Satin Doll, Melodic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.632)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, here we are, week two of our August study of Duke Ellington's classic standard Satin Doll. Last week, we began our journey by looking beneath the surface of the tune and exploring its harmonic architecture. We examined the form.

Identified the unique chord changes, studied harmonic function, recognized common harmonic movement, and applied a variety of essential jazz piano voicings. And once again, we discovered that what may initially appear complicated becomes much simpler when we begin recognizing musical relationships. Well, today we shift our attention from harmony to melody.

We're going to take a close look at the melodic architecture of Satin Doll and discover how the melody moves, how it relates to the harmony beneath it, and why such a seemingly simple melodic idea has become one of the most recognizable melodies in the jazz repertoire. And by the way, today's episode is a little special. This is episode 350.

Of the Jazz Piano Skills Podcast. It's hard to believe. I'll have a little more to say about that later in today's episode, but for now, we have music to study. And as I stress, every week, the tune changes, but the skills remain. Last week, Satin Doll helped us validate that musical truth harmonically. Today, it's going to help us validate that musical truth melodically.

So today you are going to discover that great melodies are not random collections of notes. They are carefully organized musical statements built upon familiar melodic relationships. And we'll use Duke Ellington's Satin Doll to illuminate this timeless musical truth. You're going to learn how the melody of Satin Doll is constructed, how it moves, how it relates to the harmony beneath it, and how

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59.018)
Scales, arpeggios, intervals, direction, repetition, intention all work together to create a memorable melodic statement. And you are going to play the melody of Satin Doll using three standard jazz treatments, a ballad, Bossa Nova, and swing, with that melody being supported by our

Block and shell voicings that we studied in last week's harmonic analysis. So, as I like to say, whether you're a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you consider yourself a seasoned professional, I think you're going to find today's Jazz Piano Skills Podcast lesson to be insightful, practical, and of course very beneficial. And as we work through today's lesson, I want you to keep one simple thought in mind.

A melody is not a collection of notes. It's musical movement with purpose. And we're gonna discover that today. So we have a lot to get done. You know, there's something very fascinating about a great melody. We recognize it almost instantly, sometimes within just a few notes. We can sing it, remember it.

and often recall it years after we first heard it. And yet, if someone asks us why that melody works, why those particular notes sound natural, why the melody seems to fit the harmony so perfectly, why it remains in our memory, we can't forget it, we often struggle to explain it. I think that's because

We have a tendency as musicians to associate musical sophistication with musical complexity. We assume that if something sounds great, there must be something complicated happening. More notes, more scales, more theory, more technique. But music has a wonderful way of reminding us again and again that complexity and sophistication.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:18.058)
are not the same thing. In fact, some of the most sophisticated music ever written is remarkably simple. And satin Dow is a beautiful example. Listen to the melody. It's not trying to impress us. It's not racing across the keyboard. It's not filled with complicated melodic gymnastics. And yet, and yet it works.

Beautifully. Why is that? Because every note has a relationship, a relationship to the note that came before it, a relationship to the note that follows it, and most importantly, a relationship to the harmony supporting it. That's what melodic analysis helps us discover. Last week when we studied the harmony of satin, we talked about learning to see beyond.

Individual chord symbols. We discovered that accomplished musicians don't simply see chords, they see relationships. Well, guess what? The same is true with melody. Beginning musicians tend to see individual notes. Accomplished musicians hear movement, they hear direction, they hear repetition, they hear intervals.

They hear scales and arpeggios, they hear tension and resolution. They hear where the melody has been and where it is going. And when you begin hearing melody that way, something remarkable happens. Melodies actually become easier to learn, definitely easier to remember, easier to transpose, easier to embellish, and eventually easier to improvise with.

Because you're no longer memorizing a sequence of notes. How difficult is that? Instead, you're understanding a musical idea. And that distinction is enormous. You know, I often tell students that the goal of music education is not to make music appear more intelligent. The goal of music education is to make music more understandable.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:47.692)
Great teaching should remove mystery, not manufacture it. And that's exactly what we're going to do today. We're going to take one of the most recognizable melodies in the jazz repertoire, Duke Ellington's Satin Doll, and look beneath the surface, not to make it more complicated, quite the opposite. We're going to discover just how beautifully organized, how logical,

And perhaps most importantly, how simple a great melody can actually be. Because once you stop seeing notes and begin recognizing relationships, you stop merely playing a melody and you begin to understand it. And when you understand a melody, you can begin to make it your own. Now that's musicianship. And that's

what we're after. And in order to achieve that goal, I think it's important that we take a moment to review the seven musical facts that serve as the foundation for every jazz piano skills lesson. And remember, these facts do not change from week to week. The tunes change, the lessons change, the musical application change, but these seven facts remain constant because

They describe the fundamental musical relationships that exist within everything we hear, we study, and of course, everything that we play. So here we go. Fact number one: music is the production of sound and of course silence. When I speak of sound, I'm talking about the primary sounds of music: major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished. Fact number two: sound is produced harmonically.

And it is produced melodically. Fact number three, harmonic sound equals chords, or what we often refer to as voicings. Fact number four, melodic sound equals arpeggios and scales. Fact number five, harmony and melody have motion. Harmony has circle motion, diatonic motion, chromatic motion, and melody has.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:14.1)
Ascending and descending motion. We can go up or down. Fact number six, movement, that movement is decorated with tension, or what we often refer to as chromatism. And finally, fact number seven. Rhythm gives everything life. So in order to make facts one through six come to life, we add rhythm. Now

Think about those facts in relationship to what we're studying today. We're studying melody. And what did we just establish? Melodic sound is produced using arpeggios and scales. Those arpeggios and scales have motion. They ascend, they descend, they move diatonically, chromatically, they create tension and release. And rhythm takes all of that melodic movement and gives it life.

That's why these seven musical facts are so important. They give us a way to organize what otherwise might appear to be an endless collection of musical information. And once again, our goal is not to make music more complicated. Our goal is to recognize the relationships that make music understandable. So as we analyze the melody of Satin down today, keep these seven musical facts in mind because I think you're going to discover that.

Everything Duke Ellington gives us melodically is already sitting right here in front of us. Seven facts, timeless musical relationships, and an endless world of musical possibilities. All right, so before we go any further, I want to take just a moment to welcome our new jazz piano skills listeners. And if you are joining us for the very first time, I want

To welcome you. 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. And our goal is really quite simple. I've already stated it, to make music understandable. So if you're just beginning your jazz journey or an experienced player looking to deepen your musical understanding,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:39.426)
This podcast is designed to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano in a 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 look at harmony, week two, melody, week three, rhythm and improvisation, week four, solo piano. Now, the tune changes, but the skills

remain. And each lesson builds upon the previous one, allowing you to develop not only your playing ability, but your musical understanding as well. This month our musical laboratory, of course, is Duke Ellington's classic Satin Doll. Last week we explored the tune harmonically. Today we're exploring it melodically. Next week we'll use that harmonic and melodic understanding to begin developing improvisational ideas. And finally, we'll bring everything together

through solo piano. 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. You're going to find all the benefits of becoming a member, including podcast packets, interactive courses, weekly masterclasses, support, and a wonderful online community of jazz pianists all committed to the same goal, becoming better musicians.

So, whether you're listening while driving or taking a walk or sitting at the piano, thank you for spending time with me here at Jazz Piano Skills. I'm excited to be part of your musical journey. And I hope today's lesson helps you make music a little more understandable. And so that you can discover, learn, and play jazz piano with greater understanding, greater confidence, greater joy. All right. All right, so now.

On to the question of the week. This week's question of the week comes from Jennifer Walsh in Boston, Massachusetts. Now, Jennifer sent me her question last month, and I've been holding on to it to use specifically for today's episode. It's perfect. So Jennifer writes, Dr. Bob.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:04.596)
I can learn the melody of a jazz standard by reading the notes on the lead sheet. But I feel like I'm basically memorizing one note after another. If I don't play the tune for a while, I often forget parts of the melody and have to go back to the music. Is there a better way to learn melodies so that I actually understand them instead of just memorizing the notes?

Jennifer, I can answer your question with one word. Yes. Yes, there is a better way. Now you've identified a problem that almost every developing musician encounters. In fact, I it's not almost. I think every developing musician encounters. There is a tremendous difference between knowing which notes make up a melody.

And understanding how the melody works, a tremendous difference. If I give you a sequence of unrelated numbers and ask you to memorize them, you can probably do it, but you'll have to work at it. And a week from now, you may not remember them at all. Why is that? Because they have no meaningful relationship to one another.

Unfortunately, that's exactly how many musicians tried to learn melodies that exact same way. Note after note after note. And then they complain why they can't remember the music. But melodies aren't random collection of pitches, as I've already mentioned. They're not melodies are not random. They are musical.

Their musical movement with purpose. And once you begin recognizing that movement, everything changes. Instead of seeing 12 individual notes, you might discover that you're really looking at a fragment of a scale or an arpeggio. You may notice that the line is ascending or descending. A melodic idea may repeat.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:30.38)
That an interval sh there may be an intervalic relationship that is prominent, or a rhythmic pattern that returns over and over again. Or that a chromatic note is simply creating tension before resolving to a harmonically important tone. Wow. There's a lot to it, right? Suddenly you're not trying to memorize 12 unrelated pieces of information.

I'm saying 12 because there's 12 notes in our tuning system, but I'm not implying that every melody consists of 12 notes, right? So you're recognizing the notes that are being used melodically as one musical idea. And Jennifer, that's exactly what we're going to do today with satin Dow. We're going to look at that melody intervalically, we're going to look at its direction. We're going to look at its

Repetition, what tension and resolution exist, and of course, how all that melodic movement relates to the harmony that we studied last week. And here's the exciting part. Once you begin learning melodies this way, you're not only going to remember them more easily, you're going to hear them differently. You'll begin

Transposing them more intelligently, embellishing them more naturally, and eventually improvising from them more musically. Because improvisation doesn't begin when you abandon the melody. It begins when you understand it well enough to develop it. So Jennifer, great question, and I think today's lesson is going to answer your question beautifully.

So let's take a look at today's educational agenda. What exactly are we going to accomplish today? Well, our focus this week is melodic analysis. And as we do every month, we're going to approach the melody in a very specific, logical, and organized way. I like to think of our melodic analysis as kind of like an eight-step journey. We hear it, we find it.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:55.298)
Verify it, finger it, phrase it, target it, harmonize it, and finally perform it. It's a great list. Let's do that again. We're gonna hear it, we're gonna find it, we're gonna verify it, finger it, phrase it, target, harmonize it, perform it. So let's take a look at how we're going to do all that today with Duke Ellington Satin Doll. We'll begin with lead sheet one, which is our

What I like to call the fill-in-the-blanks lead sheet. I'll provide you with several guide tones throughout the melody. And using those guide tones along with your ears, you'll work to discover and transcribe the missing melody notes. It's fabulous ear training. In other words, you're gonna hear it and you're gonna find it. Then we'll turn the lead sheet two, which is I call it our answer key. Here I'll

present the melody in its entirety so you can compare it with your transcription and just see just how close, how close did you come? So we'll verify it. And then next with lead sheet three, I always like to present my suggested fingerings for properly playing the melody and articulating the melody. Because knowing the notes is one thing, right? Playing them comfortably, efficiently and musically is another. So we'll learn how to finger it.

And then lead sheet four, we'll step back from the individual notes and begin seeing the larger melodic picture by identifying the phrases found throughout Satin Doll. So instead of seeing a long string of autonomous notes, we begin actually seeing complete musical thoughts. We're going to phrase it in other words. Then lead sheet five, we'll identify the target notes when with within each of those phrases, and we'll discover where.

each phrase is going and where it wants to land and the important melodic destinations that give the line its sense of direction. We'll target it, right? And then something very important begins to happen. We start bringing last week's harmonic study together with today's melodic study. So lead sheets six and seven will apply our block and shell voicings to the melody of sat Satin Doll. So harmony and melody.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:22.764)
Vertical, horizontal, begin working together, harmonize it. And finally, we're gonna take everything we've studied and put it where it belongs into the music. And I'll demonstrate Satin Doll using the voicings we studied last week while playing the melody in three traditional jazz grooves, of a ballad groove, a Bossa Nova, and a swing groove. Same tune, same melody, same harmonic relationships, but three very different musical environments. Perform it.

Right. So by the end of today's lesson, you won't simply know the notes, the Satin Doll. You'll you will have heard the melody, found the melody, verified the melody, fingered the melody, phrased the melody, identified its targets, harmonized the melody, and finally performed the melody. Wow. Now see that's melodic analysis. That's what we do here at Jazz Piano Skills.

All right, so if you are a jazz piano skills member, now is the perfect time to hit the pause button to access and download your podcast packets. As always, the podcast packets contain everything you'll need to get the most from today's lesson, including the educational illustrations, the lead sheets, the play-alongs, all designed specifically for today's melodic analysis of Satin Doll. Now, these materials are not

Designed simply to give you the answers. They're designed to teach you a process, and a process that you can eventually take to any jazz standard, whether we've studied it together or not. And that's important because the goal of jazz piano skills is not to make you dependent upon jazz piano skills. The goal is actually to make you increasingly independent of it. Right? I want you to develop.

Musical understanding and the practical skills necessary to open a lead sheet, look at a tune you've never studied before, and with confidence know exactly what to do next. Now that's when education is working. Don't forget, as you work through today's podcast packets, be sure to visit the Jazz Piano Skills Online Community Forums and spend some time with Lisa's listening list.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:46.378)
Every week, every week, Lisa thoughtfully curates recordings that coincide with our current study. And during Melody Week, wow, that listening becomes especially valuable. Listen to how different artists approach the melody of Satan. Listen to the phrasing, articulation, rhythmic interpretation. Listen to what remains consistent. Listen to what each musician makes uniquely their own. And remember, learning jazz

Doesn't happen only when your fingers are on the keys. It happens with your ears as well, especially with your ears. Okay, so if you haven't already, download your podcast packets, have your lead sheets ready, settle in at the piano if you can, and let's get ready to discover the melody of Satin Doll, the Jazz Piano Skills Way. And if you're not a

Jazz Piano Skills member as of yet, I want to sincerely thank you for joining me today. I hope you've enjoyed the first half of today's episode. I hope you've found it our discussion helpful and encouraging and most importantly, musically enlightening. Now, in just a moment, we're going to transition into the second half of today's podcast where I'll be at the piano working through our complete melodic analysis of Duke Ellington's Satin Doll.

If you'd like to join us for the complete lesson, to gain access to today's podcast packets, our interactive courses, the weekly master classes, of course, Lisa's listening list and our supportive online community of jazz pianists, I invite you to visit jazzpianoskills.com and of course become a member. I'd love to have you join us.

And whether you decide to become a member or simply continue enjoying the first half of our podcast each week, please know that I am grateful you're listening. And I sincerely hope that jazz piano skills continues helping you make musical decisions and make music more understandable. But for now, thank you again for spending time with us today. And as always, continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:04.288)
Okay, so grab your lead sheets, and you should have seven lead sheets in your lead sheets packet. And of course, we're going to walk through every single one of them here today. And I'll talk about the illustrations and the play-alongs or backing tracks toward the end of the lesson. All right, so alright, so let's grab lead sheet one. Okay, so lead sheet one is