Stars Fell on Alabama, Solo Piano

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Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.546)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, if you're listening to this episode, just know it required a level of dedication that borders on poor, very poor decision making. You the country has been buried under snow and ice. And here in Dallas, we've been

officially iced in since Saturday, which you know for Texans is basically a state of emergency. At one point this morning, I seriously considered hooking up my dog Goober up to the sled and having him pull me over to DSM so I could record this podcast. Now, Goober's a mutt and he weighs about as much as he weighs about as much as a left hand shell voicing.

and it literally has the work ethic of a cat. So needless to say, that plan didn't last very long. But the fact that I even considered it should tell you everything you need to know about my commitment to Jazz Piano Skills members and all of you listeners everywhere. And on a serious note, I hope everyone is safe. It's been a heck of a storm, and hopefully we will all be back to normal very soon.

Okay, so week four is here. And if you've been a member or listener of Jazz Panel Skills for some time, you know that week four is always dedicated to the exploration of a specific jazz skill, a guest interview, a lecture series episode. But not today. Nope, not today. Today is exciting. We launch a new segment of our monthly tune study.

Week one is always a harmonic analysis of a jazz standard. This month, of course, being Stars Fell in Alabama. We explore the form, the changes, harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course, voicings. Week two, always a melodic analysis. We study the melody, fingerings, phrases, target notes, and various melodic treatments. Week three, improvisation skills. We look at chord scale relationships, the rhythm,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:54.986)
exploration, we melodic motifs, melodic pathways, as we did last week, and now week four, solo piano techniques. No doubt about it. That's a pretty impressive lineup packed with essential jazz skills. Our four week study of every tune. Now our four week study of every tune we dive into is organized. It's very thorough, extremely exhaustive and

absolutely essential if we hope to develop the skills necessary to become an accomplished jazz pianist. Of course, of course, the study and practice of all of these essential jazz piano skills must be guided by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies musical concepts so that we have a legitimate chance of developing physical capabilities.

achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure all that we do musically, conceptually and physically adheres to what the seven facts of music are seven musical facts. And what are they come on, I know what we've been reciting it for a year. So let's do it again.

Fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence. Sound, of course, being our primary sounds, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished and diminished. Fact number two, when sound is produced, it is produced either harmonically or melodically. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we are playing chords, or we often refer to them as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios.

and or scales. Fact number five, when playing arpeggios or scales, we're moving in one of two directions. We can only go up or down. That's it. Fact number six, because we're only playing arpeggios and scales, we like to camouflage or decorate them with tension or chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:15.778)
we add rhythm. Our tune study every month centers around these seven musical facts using now four distinct tune learning studies, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, and now solo piano techniques. So all of that to say that today we tackle solo piano techniques for the very first time.

So we're going to discover stars fell on Alabama from a solo piano perspective. And we are going to learn three dimensions of solo piano playing that we must master and never compromise. And we are going to play what I like to call a strum stride and slide approach to begin developing solo piano techniques using phrases

from the Jazz Standard Stars Fell on Alabama. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lesson, exploring solo piano techniques using the Standard Stars Fell on Alabama to be very beneficial.

But before we get started, want to, as I always do, welcome all of you first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. If you're a new listener to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast or just simply new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome. We're glad you're here. I want to invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. And your membership comes with many perks. For example, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you...

get access to premium podcast content, which means you get to listen to the entire episode. Now the first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. We deal with the question of the week, we lay out the educational agenda and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast episode for members only lesson content demonstrations. And we explore the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets to play alongs. These are the

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:37.996)
the educational materials that I designed and developed for every weekly podcast episode to help you get the most out of every podcast episode. You want this material in your hands when listening to the episode. And of course you want this material sitting on your piano or on your music stand when practicing throughout the week. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the online Jazz Panel Skills courses. These are comprehensive, sound-based, self-paced, and sequential

courses that focus on harmonic, melodic and improvisation development. As a member, you also have a reserved seat in the weekly online masterclass that I host every Thursday evening at 8pm Central Time. And I know, again, this is not the best time for everyone. However, the masterclasses are recorded. So you can watch the class at your convenience and you can watch it 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, podcast specific forums, general forums. And most importantly, it's where we house our listening list every single week that goes along with each podcast episode. It's a great place to meet new friends to hang out to listen.

to share your expertise and experience with others and to benefit from the experience and expertise of fellow members. And then finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to educational support, private, personal and professional support. So all of these amazing perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play Jazz Piano. So check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com. And of course, become a member to start enjoying these benefits. If you have any questions, once you get to the site,

By all means, please do not hesitate to reach out to me to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you may have about the various membership packages. I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel. So you can begin receiving the educational videos that I publish every week. I am producing educational content videos that I think you'll find to be beneficial for your jazz growth.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:01.038)
currently have several playlists that you can check out. There are weekly recaps, weekly quick tips, weekly challenges. And again, I'm adding new videos to these playlists every week, so be sure to subscribe so you are notified when a new Jazz Panel Skills video is released. And finally, I want to make sure that everyone is receiving the Jazz Panel Skills blog post every Saturday.

please take time if you are not receiving this, please take the time to visit jazzpanelskills.com and join the mail list. And once you do, you will be notified every, every Saturday, this blog will be delivered right to your inbox. So you can read it's about a four minute read or recap of the podcast and our study for the week. Definitely worth reading to help keep you on track both conceptually

and physically. Okay, so let's get on to the question of the week. And this week's question comes from Sarah Johnson living in Portland, Oregon. And Sarah writes, Hi, Dr. Lawrence, I have so many questions needing answers that it's hard for me to pick just one. I get that totally. I have been taking jazz piano lessons for many years. And I struggle when

playing by myself. When playing solo piano, I never know what to do with my left hand. I either play too much or not enough. How can I strike a balance? Well, fabulous question, Sarah, and I would love to say to you, perfect timing. But as you know, as we discussed, as we discussed on the phone, I have been holding on to your question for a couple months now knowing

knowing full well that today's episode would kick off the solo piano segment being added to our monthly tune study. regardless, perfect timing. All right, so let's talk solo piano. And the very first thing I want to say, solo piano is not about tricks. It's not about actually filling space, which I think a lot of us think

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:23.978)
initially when we think about playing solo piano. So solo piano, as I mentioned earlier, there are three non-negotiables that we must all get a command of and never compromise. If any one of them is missing, the entire structure, solo piano structure collapses. Okay, so let's, let's

take a few minutes just to investigate each one of these non negotiables. Number one, number one is time. If your time is poor, really quite honestly, nothing else matters.

This is just the truth, the hard truth. You can have beautiful voicings, you could have sophisticated harmony, you can have impressive technique, but I'm telling you, if your time is unstable, rushed, or inconsistent, the music falls apart, your solo piano falls apart. Right? The opposite is actually true as well. You don't have to have the greatest voicings.

You don't have to have the most sophisticated harmony. You don't have to have the best technique. But if your time is spot on, you and your listeners are going to enjoy your solo piano playing. I hope this makes sense because in solo piano playing, you are the time, right? There's no rhythm section to save you. There's no bass player to anchor you or no drummer to fix your feel.

You're it. Time is not something you add later. It is the absolutely it is the foundation. If your time doesn't feel good, your plane will sound awful. Regardless of your voicings, regardless of your harmonies, regardless of your technique. So time is the number one non-negotiable number two chords.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:38.858)
If you can't play chords, it's over. This may sound blunt, but it's true. In solo piano playing harmony, harmony defines the landscape. Chords provide depth, they provide direction. Voicings, chord voicings create color and mood. So without harmonic clarity, the tune has really, there's no identity. You know, is that funny?

Right? You could play the chord progression of a tune without the melody, and people can tell you what the tune is. Certainly musicians can. They hear the progression, they go, that's, there will never be another you, or, that's Misty, or whatever. Right? So harmony, harmony is clarity. Right? If you can't play chords, there's no support for the melody. Can't play chords, improvisation is impossible. And here's the key point.

that students often miss. Solo piano playing is not about playing more harmony. It's about playing the right harmony, which we are going to be dealing with later in this podcast episode. So clear, intentional voicings matter far more than complex ones. I'm going to say that again, clear, intentional voicings matter.

far more than complex ones. That's why we focus on voicings with every harmonic analysis of a tune that we do, right? So chords, harmony, the second non-negotiable. Number three, the third non-negotiable, melody. If you can't play melodies with expression, it's not jazz. And this is where solo piano

this is where piano playing but especially solo piano playing becomes music. Alright, so jazz is not defined by fast tempos or complex chords or advanced theory. It's not. Jazz is defined by how the melody is treated. We spent quite a bit of time talking about this with our melodic analysis this month, being able to play with expression to treat the melody.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:02.262)
with expression, to our ability to shape a phrase to lean into important notes, target notes, to use space, right? And in other words, to make the melody sing, and we often use that expression, sing the melody. If the melody sounds mechanical, stiffed or emotionless,

the music loses its voice. It's not jazz. Jazz melody should feel vocal, like it's being spoken, not typed, right? Like it's being spoken expressed. So Sarah, these non negotiables must be in place before you worry about whether or not you're playing too much or too little, right time.

number one time it establishes time establishes comfort. That's what time does. Number two harmony, which establishes context. And three melody establishes meaning. It's the story, right? So you need all three time harmony and melody without question time number one. But harmony and melody are definitely close seconds. Now, Sarah.

you stated, What am I supposed to do with my left hand when playing solo piano? Well, your left hand's job is not to fill space, as I mentioned earlier, it is to serve time and harmony. Your right hand, course, melody. Now, sometimes that means playing less. Sometimes that means playing more.

Sometimes that means playing nothing or playing only what's necessary. That's and understanding that that's not weakness, that's maturity. But as you know, solo piano playing, my goodness, it doesn't forgive, right? It's in fact, it reveals.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:18.124)
Solo piano playing reveals your time, it reveals your harmony, it reveals your melody. Solo piano playing.

extends no mercy. That's why I've always said, Hey, there's nothing harder in the world than solo piano playing. So okay, so Sarah, here's what I'm going to do to help you. And I think it will be helpful for everyone listening as well. I'm to take these three non negotiables. And I'm going to give you a checklist for each one. So as you're practicing, when you're practicing at home, you can kind of keep track of your progress within time within harmony within melody.

these three non negotiables. Okay, so let's start with time. Here's my recommended checklist. Number one, can I play with a steady pulse from start to finish? And when I say start to finish, I'm not talking necessarily the entire song. It could be a musical phrase as we're going to be doing today, working on phrases. So can I play with a steady pulse from start to finish? And I'm going to be modeling that for you here a little later. Check number two, does my time feel relaxed?

not rushed. Check number three, can I leave space? This is big. Can I leave space without losing time? Without losing time or the groove? And the last check I would say is, I consistent with my time? Am I consistent? Meaning, when I move like say from the A section into the bridge or from the bridge back to the A section, or moving from one phrase to the next phrase, am I consistent with my time? So

Can I play with a steady pulse from start to finish? Does my time feel relaxed, not rushed? Can I leave space without losing time or the groove? And am I consistent when changing? Is my time consistent when changing sections? Right? This is so much more important right here. This checklist is so much more important than trying to determine if I'm, am I playing too much or too little? Okay. So here are some red flags. Rushing.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:24.11)
you feel yourself rushing, you know you're not playing with a steady pulse. Okay, or dragging, rushing or dragging, right? The tempo, in other words, is drifting, it's getting faster, it's getting slower. Right? And then I guess maybe this might be what you're kind of hinting at a little bit, Sarah. Another red flag is overplaying. You know, it's funny, we tend to overplay, overplay when problems start to unfold.

right? As if somehow overplaying is going to hide time problems. All right. So anyway, so that's the checklist. Those are some of the red flags for time. Now, for harmony, my checklist would be something like this. Number one, do my chords, do my voicings clearly define the harmony? Number two, is my left hand supporting, not competing with the melody?

I hear that all the time. The left hand actually being played louder than the right hand or the melody, right? The chords being played louder than the melody. Another check on my list would be, am I choosing voicings intentionally? Right? Or am I choosing voicings due to limitation? Right? We always want our choices to be made based on preference, not based on limitation. So how, in other words, how well do I know, how well do I know my chords?

right? And do I have an arsenal of chords that allows me to choose voicings intentionally? Another check would be can I can I simplify my harmony without losing the tune? And do my chord changes feel connected? Good voicely logical, right? So those are a few of my checks that I would put down for harmony. Some red flags would be

random voicings, just grabbing random voicing choices, which happens, I think when we get nervous, or if we don't know our chords well enough. Or, and I already mentioned this, another red flag, the harmony is overpowering the melody. Right? Or another red flag is all my attention is on my left hand, instead of what I'm communicating or expressing melodically in my right hand. Alright, so that's

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:53.44)
a quick very quick checklist for harmony and some red flags to be watching out for. Now melody. Again, if you can't play melodies with expression, as I mentioned earlier, it's not jazz. So here, here's my checklist to keep in mind when when practicing the number one, does my melody sound vocal like expressive? Check number two, am I shaping phrases instead of playing note to note?

Like I used an analogy earlier, you know, like, am I speaking the melody or am I typing it? Right? You don't want to type a melody. Another check, do I emphasize important notes? We talk about that, right? Guide tones or target notes within the musical phrase. Another check would be, am I allowing the melody to breathe? Again, that's all part of being expressive, space. And I think the final check, would say,

if from an improvisation perspective, if I'm improvising while playing solo piano, does my improvisation feel connected to the melody? Right? So some red flags to look out for mechanical phrasing type, typing, typing melodies, right? mechanical phrasings, no dynamic shape, which is all part of being expressive dynamics over ornamenting the melody.

right? Or when improvisation abandons the melody. These are all little red flags that your melody, your melody non-negotiable is being compromised. So okay, if I was going to condense that all down, Sarah, into just one quick little checklist, it would be this. Does my time feel good? Is the harmony clear and supportive? And

Is the melody singing? Right? That's it. Does the time feel good? Does the harmony is the harmony clear and supportive? Is the melody singing? We're going to be dealing with all three of these today as we take a look at solo piano playing. And I'll leave you with a couple thoughts. If you ever feel lost when playing solo piano and believe me, all of us who's who have

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:23.392)
all of us have felt lost when playing solo piano, it happens. But if you ever felt feel lost when playing solo piano, remember this, don't add more. Come back to time, harmony, and melody. Find your way back to time melody, harmony and melody. And then finally, I would say, keep this in mind that if you ever wonder what to practice for solo piano,

always comes back to time, harmony, and melody. And remember this, quite honestly, everything else, everything else beyond time, harmony, and melody, everything else is decoration. It's decoration. All right. Well, I rambled on a little bit, but I hope Sarah, this was worth the wait for your question. And I hope this was helpful. As always, if further clarification is needed, or you just simply want to

dig a little deeper. I'm happy to do so just let me know. I think this podcast episode though will be very insightful for you as we begin diving into solo jazz piano techniques. All right. All right. It's that time. Let's discover learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover learn and play stars fell on Alabama using solo piano techniques. Okay, so as we

As we study, every month we study a standard, right? And we now have a very thorough outline that we adhere to every single month with our exploration. And again, this outline would apply quite honestly to any genre of music that you're studying. So whether you're studying a jazz standard, you know, a pop tune, rock tune, country, folk, R &B, it makes no difference. Our outline

is as follows. Number one, I've already addressed this earlier, listening, right? Listening. We should be listening to various artists, vocalists, instrumentalists, pianists. makes no difference. Professional, amateur, it makes no difference. We should be listening. Number two, our harmonic analysis. We look at form, changes, function, common harmonic movement.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:52.298)
voicings, melodic analysis, transcribe the melody phrases, target notes, guide tones, various treatments, ballad, bossa, swing. Number four improvisation development, chords, scale relationships, melodic motifs, melodic pathways, tension, rhythm. And now we had number five solo piano techniques, right? So it's very thorough.

It's a very complete approach. So this month we have already completed our harmonic analysis. We've done a melodic analysis. Last week we did improvisation development. And now today we kick off the entirely new segment called solo piano techniques. It's a great study each and every month. And I'm so thankful that we have this structure in place.

Because as we move through the calendar year, right, as we move through the calendar month after month, year after year, this whole process should become expedited. You should find that you're moving through each of studies, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, and now solo piano techniques, that you will be moving through each of these segments with more confidence and with greater ease.

that's called progress. And I'm thrilled. So all that to say that our educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to definitive recordings of stars fell on Alabama, of course, that's always number one, listening. Number two, we are going to isolate two melodic phrases found within stars fell on Alabama to help us begin developing

our solo jazz piano skills. Number three, we are going to use what I like to call a strum stride and slide approach to begin properly engaging our left hand when playing solo piano. So if you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes to download and print your podcast packets again.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (31:16.6)
these are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, which by the way, there aren't any play alongs today because it's solo piano. But anyway, these podcast packets, your membership grants you access to this material. So be sure to take the time to download and print this educational content. Now, once you have your podcast packets, I want you

two, as we always do, we start with our lead sheets. So you will see that in your podcast packets in your lead sheets, you have six lead sheets. Lead sheet one deals with phrase one from Stars Fell on Alabama. And, and we have strum patterns. Lead sheet two, still phrase one, stride patterns, lead sheet three, phrase one, slide patterns, then lead sheet

four is going to be phrase four from Stars Fell on Alabama, strum patterns, lead sheet five, still phrase four, stride patterns, and then lead sheet six, phrase four, slide patterns. All right. So before going any further, before going any further, before we dive into these lead sheets and explore each one,

I want to encourage JazzPanelSkills members to take a time out and head over to our online community to spend some time with the listening list for this week, which is, as it always is, is fabulous. And again, I cannot adequately express how important it is to spend time listening. Just listening, not trying to figure things out.

not trying to test your ears to hear progressions, but just simply listening. I believe listening is the absolute best activity you can engage in for improving your playing. Why is this? Well, because if you're spending time listening, then you will instinctively try to emulate that which you have orally consumed. Listening leads to imitation.

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going say that again, listening leads to imitation. And, and it's through imitation, that we find ourselves on the road to discovering our sound, our feel, and our ability to play with expression. So head over to the community and spend some time listening to the recordings. And if you do, I promise you, you will begin to hear your plane mature. All right.

Okay, so once you have listened, I want you to grab your lead sheets, grab lead sheet one, let's take a look at how to begin developing our solo piano chops.

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