and I mean, know it cold in your hands, in your ears, in your mind, then you're propped.

probably not thinking in melodic phrases, melodic shapes, right? Melodic target notes. So what does your brain do instead if you're not thinking about melodic phrases and melodic shapes and target notes? Well, it grabs the only safe material it knows. And what does it know? A scale. And once you're in scale land,

The hands go where hands naturally go up and down. And that's why it feels like an exercise because it is an exercise. You're rehearsing a scale pattern, not expressing a musical phrase. And here's the truth, Sophia. If you're not aware of the tune's phrases, you're not going to be aware of the phrases, the target notes of the phrases. And without those target notes,

you can't create direction. So you default to motion without meaning. Motion without meaning is running up and down scales. okay, so you're not targeting the strong tones of the phrase. So great solos don't sound great because they contain better notes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:00.055)
They sound great because the notes are aiming at something.

right? The melody teaches you exactly what those somethings are. So if you don't know the melody, you don't know what those somethings are. You don't know what to aim at. If you don't know what to aim at, you're not targeting strong tones within the phrases. And now you're back to what scales up down. So the bottom line is if you do not have these targets in your mind, the phrases and the targets within the phrases,

You'll play around the changes, but you won't sound like you're inside the changes. It won't sound like you're inside the tune. You know, another reason that you may feel like your scale playing, your improvisation,

is sounding just like scales and not like melodies is is your your rhythmic vocabulary is probably underdeveloped as well. Right. So this is the other half of the equation, not knowing the melody and having a underdeveloped rhythmic vocabulary. Right. So someone can have decent note choices and still sound mechanical because the rhythm is

not there or or mechanical itself. So if you have if you have limited rhythmic vocabulary, if you have predictable starts on beat one, which is a sign of limited rhythmic vocabulary, if you have predictable endings at the end of the bar line, right, that's another indicator of limited rhythmic vocabulary. If you're afraid of space,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:55.396)
that's another indicator of a limited rhythmic vocabulary. If you have no syncopation in your rhythmic melodic ideas, that's another indication of limited rhythmic vocabulary. So if that's the case, then your line will sound like an exercise, it just simply will. Okay, so

The formula is pretty simple, not knowing the melody phrases, target notes, plus weak rhythmic vocabulary equals running scales up and down the piano. So what is the fix? Sophia, what's the fix? Well, we're going to be diving into the fix here today with our study of Embraceable You and our improvisation development. But let me just go over it quickly. Step one.

you got to learn the melody. Like it's your job, you have to learn the melody. Not kind of, not well, I can read it. I mean, like actually know the melody, you can sing it. You can play it in time. You can play it without any music in front of you. You know where the phrases are, you know how the melody breathes, you know, the story that it tells, right? This is knowing the melody, phrasing shapes, targets, emotional intent.

That's what I mean by knowing the melody. Step two, within that melody, identify those prime target notes. We're going to do that today. Pick the notes that the melody lands on. right, those are your target notes, entry points, destination points within those phrases.

Now you're making music. When you're aware of the phrases and those primary target notes, now you're on the path to making music. Step number three, I would say build your rhythmic vocabulary. Intentionally practice rhythm. And here's a secret, rhythm is what makes the line sound like language. That's why I say the seven musical facts. Fact number seven.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:06.939)
Fact number seven is we add rhythm to make facts one through six interesting. This is so key. So intentionally practice rhythm. And I've done several podcast episodes on various ways to approach rhythmic study. And finally, think step number four, think of scales as a source, right? They're not a sentence. Scales are your alphabet, but music is not the alphabet.

Music is language. So your job is to stop reciting letters, which often beginning improvisers do stop reciting letters and start speaking in phrases. So all of that to say to you Sophia, if you're if your solo sounds like an exercise, number one, don't panic. It simply means you have great information without organization, you have scale knowledge, fantastic.

And now you need to know melody awareness, phrase awareness, target awareness, and rhythmic vocabulary. I promise you, if you focus on those areas, melody awareness, phrase awareness, target awareness, and rhythmic vocabulary, I promise you, your scales will stop sounding like scales. And instead, your scales will start sounding like jazz.

All right, Sophia, I hope this helps. I hope this gives you some valuable insight. And as always, if more clarification is needed, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to dive deeper with you with your approach to improvisation. So again, do not hesitate to reach out happy, happy to help. Okay, so let's, let's talk about

Embraceable you. When learning any tune, right, when learning any tune, we approach it here at Jazz Piano Skills the same way. And it makes no difference. I know we're studying jazz, but this applies to any genre of music. I don't care if we were learning a rock tune, a country tune, an R &B folk, pop, it doesn't matter, right? The approach that we utilize

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:31.553)
when learning a tune is the approach that I recommend for learning any tune and it begins always with number one listening. And I mean listening to everything you get your hands on various artists, vocalist, instrumentalist, pianist, professionals, amateurs makes no difference. We have a killer listening list that Lisa puts together for us at Jazz Piano Skills every single week.

that goes along with each podcast episode that exposes us to various artists, vocalists, instrumentalists, pianists, professionals, and amateurs. So important to listen. Number two, after we do our fair share of listening, we dive into harmonic analysis, looking at the form, the changes, function, common movement, harmonic movement, and the voicings. Then we turn our attention, number three, to melodic analysis.

transcribe the melody, we look at those phrases that I was just talking about, various treatments of those phrases using a ballad approach, bossa nova and swing. And then finally, we do some improvisation development, which we do today. We too study chord scale relationships, we talk about that. We look at motif development, melodic pathway development.

looking at those phrases and the target notes within those phrases to guide us with our improvisation efforts. It's pretty thorough, right? It's a pretty complete, solid approach. So you know, this month, we've already completed our harmonic analysis of Embraceable You. Last week, we looked at the melodic, we did our melodic analysis. And now today, it's time for us to, to do some improvisation development. So the educational agenda for today is

is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to definitive recordings of Embraceable You. Number two, we are going to isolate specific phrases found in Embraceable You to help us develop our improvisation skills. And we are going to use these phrases to practice developing melodic pathways

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:46.917)
based on the target notes within those phrases. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button right now. Just take a few minutes to access, download, and print your podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. And again, your membership grants you access to this premium content, this material. So be sure to utilize it, take advantage of it, to maximize your benefit.

from every podcast episode. Okay, so now, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab we always begin with our lead sheets, I want you to grab your lead sheets, I'll talk about the illustrations and the play alongs at the end of the episode. But you should find in your lead sheets packet, you should have four lead sheets for lead sheets, lead sheet one.

deals specifically with phrase one, the very first phrase of Embraceable U, and I have three melodic pathways that we are going to go through. And there's also going to be room there for you to compose your own melodic pathways. Lead Sheet 2, we deal with phrase 2 of Embraceable You. Same approach, though. I've got three melodic pathways that we are going to go through today. And then there's room there on that lead sheet for you to construct, to compose your own

ideas. Lead Sheet 3 deals with Phrase 3. Lead Sheet 4 deals with Phrase 4. Now there are six phrases that we identified last week with our melodic analysis that are found within Embraceable You. For the sake of time today, I'm dealing with four. everything we address and everything that we do today, you can certainly then extend it

to the remaining two phrases that we will not get to today. So now, in the past, typically at this time, I always would play a definitive recording. But you know what we've done this year is we've got this killer listening list now would be a great time to hit pause and enjoy that listening list before we get down to business with our improvisation development and exploring these melodic pathways. So

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:10.982)
Take the time, head on over to the community and do some listening. You will be very glad that you did. Okay, so grab lead sheet one, lead sheet one, and let's take a look how we're going to use phrase one of Embraceable You to construct melodic pathways to help us with our improvisation development.

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