Misty, Melodic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.577)
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, week two of the month, the month of June, which means, as week two always means, it's a melodic analysis week. Last week we took tune of the month, which is the classic standard misty, and we did our standard harmonic analysis that we do every month.

we examine the form, the traditional changes, the harmonic function, common harmonic movement. And of course, we looked at the voicings, our block shapes, our traditional shells, our contemporary shells, and the two handed structures. Of course, we always follow a harmonic analysis with a melodic analysis, which we're going to do today to discover, learn and play the lyrics of the tune, the melody,

fingerings, phrases, target notes, various standard treatments. And we have a little fun with some rhythmic challenges as well. Every month, we take a tune we get comfy with it through harmonic, melodic and improvisation study areas of study that every aspiring jazz musician, not just pianist, everyone must gain a functional command of both conceptually and physically.

And how do do this? Well, it begins with establishing a well thought out and constructed practice strategy. And that's what we do at Jazz Piano Skills. We have a constructed, well thought out practice strategy. I remind students daily that people don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan. And I see this time and time again, when a new student, especially an adult student,

begins private study with me here at the Dallas School of Music. They've invested years of practice with very little to show for it. What a shame. They have purchased every book ever published on the topic of playing jazz, establishing some of the greatest libraries of jazz material to ever exist in the world. And yet they still struggle to play jazz. Why?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:57.931)
because they have a plethora of information and no plan. In fact, they're confused as to where to begin, which honestly is is a typical symptom of information overload. What is that old expression? Paralysis by analysis, which is like as a psychological phenomenon where

overthinking a problem or decision leads to an inability to make any choice or take action. Yep. That's what happens when we get too much information or too much information has the opposite effect. All this information, no idea what to do with it, but running around busy, busy, busy running around like a chicken with his head cut off. And the irony, most of the information

is not needed to become an accomplished jazz musician. Yep. Now more than ever, right? This trap is so easy to fall into. Jazz education has become saturated with information. And I like to say, it's the jazz candy store. It's larger than ever. Jazz temptation abounds. This is exactly why we

do what we do here at Jazz Piano Skills. We have a plan and we execute the plan every week, every month. We have a harmonic plan. We have a melodic plan. We have a plan for developing improvisation skills. We execute the plan. And on top of that, we have a compass that keeps us on track. That

prevents us from straying off course and wandering into the jazz abyss, right? An abyss that many, the majority, fall into. And unfortunately, this is sad, they never find their way out.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:08.5)
So what exactly? What is this compass? Well, let me tell you, the compass that I am referring to. And all of you regular listeners can say it with me. This compass are the seven facts of music. And without the seven facts branded, and I literally mean that branded into your mind, you cannot formulate a coherent and strategic practice plan or an agenda.

can't establish a practice plan or agenda to produce the results that you hope to obtain. Without the facts, you will be in a constant state of information gathering a constant state of the pursuit of information with absolutely no idea what to do with it. So again, as I do every week, what are the seven facts that serve as our compass?

Here they are. Fact number one, music is the production of sound. That's what musicians do. We create, we produce sound. Sounds like major, dominant, minor, half diminished and diminished. We also produce silence. Fact number two, sound, when we produce it, is produced harmonically and melodically. Shapes. Fact number three,

When sound is produced harmonically, we're playing chords. As pianists, we like to refer to them as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing arpeggios and scales. Fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we're moving, always moving in one of two directions, either up or down. And number six, we camouflage or we

decorate the arpeggios and scales with tension or chromaticism. And finally, fact number seven, to make musical facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. Right? These seven facts quite honestly, applied to all genres of music. This is not a jazz thing. I'm talking about the seven facts of music and not the seven facts of jazz, the seven facts of music.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:37.176)
And it is imperative that you think about these seven facts a lot, right? To the point that you can actually see and hear the facts of music and see them in the music that you're playing and the skills that you're practicing, right? Now, once this happens, once this tipping point happens for you that you can actually see and hear the musical facts, right? In

the music you're playing and the skills that you're practicing. When this tipping point happens for you, when you can identify everything you encounter musically as being found within the seven facts, then, then you can begin constructing a practice plan that actually for real produces the results that you're looking for. You are now on a very clear path

leading to musical success. This is exactly why I launched Jazz Piano Skills some six years ago, right? To help, as you know, I said this, I think last month, to help everyone, right, who's swimming in a pool of autonomous musical concepts, ideas, licks, and progressions, and theories, an entirely new approach to studying and practicing essential jazz piano.

skills, an entirely new approach anchored by the seven facts of music, our compass. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study every week, every month, every year, centered around these facts, we hang on to our compass, right? Using three distinct phases or studies, right? Study one harmonic analysis, study two, a melodic analysis.

and study three improvisation development. We add emphasis to each of these studies, focusing specifically on fact number seven, rhythm. I'm thrilled, totally 100 % completely thrilled because we have established an amazing educationally sound three tier approach or three study approach that is formulated and anchored

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:02.38)
seven facts of music needed to illuminate essential jazz piano skills needed to successfully discover, learn and play tunes to play jazz. So all of this to say that today we are doing a melodic analysis that today you are going to melodically discover Misty, you're going to learn melody, of course, by ear, we're gonna learn the phrases and the target notes for Misty.

And we're gonna play Misty using three jazz treatments, a little different than usual. So we're gonna have a little fun with this today. And of course, you'll be given a rhythm challenge to develop your rhythmic 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 if you are a seasoned and experienced professional.

you're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Misty melodically to be very beneficial. But before we jump in and before we dig in, want to, as I always do, welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. And if you are indeed a new listener, you're new to Jazz Piano Skills podcast or new to Jazz Piano Skills,

Welcome, I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. your membership, number one, your membership helps keep Jazz Piano Skills 100 % ad free, which has been my goal from day one. All education, no ads. How nice is that? But beyond that, your membership grants you many perks. Number one, you

receive premium podcast content, which basically means you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. We deal with the question of the week, lay out the educational agenda, and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for members only, we unfold the lesson content, the demonstrations are presented.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:22.776)
And we have our weekly rhythm assignment that we deal with as well. As a member to go along with premium content are the podcast packets, which are the educational materials that I designed and developed for each weekly podcast episode. The packet includes the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs or the backing tracks. This material you definitely want to have in your hands when listening to the episode to

to get the most out of each episode, but you also want this material sitting on your piano or your music stand when practicing as well. As a member, you also have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive, interactive, self paced and sequential courses. And you also have a reserved seat in my weekly masterclass, which is held every Thursday evening at 8pm Central Standard Time.

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All of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check them all out at jazzpanelskills.com and of course become a member. If you get to the site, you have questions, you need some assistance or help, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you and help you in any way that I can. I also want to invite you to subscribe to my jazz panel skills.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:38.38)
YouTube channel that I recently launched. I have several playlists for you to check out there. The daily challenges which include rhythm, harmony, melody, technique. I also have one minute lessons, jazz talks, of course, the song study of the month. Podcast episodes are published there as well, as well as all the podcast guest episodes. So I'm starting to populate these playlists with new videos every week. So

Again, be sure to subscribe so that you are notified whenever I release a new Jazz Piano Skills video. And if you have any requests for me to cover a specific topic or skill with the video, please let me know. Happy to address your request as well. Needless to say, I'm excited about this new dimension to Jazz Piano Skills and looking forward to growing the channel to help us all discover, learn and play Jazz Piano or whatever instrument that you

are currently studying. Okay, so let's get to the question of the week. And this week's question comes from George Boyle living in Tucson, Arizona. And George writes, I'm loving the daily challenges that you are publishing on YouTube. And I love that you are now including harmony, melody tech and technique challenges in addition to the rhythm challenges. I look forward to trying them every day.

I am however wondering if you can provide me with some guidance on how best to approach these challenges. Should I try to keep up every day? Or is it better for me to select one or two challenges to focus on and stay with them until I'm ready to move on? I just want to ensure that I'm using the challenges most effectively. Any guidance is appreciated. It's time to discover, learn and play.

I love it, George. Yes, indeed. You got it. It's time to discover, learn and play. I like it. It's fantastic question that I'm sure many folks are wondering the same thing. So let me start. Let me start with the best case scenario when it comes to the daily challenges. Number one, you receive the daily challenge and it's a rhythm challenge.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:03.978)
you look at it, you immediately see all four beats without a problem. And you instinct, instinctively tap it out and then play it using the sound and the chord that the rhythm is being played with in the challenge. In fact, it's so easy that you decide to pop the chord into some backing track software and

you begin playing it for fun at various temples. That's awesome. Now keep in mind, this is the best case scenario. Number two, you receive a harmony challenge presenting you with some voicings to play. You go to the keys, you play the voicings, you love them so much that you decide to once again, pop them into backing track software and you play the voicings in all 12 keys. Bingo.

three, you receive a melody challenge and you immediately see the logic behind the construction of this melodic idea. And once again, you turn to your backing track software so you can begin to immediately transpose the melodic motif into all 12 keys. No problem. And number four, you receive a technique challenge and you say to yourself,

You know what? Not only can I play this technique challenge in my right hand, I actually think I can play it in my left hand at the same time as well, right? So again, you turn to your backing track software and you begin to practice the technique challenge, not only in your right hand, but in your left hand as well. And on top of that, you move it around to all 12 keys. That's fantastic. Now again,

George, this is the best case scenario. And this is what what all of us should be striving for. And the daily challenges will actually help us get there and help us adequately assess where we are in this process within our journey. Now, with this being said, let me address those of you who are not at this level. I would as George mentioned,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:25.73)
in his question, select a couple challenges that are intriguing to you. And, and then do a thorough study of those challenges until you feel like you're ready to move on to a couple new challenges. Right. And at the same time, however, I would give the daily challenge the new challenge that comes in for that day. I'd give it a shot. Now you don't need to spend a ton of time with the challenge, especially if you are focusing on a couple specific ones.

But I definitely would keep up with the daily challenges from the standpoint of just giving it a shot. Okay. So I would, I would make it a goal with the melodic, the harmonic and technique challenges, especially ones that you're focusing on. I would make it a goal to play them in more than one key. Now I know jazz teachers always love distress.

all 12 keys. But honestly, you will benefit greatly from selecting a few keys with each challenge, right, just a few keys. And then move on. Okay, now, that's really George, a really quick overview of some of my thoughts regarding the daily challenges. And I hope this

gives you little better understanding of how to maximize the benefit of the daily challenges and ultimately what the goal is for all of us with the daily challenges. But but I would keep things simple, focus on a couple, do the daily challenge when it comes out. But if you're focusing on the ones that you're focusing on, make that the priority and and give the new one a shot and then get back to focusing on the ones.

that you have selected. Alright, so again, I hope this helps. And if you still have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. I'm happy to explore some additional strategies with you so that you gain maximum maximum benefit from these daily challenges. Alright, so let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play Misty.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:50.084)
I go through this outline every week, because it's important for all of us to keep this in mind as we approach learning a new tune. I use the same approach. And we use the same approach here at Jazz Piano Skills now every month. And again, genre makes no difference. Doesn't matter whether it's a jazz tune, a rock, pop, country, folk, R &B, whatever, right? The learning approach or the approach that

I utilize and that we are using here at Jazz Piano Skills is number one, we listen and we listen to a lot of renditions of whatever tune it is that we're studying various artists, vocalist, instrumentalist, pianist, and from various genres as well. Not just jazz, we're not jazz snobs at the Jazz Piano Skills, right? What we will absorb every rendition

to help us grow musically and to help us with our own treatment of the tune as well. Number two, we turn our attention as we do here every month to harmonic analysis first where we check out the form of the tune, the changes, the function, common harmonic movement, the voicings. Then as we're going to do today, we turn our attention to a melodic analysis.

We will transcribe the melody, we'll learn it by ear as opposed to reading it from a fake book. We'll examine the phrases within the melody, the target notes within those phrases, and then we'll explore some various treatments of the two. And then finally, as we will do next week, we turn our attention to improvisation development. We typically will study chord scale relationships, we'll look at arpeggio on scale movement.

through the various sounds within the tune. Look at some tension and chromaticism as well. So it's a pretty thorough, it's a pretty complete and strategic and organized and structured approach. Listening, harmonic, melodic improvisation. Of course, all of this is wrapped in the seven facts of music. And we utilize those seven facts in conjunction with our learning

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:12.486)
approach, listening, harmonic, melodic and improvisation. We use it as a compass to keep us on track and to prevent us falling into the jazz abyss. All right, so today's educational agenda is as follows. Before I do the agenda, know, every I've heard it from several people, they say, you know, you laugh at your own jokes, like,

Yes, of course I do because no one else does. Someone has to. All right. So anyway, the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to some definitive recordings of Misty. Number two, we will learn the melody of Misty again by ear transcribing it. Number three, we will look at my suggested fingerings for Misty.

melody is a little tricky, a lot trickier than what everyone thinks when listening to the tune. Number four, we will identify the melodic phrases within the melody of Misty. We, number five, we will then apply the voicings to the melody from that we established last week with our harmonic analysis. And then finally, number six, we will

apply our voicings and our melody to three treatments, various treatments of Misty. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now, hit the pause button and download, print your podcast packets, again, the illustrations, lead sheets and the play alongs. I want to remind you that your membership grants you access to the premium content.

as well as the podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. So take advantage of that, make sure that you take the time to download and access those materials, which will help maximize your musical growth through this podcast pack through this podcast lesson. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets in your hands, I want you to grab your lead sheets, we will

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:32.858)
discuss and look at the illustrations and the play alongs a little later, but we will start with our lead sheets. So I just want to walk you through each of the lead sheets before we dive into each one in much more detail. Number one, lead sheet one is what I call the fill in the blank lead sheet. This is we're going to use this as our template to help us transcribe the melody of Misty.

Lead Sheet number two is a clean, melodic lead sheet of Misty that has the melody and the chord changes mapped out for you. We're going to use this kind of as our answer key to see how well we did with our transcribing of the melody using lead sheet one. Lead Sheet three has my suggested fingerings notated for the

melody of MISTI, which is a tricky little melody. You can just look at that lead sheet and if you just give it an eyes glance, you can see it's got a lot of movement and a large range that it it covers within the melodic line. So lead sheet four is the various melodic phrase the phrases within the melody are mapped out, diagrammed.

And then lead sheet five identifies the target notes within those phrases that we want to utilize to help us truly digest the melody and also really for improvisation prep that we will be doing for next week. Lead sheet six applies the left hand block voicings that we established last week with our harmonic analysis applies those voicings to the melody.

and lead sheet seven applies the left hand shell voicings that we established last week to the melody of Misty Misty. So we got a lot to get through with these lead sheets today. So let's get busy. Let's get after this. you know, typically at this time, the very first thing we do is listen. And as you know, I in the past would always select a recording to play in the podcast episode, but this year,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:58.886)
I've decided to place the listening recommendations within the forums, the Jazz Piano Skills Community forums. And again, there's a couple reasons for this one, we want to be able to listen to more than one tune to check out. And then I also wanted to preserve as much time in the podcast episode for educational content. So what I would recommend all of us to do at this time again, hit the pause button once again and

head over to the forums and check out the amazing renditions of Misty that are waiting for you. And once you've done the listening, they're going to attack lead sheet one. So let's do that. Now. Let's look at lead sheet one and let's check out how we are going to approach transcribing this melody.

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