Stars Fell on Alabama, Improvisation

TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED BY AI. ERRORS GAURANTEED!

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:33.07)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Week three of the month is here. It's hard to believe, but it's here. And we all know that week three of every month is the week we dedicate ourselves to improving our improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of a tune.

followed with week two, a melodic analysis, and now week three, improvisation development. Our harmonic analysis of stars fell on Alabama as we do with every tune, right? We explored the form, the changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course, our voicings. Traditional block voicings and inversions, traditional and contemporary left-hand three-note shell voicings,

and of course our two-handed structures. Our melodic analysis, we learn the melody by ear, we check out some fingerings, we identify the melodic phrases and the target notes or guide tones within those phrases, and then of course explore various melodic treatments. And we typically stick with the standard jazz treatments, right? The ballad, bossa, swing. And then today we expand our study.

focusing on improvisation skills. And today's going to be great fun because we are going to use melodic pathways to help us develop our improvisation skills using the phrases that we identified last week when we did our melodic analysis of Stars Fell on Alabama. So no doubt about it, our three week study.

which will soon be a four-week study of every tune that we dive into is very thorough. It's very structured, very formulaic and systematic, and of course, extremely beneficial for developing our jazz piano chops. Of course, the study and practice of essential jazz piano skills, as you all know, must be governed by crystal clear thinking, a crystal clear thought process that

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:59.528)
actually simplifies music for us conceptually, so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical capabilities. Right? Music complicated upstairs, you have no shot of it coming out downstairs. It's just that simple. Now we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that we do everything

Conceptually and physically when it comes to music, we do everything as it adheres to the seven musical facts within the framework of the seven musical facts. Illuminated by the seven musical facts. And what are the seven musical facts? Well, I hope you all know them by now because we've been reciting them every week for the past year. I'm not kidding. That's a true statement.

we're going to do it again today because those facts, these seven musical facts, are that important. Fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence, right? Our primary sounds in music being major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. Fact number two, when sound is produced in music, we do it harmonically and melodically. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we're playing chords, or we often refer to them as voicings.

Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios and scales. Fact number five, when playing scales and arpeggios, we're moving in one of two directions. We're either going up or we're coming down. In fact, number six, we camouflage the fact that we're playing scales and arpeggios with tension or notes outside of the harmony or affectionately known as chromaticism.

And finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. Yes, indeed, these facts are very important. In fact, they're so important that we approach our tune study every month centered around these seven facts. So today's gonna be no different. We tackle improvisation development with these seven facts in mind.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:25.42)
So today we are going to discover Stars Fell on Alabama improvisationally. We are going to learn how to create melodic pathways using the melodic phrases found in Stars Fell on Alabama. And we are going to play three melodic pathways for each of the five melodic phrases that we found in Stars Fell on Alabama that will help us significantly improve

our improvisation skills. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your personal jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, Exploring Stars Fell on Alabama, to be very beneficial.

But before we get started, want to, as I always do, I want to welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Panel Skills. If this is your first podcast, fantastic. Glad to have you on board. You're new to Jazz Panel Skills. I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. And your membership comes with many perks. For example, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to premium podcast content. In other words, you get

to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every Jazz Panel Skills podcast is free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of every podcast episode for members only, we deal with the lesson content, the demonstrations, and of course, the podcast packets are part of that.

benefit as well. The podcast packets are the educational materials that I designed and developed for that go along with every weekly podcast episode. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. You want this material in your hands when listening to the podcast episode to get the most out of it. And of course, you want this material sitting on your piano or your music stand when practicing throughout the week as well.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:40.672)
As a member, you also have access to the online courses. These are comprehensive sound based, self paced and sequential courses focusing on harmonic, melodic and improvisation development. You also have a reserved seat in the online weekly masterclass that I hold every Thursday evening, 8pm Central Standard Time. And I know it's not the best time for everyone. However, as members, you have access to the recordings of every

masterclass, the video recording so you can watch and rewatch the masterclass at your convenience and as often as you wish. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the private online Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums, episode specific forums, as well as just general jazz forums. And even more importantly, it's it's where we house our killer listening list.

that is assembled every single week to go along with the podcast episode. It's fantastic and it adds great value to our educational process. And also the forums allow ample opportunity for everybody to enjoy member feedback and assistance as well. And finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to educational support, private, personal, and professional support whenever you need it.

So all of these amazing privileges, these perks are waiting to help you discover, learn, and play Jazz Piano. So check it all out at JazzPianoSkills.com and become a member. If you have any questions, once you get to the site, please, by all means, I encourage everyone to reach out to me. I'm happy to help answer any questions that you may have. Now, I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone, if you haven't already done so, to subscribe to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel.

begin receiving educational videos throughout the week that I published to go along with our weekly and monthly study. There are weekly recap videos, weekly quick tip videos, weekly melodic harmonic and improvisation challenge videos as well. And again, once you're subscribed, you will be notified as soon as a video is released. And finally, if you are not

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:00.972)
Receiving the Jazz Piano Skills blog post every Saturday morning. Please take time to join the Jazz Piano Skills email list, which you can do very easily at the Jazz Piano Skills website. I publish this blog every Saturday morning, which is a written recap, about a four minute read of the podcast episode and our study throughout the week. Definitely worth reading and definitely

an invaluable tool that will help keep you on track, both conceptually and physically. All right, so let's get on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Ethan Miller, living in Columbus, Ohio. And Ethan writes, Dr. Lawrence, I feel fine when I'm playing the melody, no problem. But the moment the melody ends,

I freeze. What am I supposed to play when it's time to improvise? Please help. Well, Ethan, you're asking a great question. And I can guarantee I can guarantee you that you're not alone. When the melody ends. Now what? Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. First, I think, Ethan, I'm not sure

exactly what you mean when you say the melody ends. Now, you may be thinking about when the melody comes maybe to a resting point at the end of an A section. You may be thinking about when the melody pauses at the end of the bridge before going into the last A section, or you may be thinking about when the tune reaches the end of the head and it's time to solo. Okay, so I'm not sure, but I think my answer will apply.

to all three of those scenarios. Okay, so regardless of the scenario, here's the key realization. This is so important. Ethan, when you improvise, the melody never ends.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:15.79)
it never ends. Improvisation, whether that's at the end of an A section or at the end of the bridge, or at the end of the tune or doing a solo, improvisation is something that is a continuation. It's a continuation of the melody, right? It's not something that happens after the melody. It's actually the continuation of the melody. So great jazz musicians don't stop

playing the melody and suddenly start doing something else. All right, I think this is a misconception. They keep telling the story just with new words. So when the melody rests,

what professional musicians don't think, they're not thinking, well, now I need to improvise. They actually think, well, how would this melody continue if it kept speaking? Right? Professional musicians, jazz musicians are always outlining the melody's shape through the chord changes, landing on important notes found within the melody.

what I call target notes or guide tones. Jazz musicians are always respecting the phrasings, the phrasing of the tune. And as we talked about last week, always honoring the story behind the song. And that's why their improvisation sounds connected or sounds musical. So think of improvisation as your map, your language, your storyline. When you improvise,

You decorate the melody. You paraphrase the melody. You respond to the melody. You extend the melody. But guess what you never do? Well, at least you never should do. You should never abandon the melody. So Ethan, think that instead of asking, what do I play when the melody ends? A better question would be, well, how does the melody continue through me? How does the melody continue?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:32.366)
continue through me. I think this shift, this mind shift changes everything. So in a tune like Stars Fell in Alabama, the melody is lyrical. The phrases are clear, at least in my opinion, they are and the guide tones are very strong. That's why this this makes a perfect tune for learning how to improvise through the melody instead of away from it.

another really good point to think about, right? Improvising through the melody instead of away from it. Now improvisation is not about filling space. Think about it as continuing the conversation. And once you understand that, I think you'll experience that the fear goes away. So your freezing goes away.

The guessing stops. You begin to approach, and this is really important, you begin to approach improvisation simplistically. You stop overthinking, over-complicating, and most importantly, overplaying. And as a result, your improvisation, guess what? It starts to make sense.

So here's a little mic drop moment for you even. Improvisation doesn't replace the melody, it magnifies it by continuing it. And once you understand this, and once you realize that the melody never ends, never ever ends, the next question becomes, how do I continue the melody in a musical way?

right? How do I continue the melody in a musical way? And the answer, which is good, this is great. The answer is begin, begin practicing what I call melodic pathways, which is the focus of this podcast episode. And so what do melodic pathways do? Well, melodic pathways give your improvisation a starting point.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:52.834)
they give your improvisation a destination point and a musical reason for every note in between those two between the starting point and the destination. So musical pathways, their little short improvisation etudes that I compose, and I, and you will be composing their little short improvisation etudes that I compose at

are built directly from the melody, right? Intentionally beginning and ending on melody guide tones or moving through those guide tones. In other words, you're not inventing ideas, new ideas, right? Really, what you're doing is you're developing them. So once you have a melodic pathway, assembled, composed, then you can develop them. And I will be modeling that for you.

for everyone listening, I will be modeling that later on here in the podcast episode. And you know what, I'm going to go a step further. Here's a hard truth that most jazz students never ever hear, that without melodic pathways, improvisation really just turns into doodling. Right? And doodling sounds like, here's what doodling sounds like. And in many

of us listening, me be able to relate to this. So doodling sounds like wandering through scales. Doodling sounds like running patterns. Doodling sounds like random chromaticism, random chromatic notes. Doodling sounds like ideas that just actually don't go anywhere. There's motion, there's movement, but there's no direction, notes, but no meaning. In other words,

You are saying nothing. You're rambling. You're just rambling.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:00.534)
Additionally, can go on. Doodling feels like guessing. Doodling feels like, or doodling is hoping something sounds good. Doodling is filling space because that's what you think you're supposed to do.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:18.446)
Doodling is surviving until the next court and that's exactly why you freeze. Freezing always happens in survival mode, which is usually doodling. So what's the opposite? Well, what do melodic pathways feel like? You're about to find out, but what do melodic pathways feel like? Well,

Melodic pathways feel like you're speaking in complete sentences. That makes sense. Melodic pathways feel like you're actually telling a story, you're expanding the story. Melodic pathways feel like you're responding instead of reacting. Music pathways actually feel like confidence instead of fear.

And why is this? Well, it's because you know, where you start, you know where you're going. And you know what works in between. So practicing improvisation with melodic pathways, melodic, right melody, melody never ends melodic pathways. What it actually ends up doing is trains your ears.

it helps you connect harmony to melody. helps melodic pathways help reinforce the phrasing. Melodic pathways build confidence and melodic pathways help you develop the ability to be expressive. And most importantly, you know what? Melodic pathways teach you how to think like a jazz musician. And that's the key.

So Ethan, to help you to stop freezing, can guarantee you this, the solution is not learning more scales or patterns. That's not it. The solution is learning how to continue the melody. The solution is to use meaningful notes, target notes. And the solution is to begin shaping ideas within

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:46.35)
tension and that's exactly what melodic pathways do. So the bottom line is this improvisation without direction is doodling. Improvisation with direction is music and melodic pathways actually give you that direction.

So, Ethan, if you do not know where your line is going, it's pretty simple. You're not improvising. You're doodling. And keep in mind, the melody never ends. And hopefully, hopefully by the end of this podcast episode, as we work through melodic pathways using Stars Fell on Alabama, the phrases of Stars Fell on Alabama, hopefully this will all make sense to you. But as always, if...

If after the episode, more clarification is needed. By all means, I want you to please reach out to me. I'm always happy, as I like to say, to kick this can around a little more to help you as much as I possibly can. It's a great question. And know that you're not alone. And know that because you've asked this question, you are about ready to experience a major leap in your development.

Alright, so let's discover learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover learn and play stars fell on Alabama. Okay, y'all know that studying a tune, our approach that we utilize every month is an approach that I think is very fruitful. It is an approach that regardless of genre, you can utilize as

approach, regardless of what genre, what tune you're studying, right? Whether it's a jazz tune, rock tune, pop, country folk, R &B, whatever, makes no difference. And I love it because we utilize this same roadmap every month. At the core of everything we do, regardless whether it's a harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, or solo piano interpretation and development, at the core of it all is listening, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:04.244)
we engage in active listening to various artists, professional and amateur, and not just pianists. We love to listen to vocalists, instrumentalists, anyone performing a tune that we are studying that we want to add to our repertoire that we want to learn, listening must be at the core of it all. And every, every week, we have a killer listening list that is assembled for us. Thank you, Lisa, and is placed in our

community, which helps us further our understanding of the tune, our further understanding of jazz, and helps illuminate for us our roadmap as we develop our jazz skills. So listening at the core of everything. Then we always turn to step one is always a harmonic analysis looking at form and changes, function, common movement, voicings.

follow always with a melodic analysis where we transcribe the melody to the best of our ability. We look at the phrases within the melody, various target notes within the phrases. We explore various treatments, forcing us to interpret and reinterpret the melody accordingly. Those treatments are typically our standard jazz treatments of a ballad or a bossa or swing. Then we turn our attention to improvisation development.

where we understand chord scale relationships and we work on various motifs. Today we're working on melodic pathways, using melodic pathways to help us with our development. And of course, all of that includes the use of tension and resolution. And then finally, a new segment that we begin next week is solo piano interpretation.

as well. but regardless, right, whether we're doing harmony or melody or improv or solo interpretation, all of its governed by listening. So it's, it's a very thorough, it's a very complete approach. I love it. It's a roadmap that we can follow again, regardless of what genre music that we are studying. So this month,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:21.634)
we have already completed our harmonic analysis, we've completed our melodic analysis. Today we tackle our improv. Next week, we'll look at solo piano interpretation. So it's going to be a product, but when it's all said and done, what a fantastic month it will be. And then guess what, we're going to do it all over again in the months, in the months ahead as well. So all of that to say our educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, listen.

definitive recordings of Stars Fell on Alabama. Got it. Number two, we are going to utilize the melodic phrases found in Stars Fell on Alabama to help us develop our improvisation skills. Number three, we are going to explore three melodic pathways for each one of those melodic phrases.

to help us develop our improvisation skills. So if you are a Jazz Panel Skills member, I want you to hit the pause button right now. Just take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets. Again, your illustrations, your lead sheets, and your play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to this material, and you want to have it in your hands as you listen to the rest of the podcast episode. And of course, you want to be utilizing this material.

as you practice throughout the week. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab your lead sheets. We always start with our lead sheets and I'll talk about the illustrations and the play alongs at the end of the podcast episode. But our lead sheets, you should have five in your packet. Let me just talk through them quickly. Lead sheet one deals with phrase one.

found within Stars Fell on Alabama. And you can see there there's three melodic pathways that I have listed there that we will go through. Lead Sheet 2 is going to be phrase 2 of Stars Fell on Alabama and three more melodic pathways. Lead Sheet 3, phrase 3 found in Stars Fell on Alabama and three more melodic pathways. Lead Sheet 4, phrase 4, Lead Sheet 5,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:46.03)
phrase five, and again, three melodic pathways for each. Okay, so we have a lot to get through today. So we need to get after it. Alright, so grab lead sheet one, lead sheet one. And let's take a look at the melodic phrase. And let's take a look at these melodic pathways. Let me explain how we're going to do this.

PREMIUM CONTENT FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Join Jazz Piano Skills

https://www.jazzpianoskills.com/membership