Our Love Is Here to Stay, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (00:32.504)

Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, I hope everyone is doing well. Here we are, we're week three of our study of Gershwin's Our Love Is Here to Stay. But you knowhat? Before we jump into today's episode, I want to take a moment to clarify how the Jazz Piano Skills podcast works, especially for those of you who may be joining us for the very first time. Each Weekly episode is presented in two parts. The first part is our free educational discussion, and it's available to everyone. This is where I explore the musical concepts, the educational principles, and the practice strategies that help us better understand how to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. The second part of the episode is our members-only piano lesson. And that's where we move to the piano, open up our podcast packets, and physically begin developing and applying the skills we've been discussing. So whether you're listening to the free portion of jazz piano skills or you're a jazz piano skills member joining me for the entire episode, I want that structure to be perfectly clear right from the beginning. So there are no surprises. All right, so with that being said. As I mentioned, we are now entering week three of our study of Gershwin's Our Love Is Here to Stay. We began, as we always do, with a harmonic analysis two weeks ago. Last week, we focused on a melodic analysis of the tune. And today we turn our attention to improvisation. Now, if the word improvisation makes you immediately start thinking about scales, modes, licks, transcriptions, chromaticism, altered scales. And I don't know, about a thousand other things you're somehow supposed to manage when improvising. Well, don't worry, we're we're not gonna do that today. Today we're gonna make improvisation smaller, much smaller. We're going to intentionally limit the musical material we're working with and use that limitation.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (02:53.442)

To begin developing one of the most important skills required for improvisation, the ability to make musical decisions. So, what are we going to discover, learn, and play? Well, we're going to discover how creativity can actually be practiced. And we're going to learn how to limit our musical choices. And by limiting our musical choices, actually increase our ability to make creative decisions. And we're going to play the changes to Our Love Is Here to Stay using simple ascending and descending arpeggio motion in order to begin creating an improvised solo of our own. So, as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your musical journey, a beginner, intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you consider yourself a seasoned and experienced professional. You're gonna find today's jazz piano skills lesson exploring improvisation to be very beneficial. Okay, over the past couple of weeks, we've been asking a pretty important question. How do we actually learn jazz? And last week, we spent some time talking about transcriptions. Not whether we should study them, because we absolutely should, but rather How should we study them? And I suggested that a transcription is much more than a collection of notes or a collection of licks, right? You know, licks that we're supposed to learn, memorize, transpose, and eventually somehow make our own. Instead, a transcription can be a window, a window that Allows us to look at the musical evidence left behind by a great musician. And through looking, looking through that window, we begin searching for patterns. So when I study a Bill Evans transcription, I'm not necessarily trying to play Bill Evans. Good grief. Right? No, I may not even possess anywhere near the technical ability required to physically reproduce what Bill Evans played.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (05:15.47)

But knowhat? That doesn't mean I can't learn from Bill Evans. I can study the transcription and ask, how does he approach major sounds? How does he approach minor sounds? How does he approach dominant sounds? What kind of melodic motion continually appears? And where does that motion begin? Where does it go? You know, what does he like to target? How does he approach those targets? Man, so many questions, right? How does he use chromaticism? How is rhythm being used? Wow. In other words, I'm not simply asking what did Bill Evans play? I'm asking, what can I discover by studying what Bill Evans played? That's a very different question. And here's where this gets really interesting. Because when we begin studying transcriptions from Many different musicians, we discover something rather remarkable. Oscar Peterson doesn't sound like Bill Evans. Bill Evans doesn't sound like Chick Corea. Chick Corea doesn't sound like Keith Jarrett. They have distinctive musical voices. And yet, when we look beneath the individuality, when we stop focusing exclusively on the specific notes they played, some very fundamental similarities begin appearing. And after a while, they become pretty difficult to miss. First, melodies outline harmony. The melody isn't floating around disconnected from the harmonic sound. The melody is revealing, expressing, moving through harmony. That's the solid, liquid relationship that I'm always talking about. Harmony presents the sound vertically. Melody expresses the sound horizontally through time. Okay? Second, melodies do something remarkably sophisticated. Guess what? They go up and they go down. Pretty earth-shattering, right? I know it's profound. But seriously, that's important because once we recognize that melody has direction, we can begin asking what musical material.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (07:40.362)

Is actually creating that movement. And overwhelmingly, we discover two fundamental types of motion: arpeggio motion and scale motion. Chord tones and scale tones moving, ascending and descending. And you knowhat? Then we discover something else. Those scales and arpeggios are frequently decorated. Chromatic approaches, passing tones, enclosures, tension, all those wonderful sounds we associate with jazz language. So let's put this together. Melodies outline harmony. Melody moves up and down. That movement fundamentally uses arpeggios and scales. And those arpeggios and scales can be decorated chromatically. Wow. Does any of that sound Familiar to you? Harmony, scales, arpeggios, ascending motion, descending motion, chromaticism. We've been talking about those musical realities week after week after week after week for months for years. And now when we look through the window of transcription, there they are. Again and again and again. So at some point we have to ask. How many transcriptions do we need to study before the obvious becomes obvious? And more importantly, once the obvious becomes obvious, what are we going to do about it? Because discovering the pattern is only the beginning. If I discover that great improvisers continually use ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion, then perhaps Maybe just perhaps I should develop the ability to play ascending and descending arpeggio and scale motion. I don't know. I think that's pretty logical. And if I discover that those fundamental movements are decorated chromatically, perhaps, maybe just perhaps I should first develop the command of movement before worrying about the decoration, which brings me to a highly sophisticated pedagogical principle that I mention all the time.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (10:06.018)

You have to bake a cake before you decorate the cake. And you see, sometimes in jazz education, we get pretty excited about the icing. Chromatic approaches, enclosures, altered tensions, extensions, all that cool stuff. And there's nothing wrong with any of it. I believe me, I love icing. But you can't decorate a cake that you haven't baked. And Cake itself isn't very good, adding more icing, adding more decoration isn't going to solve the problem. So before we worry about decorating melodic movement, perhaps we should develop the command of melodic movement. Before chromaticism, what happens if we become really comfortable moving through the chord tones? Before the enclosure, can we easily play the arpeggio we're trying to enclose? Before adding tension, do we really understand the harmonic sound we're creating the tension against? In other words, bake the cake. And this brings us directly to today's larger idea. If you want to be creative, practice creativity. Now, I've used that phrase many times, but I want us to think carefully about what it actually means. Because practicing creativity does not mean sitting down at the piano, giving yourself every musical possibility imaginable, and saying, okay, be creative. That's not necessarily freedom. For a developing musician, that can actually be overwhelming. Creativity requires decisions. And if we're going to develop our ability to make musical decisions, then perhaps we should create practice environments where the number of decisions is manageable. We intentionally limit the material. Maybe I give myself only chord tones. Now I have decisions to make. Where do I begin? Do I move up? Do I move down?

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (12:30.198)

When do I change direction? Where am I going? How do I rhythmically shape the movement? When do I play? When do I not play? Notice what's notice what's happening. I'm no longer responding some to somebody else's decisions. I'm beginning to make my own. They're small decisions, simple decisions, but well, not so simple, but they're my decisions. And that is practicing creativity. That is why I continually say creativity is spawned from limitation, not excess. The limitation doesn't prevent creativity. The limitation creates an environment in which creativity becomes manageable and practicable. That's a big deal because we sometimes treat creativity as though it's a mysterious gift. Some people have it, some people don't. And if you don't have it, well, too bad, so sad. It's not the case. Some musicians are creative, others aren't. I don't buy that. If improvisation requires musical decision making, then musical decision making can be practiced. And if it can be practiced, it can be developed. So when we study the masters, yes. Study their notes, study their phrases, study their solos, but and this is a big but look through the notes. Search for the patterns, study the processes. Then simplify those processes enough that you can physically work with them. You don't need Oscar Peterson's technical ability to learn from Oscar Peterson. You don't need to reproduce 30 blazing notes. If the musical principle underneath those 30 notes can't be understood and practiced with four, that's education. Study the product to discover the process. Then develop the process so that you can begin producing a product of your own. And that product doesn't have to sound like Oscar or Bill or Chick or Keith. In fact,

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (14:57.398)

Eventually it shouldn't, because you knowhat? They already sound like themselves. Our job is to study what their music reveals, develop the musical skills and processes that we discover, and then begin making our own decisions. And perhaps that's where a personal musical voice actually begins. Not with the number of licks we've accumulated, but with our own growing ability. To make musical decisions for ourselves. So if you want to be creative, don't simply study creativity. Don't simply listen to the results of somebody else's creativity. And don't simply practice reproducing somebody else's creative decisions. Create opportunities in your practice to make decisions of your own. Make the musical problem small. Make the physical task manageable. Limit the possibilities. Develop command of the fundamentals. And then within those limitations, begin choosing. Because every time you make a musical decision, listen to the result. Respond to what you hear. And make another decision. You're doing something incredibly important. You're not simply practicing what to play. You're practicing how to create. And if you want to be creative, you have to practice creativity. Seems pretty logical. That is certainly a lot to think about, but it's definitely worth thinking about. All right, before we go any further, let's take a moment to revisit, as we always do, our seven musical facts. Seven simple truths that help us organize and make sense of music. Here they are. Fact number one: music is the production of sound and silence.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (17:06.922)

Sound, of course, being our primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished. Fact number two, sound is produced two ways, harmonically and melodically. Fact number three, harmonic sounds equal chords, or what we often refer to as voicings. Fact number four, melodic sounds equal arpeggios and scales. Fact number five, Harmony and melody have motion. Harmony, circle, diatonic, chromatic motion, melody, ascending and descending motion, up and down. Fact number six, movement is decorated with tension, or what we call chromaticism. Fact number seven. To give facts one through six interest, to make them interesting, we add rhythm. Rhythm gives everything life. Now, I want you to notice something. We just spent some time in my opening monologue talking about what begins to reveal itself when we study the playing of great jazz musicians. And what do we continually discover? Melody is connected to harmony. There's fact number two. Melodic sound fundamentally uses scales and arpeggio. That's fact number four. Those scales and arpeggios move up and down. That's fact number five. And that movement can be decorated with chromaticism. Well, fact number six. There they are. Again. And that's important because the seven musical facts aren't telling us what jazz musicians should do. They're helping us recognize what music continually does. And today. We're going to deliberately strip away some of that complexity. We're going to leave the chromatic decoration alone and turn our attention to something much more fundamental: melodic motion. Because before we decorate the movement, we need to develop command of the movement. All right.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (19:28.642)

Those are our seven musical facts. And with those firmly in place, let's take the time to welcome all new listeners. And if you are new to jazz piano skills, welcome. I'm glad you're here. And I certainly hope you're enjoying today's episode. And if you've been searching for more than content from a content creator, if you've been looking for an educational approach that helps make jazz piano understandable. and provide you with a clear path for developing your musicianship, then I would love to have you become part of the Jazz Piano Skills community. As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you'll have access to the complete weekly podcast episodes, our podcast packets, the educational illustrations, the lead sheets, the play-alongs, our interactive jazz courses, our weekly online Masterclass, Lisa's listening list, and of course, Our fabulous online jazz piano skills community. Everything at Jazz Piano Skills is designed to help you discover, learn, and ultimately play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazzpianoskills.com. And if you have any questions, by all means, please feel free to reach out to me and let me know. I'm always happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have. So again, welcome. I'm thrilled that you are here. Okay. Let's move on to the question of the week. And this question comes from Dawn Schilling, living in Scottsdale, Arizona. And Dawn has a fabulous question. She says, Dr. Bob, I've heard it said many times that in order to learn how to improvise, I should study chord scale relationships and modes. I've spent quite a bit of time, years in parentheses. Doing this. And honestly, I'm still confused. I can learn which scale and modes goes goes with a chord, but when it when it's time to actually improvise, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. Do you agree with the chord scale approach? Would you recommend something different? Thanks for your help. Well, Dawn, first of all, yes. Understanding chord scale relationships.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (21:50.698)

Is valuable. It's important to understand where chords originate, how they're functioning within a key, and how the notes of a scale relate to the harmonic sound. So I certainly would not tell you to stop studying chord scale relationships, but I might encourage you to take a step back because before worrying about the scale that goes with the chord, let's make sure we can actually play the chord, right? Think about, think about this. If if I give you a G7 chord, which we're going to be doing later, before we start discussing which scale, which mode, you know, tensions, altered notes, chromatic approaches, before we start discussing all that, let me ask you something much simpler. Can you easily play the notes of G7? Ascending and descending? Can you begin on the root and move up? Can you begin on the root and move down? How about the third? Can you move up from the third, move down from the third? Can you do the same for the fifth? How about the seventh? And can you do all of that without having to stop, think, calculate? Search. Right? Because if the answer is no, then adding an entire scale on top of the problem probably isn't going to make improvisation easier. I'm just I'm just saying. In fact, it may make the number of choices you're trying to manage even greater. And remember what I was just talking about earlier. Creativity is spawned from limitation, not excess. So My recommendation would be before expanding your improvisational choices, develop command of the harmonic sound itself. Learn to move through the chord tones, ascending and descending. Learn to enter that sound from different entry points, chord tones. Become physically comfortable turning that vertical harmonic structure into horizontal melodic.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (24:17.292)

movement. And then when we begin introducing scale motion, chromatic approaches, tension, and all of those other wonderful melodic possibilities, we're adding them to something that already has a foundation. We're decorating a cake that's already been baked, right? So do I think chord scale relationships are important? Absolutely. But I would never want The study of chord scale relationships to replace developing command of the chord itself. And interestingly enough, that's exactly where we're going to begin with today's lesson. We're going to strip improvisation down to the harmonic sound and work with simple ascending, descending arpeggio movement. Nothing fancy. No chromatic decoration. We're going to see how much music we can make when we develop command of the chord tones themselves. So, Dawn, great, great question. Perfect question for today. Perfect timing. Because that brings us directly to today's educational agenda. Today we are going to take the very first chord found in Our Love Is Here to Stay, G7. And before we do anything melodically, we're going to look at G7, G dominant, harmonically. Why? Because melody flows from harmony. I've said it a million times. I'm going to say it again. Melody flows from harmony. And if we don't have a command of the harmonic shapes, it's going to be very, very difficult to turn those shapes into melodic movements. So we're going to take our G7 sound and explore it harmonically. From four different entry points, of course, the root, the third, the fifth, the seventh. We'll see and play the harmonic shapes ascending and descending. Did you catch that? We're going to play the harmonic shapes ascending and descending from each of those four entry points. So we'll begin from the root and explore the sound up and down. We'll do the same for the third, the fifth, and then finally, of course, the seventh.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (26:38.956)

And this is important. We're starting with the harmonic shapes because I want you to be able to see the sound, see it, before asking you to melodically move through the sound. Makes sense. Once those harmonic shapes are physically comfortable, we're going to take the exact same information and turn it into melody. In other words, we're going to take those vertical G7 harmonic shapes. And release them horizontally through time as ascending and descending arpeggio movement. Same sound, same notes, two different presentations. Harmony becoming melody. Now, I'm going to model this entire practice process today using G7, G dominant. Your job throughout the week will be able to take this exact same approach that I will unfold today. And apply it to the remaining chords found in our rendition of Our Love Is Here to Stay. So we're not simply learning a G7 exercise today. No. We're learning a practice process that you can transfer from chord to chord to chord. And then after we've worked with G7 harmonically and converted those harmonic shapes into ascending and descending melodic movement, I'm going to play Our Love Is Here to Stay. And improvise through the changes using this very approach. I'm going to use the harmonic shapes as my compass and limit my melodic movement to guess what? Ascending and descending arpeggios, chord tones. That's it. No chromatic approaches, no enclosures, no fancy decorations. Today we're going to bake the cake. And I want I want you to hear just how much music can be created when we develop command of something as fundamental as the chord tones themselves. So our agenda is very simple: see the harmony, play the harmony, turn the harmony into melody, and then use that melody to create. That is what we're after today.

Dr. Bob Lawrence  (29:04.566)

All right, so before I head to the piano, a quick reminder to all of you jazz piano skills members, be sure to access and download your podcast packet, the educational illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play-alongs. You want to have this material in your hands as we work through today's lesson. And of course, you want this material sitting on your piano throughout the week when practicing. Don't forget, spend some time with Lisa's listening list. It's fabulous as always. It's located in the Jazz Piano Skills Online Community Forums. Lisa has put together another great collection of recordings for Our Love Is Here to Stay. So be sure to check them out. Remember, listening isn't just an important part of the educational process. It's critical. So use your podcast packet, spend time listening, and take advantage of all the resources available to you throughout the week. Okay. As I mentioned at the very beginning of today's episode, each jazz piano skills podcast is presented in two parts. The first portion our educational discussion is available for everyone to enjoy. And the second portion of the episode, where we head to the piano and physically begin working with the concepts we've been discussing, is reserved for jazz piano skills members. So if you're listening today as our guest, this is where we're We're gonna be saying goodbye. And before you go, I simply wanna say thank you. And thank you for spending some time with me today. I know there are a lot of places you could go, a lot of podcasts that you could listen to, and a lot of ways that you could spend your time. So the fact that you chose to spend some time here with me at Jazz Piano Skills means a great deal, and I sincerely appreciate it. I hope something we discussed today gave you a little more clarity, a little more direction, and perhaps Just perhaps maybe a slightly different way of thinking about learning jazz piano. And of course, you're always welcome to come back and join, join me, join us again next week. So to all of our guests listening today, thank you for again for being here and keep listening and continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. All right, jazz piano skills members, let's get busy. Let's bake a cake.