Summertime, Harmonic Analysis

[00:33.048] Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, here we are, a brand new month, a brand new jazz standard, and another wonderful opportunity to develop our jazz piano skills. Throughout October, we spent four weeks exploring Bobby Hebb's Sunny. We examined its harmonic foundation. We studied its melodic characteristics, we developed improvisational ideas, and we brought everything together with our solo piano development. And now, as we begin November, we're turning our attention to one of the most beloved compositions in American music. I'm talking about George Gershwin's Summertime. It's such a beautiful tune and what a terrific composition for developing our jazz piano skills.

Now, here's something I want you to think about as we begin our November studies. Last month we studied Sunny. This month we're studying Summertime. Two different tunes, right? Well, yes, but perhaps not as different as you might think. You see, one of the most important things we can discover as jazz pianists is that every new tune does not require us to learn an entirely new collection of musical skills. In fact, it's quite the contrary. The more tunes we study, the more we should begin recognizing musical material we already know. Familiar harmonic shapes, familiar harmonic sounds, familiar melodic movement, the same musical language appearing in different compositions.

And that is going to be an important theme throughout our November exploration of Summertime. Different tune, same musical language. And today we're going to begin by examining the harmonic foundation of this magnificent composition. We're going to discover the harmonic shapes, sounds, and movement that give Summertime its musical identity. And perhaps more importantly, we're going to recognize how much of that musical material is already familiar to us. Now, before we get started, a quick reminder about [02:58.19] how the weekly Jazz Piano Skills Podcast works. The first half of every episode is free for everyone. This is where we introduce our topic, explore important musical ideas, answer our question of the week, and lay the groundwork for our piano lesson.

The second half of the podcast is our members-only piano lesson. That's where we move to the keyboard and we put those ideas into practice with musical explanations and demonstrations. So whether you're joining me for the first half or you're staying for the complete lesson, I'm delighted that you are here. So get comfy, grab your favorite beverage, settle in. We have a terrific Jazz Piano Skills episode ahead of us. So let's get started. Okay, so what exactly are we going to discover, learn, and play today? Well, let me tell you.

In today's Jazz Piano Skills episode, we're going to discover that George Gershwin's Summertime, despite having its own beautiful and distinctive musical personality, is constructed using the same fundamental harmonic shapes, sounds, and movement that we've encountered in countless other jazz standards, most recently in Bobby Hebb's Sunny.

We're going to discover that studying a new tune doesn't necessarily mean studying new musical material. And quite often it means recognizing familiar musical material appearing in a different order, in a different key, or within a different musical setting. And you know what? That's exciting because the more we recognize, the less unfamiliar each new tune becomes. We're going to learn how to identify and analyze the harmonic structure of Summertime. We'll examine its chord changes, identify the harmonic sounds, recognize the chord progressions, explore the harmonic movement that connects everything together. And as we do all of this, we're going to pay special attention to the similarities between Summertime and the musical language we've already been studying. Major sounds, dominant sounds, minor sounds, half-diminished, diminished.

[05:23.052] Familiar harmonic shapes and sounds organized into beautiful tunes. And finally, we're going to play through the harmonic foundation of Summertime, exploring the chord changes and their relationships at the piano. We're going to look at our voicings, in other words. As always, we're going to study our block voicings and inversions, traditional and contemporary shells, as well as two-handed voicings.

So important, right? Because our objective is not simply to learn the chords to Summertime. Our objective is to understand the harmonic language that makes Summertime possible. And that's an entirely different educational experience. So, as I always like to say, it makes no difference where you are in your jazz journey, whether you're a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find today's Jazz Piano Skills lesson, using George Gershwin's Summertime to develop our harmonic understanding and practical jazz piano skills, very beneficial.

Understanding the Musical Language

You know, one of the things I find fascinating about teaching jazz piano is how often students arrive with a very specific objective. They want to learn how to play tunes.

And that makes perfect sense, right? After all, we love jazz because of the music. We hear these magnificent compositions, these beautiful melodies, these wonderful harmonies. So naturally, we want to sit down at the piano and play them. But here's where things get interesting. There's an enormous difference between learning how to play a collection of jazz tunes and learning to understand the musical language that makes those tunes possible. I want to share a story that illustrates this distinction beautifully. I know many of you have heard it, so bear with me. It's a story that goes way back to when I was a young boy, 14 years old, growing up in Illinois.

Many of you have heard me talk about [07:47.64] this wonderful jazz pianist from Decatur, Illinois. His name was Warren Parrish. He was known as the 88er from Decatur. I love that. And let me tell you something. This guy could play. He had this wonderful style that reminded me very much of Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner: beautiful technique, incredible command of the keyboard, and he could seemingly play any tune in any key.

And as a young, aspiring jazz pianist, I was absolutely fascinated by him. Whenever I had the opportunity to hear Warren play, I was there. And I watched him like a hawk. I watched his hands, I listened to his voicings, I marveled at his ability to move effortlessly from one tune to another. And I kept wondering, “How in the world does he know all of these tunes?” Think about it.

Here I was struggling to learn one jazz standard and Warren could sit down and play tune after tune after tune. One day I finally worked up the courage to ask him. I said, “Warren, how do you know so many tunes?”

Now you picture this. Warren always had this little cigar in his mouth. He took the cigar out of his mouth and blew some smoke out of the side of his mouth. He looked at me like I just asked him the dumbest question in the history of mankind. And then he said, literally, I quote, “What the hell are you talking about? They're all the same.”

I said, “What? They're not all the same!”

I remember thinking to myself, “What a kook.” All songs are not the same. I mean, come on, how could anybody possibly believe that? Different melodies, different chord changes, different rhythms, different keys, different tempos. Of course they're not the same tunes. And for a long time I simply dismissed Warren's answer as one of those strange things that old jazz musicians say to younger jazz musicians.

[09:58.296] But here's the remarkable part of this story. More than fifty years later, after spending decades studying jazz piano, performing, and spending over thirty years teaching students, I now understand exactly what Warren was telling me. And he was absolutely right. Now, before anybody gets carried away, let me clarify something.

Warren was not suggesting that every jazz tune sounds the same. He wasn't suggesting that the melody to Summertime is identical to the melody of Sunny. Of course not. What Warren understood and what I completely failed to recognize at fourteen years of age was that the underlying musical language is the same.

The same harmonic shapes, the same harmonic sounds, the same melodic shapes, the same melodic sounds, the same kinds of musical movement appearing again and again in different combinations. You see, Warren wasn't looking at hundreds of unrelated musical compositions that required hundreds of separate learning experiences. He was recognizing familiar musical material, material he already understood, and that changed everything. Think about it this way. When we study harmony, what are we really studying? We're studying harmonic shapes and sounds. Major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished. When we study melody, what are we studying? Melodic shapes and sounds, scales, arpeggios, ascending motion, descending motion.

And when we study how harmony and melody move, what do we discover? Circle motion, diatonic motion, chromatic motion, familiar musical relationships. Now, of course, every composition organizes these materials in its own distinctive way. That's what gives each tune its individual personality, its DNA. But the fundamental musical language, guess what?

[12:27.102] It's the same. And here's where this becomes incredibly important for our jazz piano education. Imagine two students. The first student decides, “My goal is to learn how to play 100 jazz standards.” I would say, “Wonderful.” Nothing wrong with that objective. But the second student decides, “My goal is to learn how to recognize and creatively use the harmonic and melodic shapes, sounds, and movements that appear throughout jazz standards.” Now that is a different educational objective because the first student may eventually know how to play 100 tunes, but the second student is developing the musical understanding necessary to approach the 101st tune, the 102nd tune, the 103rd, and so on with increasing confidence and familiarity.

And that's precisely what Warren had developed. He wasn't memorizing an endless collection of unrelated musical facts. He understood the language. And when you understand the language, you begin recognizing it everywhere. Which brings us to our November study of George Gershwin's Summertime. Last month we studied Bobby Hebb's Sunny. Now we're studying Summertime.

Different composers, different melodies, different musical personalities. But I want you to approach today's harmonic analysis with a very specific question in mind: What do I already know? Not simply what new chords do I have to memorize, not simply how many measures do I have to learn, but what familiar harmonic shapes do I recognize?

What familiar harmonic sounds do I hear? What familiar harmonic movement can I identify? Listen very carefully: The more tunes you study, the more you should recognize what you already know, not simply discover what you don't know. And I cannot emphasize that enough. If every new jazz standard feels like you're starting [14:55.262] your musical education all over again, something is missing from your approach. Because that's not how musical understanding is supposed to develop. Every tune should reinforce and deepen your understanding of the musical language. Every tune should make the next tune a little more familiar. And every tune should help you recognize what Warren Parrish recognized so effortlessly all those years ago. Different tune, same musical language.

Now, one final thought before we move on. Our goal is not to make every tune sound the same. Our goal is to recognize the same musical language being used to create different tunes. That's a very important distinction because I'm not teaching students to memorize more songs. I'm teaching students to understand more music. And today, as we begin our harmonic exploration of Summertime, that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to look beyond the title, beyond the melody, beyond the individual chord symbols, and examine the musical shapes, sounds, and movement that bring this beautiful Gershwin composition to life.

And somewhere along the way, I suspect you're going to discover that you already know a great deal more about Summertime than you might have ever imagined. So, Warren, more than 50 years later, my friend, I finally get it. They're all the same. Well, you know what I mean. All right, so let's get to work.

The Seven Facts of Music

Every week here at Jazz Piano Skills, we take a few moments to review what I call the seven facts of music. And I want you to understand something. These seven facts are not simply a collection of musical observations that I enjoy repeating every week. Well, I enjoy repeating them, but that's not what they are. They're the foundation of everything we study here at Jazz Piano Skills. And after hearing my story about Warren Parrish, I hope [17:19.266] you're beginning to appreciate why these seven facts are so important. Because in many ways, the seven facts of music explain exactly what Warren was talking about when he told that 14-year-old kid, “They're all the same.” Now, let's walk through them.

Fact number one: music is the production of sound and silence. That's it.

Before we have a jazz standard, before we have a chord progression, before we have a melody, before we have rhythm, we have sound, and we have silence. Everything we recognize as music begins right there. Now, fact number two: sound is produced harmonically and melodically. Two fundamental ways of organizing musical sound: harmony and melody.

And whether we're studying Sunny, Summertime, Autumn Leaves, or any other jazz standard, we're dealing with these same two musical dimensions: harmony and melody.

Fact number three: harmonic sound equals chords or voicings. And here's where we begin recognizing the shapes and sounds that Warren understood so well: major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, diminished.

Different chord symbols may appear on the page, but underneath those symbols are familiar harmonic structures, familiar harmonic shapes, familiar harmonic sounds. And our responsibility as jazz pianists is to recognize them, understand them, hear them, and of course play them.

Fact number four: melodic sound equals scales and arpeggios. Now just stop and think about that for a moment. Every melody we encounter, regardless of how beautiful, complicated, or unfamiliar it may initially appear, can be examined through melodic shapes and sounds. In other words, scale motion and arpeggial motion, the fundamental melodic materials we study every single week. And once again, we're not dealing with an entirely new musical universe every time we encounter a new tune.

[19:39.298] We're encountering familiar melodic material organized into a distinctive musical statement.

Fact number five: harmony and melody have motion. Circle motion, diatonic motion, chromatic motion, ascending and descending motion. And this is incredibly important because music is not simply a collection of stationary harmonic and melodic shapes. Those shapes move. Chords move from one harmonic sound to another.

Melodies move through scales and arpeggios. And as we study that movement, we begin recognizing familiar musical relationships appearing throughout the jazz repertoire. Think about our harmonic analysis of Summertime today. We're not simply going to identify individual chords. We're going to examine how those chords move. Because recognizing harmonic movement is every bit as important as recognizing the harmonic shapes themselves.

Fact number six: movement is decorated with tension, or what we refer to oftentimes as chromaticism. See, now that gets interesting as soon as we add that tension. Because once we understand the fundamental harmonic and melodic movement, we can begin understanding how that movement is decorated: chromatic approach tones, harmonic tension, melodic tension, the wonderful colors and embellishments that bring additional expression and sophistication to our music, to jazz. But notice something important. The decoration does not replace the underlying musical structure. It decorates it. And if we understand the structure, we have a much better chance of understanding how to decorate it.

And finally, fact number seven: To make facts one through six interesting, to make them come to life, we add rhythm. Because we can identify every harmonic shape, every melodic shape, every musical sound, and every type of movement, but until we organize that musical material rhythmically, we haven't brought it to life. Rhythm gives our musical ideas character, personality, expression.

[22:05.676] And rhythm helps transform familiar musical materials into something uniquely musical. Now, I want you to consider all seven facts together: sound, silence, harmony, melody, chords, voicings, scales, arpeggios, musical movement, tension, chromaticism, rhythm. That's it.

That is our musical language. And here's what I find so remarkable. We can study Sunny one month and Summertime the next. We can study a blues, a ballad, a bebop tune, a beautiful Gershwin composition. Makes no difference. The musical personalities may be dramatically different. But the seven facts of music, they don't change. We're still studying the same fundamental musical materials, the same shapes, the same sounds, the same movements, and the same principles that allow us to organize those materials into what we call music. Now, does that mean studying jazz piano is easy? Of course not. But it does mean that our studies can be organized, our studies can be logical and cumulative. What we discover in one tune should help us understand the next.

What we learn about one harmonic sound should help us recognize that sound in other compositions. And what we develop at the piano should become part of a growing musical vocabulary that we can use creatively again and again. You see, the seven facts of music are not seven separate subjects that we study independently. They're seven interconnected principles that help us understand the musical language as a whole. And that is why we review them every single week. Not because I want you to memorize seven statements, but because I want you to begin seeing music differently, hearing music differently. And ultimately, guess what? Playing music differently.

[24:34.572] So as we explore the harmony of George Gershwin's Summertime today, keep these seven facts in mind, because everything we're about to study can be understood through them. And the more deeply you understand these seven facts, the more clearly you'll recognize what Warren Parrish understood all those years ago. Different tune, same musical language. And that is what makes the study of jazz piano so incredibly fascinating.

Welcome to New Listeners

Okay, so before we go any further, I want to take a moment to, as I always do, welcome all of our new Jazz Piano Skills listeners. And if this is your first time joining us, welcome. I am delighted that you are here. And if you've been listening for several weeks, several months, or several years, I'm equally delighted that you continue to make Jazz Piano Skills a part of your musical journey. You know, one of the things I love most about our jazz piano skills community is that we have pianists joining us from literally all over the world representing every possible level of musical experience. Some of you are just beginning your jazz piano journey.

Others have been playing piano for years, but are now discovering the wonderful world of jazz and still others are experienced jazz pianists looking to deepen their musical understanding and refine their skills. And here's what I want everyone to understand. Regardless of where you are in your musical development, you're in the right place. Because my objective here at Jazz Piano Skills is not to overwhelm you with an endless collection of musical information. It's quite the contrary. My objective is to help you organize your musical understanding, to recognize the fundamental harmonic and melodic shapes, sounds, and movements that appear throughout the jazz repertoire and to develop the practical skills necessary to use that musical language creatively at the piano.

Now, if you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, I want to personally invite you to visit the Jazz Piano Skills website because what you're hearing today is just one small part of a much larger educational experience.

[26:57.836] You'll discover how we approach jazz piano education, how the lessons connect with one another and how we systematically develop the harmonic and melodic understanding necessary to become a confident and creative jazz pianist. And I think you'll find something very refreshing. I don't believe that learning jazz piano should feel like collecting hundreds of disconnected musical facts. I believe it should be organized, logical, and an exciting journey in which every new discovery builds upon what you already know. So when you have a moment, again, check out jazzpianoskills.com, look around, explore what Jazz Piano Skills has to offer and see whether or not the approach to jazz piano education resonates with you. I think you'll be glad that you did. So again, to all our new listeners, welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm thrilled that you are joining us today.

And again, to all of our returning listeners and members, thank you for being such an important part of the Jazz Piano Skills community.

Question of the Week

Okay, so let's move on to the question of the week. And today's question is incredibly special to me because it comes from one of my very own private students. His name is Andy. He's a high school student living in Austin, Texas. Now, I'm only going to use Andy's first name because he's a youngin', but I do want to thank Andy and his parents for allowing me to share his question with you today. And here's what makes this question so wonderful. Andy has asked me this question more than once. In fact, we've had several conversations about it during our lessons, and every time he asks me this question, I can't help but smile.

Because I remember being a young pianist about Andy's age, wrestling with precisely the same musical challenge. Now, I'm going to paraphrase the question just a little because it's something we've discussed several times. So here's what Andy wants to know:

“Dr. Lawrence, why does learning a new jazz standard sometimes feel like I'm starting all over again? I work really hard to learn one tune, but when I start another one, it feels like I have to learn everything from scratch. Am I doing something wrong?”

Well, no.

[29:21.294] It's a wonderful question. Andy, as I always tell you, you're asking a question that jazz pianists of all ages and experience levels have struggled with. And the answer is directly connected to the story I shared earlier about Warren Parrish. And how in the world does he know so many tunes? Right? How does somebody remember all of those chord changes?

And why does it seem so effortless for some musicians while the rest of us struggle to learn one tune at a time? Now, think about that for a moment. More than 50 years ago, I was a young jazz piano student asking an older musician a question about learning jazz standards. And today, more than 50 years later, you, Andy, a young jazz piano student, are asking me essentially the same question. Isn't that something? And what I find so remarkable is that the answer hasn't changed. But here's what I want you to understand. When every jazz standard feels like an entirely new musical experience, it's often because we're approaching each tune as a collection of individual musical facts that must be memorized. A chord here, a chord there, a melody note here, a different chord progression over there.

And before long, we're trying to remember hundreds of isolated details. And that's exhausting. But what if we changed our approach? What if, instead of asking, “How am I going to memorize all these new chords?” we began asking, “Which harmonic sounds do I already recognize?” What if, instead of treating every melody as an entirely new collection of notes, we began recognizing familiar scale and arpeggio shapes? And what if we started identifying familiar musical movement connecting everything together? Wow, now we're getting somewhere. Because here's the important distinction. Knowing that musical shapes, sounds, and movements repeat throughout jazz standards is not the same as having developed the ability to recognize them. And that ability takes time to develop. It requires systematic study, requires listening, requires practice.

[31:46.574] And it requires examining each new composition in relationship to the musical language we've already been studying. So here is what I want you to do, Andy. The next time we begin studying a new jazz standard, I don't want your first thought to be, “Here's another tune with a whole bunch of new stuff I have to memorize.” Instead, I want you to ask yourself three questions. Here they are. Number one, what harmonic and melodic shapes do I recognize?

Number two, what harmonic and melodic sounds are familiar to me? Number three, what kinds of musical movement have I encountered before? Because the answer to those questions will help you recognize that you are not starting over. You're building upon what you've already learned. And that's a very different way to approach your jazz piano education. Now, does that mean every new tune is going to be easy? Of course not.

Does it mean that you won't encounter unfamiliar musical material? Absolutely not. But it does mean that every new tune should become an opportunity to strengthen your understanding of musical material you've already encountered. And here's something else I want you to remember, Andy. You don't have to keep up. You just have to keep growing, right? If you're beginning to recognize familiar musical relationships in unfamiliar compositions, wow, you're growing.

You're developing the very musical understanding that will make every new jazz standard a little less mysterious. And there's one more thing I want to share with you. When I was 14 years old, Warren Parrish gave me an answer that I wasn't prepared to understand. He told me that all those tunes were the same. And I thought he was crazy. But today, after decades of studying and teaching music, I understand exactly what he meant. And now I have the wonderful privilege of helping you understand what Warren was trying to teach me. Honestly, it blows my mind. A musical conversation that began more than 50 years ago is continuing today through our jazz piano lessons. And who knows, Andy? Who knows?

Maybe someday, many years from now, you'll be sitting at a piano with a young student who asks you this very same question. And I hope you'll smile.

[34:12.984] And I hope you'll remember our conversations. And perhaps you'll remember the story about the 88er from Decatur. And I suspect that if Warren Parrish were sitting here with us today, he'd take that cigar out of his mouth and look at us and say, “Didn't I tell you this like fifty years ago? They're all the same.” This time, Andy, I think we'd both understand exactly what he meant. It's a terrific question.

Thank you for allowing me to share it with our jazz piano skills listeners. Keep asking questions, keep studying, keep discovering, and most importantly, keep growing. And I look forward to seeing you at your next lesson. Now to everyone listening, if you have a question about jazz piano, improvisation, music theory, practicing, or really anything related to your musical development, I would love to hear from you.

Visit jazzpianoskills.com. Send me your question. Who knows? Your question might be the one we explore in an upcoming Jazz Piano Skills episode.

Preparing Your Lesson Materials

Now, Jazz Piano Skills members, let's get your materials ready for today's piano lesson. Log into your jazz piano skills account. Download your podcast packets for today's harmonic analysis of Gershwin's Summertime. Your illustration packet, lead sheet packet, and play-along packet are ready to help you explore the harmonic shapes, sounds, and movement that make this tune possible. And remember, I provide this educational material for a very important reason. There's an enormous difference between simply listening to a musical concept being explained and actively engaging with that concept as you're learning it. So have your podcast packets open and in your hands as you listen, if you can, and make sure you have them on your piano throughout the week as you practice.

Remember, the podcast introduces you to the musical concepts. The podcast packets help you explore them. And your personal practice brings those concepts to life at the piano. That's how today's lesson becomes part of your playing. And that is how we continue to grow as jazz pianists. Now, to everyone listening who is not yet a Jazz Piano Skills member, first of all, thank you for spending some time [36:29.308] with us here today at Jazz Piano Skills. I hope these weekly podcast episodes are helping you discover that learning to play jazz piano doesn't have to be mysterious, overwhelming, or frustrating. And I especially hope you're beginning to recognize something we've been talking about throughout today's episode.

Jazz piano is not about memorizing an endless collection of unrelated chords, scales, and tunes.

It's about developing an understanding of the musical shapes, sounds, and movement that make this wonderful music possible. And that understanding can be developed. One concept at a time, one musical relationship at a time, one discovery at a time. Now, if you've been enjoying these weekly episodes and you're curious about how I organize jazz piano education beyond the podcast, I invite you to visit jazzpianoskills.com. Take a look around.

You'll discover an organized sequential approach to studying jazz piano designed to help you build your musical understanding and develop your playing skills over time. Because here's what I believe. Great jazz piano education should do more than provide information. It should provide direction. You should know what you're studying. You should understand why you're studying it.

And you should begin recognizing how everything you're learning connects to the music you want to play. So again, thank you for being here. And whenever you're ready to explore the educational opportunities available through Jazz Piano Skills, you'll find them waiting for you at jazzpianoskills.com. Until next week, enjoy the journey as you continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano.