Satin Doll, Harmonic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.514)

Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, here we are, the start of a new month, which means we begin studying a new jazz standard. And as always, as always, we'll explore it harmonically, melodically, improvisationally, and then bring everything together through solo piano. As I stress in every episode,

the tune changes, but the skills remain. And our study this month, as it always does, will validate this musical truth. This month we'll be exploring one of Duke Ellington's most beloved jazz standards, Satin Doll. By the end of the month, you'll not only know how to play Satin Doll, you'll understand why it works. And once you understand why music works, you can begin making it your own.

So today you are going to discover that every great jazz standard is built upon familiar harmonic relationships. And we'll use Duke Ellington's Satin Doll to illuminate this timeless musical truth. You are going to learn the form, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, unique harmonic vocabulary found within Satin Doll. And you are going to play satin using

Practical, essential jazz piano voicings, blocks, traditional and contemporary shells, as well as two-handed structures. These voicings will help you hear, understand, and apply the harmonic structure of the tune with greater confidence, no doubt about it. So whether you're a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or a seasoned professional, I think you're going to find today's Jazz Piano Skills Podcast lesson exploring Duke Ellington's Satin Doll.

To be insightful and to be very beneficial. You know, one of the greatest misconceptions in music education and in jazz studies is that becoming a better musician simply means learning more songs. Well, it doesn't. Now don't get me wrong, learning tunes, learning tunes is important. And I believe every jazz musician should build a rich and diverse repertoire.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (03:02.946)

But musicianship has never been measured by the number of tunes you know. It's measured by how well you understand the musical relationships they contain. I've often said that content alone has never created understanding. It doesn't. And nowhere is that more evident than when studying harmony. Many musicians look at a lead sheet.

And they see a long list of unrelated chord symbols, one chord after another. Something to memorize, something to survive. But accomplished musicians, accomplished musicians see something entirely different. They see relationships. They see harmonic function. They recognize familiar movement. They understand why one chord

naturally leads to the next. In other words, they don't simply see chords. They see the relationships, they see the story that those chords are telling. And that's why harmonic analysis is so very important. it isn't an academic exercise designed to impress other musicians. In fact, instead it's it's a practical exercise.

It's an essential exercise designed to create clarity. And when you understand how harmony works, guess what? You stop memorizing isolated chords. And instead, you begin recognizing familiar musical patterns that appear again and again and again in every great jazz standard. Now, today we'll use Duke Ellington's Satin Doll as our musical laboratory.

We'll examine its form. We will identify its unique harmonic vocabulary. We'll explore how its chords function. We'll discover the common harmonic movement that shapes the tune. And we'll organize everything using essential jazz piano voicings you can immediately begin applying at the piano. Now my hope is that by the end of today's lesson,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:31.02)

Today's episode, you won't simply know the chords to Satin Doll. You'll understand why they work, how they function. Because when harmony becomes clear, music becomes understandable. And when music becomes understandable, guess what happens? It becomes musical. Now that's exciting. But you know what? Even more exciting.

Even more exciting are the Seven Musical Facts. And let's take a moment to review the seven musical facts that you know, if you're a regular listener to jazz piano skills, you know that these seven musical facts serve as the foundation for everything that we do here at Jazz Piano Skills. Now, these seven musical facts, they are not opinions. They are not theories. They are

Timeless musical truths that remain constant regardless of the tune, regardless of the style, or the level of musician. Right? It's irrelevant. These seven musical facts are just that. They are facts. So let's go through them. Fact number one: music is the production of sound and silence. When I speak of sound, I am speaking of our primary sounds, major.

Dominant, minor, half diminished, diminished. Fact number two, sound is produced one of two ways, harmonically and/or melodically. That's it. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we are playing chords, or what we often refer to as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we're playing arpeggios and scales.

Fact number five: harmony and melody have motion. Harmony has circle, diatonic, and chromatic motion. And melody has ascending and descending motion. That's it. Fact number six, we decorate this movement with tension or chromaticism, notes outside of the harmony.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:59.118)

And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, to make facts one through six come to life, we add rhythm. And again, everything that we study here at Jazz Piano Skills fits into this framework, to this outline of the seven musical facts of music. Every tune we look at, every lesson, every illustration, every lead sheet.

Every demonstration is simply an application of these seven musical facts. So keep them in mind as we go throughout today's lesson because they will guide everything we discover, learn, and play today. But before we continue, I'd like to take just a moment to welcome those of you who may be listening to Jazz Piano Skills for the very first time. And if that's you, welcome.

I'm delighted that you are here. Jazz Piano Skills is an educational program designed to help you develop the essential skills needed to become a confident and accomplished jazz pianist. So whether you're just beginning your jazz journey or you're an experienced player looking to deepen your musical understanding of jazz, this podcast is designed to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano in a very clear, logical, and organized way. Each month.

We use a single jazz standard as our musical laboratory while exploring four essential areas of jazz piano development. Week one, we always look at harmony, week two, melody, week three, rhythm, improvisation, and week four, solo piano. The tunes change, but the skills remain. Each lesson builds naturally upon the previous one, allowing us, allowing you to develop not only

your playing ability, but your musical understanding as well. So if today's lesson, if today's episode raises questions or you'd like to study today's material in greater depth, I encourage you to visit jazzpianoskills.com. There you will discover all the benefits of becoming a jazz pianel skills member, including the podcast packets, the interactive courses, our weekly master classes, a vibrant online community and ongoing support.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:25.088)

All of it designed to help you continue growing as a jazz musician. So thank you for joining us today. And I truly hope that today's lesson helps you discover, learn, and play jazz piano with greater understanding, greater confidence, and of course greater joy. All right, so let's move on to the question of the week. And this week's question comes to us from Michael Chen, living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And Michael writes, Dr. Bob.

When I look at a lead sheet, I see a collection of chord symbols. But whenever I hear you teach, you always seem to see relationships instead of individual chords. How do I begin to learn how to think that way? Thank you for your help. I appreciate all that you do. Well, Michael, listen, thank you for.

The perfect question for this week's podcast episode. I actually think you've identified, and I've mentioned it earlier, I think you've identified one of the most important differences between simply playing jazz and truly understanding jazz. Now, most musicians, as I mentioned, begin by seeing individual chord symbols.

Right? They see like a C major seven, then an A minor seven, and then here's a D minor seven, here's a G seven. In other words, they see one chord followed by another chord, followed by another chord. You know, but over time, hopefully, over time, something begins to change, and that you stop seeing isolated chords, stop seeing isolated chords as unrelated chords.

And instead, you begin seeing how those chords truly relate to one another. You recognize harmonic function, right? You recognize familiar harmonic movement. You recognize recurring harmonic vocabulary. In other words, you stop reading individual words and you begin understanding the entire sentence. So important. Now

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:49.932)

That's exactly what harmonic analysis helps us to do. That's why we do our harmonic analysis every single month using a different standard. Today we're going to use Satin Doll to help develop that way of thinking. We're going to examine the tune's form. We're going to look at the unique harmonic vocabulary within the tune. We're going to explore how each chord functions. We're

We're gonna recognize the common harmonic movements that connect them. And finally we'll organize everything with voicings, right? So that's a very complete harmonic analysis of the tune. And I think what you'll discover is that once you begin seeing relationships instead of isolated chords, every jazz standard

becomes much easier to understand, much easier to remember, and much, of course, much easier to play. Now I've told this story a million times. So if you've already, you know, if you've been with me for a while, you're gonna go, here we go again. So you can hit the you know fast forward button here. But Michael, this is so important. I remember when I was young and I asked one of my mentors, a fabulous jazz pianist by the name of Warren.

Parish. I asked him one evening how it was that he knew so many tunes. And he looked at me like I asked him a very silly question. In fact, the way he looked at me, I was kind of embarrassed that I even asked a question. And he said, What do you mean? And I said, What what I mean is that, you know, you know like every tune, no matter what the no matter what the request is, you can play the tune. And not only that, you can play the tune

in any key. If a vocalist comes up and wants to sing, you play the song in the the vocalist's key. How do you do this? How do you know all this? And he took this little cigar out of his mouth and he blew his the smoke out of his mouth and he looked at me very puzzled and he said, Bob, what he goes, they're all the same. And I remember thinking, What a kook! This guy is a nut.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:14.104)

They're not all the same. Satin Dal is not the same as Over the Rainbow. Over the Rainbow is not the same as Teach Me Tonight. These are very different songs. These are very different melodies. These are what's he talking about? And what I come to find out, you know, after thirty plus years of teaching is first of all, I've come to find out that I have a great deep respect for him, with how the depth of his understanding of music because I was looking at tunes really through

what I call the window dressing of the tune, right? The tempo, the groove, the lyrics, the melody. The this is window dressing. And what he was thinking about when I said talk to him about tunes and asked the question, he was thinking about harmonic function, harmonic movement, right? Common harmonic progressions. That he was thinking like, these are things that happen in every single tune. So

That's what we're going to accomplish today with our harmonic analysis. So, Michael, your question is fabulous. And I think you're on the right track just simply because you asked the right question. So hang with us, dive into the harmonic analysis that we do today and every month. And I think you will begin to see the chord changes, not as individual chord changes.

on the page, but you will start to see the relationships and you will start to understand music in a much more profound and deeper way, which will allow you to become much more musical. So that's just a quick answer to your question and I hope that helped. if more clarity is needed, as always, please reach out to me. I'm happy to dive deeper with you on

With your question and make sure that you have the clarity that you are seeking. All right? All right. So what are we going to accomplish today? What is the educational agenda for today? Well, our focus this week is harmonic analysis. And more specifically, we're going to learn how to look beyond individual chord symbols and begin seeing the harmonic relationships that give Satin Doll its musical shape.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:38.484)

its musical direction, its musical character. So today we'll examine the tune's form. We will identify its unique harmonic vocabulary. We will explore the function of every chord. We will recognize and illuminate the common harmonic movements that connect those chords. And finally, we're going to organize everything using jazz voicings, essential jazz voicings, which include our block chords,

Traditional shells, contemporary shells, and of course our two-handed structures. And by the end of today's lesson, I hope you'll have a much clearer understanding of how the harmony of Satin Doll is organized, why it works, and how to approach the tune with greater confidence at the piano. And more importantly, I hope that you'll begin developing the ability to recognize these same harmonic relationships and

every jazz standard that you study because once you once you learn how to see harmonic relationships you'll stop memorizing isolated chords that's very difficult and begin understanding the language of jazz okay if you are a jazz piano skills member i want you to take just a few minutes right now hit the pause button now is the perfect time to access download

Your podcast packets. All right. As always, today's packet contains everything you'll need to get the most from today's lesson. The illustrations, the lead sheets, the play-alongs, the backing tracks—all of it All of it designed specifically for this week's harmonic study of Satin Doll. And again, these resources are designed to help you study, practice, apply today's concepts at the piano.

Transforming, hopefully transforming today's lesson from something you simply listen to into something that you truly learn and can play. As you work through today's materials, I encourage you to notice the form, the unique harmonic vocabulary, the chord functions. We're going to cover it all, right? Pay close attention to the common harmonic movement that gives the tune its direction. All right. Then we're going to spend some time

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:59.136)

Exploring today's voicings, the blocks, the traditional shells, the contemporary shells, and two-handed structures. So having your podcast packet in front of you while you listen to the episode, having it sitting on your piano throughout the week when practicing will help you maximize your musical growth. Also, don't forget that now's the perfect time, hit the pause. Don't forget to visit Jazz Piano Skills.

our online community spend a little time with Lisa's listening list. I love that. Each week, Lisa thoughtfully curates recordings that complement our monthly study. And this week's list is killer. You have to check it out. So each each week the study, her list gives us an opportunity to hear hear today's concepts brought to life by some of the some of jazz's greatest musicians. So take advantage of it.

Listening with purpose is one of the most powerful ways to deepen your musical understanding. So again, download your podcast packets, spend time with Lisa's listening list, and then when you're ready, settle in at the piano, and then let's begin today's lesson. All right, quickly to all of our non-jazz piano skills members, I again I want to thank you for joining us today. I hope

You've enjoyed the first half of today's episode and found our discussion helpful and encouraging. In just a moment, we're going to be transitioning into the second half of today's podcast where I'll be at the piano exploring the harmony of Satin Doll. if you'd like to join us for the complete lesson and gain access to today's podcast packet, the interactive courses, the weekly master classes, Lisa's listening list, and

Our wonderful online community of jazz pianists, then I invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. I'd love to have you join us. For now, thank you again for listening. And as always, continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packet in front of you, we have our illustrations, our lead sheets, our play-alongs. We're going start as always with the lead sheets. very quickly, you should have eight.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:19.808)

lead sheets in your podcast packet, eight lead sheets. And we're going to go through each one of these lead sheets here very carefully. So let's start with lead sheet one. Lead sheet one. And let's take a look at the form of Satin Doll.