Georgia on My Mind, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.952)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, here we are again. It's amazing. Week three of the month, and of course week three of every month, is the week we dedicate ourselves to improving our jazz improvisation skills. Week one, we always do a harmonic analysis of a tune, followed up in week two with a melodic analysis.

And always week three, improvisation development. Our harmonic analysis of Georgia on my mind, as we do with every tune, right? We explored the form, the changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course, voicings, block voicings, traditional shells, contemporary shells, and two-handed structures. Then our melodic analysis, we looked at lyrics, melody, fingerings, phrases.

various melodic treatments. Today, our improvisation skills, right, it's going to challenge our ability to create melodic lines rhythmically, create melodic lines rhythmically. It's going to be a great day. We got a lot to do. Oh, and on top of all that, we will have, of course, our rhythm challenge, challenge that will have us doing some transcribing, some transposing and Of course, transforming of our approach to melodic playing.

Of course, right, the study of practicing all of these essential jazz piano skills, harmonic, melodic improvisation, right, all of our skills must be governed by crystal clear thought. I stress it every month, actually every week, that we need to have a crystal clear thought process that simplifies, that simplifies music conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our musical skills physically.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:36.853)
And we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that all that we do, all that we do musically, conceptually and physically, plugs in and adheres to, you know it, here it comes, the seven facts of music. I stress the facts every week because they're that important. And when there's something that is that important, teachers

repeat themselves over and over again to make it obvious that what we are about to hear again is really, really important. And these seven facts are indeed really important. So what are they? Number one, we must come to the realization that music is the production of sound. Primary sounds of music, again, are major dominant minor, half-diminished and diminished.

And music is also right the production of not just sound but silence. We we neglect that. Right music is the production of sound and silence. Number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. And we reference these sounds harmonic sounds and melodic sounds. We reference them using shapes. Okay. Number three, those shapes of harmony.

are called chords or voicings. And the shapes, number four, the shapes of melody are called arpeggios and scales. Number five, when playing scales and arpeggios seems so logical, but we miss it, you can only move one to two directions, up or down. And number six, end up, musicians end up devoting a lot of time and a lifetime

camouflaging scales and arpeggios using tension or chromaticism. And then finally, number seven, we make facts, musical facts one through six, interesting by adding rhythm, by adding rhythm. Those are the seven facts of music. And this is precisely these facts are precisely why we approach our tune study.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:00.333)
centered around these seven facts using three distinct phases, right? A harmonic analysis, a melodic analysis, and improvisation development. And of course, this year we're major emphasis to each of these phases with focus specifically on fact number seven, rhythm. Again, each phase

Each phase incorporates a rhythm challenge, right? In addition to the daily rhythm challenge. So there's a lot of rhythm going on at jazz piano skills. So we have a rhythm challenge in week one that usually involves a rhythmic transcribing and comping skills with the melodic rhythm challenge week two involves transposing motifs to various key centers. And then our improvisation rhythmic challenge stretches typically will

focus on stretching stretching arpeggio and scale motion through various segments the sound. All right, thus transforming our melodic vocabulary. So all of this is why more than ever, I'm very excited about 2025 the year we're currently in and the agenda that we have laid out for the year. It's educationally sound. It's, it's a three tier three

phase approach that is formulated again from a clear understanding of the seven facts of music. And again, these seven facts are needed to illuminate essential jazz piano skills needed to successfully discover, learn and play tunes, which we focus on each and every month. So today we tackle improvisation development. Today, you're going to discover Georgia on my mind improvisationally, you're going to learn

going to learn how well you see harmony as melody applicable to Georgia On My Mind. And you're going to play a solo over the A section of Georgia On My Mind unfolding the chord changes rhythmically. And of course, you will be given a rhythm challenge to develop your improv skills as well. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player, an advanced player or even

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:24.245)
If you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Georgia on my mind improvisationally 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. Welcome. If you are indeed a new listener or if you just

new to Jazz Panel Skills in general, I want to invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. Your membership keeps the Jazz Panel Skills podcast 100 % ad free, which has been my goal from day one, right? No ads, I just want education. In addition to that, your membership comes packed with a lot of perks. Number one, you have access to premium podcast content.

basically what this means is that you get to listen to the entire episode. Right. So like the first half of every podcast is free for everyone to enjoy. We deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast, which is for members only. Lesson content is presented demonstrations, exploration of the podcast packets.

course, the weekly rhythm assignment as well. Now the podcast packets, those are the illustrations, the lead sheets to play alongs that I develop, produce and develop for every weekly podcast episode to help you maximize the educational value, the educational growth that you receive through each episode. And you certainly, you know, want to have this material in your hands when listening to each podcast. And of course, you want the material sitting on your

piano or music stand as well throughout the week when practicing. As a member, you also have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive courses, interactive, self paced and sequential. And then you also have a reserved seat in the weekly masterclass that I host every Thursday evening, 8pm Central Time. And of course, I know when I realize that this is not a great time for everyone from around the world, depending on where you're living. But

Dr. Bob Lawrence (09:47.519)
The master classes are recorded and you can log into your account, your membership and access the videos of the master classes and watch them and rewatch them as often as you'd like. And then also you have access as a member to the online private jazz piano community, which is an excellent community that hosts a variety of episode specific forums as well as general jazz forums.

It's a great place to meet folks. It's a great place to receive feedback and assistance. And it's a great place to actually give some feedback and assistance as well. And finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have unlimited educational support, private, personal, and professional support whenever and as often as you need it. So.

Consider joining all of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover learn play jazz so check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com and of course become a member. If you have any questions once you get to the site you're poking around need some assistance please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to spend a little time with you answer all of your questions and of course help you in any way that I can. I also want to take a few minutes to encourage everyone to

subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. I'm starting to publish videos on a regular basis there. I have the Daily Rhythm Challenge that I release daily, hence the name Daily Rhythm Challenge. Then I just launched a new program called the One Minute Lessons and those will come out periodically throughout the month.

the one minute lesson. And then there are jazz talks, of course, the song study of the month, podcast episodes that you can access there as well as all of the podcast guest episodes are posted there as well. So the YouTube YouTube channel is growing. And it's kind of exciting as I figure it out and get comfortable putting videos together and getting them published. But please subscribe and that way you're always notified.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:07.051)
whenever I drop a new video that will be beneficial for you. So check it all out at JazzPianoSkills at YouTube. And again, as always, if you have any questions, let me know. If you have any suggestions or recommendations regarding the channel, I'm happy to receive those as well. In fact, I've gotten some in from some folks that have been very beneficial. So needless to say, I'm excited about this new dimension to JazzPianoSkills. I'm looking forward to growing the

YouTube channel to help us all discover, learn and play jazz piano or whatever instrument that you are currently studying. Okay, so on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Christina Allison. Christina lives in Belings, Montana. Here's what Christina writes. I'm just recently I just recently discovered jazz panel skills.

and have been trying to the best of my abilities to take the rhythmic rhythm challenge daily. And I must admit, it is not easy. I have discovered I struggle playing rhythms in time. And I thought I was pretty good at it until you came along with your daily rhythm challenge. So now that you've gotten me into this mess, am counting on you to get me out of it.

So Dr. Lawrence, what and how should I approach the daily rhythm challenge exercises to help me develop this important jazz skill? All right, Christina, you totally crack me up. But as you say, I got you into this mess. And now I guess it's my responsibility to get you out of it. So I take full responsibility. And I promise to do my best.

to successfully navigate you through the mess that I've gotten you into and get you swinging like never before. okay, the first thing I want to do, Christine, make sure you know that I recently, you may not have seen this, but I've recently published a video, given an overview of the daily rhythm challenge, along with a few tips on how

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:31.433)
go about practicing rhythms and you'll find this video is at the top of the daily rhythm challenge page at Jazz Panel Skills. So if you go to the website jazzpanelskills.com, if you click on right there on the homepage where it says daily rhythm challenge, there's a button. think it's called backing tracks. If you just click on that, it takes you to the page dedicated to the daily rhythm challenge.

the video is posted at the top of the page. if you have any problems accessing it, let me know. But that's the first thing I would do is say, hey, check out that video. Now, the second thing I would like you to know is the goal, the goal of the daily rhythm challenge. I think this is important for all of us to know that, you know, what exactly are we aiming for? What do we ultimately want to accomplish or achieve with our daily attention and effort?

to practice rhythms daily, right? So the answer is simply to acquire a reservoir of rhythmic vocabulary. Because without a rhythmic vocabulary, we will never obtain the plain skills we hope to achieve. I'm going to say that again. Without a rhythmic vocabulary, we will never obtain the plain skills.

that we hope to achieve. We will always fall short. We will always fall short of our musicianship goals, our dreams. And eventually, here's what happens. Eventually, we blame our struggle on some erroneous excuse like technique or talent or my ears, et cetera. The list goes on and on. Or this happens as well. We actually accurately assess our struggle, but

We use a vague, incorrect term that camouflages the reality or the correct term. I hear this all the time. People say to me, I studied music for years, but I never got good. I discovered that I didn't have a feel for it. So I ended up giving up. Wow. How sad, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:58.311)
sad because when they use the word feel they are they're referencing something a something that you can't you can't put your finger on that they believe that you are either what they're insinuating what they believe is that you're either born with it or you're not right right the word feel is vague and misleading

fact, if a musical feel was actually a real, if it wasn't, if it was real, not abstract that, that you were either born with it or not, then you know what, guess what, Christina, I too would have quit many years ago when I started my jazz journey. But, but the good news is that feel by feel, when they say feel, what they're really mean is rhythm.

So what they really should be saying is, you know what, I studied music for years, but never got good. I discovered my rhythmic skills were weak and I didn't want to take the time or put in the effort to develop the skills. So you know what? I just quit. Now that's an accurate statement, right? But leaving it vague, leaving rhythmic skills vague by describing it as feel not good. So all of that to say Christina, that

And to everyone listening that rhythmic challenges are real for everyone and they can be overcome with the right practice approach like the daily rhythm challenge found at jazz piano skills. So with all that being said, let me give you some practice ideas. are my top here are my 10 commandments. Let's call them that my 10 commandments of rhythm practice. Here they are.

Are ready? Number one, begin academically and if need be, count out the rhythm. Right? Count it out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:12.005)
we do not want to retain that right. It's counting out a rhythm is like learning how to read music using the phrase every good boy does fine. Nobody wants to hang on to every good boy does fine. It's just a crutch to help us get started. Counting out a rhythm is simply a crutch to help us get started. So if need be, number one, begin academically, begin mathematically and count out

the rhythm, notate it. Okay. And then get rid of step one, commandment one as quickly as possible, which takes us down to nine commandments. That's pretty good. All right. So number two, the second commandment, clap or tap rhythms first, before attempting to play them clap or tap rhythms first. Okay. Commandment number three, play them when you do go to play them.

Play them first using a single note, a single note, like maybe the root of a chord that you're using to play the rhythms or just any note for that matter, right? Play them first using a single note. Commandment number four, if you're a pianist or a guitarist, play them harmonically before playing them melodically. I always like to play them as I like, like I'm comping that pattern before I turn it in.

melody. So I go harmony to melody. Pattern, commandment number five, play them using notes of the sound. What I mean by that is the root, the third, the fifth, the seventh, right? Use, play them using notes of the sound. Major, dominant, minor, half, diminishing, diminishing. That's why every daily rhythm challenge focuses on a specific sound and then a specific chord within that sound, right? So we know then

what notes we could be using to actually practice or play the rhythm. Commandment number six, play one measure rhythmic idea. Wait, let me say this again. Play one measure the rhythmic idea followed by a measure of silence, right? And so what I'm saying, trying to say is put a measure of rest in between. Put a measure of rest in between every time.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:39.831)
when you're practicing a rhythm, play the rhythm rhythm for a measure, rest for a measure, play the rhythm for measure, rest for a measure, and so on. So important to have that measure of rest and assess before you attempt playing the rhythmic idea again. Commandment number seven. Practice playing the rhythm various tempos from slow to fast, from slow to fast, various tempos.

Commandment number eight, play using both ascending and descending motion. So if you're playing, may have already noticed that when I do the daily rhythm challenge, I produce the video. I'm always doing, I'm playing the rhythm ascending and I play the rhythm descending, again using notes of the chord, right within the sound. So play using both ascending and descending motion.

Number nine, use a timekeeper, a metronome, a drum backing track or an ensemble backing track when practicing your rhythms. You must place them within the context of time, right? And that's number nine. And then number 10, the final commandment, once comfortable, explore improvising.

variations of the rhythmic motif that you are practicing, right? Improvising various variations, right? Slight variations of the rhythmic motif. So there are my 10 commandments. Number one, begin academically. Count them if you need to. Two, clap, tap the rhythms first. Three, play them using a single note.

four, if you're a pianist or guitar, guitar. I give man, how about this? Forget the guitarist. If you're a pianist, play them harmonically before playing them melodically. Number five, play them using notes of the sound. Major, dominant, minor, half, diminished, diminished, the notes of the sound, root, third, fifth, or seventh. Number six, play one measure of rhythm, followed by one measure of silence.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:06.993)
Number seven, play various tempos from slow to fast. Number eight, play using ascending and descending motion. Number nine, use a timekeeper like a metronome drum backing track or ensemble backing track. And then finally, number 10, once comfortable with the rhythm, begin exploring improvising by creating variations of that rhythm. Okay? Wow.

Well, Christina, look, that's a great question. I could actually dig deeper with you if you want. So let me know. Again, I got you into this mess, I promise to get you out of it. So stick with the daily rhythm challenge and do not and I repeat, do not give up. You will see a remarkable improvement in your playing by the end of the year, I promise and then and then you know what you're going to be doing, you're going to be crafting a thank you note, which I will gladly and graciously receive.

All right, so that's it. Now it's time to discover, learn and play jazz. It's time for us to discover, learn and play Georgia on my mind. All right, you know, I go through this list every week as well, because it is indeed very important that when studying when learning a tune, again, when I take a piece of music, I'm going to I want to learn a tune and make it part of my repertoire.

approach it the same way. Right. And again, it doesn't make any difference. The genre, right? It doesn't matter to me whether I'm playing a learning a jazz tune, a rock tune, R &B, pop, country, folk, whatever, right? I go through the same process every time. Number one, I listen, I listen to a ton of artists. In fact, that's probably maybe even the most enjoyable part of the entire process. That whole

treasure hunt, finding gems out there now easier than ever, you know, with with the internet and sources like YouTube to find various artists playing a specific tune so much fun. And I turned to not just pianist, I like to listen to vocalist instrumentalist. If there's somebody performing a tune that I want to learn, I want to check it out. Number two.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:31.873)
I always do a harmonic analysis first, just like we do here at Jazz Piano Skills, where I lock in on the form of the tune, the changes, the harmonic function, common harmonic movement. I'll explore my voicings. That's step number one after listening. And then I turn my attention from harmony to melody. I do a melodic analysis, again, just like we do here at Jazz Piano Skills. I'll transcribe the melody always.

I will then after I have the melody, I will bracket my phrases, pay attention to target notes within those phrases. And then I like to experience or explore various treatments of the tune. And I typically do the standards three treatments that we find within the jazz genre. And that's like a ballad, a bossa, a swing treatment. So and then finally, after all of that,

I will then turn my attention to improvisation where where I typically will map out to chord scale relationships, look at arpeggio and scale movement, the sounds, explore tension, and then of course rhythm as well, right. So it's a pretty thorough I have found over the years. This approach works beautifully for me there. Somebody may have other approaches and that's fine. But for me, this is kind of the outline that I utilize.

whenever I decide I want to really truly learn a tune and make it part of my personal repertoire that that that I use when playing. So all of that the purpose for the education agenda for today and today's educational agenda is as follows. Number one we are going to listen. Yes of course listen to some

recordings of Georgia on my mind, which are posted in our forums. Number two, we are going to take a look at the A section and B section of Georgia separately and explore them rhythmically. Number three, after exploring the A section rhythmically and the B section,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:57.891)
We are then going to explore turning those rhythmic ideas in section A and in section B into melodic ideas by unfolding the harmony over the top of the rhythms. Wow, so this is going to be a very interesting episode that will be illuminating

I think in many ways for all of us. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to as always hit the pause button right now. Take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets. Again, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, right? Your membership grants you access to this material. So I want you to have them in your hands when listening to the rest of the episode to follow along with.

And I certainly want you to be using them throughout the week when practicing. Again, it will make it will maximize your musical growth and benefit from this episode. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets downloaded, you have them in your hands. We're gonna start with the lead sheets as we always do. I do want to talk about the illustrations and the play alongs here a little later. But let's start with the lead sheets. And you should have six lead sheets, six in your packet. And I want to go through those lead sheets right now with you. Okay, so lead sheet one is the A section. And you can see there, I have . . .

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