Embraceable You, Melodic Analysis

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.45)
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 kicked off the new month with the popular Gershwin standard, Embraceable U, and did our usual, our standard harmonic analysis, examining the form.

traditional changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and yes, our voicings. Our block voicings, a root position, first and second, third inversion, traditional shells, 379, 735 structures, contemporary shells built using the interval of a fourth, and of course, our two-handed structures. A very familiar, a very comfortable approach.

that we do with every jazz standard. Now today, week two of the month, we always follow our harmonic analysis with a melodic analysis to discover, learn, and play the melody, fingerings, phrases, target notes, guide tones, and of course, apply that melody to various standard treatments, typical jazz treatments, ballad, bossa nova, and swing.

again, very familiar, very comforting, knowing that we follow a sequential educational process that unfolds the exact same way every month, regardless of the tune that we are studying. Every month we take a tune, we study it harmonically, we look at it melodically, improvisationally. Now this year, we've added an additional week of study that focuses on solo piano approaches. These are areas of study that

Honestly, every aspiring jazz musician, not just jazz pianist, but every aspiring jazz musician must gain a functional, conceptual and physical command of if they hope to play. I ask this question frequently. How do we accomplish our desire to become an accomplished jazz musician? It's a pretty straightforward question. Not only do I ask the same question frequently, but I

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59.023)
also give the very same answer. It begins with establishing a well thought out, a well constructed practice approach, a practice strategy, a practice agenda, whatever you want to call it starts there. And this well thought out practice approach begins with what? Having a proper conceptual understanding of music. In other words, you need to be thinking about music correctly. And if you're not,

you're in you're in trouble. You're doomed before you get started. Unfortunately, unfortunately, this is case for so many people studying jazz. So it's really important that music becomes conceptually easy. That is if you hope to develop physical skills. The formula is really quite simple. Music conceptually easy equals

musical success physically. And the opposite is true. Music complicated conceptually equals musical struggle and more than likely physical failure. I say it all the time that if your musical thought process is skewed in any way, any shape, any form, you have no shot of having success with it physically. It's that simple. So I want to make sure that you

at everyone listening.

thinks of music in the most simplistic way possible, which is actually the most accurate way possible. So you can begin developing your jazz chops successfully. And that is precisely why I stressed all of last year, so far all of this year, and will continue to stress the seven facts of music. These seven facts of music

Dr. Bob Lawrence (04:55.043)
have governed the thinking of every successful musician from the beginning of time to the current date. That's not an exaggeration. From Beethoven to Bach to Mozart to Ellington to Peterson to Korea, everyone in between. So let's recite these seven facts of music together. 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, when sound is produced harmonically, we're playing chords or voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing scales and arpeggios. Fact number five, when playing scales and arpeggios, we're moving in one of two directions, up or down. Fact number six, we camouflage, we decorate those scales and arpeggios with tension or chromaticism.

And finally, fact number seven, to make musical facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. Now today I want to just give some additional thought to these seven facts. Dig just a little deeper because they're that important. You know, what makes the seven facts of music so powerful isn't that they're complicated. In fact, it's that they

strip music down to what it actually is. And see, most students in my teaching over the last three decades, plus, yes, I'm that old. But my experience, most students, most students think of music, they think that music is notes, scales, chords, theory, rules. But music isn't theory. Music is

this is important. Listen to this music is sound organized in time. That's why fact number one music is production of sound and silence. Music is sound organized in time. And once a student truly understands and sees these seven facts, music stops feeling mysterious, random, or overwhelming. In fact, it's the opposite becomes clear. It becomes very

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:23.69)
intentional. So look, fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence. This is really the first awakening that I want every one of my students to experience. Students, again, think music is what they play. Well, it isn't. Music is sound and silence. And once this clicks, music stops

students stop overplaying. They stop filling space and they start listening. Silence becomes a tool, not a mistake, which is really huge. And this alone transforms phrasing, articulation and feel. Now, fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically, shapes. Well,

This is where chaos disappears. There are only two ways to produce sound and music harmonically and melodically. That's it. Nothing else exists. Students stop inventing categories in their head once they understand this. And believe me, students invent categories. It's so important that we stop thinking of harmony and melody as separate worlds.

that we actually see harmony and melody as the production of sound using shapes. Now, fact number three, harmonic sounds, Chords, voicings. This is really a grounding moment for students. Harmony isn't abstract. They start to see it. It's physical. It's

voicings. And once students understand this, they stop asking, what chord should I play? And they start asking, what sound do I want? Voicings become choices, not formulas. And this is really important to our development. And likewise, just as important, fact number four, melodic sound, right, scales and arpeggios. This is actually a really big improvisation on

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:52.496)
that every melody written or improvise improvised is built from scales and arpeggios. There are no exceptions. And once a student sees this, this is really awesome. Fear disappears, improvisation becomes logical. Melodies stop feeling random. They realize that they've been playing scales all along just

and arpeggios all along just without awareness. So getting to that moment, fact number four, that melodies are scales and arpeggios, huge. And likewise, fact number five, that the scales and arpeggios can only move up or down. This one is kind of shocking when students stop to think about this for the first time.

because music typically feels pretty complex, but melodically, we're only traveling one of two directions, ascending descending, that's it. And once students see this, wow, lines become easier to shape, direction replaces note chasing, which is huge. Direction replaces note chasing, and phrasing again becomes very intentional. Improvisation becomes navigation, it doesn't become survival.

right? Remember, I said this a few weeks ago in one of the podcasts that creativity doesn't live in survival mode. It just doesn't. Right. So fact number six, we decorate our scales and arpeggios with tension or what we call chromaticism. And this is really this is where jazz finally starts to sound like jazz. Right? Students think they tend to students

tend to think that tension is really advanced, but it's not. Tension is actually pretty simple. It's it's half step approachments. It's chromaticism. It decorates it camouflages. All right, the underlining structure is still scales and arpeggios. But now we've decorated them. And once students understand this chromaticism stops being scary, and they stop throwing, they stop just throwing notes at the wall.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:16.602)
They see those, they see that tension in relationship to the primary sound and the primary shapes. And when you do that, then tension becomes purposeful and it becomes controlled, which is huge. And finally, fact number seven, right? Rhythm makes facts one through six interesting. This is the key to it all. Because without rhythm, honestly, without rhythm, scales are just exercises.

chords are just chunks of notes. Lines, quite boring. And music is lifeless. It's non-expressive. So rhythm turns structure into expression, sound into feel, quite honestly, notes into music. And this is why

Two players can actually play the same notes. One sounds good. One doesn't.

it's because of rhythm. So why this is such a revelation, the seven facts of music when it when it really clicks, when students truly see these seven facts of music, and this is why I repeat these seven facts every single week, when students truly see these seven facts in the music they play, then music stops being theoretical. Practice stops being random, huge.

improvisation stops being scary. Articulation makes sense. Phrasing becomes more natural. And here's the biggie confidence replaces hope.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:09.743)
really huge.

Once this all clicks, students stop asking, what should I play? And they start asking, what do I want to do musically right now?

this is the transformation that I'm seeking and I'm hoping for all Jazz Piano Skills members and Jazz Piano Skills listeners and this is why I pound these seven musical facts every single week. All right, so that's just some of my thoughts a little deeper than typical that that I wanted to share with you today on these seven musical facts and so I hope you find that to be

useful and insightful for you. all of that to say that today we are doing a melodic analysis, and that we are going to discover Embraceable U melodically. We're going to learn the melody by ear to the best of our ability. We're going look at those phrases and target notes found within those phrases.

for Embraceable You. And then we're going to play the melody of Embraceable You, supported by our voicings that we looked at last week with our harmonic analysis, our harmonic study, using three standard jazz treatments, a ballad, basanova, and swing. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, or an advanced player, guess what? You're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Embraceable You.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:47.054)
to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to, as I do every week, want to welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, new to the podcast, welcome, glad you're here. Want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member and your membership comes with many very cool perks. Some of the benefits for that come along with your membership.

at Jazz Panel Skills number one premium podcast content. In other words, you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every Jazz Panel Skills podcast episode is the the it's free for everyone. You know, I deal with the question of the week, we look at the educational agenda, the lesson rationale, free for everyone. The second half of every podcast episode for members only lesson content demonstrations.

We dive into the podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play along, the play alongs. This is an educational material that I develop for every weekly podcast episode. And of course, to get the most out of every podcast episode, it's great to have this material, these illustrations, lead sheets, and play alongs in your hands as you listen to the podcast. And of course, have them sitting on your piano or 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 on Thursday evenings. That's 8 p.m. Central Time. Again, I know this is not the best time for everyone around the world. However, the masterclasses are recorded and members can watch

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (18:12.472)
weekly listening list. We have a killer listening list that is put together every single week to go along with the podcast episode. And that is found within the online Jazz Piano community as well. And finally, as a member of Jazz Piano Skills, you get educational support, private, personal, professional support whenever you need it. So all of these amazing privileges, these perks 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. Once you get to the site, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you, answer any questions that you may have, and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take this time to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel to begin receiving the educational videos that I publish every single week. There are weekly recaps.

quick tip videos that are published. And once you're subscribed to the channel, you'll be notified every time one of those videos are published so that you do not miss an educational opportunity. And finally, if you are not receiving the Jazz Panel Skills blog, you're missing out. Every Saturday it comes out. It is a wonderful read. It's a recap of the week. It's about a four minute read. All you have to do please sign up.

to the Jazz Panel Skills email list, which you can do very easily at the Jazz Panel Skills website. Name, email, you're done. And then every week you will receive that blog, which is a fabulous recap of all of our effort and study throughout the week. All right. So with all that being said, let's get to the question of the week. All right. This week's question comes from Liam.

living in Dublin, Ireland. And Liam asked, Hi, Dr. Lawrence, I'm new to jazz coming from primarily a classical background. My question is this, should jazz melodies be played with a legato or staccato articulation? I am guessing legato, but would like to get your thoughts. Thank you for considering my question.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:40.292)
Well, Liam, it's a great question. And your hunch is correct. Jazz melodies should be played primarily legato, not staccato. So your hunch is spot on. But let me expound a little bit here. Jazz is a connected vocal scene style of music, regardless of what instrument you're playing.

whether you're actually singing or whether you're playing the piano or whether you're playing a trumpet or a saxophone or trombone, it's a connected vocal singing style of music. And if because of that, if your melody sounds kind of detached or choppy or percussive, guess what? It won't sound like jazz. Even if every note is correct, it will not sound like jazz.

You know, one of the biggest problems in jazz education is that most students spend years worrying about scales, chords, voicings, theory. Heck, we talk about it all the time, jazz piano skills. But I try to offset that with the reality, the seven facts of music. so, you know, so again, we spend almost zero time thinking about how notes connect.

We spent a lot of time thinking about the nodes, but very little time about how they connect. And guess what? Connecting is actually everything. So the classical trap, because you said you come from primarily from a classical background, the classical trap is that articulations are written on the page. Dynamics written on the page. Phrasing, phrasing written on the page.

Jazz gives you none of that. students typically, especially coming from a classical background default to what pianists naturally do. They end up playing the piano like a percussion instrument, which is wonderful. I love a percussive approach to playing the piano. However, not percussive in the fact that every note the same length, every note attacked the same way.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:08.716)
space even between the notes, disconnected phrases, that's, that's not what we want. That's not jazz. You know, I mentioned that jazz is a vocal music. It's jazz tradition comes from singers, horn players, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and these instruments cannot help but to play legato. Right? A saxophone, in other words, a saxophonist doesn't tongue every note. A singer doesn't detach every syllable.

So as jazz pianists, we try to imitate this. Our job when playing melody is simple. To play like vocalist and play like instrumentalist, not like pianist. I know it sounds crazy. But we're not typing. We're not pecking. We're not poking. We're not just pressing buttons. Guess what? We're singing. We're singing melodies. We're singing melodies.

So yes, jazz is mostly legato. But now here's the nuance. Jazz is not completely legato. It's primarily legato with intentional separation. Think of speech. Words connect into sentences, but we still use consonants. We still breathe. We still shape phrases.

jazz articulation works the same way we connect notes until we have a musical reason not to. Now students accidentally place the cattle because they they lift their hand after every note they reset the hand for every note they play vertically instead of horizontally. They think about notes instead of phrases. That's one of the things we'll be doing today looking at the phrases of the melody.

You know, they are playing, students tend to play note to note instead of phrase to phrase. Wow. And guess what? Jazz lives in phrases. Very important. Jazz lives in phrases. You know, we're studying a ballad this week, what's typically played as a ballad. We're going to play it today as a ballad, and a bossa, and a swing. it's interesting, ballads demand of us long tones.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:36.39)
breath, patience, sustained sound, emotional space, all of these things that form articulation, right, proper articulation. And if played detached, if a melody like Embraceable You, for instance, is played detached, the melody collapses. You know, another way to think about it, which I like is like, think of legato as warmth. And actually think of staccato as adding tension, right?

ballads like today, Braceable You when played as a ballad require what? Warmth. So that melodic line should be played very legato. So all of that, Liam, to say again that yes, your hunch is correct. Jazz is primarily a legato articulation. And I'll just say this, that if you're jazz,

playing if your melodic plane sounds stiff or robotic or academic, right, then it's almost never a theory problem. It's an articulation problem. And great jazz players don't just play the right notes. They connect them, they shape them, they sing them. And that begins with understanding that jazz is at its core, as you suspected.

legato language. All right, well, I hope this helps, Liam. Welcome to the world of jazz. I wish you all the very best with your journey. And if more clarification is needed, please do not hesitate to let me know. As always, I'm happy to dig deeper with you to explore articulation further, especially legato articulation and how that is

crucial for producing a jazz sound. All right. It's time for us to get busy. All right. Let's discover, learn, play some jazz piano. Let's discover, learn, and play Embraceable You. All right. Another thing that we keep locked in every single month with every single tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:00.593)
is our approach to learning the tune. Right, we have this roadmap that we follow, that we adhere to, that we implement every single month. And it starts number one. And again, I mean, I know we're studying jazz here, but this approach to learning tunes would apply to any tune, not just this

tunes within the jazz genre. if it could be a rock tune, pop tune, country, R &B folk, whatever. We always go about it the same way. Number one, crucial, it's listening. Number one, we want to listen to various artists, various instrumentalists, various pianists, professional musicians, amateur musicians, young musicians, old musicians. It makes no difference. And that's why

listening list is so fabulous every week because it covers all of that and allows us to experience, to listen to various artists interpreting the tune that we are studying. Huge. Number two, harmonic analysis. We attack that first every single month. Form, changes, function, common movement, voicings. Number three, melodic analysis, which we will be unfolding today.

transcribing the melody, looking at those phrases and even digging deeper within the phrases looking at essential target notes or, or guide tones. And then of course, we apply various treatments to the melody forcing us to interpret forcing us to articulate that melody differently, because of the treatment because of the groove or the temple. And we always stick with the

the standard three treatments found in the jazz world, the ballad, the bossa nova, the swing. We look at improvisation development next. We're gonna be looking at, we always look at chord scale relationships or arpeggio and scale movement through the various sounds, tension. So melodic pathways, motif development. And then finally, what we've added this year,

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is the solo piano approaches that complete our study. But this whole approach to learning the tune, listen, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, it's wonderful. It's very complete. It's very thorough. And by now, if you've been a Jazz Panel Skills member for some time, it should be feeling very comfortable.

So this month, we've already completed the harmonic analysis of Embraceable U. Today is, we're diving into the melodic analysis and next week, of course, improvisation development. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to definitive recordings of Embraceable U. Number two, we will learn, transcribe the melody for Embraceable U. Number three, we will look at my suggested fingerings for playing the melody of Embraceable U.

Number four, we will identify the melodic phrases within the melody of Embraceable U and notate the melodic target notes. Number five, we will apply the voicings to the melody for Embraceable U. These are voicings that we studied last week, our block voicings and our shell voicings. And then finally, number six, we will apply three standard treatments to Embraceable U. A ballad, a bossa nova,

and a swing groove. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button. Take a few minutes right now to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets to play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to this material. So it's best to have them in your hands when listening to the podcast episode to get the most out of it, of course, to be utilizing when practicing throughout the week.

Okay, now that you have your podcast packets in your hand, I want you to grab your lead sheets. We start there, we'll talk about the illustrations and the play alongs toward the end of the podcast, but we will be focusing on the lead sheets as usual. Number one, I just want to walk through this, you should have seven lead sheets. Number one is what I call kind of the fill in the blank lead sheet. This is where this is the template we're going to use to help us transcribe the melody of Embraceable U.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (32:50.841)
Lead sheet two, the melodic lead sheet, it's kind of the answer key to lead sheet one, right? So now we have the melody notated. Lead sheet three has the fingerings for Embraceable U. Lead sheet four, this is where we identify those phrases, those crucial phrases for learning the tune. And then lead sheet five identifies the target notes within those phrases that we want to be aware of, kind of improvisation prep, if you will.

And then lead sheet six applies the left hand block voicings to the melody of Embraceable U that we studied last week. And then lead sheet seven applies the left hand shell voicings to the melody of Embraceable U that again that we looked at and studied last week. So needless to say, we have a ton to do today, so we need to get busy. So grab lead sheet one, and let's take a look at how we're going to approach transcribing the melody of this beautiful Gershwin standard. 

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