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Jan. 12, 2021

Primary Half Diminished Voicings

This JazzPianoSkills Podcast Episode explores the primary contemporary two-handed jazz piano voicings for the half diminished chord.

Welcome to JazzPianoSkills; it's time to discover, learn, and play Jazz Piano!

Every JazzPianoSkills weekly podcast episode introduces aspiring jazz pianists to essential Jazz Piano Skills. Each Podcast episode explores a specific Jazz Piano Skill in depth. Today you will discoverlearnplay Primary Half Diminished Voicings. In this Jazz Piano Lesson you will:

Discover
Primary Two-Handed Half Diminished Voicings
Learn
How to construct two Primary Two-Handed Half Diminished Voicings
Play
Primary Two-Handed Half Diminished Voicings using 5 Harmonic Technique Approaches

For maximum musical growth, be sure to use the Jazz Piano Podcast Packets for this Jazz Piano Lesson. All three Podcast Packets are designed to help you gain insight and command of a specific Jazz Piano Skill. The Podcast Packets are invaluable educational tools to have at your fingertips while studying and practicing Primary Two-Handed Half Diminished Voicings.

Open Podcast Packets
Illustrations
(detailed graphics of the jazz piano skill)
Lead Sheets
(beautifully notated music lead sheets)
Play Alongs
(ensemble assistance and practice tips)

Educational Support
Community Forum
SpeakPipe

Episode Outline
Introduction
Discover, Learn, Play
Invite to Join JazzPianoSkills
Rationale
Exploration of Jazz Piano Skills
Conclusion
Closing Comments

Visit JazzPianoSkills for more educational resources that include a sequential curriculum with comprehensive Jazz Piano Courses, private and group online Jazz Piano Classes, a private jazz piano community hosting a variety of Jazz Piano Forums, an interactive Jazz Fake Book, plus unlimited professional educational jazz piano support.

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Thank you for being a JazzPianoSkills listener. It is my pleasure to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano!

Warm Regards,
Dr. Bob Lawrence
President, The Dallas School of Music
JazzPianoSkills

AMDG

Transcript

Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Today is technique Tuesday. As all of my regular listeners know every jazz piano skills podcast episode, every week, every Tuesday, is dedicated to a specific jazz study. Studies include theory, tunes, study transcriptions, and of course technique. The objective of each study is to help you to help me to help all of us become better jazz pianist, every technique Tuesday, I make it a point to mention that in music when we speak of technique, we tend to think of it melodically. In other words, we tend to think of it as our ability to easily move up and down the piano in a linear fashion, typically involving scales and arpeggios. And not only that, we tend to think that the faster we play, the better our technique. And of course, this understanding of technique is not only skewed, it barely at best, As the old saying goes scrapes the tip of the iceberg as pianist technique in addition to having a linear and melodic dimension like scales and arpeggios, it also has a harmonic dimension, chord voicings progressions and a rhythmic dimension, time patterns, grooves tempos. So if you are already committed to practicing and improving your melodic technique, your scales your arpeggios, and you've been doing so by practicing your scales and arpeggios. Well, congratulations, you have tackled 1/3 of the technique world. Today, we continue the process of incorporating an additional third of technique, harmony, and as I have promised, we will in the very near future, we will begin addressing the final third of the technique equation, rhythm. But today, today, it's all about harmony. But before we get down to business, I want to take a second, as I always do and personally invite all new first time listeners and all old time listeners to join jazz piano skills to become an active member. Simply go to jazz piano skills calm select a membership plan, click the join link, and welcome to the family. Once an official member, you will have full and complete access to all the educational content and resources at jazz piano skills. Number one, you'll have access to all the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets the play alongs that go along with every podcast episode, you'll have access to the interactive courses which are makeup a sequential jazz piano curriculum utilizing a self paced format, you'll have access to the weekly master classes live one on one our live one hour classes with me every Thursday evening. You'll also have private access to the private community this scales specific forums, and the course specific forums. And finally, but certainly not least, you will have unlimited personal and professional support. When you have questions, you can get help directly from me. Always. I will of course be sharing more details about these amazing benefits throughout the episode today. So listen carefully. I say this every week because it's so important and I cannot I simply cannot stress it enough that if you are indeed serious about developing the jazz piano skills needed for you to become an accomplished jazz pianist, then you should absolutely without a doubt, become a jazz piano skills member and begin taking advantage of all of the educational content, the materials, resources and professional support. There are several membership plans to choose from so you can definitely find one that is going to be a good fit for you. You can become a member For a month if you just simply want to try it out, there's also a quarterly membership plan. There is an annual membership plan and of course there is even a lifetime membership plan. All three plans, regardless of which one I should say all four plans regardless of which one you choose will grant you full access to all of the educational content, the materials, the resources and the professional support. So check everything out at jazz piano skills calm and if you have any questions, let me know I'm always happy to help you to spend some time with you. Whether it be by phone or through speakpipe, or email. To help you determine which jazz piano skills membership plan is best for you. So check it out. Let me know if you have any questions. Alright, let's improve our technique. Let's discover learn and play the primary two handed half diminished voicings. Today you're going to discover the primary two handed half diminished voicings, you're going to learn how to construct two primary two handed half to manage voicings two of them you're going to play the primary two handed half diminished voicings using five harmonic tech nique approaches. So regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, whether you consider yourself a beginner intermediate player and advanced player even if you are inexperienced professional, you will find this jazz panel skills podcast less and exploring the primary two handed half diminished voicings to be very beneficial. So we have studied so far we have studied the primary two handed minor voicings we did that back on October 13 2020. Check out that episode, we have studied the primary two handed major voicings November 10 2020. And we've also studied the primary two handed dominant voicings back on December 8 2020. So if you haven't listened to those episodes, be sure to check that check those episodes out as well. But today, we are tackling the primary two handed half diminished voicings. And this is very significant because most people most people never make it this far. They just simply do not. I chuckle but at the same time I'm being totally serious as well. The half diminished and diminished sounds tend to get slighted they tend to get treated as if they are not quite as important as the major dominant and minor voicings are. And as to why this is I can only speculate and surmise that the thought process is something like well, they have diminished and diminished chords, they simply do not appear in tunes as frequently as do the major dominant minor chords do. Therefore, I'll spend a little time on the half diminished and diminished chords at least enough time. So that when they do appear in the music I play, I can at least kind of fake my way through them. After all, they only last two or four beats in a measure. Well, all I can say about that thought process is wrong. The half diminished and diminished sounds, the half diminished, diminished chords pop up all over the place in jazz repertoire. So we need to spend the time necessary to become as familiar and comfortable with them as we are with the major dominant and minor chords. I am amazed at the number of jazz pianists that I have encountered over the years who do not and I repeat do not have a solidified approach to voicing half diminished and diminished chords. Well this is not going to be the case with us. Because today we are going to thoroughly explore the primary two handed voicings for the half diminished chord and then turn around and do the same for the primary two handed diminished voicings, the diminished chords in an upcoming podcast episode. Now you may have picked up on the fact that I continually continually refer to the voicings for major dominant minor and now have diminished and diminished as primary voicings. This continual reference to the voicings as primary would suggest that there must be Another set of voicings perhaps called secondary. If this is what you are thinking then you are thinking correctly. I like to teach voicings in three phases. Phase One, the primary voicings, what I call the primary voicings, and we have an option one and an option two and phase two, what I like to call secondary voicings and again, an option one and option two. And then finally, a phase three, a comprehensive or complete set of voicings. This is where we play our scales and our arpeggios harmonically. It's an organized in tiered approach to teaching and learning voicings where we begin with two shapes, then add two more, and then add three more for a total of seven. And seven, by the way, is a very important number in music. It equals the number of notes in a major scale. Why is this important? Because ultimately, and this is where I'm leading you with this approach to study and learning voicings is to get you to a point where you can play all scales and R and arpeggios harmonically. And let me say that again. I want to get you to a point where you can play all scales and arpeggios harmonically. And why is this important? Because you want to become a multi dimensional jazz pianist who can approach playing a melody regardless as to how the melody is created, whether it's compositionally created or improvisationally created. You want to approach playing that melody as either a single note or harmonized structure using jazz voicings. Once you have this jazz piano skill under your fingers, you can then begin to approach learning and playing any tune artistically. In other words, you will be able to actually create your treatment of a tune. Artistry. If your ability to present to play a melodic line, a melodic idea is limited to a single note. Then you are in essence, a one trick pony. And all of your tunes, all of your treatments of tunes will sound exactly the same. Now, nothing wrong with this when you are starting out and learning to play jazz. In fact, you want to be able to play tune after tune after tune with chords in your left hand. Simple chords in your left hand and simple melody in your right hand. This is a huge accomplishment in your development as a jazz pianist. My job here through this podcast is to continually introduce you to new jazz piano skills. to continually point you forwards. I like to describe it as pulling back the curtain and letting you peek in so you know what's coming. So you know where you are heading. I don't know about you, but I always love to see the bigger picture. I always wanted to see how the skills that I was currently wrestling with how those skills fit in to the big picture. Or as I like to say how those skills plug in to the overall landscape of playing jazz piano. In doing so, I was all the more motivated to gain a command of the current jazz piano skill that I was working on so I could move on to the next jazz piano skill. So if some of these podcast episodes dealing with the primary voicings for major dominant minor and half diminished and diminished chords are slightly or even big time over your head. I want to encourage you to continue listening. You may not understand everything, at least initially. But it opens the door sort of speak and makes you aware of the jazz piano skills coming your way. After all, you always want to be way out way out in front With your awareness and conceptual understanding of jazz piano skills, you may not be able to play them. But you do want to be aware of them and have an understanding of them. It is this awareness and understanding that actually fuels your current motivation and serves as a catalyst for the mastery of the jazz panel skills you are practicing at this very moment. So okay, let's attack. With all that being said, let's attack these primary two handed have to manage voicings. To begin all jazz piano skills members need to pause this episode right now take a few minutes and print, print the podcast packets, the illustrations and the lead sheets always have these packets in front of you as we go through the lesson. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1000 words, the illustrations and the lead sheets will indeed illuminate various aspects of essential jazz piano skills of these primary two handed half diminished voicings. Right That's that are sometimes just often, you know kind of difficult to describe or explain by using words only. So these illustrations in these lead sheets kind of fill in the gaps if you will. So take a second right now, pause the episode and print out the pod cast packets, the illustrations and the lead sheets. Okay, now that you have the podcast packets in front of you, I want to walk you through them. Let's begin with the illustrations of which you have 12 one for each key. Take a look at the first illustration for C half diminished. notice right away that I have five specific exercises notated an outline. These are the exercises I'm going to be modeling today. And they are what I call chord isolation. half step pairs, minor third rotation, whole step rotation, and of course, circle of fifths. Now before we go any further, I want you to grab that F half diminished illustration. I want you to notice that even though the exercises are the same, the patterns the harmonic movement within the exercises are not. In other words, everything shifts and moves in a different order. For example, check out the circle of fifths exercise and its starting point it's not see. Right? It is so important to be consciously aware of incorporating various starting points within the exercises that you're that you're practicing. So that each exercise in each illustration for each key is different. And by the way, the play alongs that you have access to through jazz piano skills, follow these differences as well. So be aware of these variations as you move from key to key. And from illustration to illustration. Now also included on each illustration for each half diminished chord, our keyboard diagrams that I use to literally draw, if you will, the voicings on the keyboard. On the keyboards that write using colored x's, the green X's represent the two notes that you are going to play in your left hand. While the orange axes represent the three notes that you're going to play in your right hand. It's very cool. I have created these illustrations that map out the exercises and the voicings for all 12 half diminished chords, right? So invaluable. These illustrations are not only fantastic to have sitting on your piano, but they're also wonderful to have in your hands to study away from the piano. And as you all know, I preach this all the time to your best practicing will be done away from the instrument, sorting things out conceptually, so that you can expedite your physical development. Okay, now let's look at the lead sheets. You should have 16 lead sheets in your hands. 12 of the Li sheets are dedicated to each of the 12 half diminished chords and their primary two handed voicings I absolutely love these lead sheets because they isolate each half diminish sound, keeping you mentally and physically and visually focused on a specific core. And both of the primary two handed voicings for each. I love these lead sheets because there's no additional data. Right? There's no additional data clogging things up on the page there to divert your attention from the single objective at hand. And I cannot stress enough how important it is to spend time with these individual lead sheets to help you thoroughly digest the voicings, their shapes and their sound items. Fact I said this, I think in one of the previous podcast episodes, dealing with voicings I said, I said call me Nostradamus, but I'm going to predict right now that you will be tempted to blow right past these individual lead sheets in go right to the lead sheets with all the various exercises outlined. Right? The half diminished pairs, the minor third rotations, a whole tone rotation, the circle of fifths, right? We want to get to the good stuff we think, right? I don't know. You know, I've been teaching for 30 plus years and after a while you just know exactly what the student is going to do before they even before they even know what they are going to do. It's funny. So I predict that you're going to be tempted. But because you are a jazz piano skills member you and you've been taught the importance of structure, focus and discipline when it comes to practicing, that you will not succumb to the temptation that you will not give in to this temptation. You will spend the time necessary with the individually sheets to gain a functional command of each half diminished chord and the two primary voicings for each before tackling the various exercises outlined on the other included lead sheets. Got it? Okay. Finally, I want to mention, I actually I actually mentioned them earlier, but I want to mention again, and stress the importance of using the play alongs write your play along packet that's included. I have produced included for this podcast lesson. For each half diminished chord five play long tracks, there is a track for the isolated half diminished. There's a track for the half diminished pairs, the minor third rotation, the whole step rotation and the circle of fifths. So all in all you have 6060 play long tracks at your fingertips. So be sure to use them in conjunction with the illustrations and the lead sheets. Right? Use them. Again, I will be modeling each of these exercises today and using the play long tracks that you now have access to, to practice at home. No doubt a ton to cover today. And of course, even with the podcast packets in your hands, the illustrations the lead sheets in the play alongs you will indeed have questions as you should. And that is precisely why I'm I am committed to providing all jazz panel skills members immediate personal and unlimited support. If you are listening to this podcast through the jazz panel skills website, which I hope you are, you can use the extremely convenient speakpipe widget widget nestled directly beneath the podcast player to send me a voicemail message. It's that easy. It's that simple. It's cool. One click and the two of us are interacting and engaging with one another. Send me a voice message with your questions. And I will send you one back with answers simple. If you're listening on I Heart Radio, Spotify, apple, Pandora, amazon music, or any other popular podcast directory, you can use the URL speakpipe.com forward slash jazz piano skills and that URL again speakpipe.com forward slash jazz piano skills and you'll be able to send me a message that way. If you are a scaredy cat and afraid to send me a voicemail message Then you can post your question in the private jazz piano skills forum and let the community help you. Write, look directly beneath the speakpipe widget and you'll see the links right there for the forum. Or if you are free on Thursday evening, you can attend the Thursday evening jazz piano skills masterclass that I host every week. Join me and others online 8pm Central time using the zoom link posted on the jazz piano skills website and get your questions answered face to face. It's awesome. Join us Thursday evening online 8pm Central time, I provide you with so many ways to get help. So definitely take advantage of the opportunities. As you know, my entire goal here with jazz piano skills is to provide you with the very best jazz piano lessons, the very best jazz piano educational materials, and the very best jazz piano support that's available anywhere today. Okay, with every single practice session, it is important to establish a single practice objective. Our single practice objective for today is to gain a physical command the primary two handed half diminished voicings. So number one primary voicings two of them. Number two half diminished voicings not major not minor, not, not dominant, half diminished. Number three, two handed, we're not going to do left handed shells, not block not locked hands, no other style to hand. Right. So right away we we established practice criteria that prevents us from wandering off in the jazz never Neverland, this is so important. Your single practice objectives should be established and set before you even sit down on the bench. If not, I guarantee it, you will be off to never never land in a matter of seconds. In fact, I think this is the number one challenge for all jazz students practicing is establishing an objective a single objective before they sit down the practice. I should do an entire podcast on that and maybe I will. But anyway, let's begin let's construct the two primary two handed half diminished voicings, here we go. The very first thing I am treating every half diminished as the seventh mode of the major scale, or what is called locrian. Right. So C half diminished, actually comes from the key of D flat major. Okay, C half diminished comes from the key of D flat major. So, an easy way to think about that is whatever half diminished chord you're dealing with think a half step up. And that's the major scale or the key from which that half diminished chord is derived in from which it comes from. Okay, so our C half diminished, comes from the D flat major scale. So when we go to construct this in the left hand, we're going to have the root and we're going to have the fifth which is G flat. Right, you got to think kind of the notes the D flat major scale. So we have in the left hand C and G flat, which is the right hand we're going to have our C, F and B flat. Okay, two notes in the left hand, three notes in the right hand. Here's what it sounds like. Nice, it's got a little bite to it, but it's really nice. That's option one. Okay, option two. We're going to have our fifth in the left hand that G flat and the middle C and in our right hand, we're going to have F, B flat, E flat. Okay, and this is what this sounds like this voicing. Well, these are some very hip half diminished voicings option one again. Option two. Okay. Now, if you've been studying back on December 8, the primary two handed voicings for the dominant shapes. You may already pick up on the fact that hey, I'm already familiar with With these voicings right here, I learned these voicings in relationship to a flat dominant, the exact same shape. So listen to that listen to these same two voicings, but in relationship to a flat. Here it is a flat dominant. A flat down. Pretty cool, right? We're using shapes that you already know. But we're using them in a different context. Those same two shapes are now being applied and utilized to play C half diminished, and here it is in relationship to C now. Very cool. I want to draw your attention to a couple things. Each voicing consists of five notes, always two notes in the left hand, three notes in the right hand I use this formula for all of my two handed voicings, whether it's major dominant minor, half diminished or diminished to the left, three in the right. And you'll also notice that these voicings are built off of the primary interval being a fourth. So they're commonly referred to as quarter voicings right, I like to use the term 40, but they're quarter voicings. So, I use this formula to kind of streamline my approach to voicing because otherwise, if you do not have some kind of formulaic way to study and develop voicings, it's gonna be kind of like fish in line, you're gonna get tangled up pretty quick and get confused. Very quick voicing is just one of those areas where folks can get confused quickly. And just on a side note up jazz panel skills member, let me know this past week that the term voicing was confusing to them. They were thinking of when they heard the word voicing they somehow were relating it, they were thinking it had pertained to the voice itself, our singing voice, just want to make sure that this is a common terminology that is used throughout the jazz world. When we talk about taking the notes of a chord and spreading them out on the piano. We're voicing them, I'm doing air quotes, right that right voicing them. So I just want to make sure that we're we're, we're cleared away on that as well. I don't want anybody to be confused with that terminology. So if we can build two primary, two handed half diminished voicings for each of the 12 notes of music, then there are 24 shapes that we need to get comfy with both conceptually and physically. And this is, I gotta be honest, this is where most people experience some difficulty. It's interesting, the thought of getting 24 harmonic shapes under our fingers, right? To have too many shapes for each of the 12 notes initially sounds very doable, however, trying to figure out a way to actually practice them. So they actually stick is somehow much more challenging and somehow not as doable. But that's what we're going to do here today. And that's why I'm going to walk you through the five harmonica technique approaches that I use when practicing voicings to help get them in my ears sorted out in my mind, and of course, solidified under my fingers. Okay, so here we go. Exercise number one, gonna simply isolate the half diminished chord. So I'm going to take C half diminished. And it's going to be the only sound that I practice here for a second. And the way I'm going to approach this, the template that I'm going to use today is 140 for all the exercises, and of course you can and I highly recommend that you do begin with slower tempos when you start tackling any new jazz panel skill or technique approach. So the way I'm going to do this, I'm going to play option one of my C half diminished. I'm just going to sit on that for maybe like about eight measures, right? Maybe a couple times through I'm going to do it. It's kind of eight measure rotation. I mean, I'm going to sit on that for like 16 measures total, right, and then I'm going to shift over to option two. And I'm going to sit on that for about 16 measures. And what I'm doing is I'm actually I'm playing it, I'm studying it. I'm listening to it. And I'm really trying to get both of these shapes comfortable underneath my hands, then eventually, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start shortening the gap between those two options, you'll hear what you'll hear as I play it, you'll hear how I'm approaching this. Okay, so I stick with option one for a little bit, then play option two for a little bit, then I start going back and forth between both of those options, shortening the gap, right, proving that I can jump from one to the other with ease. So let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check it out and see what we think. All right, here we go. Very, very good exercise. In fact, probably the most important exercise that we're going to do today to be quite honest with you. Right, spend time isolating each half diminished chord and spend time being able to go from option one to option two back to option one back the option to move it around on the keyboard just get comfortable with both half diminished voicings and isolate each chord. Again, probably the most important exercise out of the whole packet here today out of all of them. But with that being said, let's move on. The next exercise that I like to do is I like to pair chords up. And I usually do my pairings by half step. So I'm going to take my C half diminished voicing. And then I'm going to pair that up with a C sharp minor, C sharp half diminished voicing. So I'm going C minor, C half diminished, and C sharp half diminished. Okay, so now I've just paired those two up. And in the exercise, you're going to see that I am literally going to sit on my C half diminished for four measures and option one, and then I'm going to shift to C sharp half diminished, option one. And so I'm going to go back and forth between option one for both c half diminished and C sharp half diminished, then I'm going to shift over to option two, for C half diminished, and then option two, for C sharp half diminished, then you're gonna hear me start to put both options together for C half diminished, and then both options together for C sharp half diminished. Again, just proving to myself that I can toggle back and forth between both options for C half diminished, and toggle back and forth. Both options for C sharp half diminished, and go back that half step movement, right it's obviously more challenging than just the isolation the court the half diminished court isolated so let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check it out and see what we think. Here we go. Definitely more challenging adding another chord into the mix more challenging than just isolating each individual half diminished chord. Tremendous exercise, okay, if you notice I'm not trying to get fancy either with what I'm doing rhythmically with these voicings right, I'm not trying to do anything fancy, I'm just playing those shapes and digesting the sounds. Okay, so now exercise number three is what I call minor thirds rotation. So what that simply means is now we're going to be dealing with for half diminished chords for. So I'm going to start with C half diminished, I'm going to move up a minor third to E flat, I'm going to be playing an E flat half diminished, then I move up a minor third again to F sharp half diminished, and then a minor third again, to a half diminished. Okay, so just to be a stickler here to be theoretically correct, I'm actually playing c half diminished, then I'm going to D sharp half diminished, because D sharp is the seventh in the key of E, n, e is a sharp key. So I'm playing D sharp half diminished, then F sharp half diminished, which is coming from the key of G, and then a half diminished, which comes from the key of B flat. So in this exercise, I'm going to play my half diminished chords, four of them. I'm going to start off by playing all four of them, option one voicing. And then I'm going to shift to all four being played using option two voicing. Then the third time through, I'm going to be using option one and option two voicings for each half diminished chord. So quite a bit more challenging, right, I've gone from isolating a single half diminished chord to do in half diminished pairs. And now a minor third rotation, which includes four chords, which means there are three of these exercises, right, four times 312, all 12 notes. Okay, it's a great way to practice. So now let's bring the ensemble in and let's listen to this half diminished exercise using a minor third rotation, C half diminished, go into D sharp, half diminished, go into F sharp half diminished, going to a half diminished. Let's check it out. And let's see what we think. Here we go. Very cool. Now I mentioned to you that there are three of these exercises. Of course, I'm just modeling one today but in your lead sheets that you have in the lead sheet packet, I have those exercises mapped out for you. Okay, if you have any questions, let me know but they are there in your lead sheet exercise lead sheet packet. Another quick side note, if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want to encourage you if you have not done so already to tap into the jazz piano skills, interactive courses, they are fantastic. The courses make up a sequential curriculum that uses a self paced format so you can move as quickly or as slowly as you'd like. To help you thoroughly study the essential jazz piano skills that you need to command in order to become an accomplished jazz pianist. Each of the courses you'll find in each of the courses detailed instruction and illustrations, in depth educational talks, interactive learning media, there are traditional guides and worksheets that you can utilize and download high def, video demonstrations of me demonstrating the skills in all 12 keys that are play along tracks and lead sheets the utilize and of course, professional and personal and unlimited educational support. mobile access is available to all the courses whether you're studying using your desktop or laptop computer, your tablet, your phone, your watch or TV. I can't even believe I'm saying that but yes, even your watch and your TV. So anyway, check out the jazz piano skills courses at jazz piano skills.com. Okay, exercise number four is what I call whole step rotation. So now, we're going to add two more half diminished voicings chords to deal with. Okay, so, we're gonna start with our C half diminished, we're gonna move up a whole step to D half diminished, then another whole step to E half diminished. Another whole step, the F sharp half diminished. Another whole step to G sharp half diminished. And the last whole step to a sharp half diminished. So we have six half diminished chords that we're going to deal with, in this exercise six of them. So the way this is going to go is I'm going to play the first time through, I'm going to play my half diminished voicings chords using voicing option number one, then you'll hear me shift to voicing option number two for each of the six half diminished chords. Then you'll hear me incorporate both voicing options for each of the six half diminished chords. Right? So again, I'm just kind of isolate each voicing first, then I play both of them together. So let's bring the ensemble in. And let's check this out and see what we think. All right. Okay, here we go. Very nice. So the whole step rotation, there are two of those exercises. Of course, I just illustrated one of them today, but again, in your lead sheets packet that you have in front of you, I have both of those exercises mapped out for you. And again, if you have any questions, let me know. Okay, so we have isolated, our half diminished sounds, our chords, each of them. We then went to half step pairs, or we paired up to half diminished chords together. Then we went to minor third rotations, which created an exercise incorporating for half diminished chords. Then we went to whole step rotation, which created exercises that included six half diminished chords. And now, we're going to do the final exercise, which is the circle of fifths, which now incorporates all 12. So you see that the tiered system there went from one to two, to four, to six, and now 12 have diminished chords. So with the circle of fifths exercise, the first time around the circle, I'm moving counterclockwise, as you always should be moving around the circle, I'm going to move counterclockwise around the circle using voicing option number one for each half diminished chord. The second time around the circle, I'm going to use voicing option number two. And then the third time around the circle. I'm going to incorporate both voicing options for both court I mean for each court. Okay. So Wow, here. Here we go. Let's have some fun. Let's check it out. Pretty darn cool. Wow, what a workout right? That is a serious exploration, a very systematic exploration and structured exploration of our half diminished chords using the primary two handed voicings to notes in the left, three notes in the right that five note structures. Wow, great voicings. Great sounds, great exercises. So be sure to utilize them incorporate them into your practicing into your technique, harmonic technique practicing when studying the voicings. Also, I want to encourage you to go back and check out the podcast episodes again, that deal with the Primary two handed major voicings, the primary two handed dominant voicings and the primary two handed minor voicings. All these podcast episodes make a really nice set, dealing with voicings and then soon to come here in the near future. I will be doing a podcast episode on the diminished two handed diminished voicings. Wow. Well, I hope you have found this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring the primary two handed half diminished voicings to be insightful and of course beneficial. And don't forget if you are a jazz piano skills member I will see you Thursday evening online at the jazz piano skills masterclass 8pm Central time again, the link is you can find the link at the jazz piano skills website to join the masterclass. So, we will discuss this podcast episode we will discuss harmonic technique and the primary two handed half diminished voicings in greater detail and answer any questions that you may have about the study of voicings and the study of jazz in general. Also, as a jazz piano skills member, be sure to check out and print out and to utilize the educational podcast packets that you have for not only for this podcast episode, but for every podcast episode. Also, be sure to check out and to use the jazz piano skills courses. All these educational tools and resources are available to help you maximize your musical growth. And likewise, make sure you are an active participant in the jazz piano skills forums. Get involved with the jazz piano skills community and make some new jazz piano friends. As always, you can reach me by phone at 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 by email Dr. Lawrence, Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com or by speakpipe. That little handy widget that's found throughout the jazz piano skills website in the jazz piano skills courses. And on the podcast pages as well. So many ways to get in touch with me feel free to reach out at any time, always happy to talk to you, interact with you and help you in any way that I possibly can. So that's it for now. And until next week, enjoy the journey. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano