Our Love Is Here to Stay, Solo Piano

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32)

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, had a great week of practice, and is ready to tackle solo piano.
But before we get started, a little quick public service announcement, a
little reminder about how the weekly Jazz Piano Skills podcast works.
Every episode is presented in two parts.

The first portion is our free educational discussion available for
everyone to enjoy. And the second portion is our members-only piano
lesson, where we head to the piano, open up our podcast packet, and
physically develop the musical skills we’re discussing. So whether
you’re joining us as a guest or you’re a Jazz Piano Skills member, I
want you to know exactly what to expect as we move through today’s
episode.

All right, with that being said, we have arrived at the fourth and final
week of our month-long study of Gershwin’s Our Love Is Here to Stay. We
began as we always do with a harmonic analysis, moved into melodic
analysis, and last week we explored improvisation. Today, we’re bringing
those skills together as we turn our attention to solo piano.

And we’re going to work through our seven stages of solo piano
development. So today we’re going to discover how harmony, melody,
rhythm, and improvisation work together to create a complete solo piano
performance. And we are going to learn how our seven stages of solo
piano development provide a systematic approach to building musical
understanding and a physical command at the piano.

And then finally, we’re going to play Our Love Is Here to Stay, applying
the seven stages to develop increasingly sophisticated solo piano
performances. So we have a busy day ahead of us. Well, over the past
several weeks, we’ve been exploring a question that I believe deserves a
tremendous amount of attention. That question is this: how do we
actually learn jazz? And today I want to bring that.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59)

conversation to a close by asking what may be the most important
question of all. What is the ultimate purpose of jazz education? Now, at
first glance, that may seem like a pretty simple question. We’re
studying jazz piano because we want to play jazz piano, right? And
certainly that’s true, but I want you to think about something.

When you sit down with a teacher, when you enroll in a course, when you
watch an instructional video, when you study a transcription, or when
you work through a practice exercise, what are you ultimately hoping
will happen? Are you simply trying to learn the material sitting in
front of you? Or are you trying to develop

the musical understanding and physical skills that will allow you to
eventually navigate music on your own. Those are two very different
educational objectives. And I think the distinction between them is
enormously important because it’s entirely possible to spend years
studying music, accumulating information, completing exercises.

Memorizing arrangements, learning scales, learning chords, and even
reproducing some pretty sophisticated musical performances without ever
becoming comfortable making music independently. Think about that. A
student can learn to play an arrangement exactly as the teacher
demonstrates it. They can memorize every note, memorize every chord.

Every voicing, every rhythmic figure, every little melodic decoration,
and eventually they may be able to perform that arrangement beautifully.
That’s wonderful. There’s certainly a value in that accomplishment. But
now let me ask you a question. What happens when we take that
arrangement away? What happens when we put a different tune in front of
you? Or what happens

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:21)

When we ask you to play the same tune, but create your own arrangement.

Can you do it?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:31)

This is a very important question. Do you understand the musical
relationships that made the original arrangement possible? Can you
recognize those relationships in another tune? Can you physically
execute the skills in a different musical context? And perhaps most
importantly, can you begin making your own musical decisions? Because if
the answer is no,

Then we have to ask ourselves, what exactly have we developed? Have we
developed musicianship? Or have we primarily developed the ability to
reproduce a particular musical product? Now, don’t misunderstand me.
Learning arrangements, studying recordings, working through exercises,
and reproducing what great musicians played all are valuable educational
experiences.

No doubt about it. But I would suggest that none of those activities
should represent the ultimate destination. They should be helping us
develop the skills that eventually allow us to move beyond them. And
this is where I think the responsibility of the teacher becomes
particularly interesting because as teachers, we can become very good at
providing answers.

Here’s the correct chord. Here’s the correct scale. Here’s the proper
fingering. Here’s a great voicing. Here’s a nice arrangement. Here’s a
good lick. Here’s exactly what you should play. And here’s exactly how
you should play it. And sometimes, you know, that’s precisely what a
student needs. But if all we’re doing is continually providing answers,
then what happens?

What happens when the student encounters a musical question we haven’t
already answered?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:39)

Do they have the understanding necessary to work through the problem? Do
they have a process for discovering the answer? Or do they immediately
need another lesson, another video, another exercise, another
arrangement, another answer? The list goes on and on. At some point, we
have to ask ourselves: are we teaching students how to play music, or
are we teaching students how to continually need?

Instruction? And I think that’s a question that every music educator,
every jazz educator, myself included, should take very seriously because
the ultimate success of an educational approach shouldn’t be measured
exclusively by how much information the teacher can deliver. It should
also be measured by what the student becomes capable of doing
independently. And that means sometimes the most important thing a
teacher can do.

Is resist the temptation to provide the answer. Instead, we provide the
student with a process. We help them understand what they’re trying to
accomplish. We help them recognize the musical relationships involved.
We simplify the problem until it becomes manageable. We provide a
practical way to physically develop the necessary skills. And then we
create opportunities for the student to begin making.

Decisions, their decisions, not ours. And here’s where this gets really
fun, really interesting, because eventually the student begins
discovering, you begin discovering that you can answer musical
questions, questions that you’ve never encountered before. You can begin
recognizing familiar harmonic relationships inside unfamiliar tunes.

You can begin hearing melodic possibilities that you haven’t even
previously practiced. You begin making rhythmic decisions, harmonic
decisions, melodic decisions, creative decisions without waiting for me
or someone to tell you what to do next. And that is an extraordinary
moment in the educational process.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:01)

Because something has changed. You no longer simply follow instructions.
You begin navigating music. And once that begins happening, something
else becomes possible. You begin developing a musical voice, your own,
your very own musical voice. Now, think about how that connects to
everything we’ve been discussing this month. We began by asking where.

Where does jazz language come from? And we discovered that the great
musicians who came before us provide an extraordinary musical tradition
from which we can learn. But that tradition doesn’t exist simply to tell
us what we should play. It helps us discover what can be played. Then we
asked, Is imitation the same as understanding? And we explored the
importance of looking beyond the notes.

To discover the musical processes. The musical processes evident in the
plane of those great jazz musicians because reproducing somebody else’s
musical decisions doesn’t automatically develop our ability to make our
own. And last week we explored the idea: if you want to be creative,
practice creativity. We discussed that creativity doesn’t necessarily
require an enormous amount of musical material. Sometimes

Limiting our musical choices creates the very environment in which
creative decision making can actually be practiced. And now, and now
look at where all three of those ideas have brought us. We studied the
tradition to discover possibility. We studied musical processes to
develop understanding. We practice making musical decisions to develop
creativity.

We bring all those things together to develop independence. That’s
pretty exciting. That’s a that’s a fantastic educational destination.
And here’s something else I want you to consider. Becoming an
independent musician doesn’t mean you’ve finished learning. Quite the
opposite. It means you’ve developed the ability to continue learning
without always needing someone to tell you what comes next. You can
encounter a new tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:25)

And begin investigating its harmony. You can listen to a recording and
recognize musical patterns. You can discover a technical challenge and
begin developing a practice strategy to address it. You can hear a
musical possibility and begin experimenting until that possibility
becomes something.

In other words, you’ve learned something far more valuable than a
particular arrangement or a collection of licks. You’ve begun learning
how to learn. And I believe that’s one of the most important things a
music education can possibly provide. Because the goal isn’t simply to
prepare you for the musical questions we already know you’re going to
encounter. The goal is to develop the understanding and the skills that
will allow you to begin answering.

The musical questions you haven’t even thought of yet. And that’s why I
believe great teaching should gradually transfer more and more
responsibility from the teacher to the student. At first, right, the
teacher may provide a great deal of guidance. Here’s what we’re
studying, here’s why we’re studying it, here’s how we’re going to
practice it, here’s what we’re listening for.

Here’s what we’re trying to develop. But gradually, you know what? The
student begins taking ownership of those decisions. You begin
recognizing what you need to practice. You begin understanding why you
need to practice it. You begin developing your own practice strategies.
You begin evaluating your own musical progress. And eventually you begin
discovering musical possibilities that

Teacher, me may never have demonstrated. Ever. That’s pretty amazing.
Now, listen, I share all of this with you because I’m trying to give you
insight, a little insight to my approach here at Jazz Piano Skills. Now,
I need to clarify something because apparently this was brought up to me
that I’ve been talking quite a bit lately about developing independent
musicians and

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:47)

And helping students reach that point where they no longer need their
teacher to make musical decisions. And during one of our recent Thursday
evening Masterclasses, it was brought to my attention that maybe you
know, this was my way of actually preparing everyone for my retirement
announcement, which absolutely not. Right. I’m not going anywhere. I
have

I have absolutely no plans to retire anytime soon. In fact, I’ll let you
in on a little secret. After all of these years of teaching, close to
four decades now, I have come to realize that I actually need my
students more than they need me. And I’m not kidding, because one of the
greatest joys of teaching is watching students begin discovering things
for themselves, watching their understanding grow. I get to watch

confidence develop watching students making their own musical decisions.
and then having them come back and sharing those discoveries with me.
Wow, I can’t begin to tell you how much I have learned from my students.
And that’s that’s when things really get interesting because the
relationship between a teacher and student doesn’t have to end when the
student becomes more independent. And in fact, in many ways, that’s when
the relationship

Becomes even more rewarding because we get to explore music together. We
get to ask new questions. We get to investigate new possibilities. And
believe me, again, my students continue to teach me, teach me an
extraordinary amount, not just about music, but about teaching music. So
when I talk about developing musicians who no longer need their teacher
to make musical decisions, I’m not talking about.

Getting rid of the teacher, getting rid of me. Right? I’m talking about
changing the nature of the relationship from a student who continually
needs to be told what to do to a musician who can sit down with their
teacher and begin exploring what might be possible. And personally, I
can’t imagine anything more exciting than that. So to all of my Jazz
Piano Skills members listening.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:10)

Who were beginning to worry that I was preparing for some kind of
retirement announcement, you can relax. You’re not getting off the hook
that easy. I’m hanging around for a while. Okay, so this brings us right
back to our original question because the ultimate purpose of teaching
jazz piano isn’t to produce a lifetime of students who continually need
my answers. It’s

To help develop musicians who become increasingly capable of discovering
their own. And perhaps the deepest evidence of great teaching isn’t what
the student remembers from the teacher, it’s what the student eventually
be becomes capable of doing because of the teacher. Now that is an
educational objective worth pursuing. And it’s one that should influence
every decision we make.

about how we teach, how we practice. Because ultimately, I don’t want
you spending your musical life trying to become a better version of
somebody else. I want you to study Oscar Peterson, study Bill Evans,
study Chick Corea, study Keith Jarrett. Study as many great musicians as
you possibly can. Listen

Investigate, experiment, discover, learn everything you can from the
extraordinary musical tradition we’ve inherited. But remember, the
ultimate purpose of all that studying isn’t simply to discover what they
had to say. It’s to develop the musical understanding, the physical
command, and the creative freedom necessary to begin discovering what
you have to say.

And that brings us right back to the question we started with. What is
the ultimate purpose of jazz education? Well, I believe it’s to help you
reach the point where you can sit down at the piano, look at a piece of
music, and confidently say, I understand what I’m looking at. I know how
to begin working with it. I know how to develop the skills I need. And
ultimately, I can make music not simply because somebody showed me
exactly what to play, but because

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:27)

I’ve developed the musicianship necessary to begin making music for
myself. And eventually, perhaps the most exciting musical discovery of
all, I can make music that sounds like me.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:47)

That is what I believe jazz education should ultimately be about. All
right, before we go any further, let’s take a moment, as we always do,
to revisit our seven musical facts. These are the fundamental musical
truths that guide everything we do, everything we do at Jazz Piano
Skills. And regardless of the tune we’re studying or the musical skill
we’re developing, these seven facts remain the same. Fact number one.

Music is the production of sound and silence. Sound, of course, being
our primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished.
Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. Fact
number three, harmonic sound equals chords, our voicings. Fact number
four, melodic sound equals arpeggios and scales. Fact number five,
harmony and melody have motion. Harmony has circle.

Diatonic, chromatic motion.

Melody has ascending and descending motion. Fact number six, movement,
our harmonic motion, our melodic motion, movement is decorated with
tension or what we call chromaticism. And then finally, fact number
seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. Rhythm
gives everything life. Now, as we turn our attention to solo piano, I
want

you to think about how these musical facts work together. Because when
you’re playing solo piano, you’re responsible for creating the entire
musical experience, the harmony, the melody, the rhythmic movement. And
just as importantly, the silence. Think about fact number one. Music is
the production of sound and silence. When you’re playing by yourself,
you you do not have to fill every available moment with sound. It’s hard
not to, but

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:49)

You do not have to. Sometimes the space between musical phrases, the
silence, is just as expressive as the notes themselves. And then
consider facts two and three. Sound is produced harmonically and
melodically. And harmonic sound, as I mentioned, equals our chords and
voicings. Right? Your harmony provides the musical environment in which
the melody can come to life. But that harmony doesn’t have to remain
static.

As fact number five reminds us, harmony and melody have motion, right?
And that motion creates direction, anticipation, resolution. And of
course, of course, we can’t forget fact number seven, rhythm, right? So
important. Whether we’re playing freely without a strict pulse or
establishing a steady rhythmic accompaniment, our sense of time and our
placement of sound and silence are essential to the musical experience.
So today

As we explore solo piano, keep these musical facts in mind because the
goal isn’t simply to play more notes or more sophisticated voicings.
It’s it’s to develop a greater command of how harmony, melody, rhythm,
and silence all work together to create music. Alright? So with that,
let me take a moment to welcome anyone who may be joining us for the
very first time.

Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I’m delighted that you’ve decided to spend
some time with me today. And if if you’re new to Jazz Piano Skills, let
me briefly explain what we are all about. The mission is simple: to help
you develop the musical understanding and physical skills necessary to
confidently discover, learn, and play jazz piano. That’s it. And we do
that through a carefully structured educational approach that connects
musical concepts with

practical application. Each week we explore a specific musical topic
through the Jazz Piano Skills Podcast. And Jazz Piano Skills members
have access to the complete podcast, the hands-on piano lesson, along
with our podcast packet, which includes our eleg educational in
illustrations, our Lead Sheets, our Play-Alongs.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:13)

all of it designed to help you conceptually and physically develop the
skills that we are studying. But that’s just that’s just the beginning.
Members also have access to our weekly Thursday evening Masterclass,
Lisa’s listening list, and of course our online Jazz Piano Skills
community, where we continue exploring the musical questions and
discoveries that emerge from our weekly lessons. And I want to emphasize
that

Our Thursday Masterclass, weekly Masterclass, which by the way are
recorded so if you are unable to attend, you can always watch the video
of the class at your convenience as often as you wish. The Masterclass
is a wonderful it’s a wonderful opportunity to ask questions, share
discoveries, and explore musical ideas together. So regardless of

Where you are in your jazz piano journey, a beginner, an intermediate
player, an advanced player, or a seasoned professional. I’m delighted
that you are here today and I hope Jazz Piano Skills becomes a valuable
part of your musical development. All right. Okay, so with that said,
let’s turn our attention to this week’s question of the week. Today’s
question comes from Michael Bennett in Asheville, New York.

North Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina. Michael writes, Dr. Lawrence,
I have a pretty advanced understanding of harmony and melody and play
fairly well, especially in a group setting. I get together with some
buddies regularly to jam. That’s awesome. My solo piano playing is
another story. When I try to play solo piano, I feel overwhelmed and
find it difficult to successfully play a composite.

Complete arrangement. Is this normal? And what can I do to get beyond
this roadblock? Well, Michael, first of all, yes. What you know what?
What you’re describing is actually very common. But before we talk about
the challenges you’re experiencing, I want to point out something that
you may not have considered. It is actually

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:41)

wonderful that you have the experience playing on a regular basis with
some buddies getting together to jam. I think that I think that’s
fantastic. In fact, I’ve I’ve said this many times in previous podcast
episodes that the that the ensemble is the gateway to solo piano
playing. Think about that for a moment. When you’re playing with your
buddies, you’re experiencing how a group

of musicians work together to create music. You’re you’re hearing how
the bass player establishes the harmonic foundation. You’re experiencing
how the drummer creates rhythmic movement and interacts with the other
musicians. You’re here hearing how the melody moves above the harmony
and you’re experiencing how all those musical elements work together to
create a complete musical performance. Now here’s the important part

Solo piano playing is about recreating that ensemble experience by
yourself. You’re essentially trying to become the entire band at the
piano. And Michael, this is precisely why your ensemble experience is so
valuable because you cannot create a musical experience you haven’t
experienced. Now, I say that, but before anyone

listening starts thinking, well, I’m doomed because I don’t have a bass
player, I don’t have a drummer, I don’t have a group of musicians that I
can get together with like Michael. does that mean I’m out of luck when
it comes to playing solo piano? Absolutely not. In fact, we’re living in
in an extraordinary time, especially for music education, because thanks
to technology we now have apps and software.

that offers a variety of backing tracks that allow us to simulate the
ensemble experience r right in our own homes. Think about that. You can
you can sit down at your panel, turn on a backing track, and suddenly y
you’re playing with a bass player and a drummer and perhaps an entire
rhythm section. And you can begin experiencing how those musical
elements work together while developing your own musical skills. And
this is precisely why

Dr. Bob Lawrence (29:10)

I include Play-Alongs with every weekly jazz, piano skills, podcast
packet. They’re not simply there to make practicing more enjoyable,
although they they certainly do that. They’re there though to provide
you with the opportunity to experience the musical relationships that
are essential to developing your musicianship. You can practice your
harmony while listening to the bass player. You can develop your
rhythmic skills while interacting with the drummer. You

Can explore your melodic ideas while experiencing how they fit within
the ensemble. And you can begin developing an understanding of what each
musician contributes to the overall musical experience. And most
importantly, you have the ability to experience time. And that’s how you
develop time because you have to experience it. So whether you’re
fortunate enough to get out together with other musicians like Michael,
or you’re practicing at home.

with Jazz Piano Skills Play-Alongs, you can experience ensemble playing
and you can begin developing the musical understanding and physical
skills that you’ll eventually use to recreate that ensemble experience
when playing solo piano. Now, Michael, let’s get back to your question
because you have already experienced those musical relationships.

You’ve heard them, you’ve felt them, you’ve participated in creating
them, and now your challenge is to begin developing the physical skills
necessary to recreate those musical relationships at the piano by
yourself. So Michael, I would suggest that you’re actually much closer
than you may realize. Now, does that mean playing solo piano is going to
be easy? no.

Because even though you understand how the musical elements work
together, you still have to develop the physical ability to coordinate
those elements at the keyboard. And that’s where I believe many pianists
run into trouble. They decide they want to play solo piano, so they
immediately begin trying to create a sophisticated complete arrangement
of an entire tune.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (31:35)

And before long, they’re overwhelmed by everything they’re trying to
accomplish simultaneously. But Michael, here’s something I want you to
consider. You do not have to begin with a sophisticated arrangement to
begin playing solo piano. In fact, you can begin with something very
simple, harmony, and a single note melody, played freely, without a
strict pulse. That’s it.

And guess what? You’re playing solo piano. Now, from that starting
point, you can gradually develop additional skills. You can begin
harmonizing the melody. You can introduce a steady pulse. You can
develop rhythmic accompaniment. You can explore stride techniques. You
can enhance the harmonic movement and eventually introduce melodic
improvisation. And as you develop each of these skills, something very
exciting.

begins to happen. You start discovering how to recreate more and more of
that ensemble experience that you’re already so familiar with. Your left
hand begins assuming some of the responsibilities of the bass player.
Your rhythmic accompaniment begins providing the movement you’ve
experienced playing with the drummer. Your right hand develops the
freedom to express the melody and eventually begin improvising.

And all those elements begin working together to create your own solo
piano performance. Now, rather than thinking you need to learn how to
play a complete sophisticated solo piano arrangement, I want you to
begin thinking about developing the individual skills that make solo
piano playing possible. Because there’s a big difference between between
trying to

master an arrangement and systematically developing the skills that
allow you to create arrangements. And remember, you already have
something enormously valuable working in your favor. You know what it an
ensemble sounds like. You know what an ensemble feels like. Now we’re
going to develop the skills that allow you to begin recreating that
musical experience all by yourself. And for everyone else listening
today, remember

Dr. Bob Lawrence (33:59)

You don’t have to wait until you find a group of musicians to begin
developing those same skills. Take advantage of the technology that’s
available to you. Use Jazz Piano Skills, Play-Alongs, use apps, use
software, experience the ensemble, develop your musicianship, and begin
discovering how to bring all those music elements together at the piano.
Michael, thank you for an excellent question.

And with that, let’s take a look at today’s educational agenda. As I
mentioned earlier, we’re bringing our month-long study of Gershwin’s Our
Love Is Here to Stay to a close by exploring solo piano, and we’re going
to do that using our seven stages of solo piano development. Now, before
I introduce these stages, I want to emphasize something very important.
These are not seven

Different arrangements that you need to memorize. There’s seven stages
of musical development, each designed to help you discover, learn, and
physically develop essential solo piano skills. And here’s something
else. I want you to remember: you do not have to reach stage seven
before you’re playing solo piano. You’re playing solo piano from stage
one. Every stage.

Every stage represents a legitimate solo piano performance. What changes
as you progress through the stages is your musical understanding, your
physical command, and the range of musical possibilities. So let’s take
a look at our seven stages. Okay, stage one, harmony and melody played
rebotto, single note melody. Harmony plus melody played freely without a
strict pulse.

I call this the purest form of solo piano. Stage two, harmony and melody
played rubato, but now the harmony, the melody is harmonized. The melody
becomes richer through harmonization while remaining clearly
recognizable. That’s stage two. Stage three, harmony and melody played
in time. I call it strumming the changes. And again, I’m going to model
these stages here for us. We’re going to go through each one of these
today.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (36:17)

Stage four, harmony and melody played in time using simple stride. The
left hand becomes a stronger musical partner, providing harmonic
foundation and rhythmic movement while supporting, supporting, not
competing with the melody. Stage five, harmony and melody played in
time, enhanced stride. Now the accompaniment becomes more
conversational, more expressive, more rhythmic, less predictable.

Stage number six, harmony enhanced to create harmonic motion and melodic
support. So now the harmony begins telling the story, creating movement,
anticipation. There’s substitutions and tension and release. All of it,
of course, supporting the melodic phrase. And then finally, stage seven,
melody is enhanced through improvisation.

So the melody is is not abandoned, it is developed, and we begin
discovering new melodic possibilities and making our own musical
decisions. So these are our seven musical solo piano stages, our seven
solo piano stages that we will be exploring today. So, Jazz Piano Skills
members, take the time to download your podcast packets.

remember now there are no Play-Alongs. This is solo piano. Right? So
there are no backing tracks or Play-Alongs for you to utilize this week.
But the illustrations and the Lead Sheets are necessary as we begin our
lesson today. Okay, so I want to take just a moment quickly to thank
everyone who has joined me today for today’s Jazz Piano Skills podcast
lesson. Whether you’re

listening for the very first time or you’ve been joining me week after
week, I appreciate the opportunity to spend this time with you and I
hope that you have found the first half of this podcast episode to be
beneficial. So again, thank you for listening. Keep listening. I’d love
for you to join Jazz Piano Skills. Check it all out. Head head over to
the website when you have a a second, jazzpianskills dot com to learn
more about

Dr. Bob Lawrence (38:44)

The educational opportunities that await you. But in the meantime, keep
listening and continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. All
right, Jazz Piano Skills members. Let’s head to the piano. Let’s develop
our solo piano skills.