Over the Rainbow, Improvisation

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:33.134)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, today we continue our four-week exploration of the timeless classic Over the Rainbow. In week one, we explored the harmonic foundation of the tune and learned how to think harmonically by identifying the primary sounds of music.

understanding harmonic function, recognizing common harmonic movement, and of course developing practical jazz voicings. Last week our attention shifted from harmony to melody. We learned that great melodies are never simply played. They're first heard. We organized the melody into musical phrases, identified target notes, mapped out some natural fingerings, and

Discovered that our hands should always take dictation from our voice. And today, we take the next logical step in our musical journey. We're going to explore improvisation. Now, for many pianists, for many musicians, improvisation is probably the most intimidating aspect of playing jazz. It often feels mysterious, unpredictable.

Or even reserved for those with some, you know, some special talent. But nothing nothing could be further from the truth. Improvisation isn't magic. It's actually organized musicianship. It's harmony played melodically using rhythmic vocabulary. That's it. Let me say that again. It's harmony played melodically.

Using rhythmic vocabulary. No mystery, no shortcuts, no gimmicks, just musical truth. So today we're going to remove the mystery surrounding improvisation by discovering exactly how harmony, melody, rhythm come together to create authentic jazz language. And by the end of today's lesson, I think you'll begin to see improvisation in an entirely new light.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59.746)
So today we are going to discover improvisation is simply harmony played melodically using rhythmic vocabulary. We are going to learn how to transform harmonic shapes into melodic ideas by mastering time, downbeats, upbeats, and of course classic rhythmic vocabulary. And we are going to play, we are going to create authentic jazz improvisation by combining harmony, melody,

and rhythm. Okay, so let's talk about improvisation. For many musicians, it's the one word that creates the most excitement and the most anxiety. Right? Mention the word improvisation and it's amazing what begins happening inside our minds. Some immediately think I could never do that. Others imagine that improvisation is some mysterious gift.

Possessed only by the gifted jazz musicians, and something that you were either born with or you're not. But you know what? Nothing could be further from the truth. Improvisation isn't mysterious. It is not magical. And it's certainly not accidental. Improvisation is learned, just like reading, just like speaking, just like every other language you've ever acquired.

The problem is that most people begin their jazz journey by asking the wrong question. Right? Most students ask, how do I improvise? But that's like asking, that's like asking, how do I write a novel before I learn the alphabet? Right? How do I write a novel before I learn the alphabet? Improvisation is not the beginning of the musical journey.

It's where everything you've learned begins working together. Think about what we've already discovered during the past two weeks. First, we learned harmony. We discovered the primary sounds of music and learned to think harmonically. Then we learned melody. We discussed how harmony becomes melodic motion and learned to hear musical phrases instead of isolated notes. So today, you know, we add the final ingredient.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:25.228)
Rhythm. But but rhythm doesn't begin with complicated syncopation. It begins with time. It begins with a steady pulse. One, two, three, four. Because if you cannot command time, you cannot command rhythm. And if you cannot command rhythm, you cannot command improvisation.

So rhythm, think about this. Rhythm is nothing more than the creative organization of downbeats and upbeats. Every rhythm you have ever heard, no matter how simple, no matter how sophisticated, no matter how complicated, every rhythm is built upon those two fundamental ingredients downbeats and upbeats. And once you understand that.

The mystery surrounding rhythm begins to disappear rather quickly. And when the mystery surrounding rhythm disappears, the mystery surrounding improvisation begins to disappear as well. Because harmony without melody is simply sound. Melody without rhythm is simply motion. But when harmony is played melodically, using rhythmic vocabulary,

Music begins to speak. And that's exactly what improvisation is. It's musical conversation. It's nothing more, nothing less. So today we're not going to we're not going to memorize jazz licks. We're not going to chase scales. We're not going to sh obviously we're not going to search for shortcuts. Instead, we're going to discover the simple musical truth that has always been there.

From the very beginning, that improvisation is simply harmony played melodically using rhythmic vocabulary. And once you understand that, improvisation stops feeling intimidating, and it starts feeling inevitable. You know, the perceived mystery of music has done more this misconception, this perception of music.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:52.152)
being mysterious has done more to actually stifle the growth of musicianship in so many people. and that's exactly why we spend a few minutes every podcast episode

Mapping out, reviewing, giving voice to the seven musical facts. These seven musical facts provide the foundation for everything that we study at jazz piano skills. These seven musical facts eliminate the mystery that surrounds music. Right? So no matter what tune we're exploring or what topic we're discussing, we never lose sight of these truths.

Because these truths never change. Fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence. That's what musicians do. We produce sound. And of course, the sounds that I speak of are the primary sounds of music: major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished. Musical fact number two, sound is played one of two ways, harmonically and melodically. That's it.

Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we're playing what we call chords, or we often refer to them as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios and scales. Musical fact number five, when we play melody using arpeggios and scales, we can only move in one of two directions, up or down, ascending or descending.

And when we play harmony using chords, voicings, we are moving in one of three motions: circle motion, diatonic motion, chromatic motion. Every harmonic progression and every melodic line is simply directional movement, directional motion. Musical fact number six: to disguise ascending and descending melodic motion, to disguise

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:10.048)
Arpeggios and scales, we add tension, or what we often refer to as chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven: to add interest to facts one through six, we add rhythm. These seven musical facts, guess what? Never, ever change. Forever. Every tune we study, every lesson.

That we explore here at Jazz Piano Skills, and every skill that we develop is built upon these timeless musical truths. Okay, so before we go any further, I want to take a moment and welcome new Jazz Piano Skillss listeners. If if you are joining us for the very first time, welcome. I am delighted that you are here. Jazz Piano Skillss is an educational program designed to help you develop.

The essential skills needed to become a confident and accomplished jazz pianist, or really a jazz musician. So whether you're a beginner or just beginning your jazz journey, or an experienced player looking to deepen your understanding, this podcast is designed to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano in a clear, logical, and organized way. Now each month,

We use a single jazz standard as our musical illustration while exploring four essential areas of jazz piano development. Week one, we look at harmony, week two, we look at melody, week three improvisation, rhythm, and week four solo piano. So the tunes change, right? But the skills, guess what? They remain the same.

Each lesson builds upon the previous one, allowing us to develop not only our playing ability, but our musical understanding as well. So if today's episode raises questions or you'd like to study today's material in greater depth, be sure to visit jazzpianoskills.com. There you will find the benefits of becoming a member. Podcast packets, educational resources,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:25.334)
Interactive courses, weekly masterclasses, support, and of course a wonderful online community of jazz pianists all committed to the same goal, becoming better musicians. Whether you're listening while driving, taking a walk, or sitting at the piano, thank you for spending some time with me today at Jazz Piano Skillss. I'm excited to be part of your musical journey, and I hope that today's lesson.

helps you discover, learn and play jazz, piano with greater confidence, and of course, greater joy. Okay, so with all that being said, let's get on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Randy Young, living in Knoxville, Tennessee. And Randy R writes, Dr. Bob, when I practice my scales and arpeggios, everything seems to click. Everything

seems to make sense. But the moment I tried to improvise over a tune, my mind goes blank. I know the chords, I know the scales, but I just can't seem to create music. What am I missing? Great question. Well Randy, first of all, thank you f for the question. And again,

You're not alone. In fact, I think everyone listening is probably saying, Yeah, I I experienced the same thing. So the good news is you're probably not missing more scales. And I would guess that you are not missing more chords. Probably have enough scales, probably have enough chords. You're missing a way of thinking about improvisation is my guess.

Most musicians believe improvisation begins with choosing notes. What notes do I play? And it doesn't. Improvisation begins with organizing what you already know. What you already know. So if you know your harmonic shapes and you can play those harmonic shapes melodically, then the next skill isn't learning more notes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:48.586)
It's learning how to move those notes through time. In other words, rhythm. And that's why today's episode is so important. Today we're going to discover that improvisation isn't about finding notes. It isn't about finding new notes. It's about giving familiar notes a rhythmic voice. Again, how do I define improvisation?

Straightforward. Harmony played melodically using rhythmic vocabulary. Now, I want to make sure I'm perfectly clear. When I speak of harmony, I'm talking about your ability to play the sixty primary harmonic shapes, right? Using the five primary sounds, primary harmonic shapes. The twelve major, the twelve dominant.

12 minor, 12 half diminisheded, and 12 diminished chords. That's it. Using traditional block voicings, root position, first inversion, second inversion, third inversion, right? Root third, fifth, and seventh. That's it. Once you know those harmonic shapes, you can convert them into melody by playing them as ascending and descending arpeggios.

And once you can play those harmonic shapes melodically, ascending and descending arpeggios, you're ready to organize them rhythmically using various combinations of downbeats and upbeats. Randy, that's it. Nothing more than that. That's that is the foundation of improvisation. There is no need to worry about additional harmonic shapes. there's no need to worry about.

Additional voicings or more sophisticated voicings. No need to worry about passing tones at this point or approach tones, altered scales, or any other advanced jazz vocabulary. Right? No need to worry about any of that until you can successfully play harmony melodically using foundational rhythmic patterns built from downbeats and upbeats. That's it.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:12.29)
Don't even think about going further until you do that. Because everything else builds upon that foundation. Period.

So, Randy, I hope that helps. I thank you for your question. And of course, as always, if more clarity is needed, please reach out to me. Happy to spend more time with you and dive deeper. But I think you're going to find this episode to be very very enlightening. I think today's lesson is going to answer your question in a way that actually changes how you think about.

improvisation forever. In fact, I hope it changes how everyone listening thinks about improvisation forever. All right, so on to the educational agenda for today. So what exactly are we going to study today? As always, our goal isn't simply to learn another tune, right? Our goal is to develop another essential jazz piano skill. And today that skill, our focus is improvisation.

And we're going to discover that improvisation, as I've already mentioned, isn't mysterious. It isn't magical and it isn't accidental. Improvisation is the natural result of understanding harmony, expressing harmony melodically, and organizing those melodic ideas with rhythm. Now, to accomplish that, we're going to develop five essential improvisational skills. Okay? Skill number one.

Primary harmonic sounds. Everything begins with harmony. Where we are going to review the five primary harmonic qualities of music, major, dominant, minor, half diminisheded, and diminished. And reinforce why these harmonic shapes, these sounds, and the shapes that produce those sounds are the foundation for everything that follows. Skill number two, melodic shapes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:19.382)
We're going to transform those harmonic shapes into melodic vocabulary by playing them as ascending and descending arpeggios. After all, melody is simply harmony played one note at a time. I'm going to say that again. Melody is simply harmony played one note at a time. Skill number three, command of time. Before rhythm can exist, time.

must exist. We'll strengthen our command of a steady pulse. One, two, three, four. Because if you can't command time, you cannot command rhythm. It's just that simple. Skill number four, rhythmic vocabulary. Once time is secure, we will begin organizing our melodic shapes using the two

fundamental building blocks of rhythm, downbeats and upbeats. Again, every rhythm, no matter how simple, no matter how sophisticated, is built from various combinations of those two elements. And then finally, skill number five, improvisation, will combine harmony, melody, and rhythm to create simple improvisational ideas.

And we'll create those simple improvisational ideas Over the Rainbow. Okay? So my hope is that by the end of today's lesson, that you'll realize that improvisation isn't something reserved for a gifted few. It is a skill that naturally emerges when you develop these five essential improvisational skills.

In the proper order. Remember, harmony played melodically using rhythmic vocabulary equals improvisation. Okay, we have a ton to get done today, no doubt about it. But before we dig in, I want all of you jazz panel skills members to hit the pause button for just a moment and take a few minutes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:42.05)
To log into your account and download the podcast packets for today's episode. The illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play-alongs. As you know, these educational resources that I develop and produce for every podcast episode, the illustrations, lead sheets, play-alongs, they are designed to help you get the very most out of every lesson. Now, if you can, if possible, have these materials in your hands while listening to today's episode.

And definitely keep them on your piano throughout the week when practicing. The podcast packets will maximize your jazz growth and help you organize your practice in a clear, logical, and effective way. And while you're downloading your podcast packets, this is the perfect time to take a few minutes to visit Lisa's listening list inside the Jazz Piano Skillss online community forums. Each week, Lisa thoughtfully

curates a wonderful collection of professional recordings of the tune we're studying. This week's listening list will help you gain a deeper and more diverse understanding of Over the Rainbow, especially as you begin exploring the language of improvisation. And as you know, your jazz development, I stress this all the time, begins with listening.

So download your podcast packets, visit Lisa's listening list, and when you're ready, meet me right back here. All right. I also want to take just a second to address everyone listening who is not yet a jazz panel skills member. Thank you. I'm delighted you've taken the time to join me today, and I sincerely hope you continue listening and enjoying future episodes. If you've been considering becoming a member,

And have a few questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'd be happy to answer your questions, tell you more about the Jazz Pianal Skills program, and help you determine if Jazz Piano Skillss is the right learning community for you. Okay, so now everyone has their podcast packets, so let's get to work. Okay, as always, we are going to begin with our lead sheets.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:09.112)
The illustrations, I will address those toward the end of the podcast episode, as well as the play-alongs or the backing tracks that are included in your packet that you will be using throughout the week when practicing. But we want to begin with the lead sheets. Okay, and you should have in your lead sheet, you should have five lead sheets in your lead sheet packet. And I just want to take a second and walk through them.

Right now. So grab lead sheet one.