Jazz Improvisation Exercises, B Sounds

0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. I don't know where y'all live, but wherever it is, wherever it is, I know you're enjoying some cooler temperatures, then we are here in Texas, my goodness, talk about the dog days of summer, it is hot. We have been well over 100 degrees for some time now, and this week, is shaping up to break all kinds of records. So what better excuse than to stay indoors and practice the piano? Right? That's exactly what I've been doing. Now that we are officially in August, which means it's going to get hotter, which I cannot believe. I want to do a little recap of July. So what did we focus on in July? Well, we continued our exploration of various jazz improvisation exercises devoted to the primary G flat, F sharp sounds of music major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. And not only did we tackle the primary, G flat F sharp sounds, we also explored the altered F sharp dominant sounds, the sharp 11, the flat 13, flat nine, flat 13, and the fully altered flat nine, sharp nine, flat five sharp five. On top of all that we had some fun with George sharings lullaby of Birdland and last week, I did a little exploration of the melodic minor modes for you. Of course, we've been following this format since the start of the new year. And we use five specific melodic patterns to focus on developing mobile fingering mobile hands, alright fingerings that allow our hand our right hand to be in a constant state of movement. And we all know that, especially by now, that the constant moving in position of our right hand allows us to establish the optimal fingerings, which are needed to produce a solid and authentic jazz articulation. And of course, making sure that we never run out of fingers. As I mentioned, we have utilized this intentional approach for the primary and altered sounds since the beginning of the year. And we will continue to do so for the rest of the year in which there's just not a whole lot left. So today, we will follow the same format. And we will use the same exact format that we use in July for G flat and F sharp sounds, and we're going to apply them to the primary sounds of B. So we are now officially on the backside of the circle, working our way up, back to C Wow. So today we are going to discover the essential jazz improvisation exercises. And we're going to learn developmental arpeggio and scale patterns of B sounds. And we're going to play five arpeggio and five scale patterns focusing on fingerings and articulation. For the primary sounds of B, B Major, B dominant, B minor, B half diminished, and B diminished. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson, exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary B sounds to be very beneficial. But before we dig in, before we get started, I want to as I always do welcome new listeners to the jazz panel skills podcast then if you are indeed a new listener, if you're indeed New Jazz panel skills, I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Now there are various membership plans to choose from. So when you have a moment, check out jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all the perks that come along with each membership plan. There are educational weekly podcast packets, the illustrations the lead sheets, to play along files. There's an online sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses. Online weekly masterclasses online interactive Fakebook, there's a private jazz piano skills community which hosts a variety of engaging forums. And of course, there is also unlimited private, personal, and professional educational support. All of these perks are waiting for you wanting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz piano skills.com. And of course, become a member. Now once you get there, we're looking at the various plans. If you have any questions whatsoever, or questions about the perks, please, by all means, do not hesitate to reach out to me, please let me know I'm always happy to spend a little time with you answer any of your questions and help you in any way that I can. Okay, on to the question of the week and it's a good one, I received an email from Randy young, Randy Young Living in Rochester, New York. It's not as hot in Rochester. I guarantee it right now. It's not as hot, but I don't want to be in Rochester in December or January either. So anyway, Randy writes, it is impossible to study jazz without hearing about the importance of the 251 progression. I agree. I was wondering if there are other progressions that you would recommend practicing any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks for all that you do. Well, hey, thank you, Randy. And you are welcome, of course. And I'm happy to provide you with a little guidance with regard to important progressions that you need to discover, learn and play. In fact, I have been talking quite a bit recently about devoting an entire podcast episode to this very topic. So your question comes at a very good time. I'll give you a few progressions today to begin sinking your teeth into and then I'll expound upon this question even further in an upcoming future podcast episode dealing with this very topic. Okay, to begin, you are correct. Without question, the 251 progression is the big dog of progressions, no doubt about it, you absolutely should be familiar with this progression, of course, at all 12 keys, and you should be able to play the progression in all 12 keys. And I'm sure you've already picked up on the fact that when you practice common progressions, common harmonic movement, like 251, your ears develop in a big way. So, so much, so much so that you begin to actually hear and identify the progression in the tunes that you're playing or listening to. So yes, you hear about the 251 progression, because it is the most important progression and all of jazz. But as you have suspected, Randy, there are other important progressions to study in practice, as well, I would suggest practicing the minor 251 progression. So as well as the major 251 progression, so so instead of playing your 251 and may just in major right, begin practicing the minor 251, which is the half them and I'm doing this in the key of C, D minor, seven, flat five or D half diminished, go to g7, flat nine, go to a C minor six, right. And when I start learning to progression, I like to just play the chord in my right hand play the bass note in my left hand. So I hear that root movement. And I hear the purity of each chord that have too many sound goes into that dominant flat nine sound going to the minor six, so again, the half diminished, going into G seven, flat nine, go into the C minor six. All right, again, a very common core progression that you need to play in all 12 keys and be able to identify it when hearing it. Now the next progression is a variation to the major 251 which would be the two flat two one, this calls upon the tritone substitution so we're we're substituting D flat dominant for G dominant. So we're going to our two chord D minor going to the flat to the D flat dominant seven which is has that movement in the past that movement down to the C major, really pretty, again, very common movement, half step movement. So instead of 2512, flat two, one, right? Again, chromatic movement, a half step movement, very common,

10:19  
I would practice that two flat two, one in all 12 keys as well. Next on the list, I would expand my 2512, B 16251, or 36251. So 16251, C major, gone to six minor, D minor, two minor, five down, right, better known as rhythm changes, right? 162625 or variation of that would be 365 16262. Again, circle motion, right. But very common, this rhythm changes 16251 or 36251. Again, I'd study that progression in all 12 keys conceptually be able to recite that in all 12 keys, and then of course, be able to play that progression in all 12 keys. Okay, next, I would build off that 1625. And I would do something like this 16255 minor 21724 Major, very common, again, listen to this five right, the five chord turning into a minor taking us back to the the one but the one as a dominant and resolving to the four major. Okay, now, I'd expand on that a little bit too. So I do that 16255 minor, the one seven to the four major, the flat seven dominant, back to my one. So it sounds like this. Minor. Back to, again, really common. Another very common progression one, major ones of four dominant. For now the three minor go into six dominant, two minor, five dominant one. Again, one more dominant, three minor, six dominant instead of six minor, two minor, five dominant one. I'd also do, I would recommend doing some diatonic practice, one major, to minor, to throw minor to for major. To minor, or minor or major, again, diatonic movement, very common. And of course, the last two that I'll give you incorporate the diminished chord. So a one goes to a sharp one diminished to a to go to a five, or one, flat three diminished to two, to five. So it's a nice way to work the diminished chord in and again, very common, very popular movement. So I could go on, that's why I'm going to need an entire podcast episode to do this. But Randy at least that gives you several additional core progressions to practice in addition to the 251 progression, and I hope that helps but but again, if you have any additional questions or you need further assistance or clarification, do not hesitate to reach out to me again. I'm always happy to help. Thank you, Randy, for your question. Wonderful. Okay, onward with our exploration of jazz improvisation exercises. For the primary sounds of the poor fingerings poor fingerings. Without question, I've I sound like a broken record, but I'm gonna say it based on decades of teaching experience, the number one reason people have difficulty playing the piano is quite simply due to a lack of hand finger mobility, period, right. It's a type of hand paralysis that makes it difficult for students to generate melodic lines, right scale and arpeggio. actus is of course, of course, a great way to begin developing hand mobility. However, melodies, do not just simply ascend and descend in a straight line using scale and arpeggio motion. Therefore, it's important to be in practicing melodic patterns like we've been doing since the start of the year. Wow. So now listen, practicing intentional shifting, which again, we've been doing since the beginning of the year, begins to simulate a musical reality that all of us have to deal with, right? This musical reality the need to always have fingers available, allowing us to move in either direction, up or down, must be practice must be practiced, and must be practiced in such a way that it develops proper musical instincts and muscle memory, right musical instincts muscle memory, that allows us to properly articulate melodies so that they sound like jazz. And this is precisely why the melodic patterns that we are exploring today, focus on intentionally creating handshake riffs within a melodic line. And that only hands shift multiple hands shifts, right, even if even if it's possible to play the melodic line with no hand shift at all. We're inserting hand shifts, the objective is to begin establishing and developing this hand finger mobility. In fact, some of the fingerings like I've just mentioned, I have notated in the lead sheet include multiple hand shifts within one measure, one measure of a melodic idea. So throughout this year, we are devoting our effort to exploring all five primary sounds of music for all 12 notes of music using arpeggio and scale developmental improvisational exercises that will force us to deal with fingerings and to develop pain mobility. And we are also utilizing the same approach to explore the altered sounds of music, the flat nine sharp, nine sharp 11, flat five sharp five flat 13, fully altered, right each month, we focus on one of the 12 notes, right one of the 12 notes and we devote our entire effort to exploring the primary and altered sounds for that one note. And of course, you know, if you've been doing this since beginning here, we always follow that up with a bebop tune to help us apply our new fingerings and articulation

17:52  
to a musical setting. So the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we begin our jazz improvisation exercises for the primary B sounds. Number two we play, we will play essential arpeggio patterns that you need to discover learn and play from the root to the 13th of the sound using a root, third, fifth and seventh entry point. And number three, we will play essential scale patterns that you need to discover learn and play again from the root to the 13th of the sound using a root third, fifth and seventh entry points. In number four I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises today using the minor sound. And number five I will be playing all jazz improvisation exercises using a traditional swing groove with a tempo of 110. Now if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now hit that pause button. Take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs your membership if you have a TREO membership grants you access to all of the educational podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. And as I mentioned every week you should be you should have these podcast packets in your hands when listening to the episode of course and you should have them sitting on your piano when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories which there are many Apple, Google Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora and the list goes on and on. Then I want you to go directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com Jazz panel skills podcast.com to download Load your podcast packets, and you'll find the active download links within the show notes. And one final but very significant message that I include in every podcast episode. If you are listening at this very moment, and you're thinking in your head that the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary B sounds, and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play are way over your head, then I would say to you what, so what, who cares? No worries. Continue to listen and grow your jazz panel skills intellectually by just doing that by just simply listening to the podcast episode, because every new skill, right, every new skill is technically over our heads when first introduced. But this is how we get better, right, we place ourselves smack dab in the middle of conversations where we are uncomfortable. We're hearing things that we've never heard before. We're hearing words that we've never heard before. And so we're forced to grow intellectually. Some of it sticks, some of it doesn't. But I say it all the time. Right. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally, conceptually, before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So sit back, relax, listen to this podcast. Listen now to discover and learn. The play, as it always does, will come in time, I guarantee it. Okay, now that you have your lead sheets in your hands, I want to point out a few things, you will see that lead sheets one through five, deal with arpeggio motion while lead sheets six through 10 deal with scale motion. And you'll also notice that the jazz improvisation exercises are the same for all five primary sounds, B major B dominant B minor, B half diminished, and B diminished. The exercises are of course modified to reflect the proper sound. Now you'll also notice that my suggested fingerings are included for every note of every exercise for every sound. Now, of course, as I have mentioned before in previous podcast episodes, you can modify the fingerings slightly, but be careful, alright, remember, the fingerings are what allow us to play with proper jazz articulation. And the fingerings are what's allowing us to develop this hand mobility, right this finger mobility. So you may be inclined to change the fingerings to kind of like, maybe get rid of some of the hand shifts. But if you do, you will be working against the objective that we've set out to achieve right. So just be careful, right, your easier fingering may end up actually making it harder for you to play and harder for you to develop this finger and hand mobility that we've set out to accomplish. So I'm just throwing that out there a little caution to the wind. Be careful. Okay, I want you in your lead sheet pack. And I want you to grab lead sheet three, skill three. And I want you to grab lead sheet eight or skill eight. Skill three lead sheet three deals with arpeggio motion, and the B minor primary sound of B minor. And skill eight lead sheet eight deals with scale movement for the primary sound of B minor. I am going to play through each of these exercises today. I do not have time to play through all of them for all five primary sounds because well, that's what you're going to be doing. But I'm going to model for you today using the minor sounds. So let's start with arpeggio motion as we always do. So grab lead sheet three, you will see there are five exercises labeled A, A, B, C, D, and E. We're gonna start with pattern one or letter A, which is just simple ascending arpeggio motion from the root to the seventh, then from the third to the ninth, from the fifth to the 11th and from the seventh to the 13th. There is an intentional hand shift with each one of these four note fragments of the sound these arpeggios, okay, so I'm going to bring the ensemble and I'm going to play the B minor sound at the beginning for a few measures to settle into the groove. And then I will play each arpeggio four times before moving on to the next entry point. So we have a root entry point, a third entry point, a fifth entry point and a seventh entry point, which is allows us to explore the entire B minor sound from the root to the 13th. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out Letter A primary sound B minor arpeggio motion here we go.

26:50  
Very nice, right, very relaxed. So when you're playing these arpeggios it's not an exercise, play it musically, right? This is a melodic line. These are melodic ideas. So play them musically. If you're approaching it with a attitude of a mindset of exercise, then it will come off sounding like an exercise. If your mindset is I am playing. I am improvising this arpeggio and I want to play with the proper jazz articulation in utilizing good fingering. Then it's going to come off sounding like that right? Mindset is everything. So now let's move on to letter B pattern two, we continue with our ascending arpeggio motion, but we add a little contour to the to the arpeggio now. So instead of going straight up, right, you'll see we have this kind of idea. Right, just that simple little contour that takes place. Again, finger hand shifts are in in each one of these arpeggio lines. And again, we're using entry points of the root third, fifth and seventh and again we're exploring the entire B minor sound from the root to 13th. So let's bring the ensemble in and I'm going to play this as musically as I possibly can. So you get the idea of what we are going for when we practice so here we go check it out.

29:59  
Right So now on to letter C and onto something completely different, right? Look at the fingerings. The fingerings alone will tell you there's something very different here, right? In letter C, I measure 1141421. Wow. And then look at the fingering off the third entry 141421. So this is the fingering I'm using for all four arpeggio shapes. From the root, third, fifth and seventh entry, the hand has to shift it absolutely has to shift. So this is a great little pattern, be able to implement the shift and to also play with the articulation where it sounds and feels like jazz. It's not easy. So let's bring the ensemble and let's check out Letter C here we go.

32:22  
That easy without Without question, I think it's my favorite exercise of the five because it really forces a radical hand shift the pull these the pull that phrase off, okay? Well, I say my favorite, but check out letter D. You know what comes next, we have the eighth note triplet that we have to deal with. Right. So but you know, the comforting thing we're using the same format in terms of our entry points are always going to be the root third and five and seven, we are exploring the entire sound from the root to 13. So we keep the same format. Keep those variables the same for all of the patterns. Even though we change the rhythm and we change the fingerings some things indeed do stay the same. So we have these eighth note triplets that we have to deal with. We have to have some patterns that incorporate the eighth note triplet because the eighth note triplet is laced through all the jazz literature, especially in bebop literature, and especially in solos. If you've studied in Trent, any transcriptions you will see the presence of eighth note triplets all over the place. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out pattern four letter D, the primary sound of B minor, root, third, fifth and seventh entry using eighth note triplets. Here we go

35:19  
Okay, we are now looking at letter E our final exercise our final pattern for our primary sound B minor seven arpeggio using arpeggio motion. You'll notice that now our melodic idea stretches over the bar line into measure two, we're back to using eighth notes the eighth note triplet is not present, which is a relief. So now we're back to straight eighth notes, eighth notes move pattern, sending some as ascending descending movement with this pattern and again, intentional hand shifts are placed multiple hand shifts are placed within these patterns. And again, though, some of the variables remaining the same right root, third, fifth, seventh entry, exploring root the 730 to 9/5 to the 11th and seventh to the 13th. So we cover the entire B minor sound. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out our last pattern for arpeggio motion today. letter E here we go.

37:59  
Okay, so now that we have completed our arpeggio study, it's time to turn our attention to scale movement. So pull lead sheet eight, skill eight, pull that out of your podcast packet, your lead sheets, and have that in front of you. You'll see we have five exercises again, A, B, C, D, and E, all of them focusing on scale movement. And so letter A is simply ascending scale movement from the root to the seventh, the third to the ninth, fifth to the 11th and the seventh to the 13th. Of course, there is a hand shift in there as well. So let's bring the ensemble in. And let's listen to letter a pattern pattern one scale eight scale movement, focusing on the primary sound of B minor. Here we go.

40:25  
Do not, do not just brush letter A aside for arpeggio motion and or for scale motion, being able to play ascending arpeggio and scale movement motion with a nice articulation and fingerings. And nice relaxed feel is not as easy as it may appear. So often students will think I got I got it and they want to move on and they don't have it. They don't have it. So I cannot stress to you enough the importance of keeping things simple, practicing ascending arpeggio and ascending scale Mote movement, right, and of course descending too, but right now I'm focusing on ascending. Okay, so now let's look at letter B, just like we did with the arpeggio, it's still scale motion, but we have a little contour to our line now. So instead of st scale motion, we have something that sounds like this right, so we have a little contour to our scale movement. So let's bring the ensemble in we're going to do our root, third, fifth and seventh injury again, same format, tempo of 110 We're gonna play this, these lines with the correct correct and proper mindset. This is an improvisational line that I'm playing and I want it to sound as musical as possible. So let's bring the ensemble in let's check it out here we go.

43:34  
Well we always deal with the eighth note triplet, right, whether we're talking about arpeggio motion, or scale motion. So if you look at letter C, we're back to our eighth note triplets ascending through through the B minor sound from the root to the seventh 39th, the fifth to the 11th and the seventh to the 13th. Multiple hands shifts to deal with create little exercise. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check out letter C. And let's play it as musical as possible. Okay, here we go.

45:39  
eighth note triplets are not easy, right? So the tendency is want to rush, rush eighth note triplets. So if, you know, if I could create any kind of imagery that may help, you know, think of it like pulling back the reins of a horse right, just pulling back slightly pulling back. Right so you don't get out in front, we want to lay back so keep that in mind when practicing eighth note triplets. If you find yourself rushing, don't panic, it's very common. be consciously aware of pulling back the reins and playing with a nice relaxed feel behind the beat sort of speak. Okay. All right, so now let's take a look at letter D, we're back to eighth notes, our melodic line idea is stretching over the bar line. Again, those same format Root Entry third entry fifth entry seventh entry, we have some nice contour scale motion. So again, we want to keep these eighth notes nice and relaxed. And just like with the eighth note triplets, you know, quite honestly eighth notes we we have a tendency to want to rush eighth notes as well. So have the mindset of pulling back those reins and relaxing those eighth notes and trying to play slightly behind the beat as well. Okay, not out in front. So let's bring the ensemble in and let's check out letter D here we go.

48:41  
All right, hard to believe we are down to our final exercise for today letter E of skill eight, exploring scale movement through the primary sound of B minor. Again, eighth note movement, ascending movement, we got some nice content additional contour to this scale movement. And again, the melodic idea stretches over the bar line in the measure too. But again, we keep the same format as we've done not only today but throughout the entire year right, having our set entry points the root, third, fifth and seventh of the sound. And again tempo of 110 Nice and relaxed. I have not mentioned this today but need to. I'm modeling it at 110. But I would encourage you to play these exercises in these patterns at much slower tempos to begin until you get used to the fingering and the articulation. So do not be afraid to play it at 7080 90 slow it down. Play it at a tempo tempo comfortable enough to allow you to succeed then you can begin increasing the tempo as your comfort level increases and familiarity increases. Okay, so let's take a look at letter E our final exercise for today. Exploring the primary sound of B minor Here we go.

51:35  
Well as always we have unpacked an enormous amount of information in one very short one very fast our like I always say I feel like I'm running a sprint from the time I start recording to the end. It's like a sprint to get everything in in an hour. Yeah, even though I played the improvisation exercises today using the minor sound only, be sure to practice the exercises for the major dominant, half diminished and diminished as well. Right? They are all laid out for you, in your lead sheets, podcast packet with the fingerings included. Now remember, I mentioned earlier, you can make some modifications, but don't, don't start eliminating hand shifting. Because you think you can play the same idea without any shifting taking place. Because if you do, you're kind of defeating the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish here, right. So you want to make sure you play everything with a nice, relaxed feel an authentic jazz articulation, you want the mindset that this is a musical musical phrase that you're playing, not an exercise, approach it as a musical phrase because you know what it is? Right? It's music. And again, get comfortable with practicing these ideas right from the root, the third, the fifth and the seventh entry. It's a nice way, organized way very formulaic way. That assures you that you're practicing through the entire sound of the court, right like the minor sound or the half diminish or major whatever sound you're practicing, right. Wow, that is a ton to practice in a week. So you need to get after because guess what, next week we jump into the jazz improvisation exercises for the beat altered dominant sounds, so it just keeps coming. Right? And always, always be patient. Alright, developing mature professional jazz piano skills takes takes time. Back takes a lifetime. So begin structuring your improvisation development after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you today in this podcast episode and I guarantee it, you'll begin to see feel and hear your progress. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary B sounds to be insightful and of course to be beneficial. And don't forget if you're a jazz piano skills ensemble member I'll see you online Thursday evening. At the jazz panel skills masterclass, that's going to be 8 pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring jazz improvisation exercises for the primary be sounds in greater detail and of course to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Again, use those educational podcast packets, your illustrations, your lead sheets your play along not only for this podcast lesson, but for for all. For all the podcast episodes, they are available, check out those jazz panel skills courses to maximize your musical growth. And as always, I want to encourage everyone to get involved with the jazz panel. scales online community, get out there, get involved, contribute to the various forms, make some new jazz piano friends, so he's a great thing to do. If you have any questions you can reach me by phone. My office number here at the Dallas School of Music is 972-380-8050 my extension is 211. If you prefer email, I can be reached at Dr. Lawrence. That's drlawrence@jazzpianoskills.com. Or you can use the nifty little SpeakPipe widget that is found throughout the entire jazz piano skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the jazz improvisation exercises for the primary B sounds. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano!