How to Start Jazz Improvising

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.537)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Wow, what a great month we have had here at Jazz Piano Skills. We have spent the last three weeks exploring the great jazz standard, a beautiful friendship. And as we do with every tune that we study at Jazz Piano Skills, we do a harmonic analysis, a melodic analysis, and then an improvisation study.

Our harmonic analysis examines form, changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course our voicings. Traditional blocks, traditional shells, contemporary shells, two-handed structures. Our melodic analysis, we transcribe the melody, determine fingerings, we look at the phrases and target notes within those phrases, and then we apply standard melodic treatments, typical standard jazz treatments.

ballad, vassa, swing. And then our improvisation study examines various approaches used for developing rhythmic and melodic vocabulary necessary for improvising. Our three-week study of every tune that we dive into is structured, it's thorough, and essential if you are serious, truly serious about improving your jazz skills. Now, of course, the study and practice of

All of these essential jazz piano skills, as you know, must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies music for us conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical skills. Now we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that all that we do musically, conceptually, and physically plugs into our seven musical facts.

And I know that all of you regular listeners can recite this by memory because I go through it every single week, every single podcast episode of every single month for the entire year. So what are the seven musical facts? Let's say it along with me. Number one, fact one, music is the production of sound and silence. Sound, of course, being our primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (03:00.033)
Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and sound is produced melodically. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we're playing chords, we're playing voicings. Fact number four, when the sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios and scales. And fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we're moving in one of two directions, up or down, that's it. And fact number six, we like to...

decorate those arpeggios and scales or camouflage them with tension or affectionately known as chromaticism. And finally, musical fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study, jazz piano skills, we approach our study centered around the seven facts of music using

three distinct camps. We have a harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and improvisation development. Now last week in our improvisation study, we used four harmonic phrases taken from the standard of beautiful friendship, and we composed four etudes, four exercises that melodically outline the changes in each phrase.

And we focused each of these etudes focused on the application of a very specific jazz skill. Now I mentioned in my blog and video recaps this past week that that playing my etudes, well, without doubt, it's useful. But but composing your own etudes is transformational. And that is precisely the goal of jazz piano skills.

The goal is to provide you with a transformational experience that ultimately allows you to discover, learn and play you. So important. Now, I also stressed last week, the importance of studying and practicing arpeggios and scales as one. have all, all of us have heard it stressed many times from

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:26.315)
previous teachers, numerous books, countless websites, infinite number of YouTube videos, and so on that we all need to practice our arpeggios and scales. We hear it over and over again. And it's good advice. However, however, it's incomplete advice. It's incomplete advice because we never, we never hear it stressed that

arpeggios and scales ultimately must become one. In fact, they are so intertwined that they are impossible to separate. This is so true, however, we never hear arpeggios and scales discussed in this light. We never hear it stressed that arpeggios and scales are two elements of one essential jazz scale. I'm going to say that again.

we've never hear it stressed that arpeggios and scales are two elements of one essential jazz skill. So instead of thinking of arpeggios and scales as autonomous entities, as they are always introduced, presented and taught, we must begin to think about them and see them as two critical elements of one very important dimension of jazz.

And of course, the dimension of jazz that I'm referring to is melody. Yep, melodies. Now, melodies, whether composed or improvised, makes no difference. Melodies consist of two essential elements, arpeggios and scales. And of course, scales are just simply arpeggios played with passing tones. See?

they're intertwined, joined at the hip as the old expression goes. So with this being said, and in light of last week's episode, I thought it would be a good idea today to pump the brakes a little and discuss how to start improvising. How should we prepare to begin

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:52.97)
creating melodies, which of course requires us to acquire a functional command of arpeggios and scales. So today we are going to discover the importance of seeing arpeggios and scales as two elements of melody. We are going to learn how to practice arpeggio and scale motion from the root to the 13th of the sound.

And we are going to play major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished motifs using arpeggio and scale motion. 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, how to start jazz improvising.

to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to as I always do, welcome first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're new to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, if you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Your membership comes with a lot of perks. For instance, number one,

as a Jazz Panel Skills member, have access to premium podcast content, which means that you get to listen to the entire episode. Each podcast episode, the first half is free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, I lay out the educational agenda, and the lesson rationale. Now the second half of every podcast episode is for members only.

That's where the lesson content is presented. The demonstrations are played. And then also access to all of the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs, which are the educational materials that I design and prepare for every weekly podcast episode. So important to have this material in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course, you want to have this material

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:16.585)
sitting on your piano or music stand when practicing throughout the week. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you also have access to the online Jazz Piano Skills courses. These are sound-based, self-based, and comprehensive, interactive, and sequential courses. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have a reserved seat in the weekly master class, which I host every Thursday evening at 8 p.m. Central Time. And I know that

This is not the best time for everyone. However, the master classes are recorded so you can watch and rewatch the class at your convenience and as often as you wish. You as a Jazz Panel Skills member also have access to the online private Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums, episode specific forums and general forums.

We also have a killer listening list that is posted every single week that goes along with our study for that week. And it's also a fabulous place to just interact and meet new folks that are studying jazz, provide some feedback and assistance when you can. And also it's place for you to receive some feedback and assistance as well. And finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have access to educational support, private, personal, professional support.

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. If you have any questions at all, once you get to the website, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have, 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 and begin receiving educational videos that I'm publishing every week. I'm producing educational content that I think you'll find to be helpful for your jazz growth. And I currently have several playlists that you can check out. There are weekly recaps, weekly challenges, weekly quick tips. And again, I'm populating these playlists with new videos every week.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:40.652)
be sure to subscribe so that you are notified when a new Jazz Panel Skills video is published. And finally, if you're not receiving the Jazz Panel Skills blog every Saturday, please take time to join the Jazz Panel Skills email list, which you can do so very easily at Jazz Panel Skills at the website. Every Saturday, I publish a blog that is a very nice recap or summary of the activity throughout the week, starting with the podcast episode on

Tuesday. And it's just a great way to have a summary of all of our educational activity that week in a really quick four minute read. It's definitely worth reading to keep you on track, to help you keep you on track conceptually and physically with the jazz skills that we are studying. Now typically at this time I do the question of the week but I'm going to tell you.

There is so much to get through today that I'm going to skip the question of the week to make sure there is enough time to get through all of the playing examples and demonstrations that I have planned for today. So no question of the week today. The question of the week will return, of course, next week as usual. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to explore arpeggio and scale motion from the root

the 13th of the primary sounds of music. This includes the major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished sounds. We're going to explore all of those today from the root to 13th using arpeggio and scale motion. Okay. Number two, we are going to create melodic motifs using the entry points of the sound, the root, the third, the fifth, the seventh, the ninth, the eleventh, and the 13th.

And number three, each melodic motif will focus on using triad shapes that are extracted from the chord scale relationship of each of the primary sounds. So yeah, it's a heavy lesson today, and we got a lot to get get through. So if you are indeed a jazz piano skills member, I want you

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:04.016)
take just a few minutes right now hit the pause button I want you to take the time to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs. Again, right your membership grants you access to this material. So I want to make sure that you're utilizing it to maximize your jazz growth as you listen to this podcast episode. Okay. All right, so

Now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab as always, we start with our lead sheets, and you should have five lead sheets in your lead sheets packet. So if you take a look, let's just walk through these lead sheets right now. Take a look at lead sheet one. It deals with C major improvisation prep lead sheet one. So

We have our arpeggio and scale motifs that we will be studying today. You can see we have an A section, B section, and a C section. The A section is outlining our arpeggio and scale motion. The B section deals with the primary chord tones, root third, fifth, and seventh. And in the C section deals with our upper extensions, the ninth, the eleventh, and the thirteenth of the sound. Now, if you look at lead sheet two,

you're going to see that it's basically the same thing except it is designed and customized for the C dominant sound. Lead Sheet 3, C minor improvisation prep, Lead Sheet 4, C half diminished improvisation prep, and then Lead Sheet 5, C diminished improvisation prep. So we're going to be dealing with the C family today. Of course, we want to take

all of these motifs, this concept that I'm going to introduce today, this way to approach practicing arpeggio and scale motion as one to create one motif. Of course, we want to take that and eventually explore that for the remaining 11 families, right? For the remaining 11 families. but today it's all about the C sounds.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:25.604)
major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. So we're going to build the model airplane, if you will, using the C family, and then we will replicate that over time with our remaining 11, for our remaining 11 families as well. Okay, so before going any further, I want to encourage all of you Jazz Piano Skills member to spend some time enjoying the listening list that has been assembled and posted in the Jazz Piano Skills

online community forums as always, as always, it is an amazing collection of various artists performing the standard that we have been studying this month, a beautiful friendship. Now Lisa does a fantastic job scrubbing the internet to find the best treatments of every tune that we are studying. be sure to take the time to tap into this amazing resource, not only

Not only will you enjoy the recordings, you will discover that they have a very profound impact on your musical development and growth as well. All right, so let's get down to business. Let's grab lead sheet one and let's take a look at how to start improvising.

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