Sunny, Improvisation

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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 three of our study of Bobby Hebb's Sunny. Today is all about improvisation. But you know what? Before we get started, a quick reminder about how the Jazz Piano Skills weekly podcast works. Every episode is presented in two parts. The first portion is our free educational discussion, available for everyone to enjoy. The second portion is our members-only piano lesson, where we head to the piano, open up our podcast packets, and physically develop the musical skills we're discussing today.

So whether you're joining me as a guest or you're a Jazz Piano Skills member, You'll know exactly what to expect as we move through today's episode. And remember, Jazz Piano Skills is designed for real life. In other words, you don't have to worry about keeping up. You just have to keep growing each month. Right? Grow every month. And each month we explore the same essential Jazz Piano Skills, but we do so through a different jazz standard. So study at your own pace, focus on the skills you need most, and never worry about falling behind. It's impossible. The standards change, the skills continue to develop. Okay?

All right, so now for the past two weeks, we've been exploring Bobby Hebb's Sunny. And what a fascinating tune this has turned out to be. We began with harmonic analysis two weeks ago, examining the chord changes, harmonic function, the musical movement. That gives Sunny its harmonic identity. And then last week we turned our attention to melodic analysis. We discovered how one of the most recognizable melodies in popular music is constructed using an incredibly economical amount of musical vocabulary. And perhaps one of the most important discoveries was the incredible musical potential found within a third.

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Think about that. One simple musical interval containing unbelievable opportunities for scale motion, arpeggio motion, chromatic decoration. Well, this week we're going to take that understanding and put it to work because today we're moving into improvisation development. And here's what I want you to know. What I want you to consider. What if Developing your ability to improvise doesn't begin with learning more scales, memorizing more patterns, or collecting more licks. What if, just what if, it began with something much simpler? What if it began with a simple third? One third. For one measure to create one melodic idea. That's it.

Now I know that some of you are thinking. Can we really begin developing meaningful improvisational skills with such a small amount of musical material? Well, I think you're going to discover that not only can we, but that is the approach that I think we should take. Because it reveals something incredibly important, really important about the creative process. Because improvisation isn't simply about Playing the musical vocabulary that we've memorized. It's about developing the ability to make musical decisions. And today we're going to explore a very practical, a very practical way of developing that ability. We're going to begin with rhythm.

That's right. Rhythm. Because before we decide which notes to play, we're going to establish when to play them. And then Using a very limited collection of melodic possibilities, we're going to begin creating our own musical ideas. And here's what makes today's exploration especially interesting. We're not simply going to practice creating musical sound. We're we're also going to practice get this musical silence. Because sometimes one of the most important things a musician can do is to stop playing.

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Stop playing and listen. And as you're going to discover today, silence provides a wonderful opportunity to breathe, to reflect, and make our next musical decision. Now, all of this is going to take place within our continuing study of Bobby Hebb's Sunny. And we're going to use the harmonic and melodic understanding we've developed during the past two weeks. begin discovering our own improvisational vocabulary. And remember, our objective isn't simply to learn how to improvise over Sunny. Instead, we're developing a creative process that we can apply to every jazz standard we study.

So Bobby Heb Sunny week three improvisation development and I have a funny feeling we're going to discover that sometimes the smallest musical ideas can lead to the biggest Creative breakthroughs. So today we are going to discover how improvisation begins with simple musical decisions and how one third, one measure of rhythm, and a limited collection of melodic notes can provide an extraordinary amount of creative possibility. We're going to learn how to use our rhythmic patterns to create original melodic ideas.

Combining arpeggio motion, scale motion, and chromatic tension, while developing the essential skill of silence, what I like to call rest and assess. Right? We're going to learn how to breathe, listen, evaluate, and maintain our awareness of time, even when we're not playing. And then finally, we're going to play Bobby Hebb's Sunny using our 12 rhythmic frameworks to create melodic ideas within the thirds, A to C, C to E, E to G, beginning with A minor seven, the first tune—or rather, the first chord of Sunny. And developing an improvisational approach that can be applied to all six chords found within the tune.

So how much fun is this going to be today? We got a ton to do. Now remember we're not

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We're not learning 12 improvisational licks today that someone else created. We're developing the ability to create our own musical vocabulary. So as I like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, or an advanced player, you're going to find today's lesson and exploration of Bobby Hebb's Sunny to be extremely beneficial. All right, so before we dig in, there's something I've been thinking about. For a very long time, actually as long as I've been teaching. And I believe it's one of the most important things we can discuss when it comes to learning how to improvise. And it begins with a question.

When does a musician become creative? Now think about that for a moment. At what point in our musical development are we finally allowed to create? Is it after we've learned all twelve major scales or all twelve harmonic minor scales or melodic minor scales? Do we have to have our arpeggios under control first or all of our chords or voicings? Or how about those modes? And of course can't forget all of those wonderful jazz licks that we're supposed to learn and memorize. If that's the requirement, we may we might never get around to actually creating music. And yet I think many developing musicians approach improvisation with precisely that mindset.

They believe that they must accumulate an enormous amount of musical information before they can begin making musical decisions of their own. And I want to challenge that assumption today because here's something that I believe. And I believe it with every fiber of my educational being. If you want to be creative, then you have to practice creativity. You have to practice being creative. Not simply practice scales in preparation for someday being creative, not simply memorizing patterns in preparation for someday being creative.

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And not simply collect musical phrases that other musicians have already created. Those things can certainly contribute to our musical development, but none of them automatically guarantees that we'll develop the ability to create. Because creativity isn't simply a collection of musical information. Creativity is the ability to make musical decisions. With the information that we possess. And that distinction, I believe, is incredibly important. Now, I want you to imagine two students sitting at the piano. Both students know the same scale. Both students know the same arpeggio. Both students have practiced the same musical exercises.

But one student has spent most of their time reproducing predetermined patterns. The other student has also practiced those patterns. But has regularly been asked to do something a little different. And that is make a musical decision. Choose a starting note. Choose a destination. Change the direction. Add a passing tone. Vary it rhythmically. Introduce a little tension. And then listen. Now both students may possess the same musical information, but they're developing two very different musical abilities. One is developing the ability to reproduce musical material. The other is developing the ability to use that material creatively.

And I want to be clear. We need to do both, right? Physical command is essential. Musical understanding is essential. But if our ultimate objective is personal musical expression, then at some point we must begin practicing personal musical decisions. And here's where things get really interesting, because I believe one of the most effective ways to develop creativity is to begin

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With limitations. Yep, you that's you've heard me correctly. Limitations. Now that might sound a little strange. After all, isn't improvisation supposed to be about what? Freedom. Absolutely. But here's the question. Freedom to do what? If I sit down at the piano with eighty-eight keys, twelve pitch classes in front of me, countless. Rhythmic possibilities and absolutely no musical direction. I may have unlimited options, but having unlimited options doesn't necessarily mean I know how to make a meaningful musical choice. And in fact, sometimes too many possibilities can become an obstacle to creativity.

So what happens if we begin reducing those possibilities? What if instead of using the entire keyboard? We begin with one simple interval, a third, two notes, separated by a third. And within that third we have a passing tone and chromatic possibilities for creating tension. Now we have a manageable amount of melodic vocabulary. And what if instead of allowing ourselves unlimited rhythmic possibilities, we establish one measure of rhythm? A simple one-measure rhythmic idea. Now we know when the notes will occur, but we haven't decided which notes we're going to play. And that is precisely where creativity begins.

Because suddenly we have a musical problem that requires a musical decision. Which note should I begin with? Should I ascend? Or should I descend? Should I use the passing tone? Should I introduce chromatic tension? Should I repeat a note? And perhaps most importantly, where do I want this musical idea to go? Now we're not simply executing a predetermined exercise. We're creating a melodic idea. One third, one measure, one melodic idea.

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That's what I call improvisation. And here's something else I want you to consider. What happens after we play that idea? Well, many developing musicians feel compelled to immediately play something else. And then something else. And then guess what? Something else. As though the success of an improvisation. Is somehow determined by how many notes we can squeeze into the available time. But what if after creating one musical idea we simply stop? What if we allow ourselves a moment to, I don't know, breathe? A moment to listen to what we just played? A moment to consider what we liked about what we just played. Or what we didn't like.

Or what we might want to change. And what if during that silence we continued to feel musical time? Now we're developing something incredibly important. We're learning that silence isn't an interruption of the creative process. Silence is a part of it. Silence is a part of the creative process. And this week. We're going to give that process a name. I always call it rest and assess. I love that because it reminds us that the space between our musical ideas isn't simply empty time. It's an opportunity to listen, to evaluate, to anticipate, to prepare for our next musical decision. And when we return to playing, we can choose to repeat our previous idea.

Very cool. Or we can modify it. We can reverse its direction, we can change the melodic destination, or we can create something entirely new. And suddenly we're doing something much more significant than simply practicing a musical pattern. We're developing the process of improvisation. Now, think about how beautifully this connects to our exploration of Bobby Hebb's Sunny last week. Last week we discovered.

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How much melodic possibility exists within a simple pentatonic pattern? And we explored the importance of the third. Well, this week we're going to take those discoveries and begin asking: what can we create within this material? Not what did Bobby Hebb play? We've already spent time exploring that, but what can we play? What melodic ideas can we discover? What rhythmic choices can we make? What musical destinations can we hear? And how can we begin developing a vocabulary that reflects our own musical thinking? Because ultimately, that's what improvisation development should accomplish.

It should help us move from understanding musical vocabulary to creating musical vocabulary. And I want you to remember something as we work through today's lesson. The amount of musical material you're practicing does not determine the magnitude of the musical skill you're developing. I have said this many times. Think about that. You can practice an enormous amount of musical information without ever developing the ability to make a single independent musical decision. Or you can begin with a third, one measure, one melodic idea. And start developing the creative skills that will eventually allow you to express yourself freely at the piano.

And here's the beautiful thing: once you learn how to create one melodic idea, you can create another and another. And before long, those small ideas begin becoming musical phrases. Those phrases begin connecting to other phrases. And those connections begin revealing something very exciting. Your own musical vocabulary. Not simply a collection of phrases you've borrowed from somebody else, but musical ideas that you've learned to discover, to develop, to express for yourself. And that is why I believe creativity must be practiced.

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Just as intentionally as scales, arpeggios, chords, voicings. Because if our goal is to become creative musicians, then creativity cannot simply be something we hope will eventually happen. It must become something we intentionally develop. So today as we begin our improvisation development of Bobby Hebb's Sunny, I want you to approach the piano with a slightly different mindset. Don't ask yourself how much music do I know? Instead, ask yourself, what can I create with the music I already know? Because as we're about to discover, improvisation doesn't begin with an enormous collection of musical information.

It begins with something much simpler: a decision. One third, one measure, one melodic idea, and then we rest. And assess. Now, that is how we begin practicing creativity. All right, so before we begin exploring our improvisational approach to Bobby Hebb's Sunny, let's revisit our seven musical facts. And I want you to pay particular attention to these facts today because our improvisation study is going to provide a wonderful example of how these seven musical truths work together. To help us do what? Create music. So here we go. Fact number one: music is the production of sound and silence.

Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. Fact number three, harmonic sound. When we play harmonic sounds, we're playing chords or what we refer to as voicings. Fact number four, when playing melodic sounds, we're playing arpeggios and scales. Fact number five. Harmony and melody have motion, circular motion, diatonic motion, chromatic motion, ascending, descending motion. Fact number six, movement, that motion is decorated with tension, or what we refer to as chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven. To make facts one through six come to life, we add rhythm. Now, I want you to think about something. Last week we spent

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A considerable amount of time exploring the third. And we discovered that within this simple musical interval, we have opportunities for scale motion, arpeggio motion, chromatic decoration. Well, today we're going to use those very relationships to begin creating our own melodic ideas. And here's what's here's what's really interesting. We're going to begin with fact number seven, right? Rhythm. That's right. We're going to start with rhythm. Before we even begin deciding which notes to play, we're going to establish when we're going to play them. And once we have our rhythmic framework, we can begin making our melodic decisions.

Which brings us to fact number four. Melodic sound equals scales and arpeggios. We're going to explore how a small collection Right? A small collection of scale and arpeggio fragments can provide an extraordinary amount of melodic possibilities. And of course, we'll use fact number five to explore ascending and descending melodic movement. And then there's fact six, right? Introducing chromatic tension and additional melodic color. But here's something I really want you to notice. We're also going to give special attention to fact number one. Music is the production of what? Sound and silence.

Because during today's lesson, we're going to practice something I call rest and assess. We're going to create a musical idea and then we're going to stop playing. Not because we've run out of musical vocabulary, but because we want, we want to establish an opportunity to breathe, to listen, to evaluate, to prepare for our next musical decision. And all that while we're going to remain actively engaged. with time because silence isn't the absence of musical responsibility. It's an important part of the musical experience.

And finally, remember this facts two and three, sound is produced harmonically and melodically, and harmonic sound equals chords and voicings, because all of our melodic discoveries will take place within a harmonic environment. And that harmonic environment today will be the A minor

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seventh sound. And then we'll explore how our melodic ideas can function within other chords found in Sunny. So think about what we're doing today. We're establishing rhythm, we're creating melodic movement, we're exploring tension, we're listening to the relationship between melody and harmony. And we're intentionally incorporating silence. Wow. All seven musical facts working together to help us do what? Create music. And that Is what makes today's improvisation study so exciting. Because we're not simply learning another musical exercise.

Instead, we're developing a practical process for applying the fundamental principles of music to our very own creative decisions. And that is indeed very exciting. Okay, so before we go any further, I want to take just a moment to welcome all of our new Jazz Piano Skills listeners. If this is indeed your first time joining us, welcome. I'm delighted that you're here and I hope that today's episode is the beginning of a very rewarding musical journey for you. If you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, I want you to understand something right from the very beginning that Jazz Piano Skills is an educational program.

And I emphasize the word educational because our because my objective isn't simply to introduce you to interesting musical information. and it certainly isn't to overwhelm you with an endless collection of things that you should somehow already know. My objective is to help you understand music, develop musical skills, and ultimately express yourself at the piano. I accomplished this through something I like to call the weekly study. And the weekly study is a carefully organized educational process that brings together several important learning experiences.

And it begins every Tuesday with the podcast episode where we explore essential Jazz Piano Skills, always using a familiar standard as our musical laboratory. Together we examine the concepts, the relationships and the musical principles that help us understand what we're studying and why it matters. Each podcast episode has a podcast packet that I develop and publish every week.

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That contains the educational illustrations, the lead sheets, the play-alongs, all designed to help you take the musical concepts that we're discussing and begin developing the physical skills necessary to actually play them. Then we gather every Thursday evening, 8 p.m. Central Time for a live Jazz Piano Skills masterclass. This is where we continue our educational discussion, address questions, and clarify concepts. and explore the practical challenges that naturally arise when developing new musical skills.

Of course, those master classes are recorded so members, if they can't make the class, can actually participate the watch the class whenever convenient in their schedule and as often as they wish. At the end of the week I publish a podcast blog recap. Because learning isn't simply about encountering new information. It's about actually returning to important ideas and reinforcing your understanding and allowing those musical relationships to become increasingly familiar. And my blog recap helps us do exactly that.

We also have a fabulous Jazz Piano Skills community, a place where we can all gather, continue the conversation, share discoveries, share performances with one another. And musical experiences. Because you know what? Sometimes hearing how another musician approaches a particular challenge can help us discover something important about our own musical development. And finally, I'm always happy to provide support. And by support I mean direct support from me.

If you're struggling with a musical concept or uncertain about how to approach particular skills, you can always reach out to me because education shouldn't leave you wondering. know what you're supposed to do next. It should actually provide you with the direction and the guidance necessary to keep moving forward. So all that to say that if you're looking for something more substantial than content from a content creator, you've you've come to the right place. I'm here to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano. So to all of our new listeners, once again welcome. I'm delighted that you have joined us today. All right.

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Time for our question of the week. And our question of the week this week comes from Daniel Whitaker. Daniel Whitaker in Burlington, Vermont. Daniel writes, Dr. Lawrence, I've always thought improvisation was supposed to be spontaneous and creative, but I hear teachers talk about practicing patterns, rhythms, and specific exercises to develop improvisational skills. If we're practicing things ahead of time. I know where this is going. If we're practicing things ahead of time, aren't we taking the spontaneity out of improvisation? How do we practice improvisation without turning it into something memorized? Very good question.

Well, Daniel, first of all, I have to tell you, your question gets right to the heart of something I believe is critically important for everyone. every developing jazz musician to understand. Because Daniel, you're you're absolutely correct about one thing. Improvisation is supposed to be spontaneous. But here's where I think we need to make an important distinction. Spontaneity and preparation are not opposites. In fact, I would argue that meaningful spontaneity Depends upon a tremendous amount of preparation. Now let me explain. Think about something we do every single day. We have conversations. And when we have a conversation, guess what?

We're improvising. We're expressing thoughts, ideas, questions, reactions, reflections in real time. Think about that. When you and I have a conversation, we don't typically memorize everything we're going to say before we say it. We don't wake up in the morning and memorize a hundred sentences just in case we need them. That would be pretty strange. Right? Instead, we learn vocabulary, we learn grammar, we learn how words relate to one another, and through experience.

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We develop the ability to organize those words into meaningful thoughts and expressions. And when the moment arrives, we use that familiar vocabulary to communicate something original. Well, Daniel, that's precisely what we're trying to accomplish when we study jazz improvisation. We learn our scales, arpeggios, chords, voicings, rhythmic vocabulary. But the objective isn't simply to memorize musical information so that we can reproduce it at a later date, right? The objective is to develop the understanding and physical command necessary to begin organizing that information into our own musical ideas. And here's the important distinction.

Practicing a musical pattern is not the same thing as practicing how to make musical decisions within that pattern. Let me say that another way. If I practice the same musical phrase over and over again, I'm developing the ability to execute that phrase. And there's certainly value in that. But if I take a familiar rhythmic idea, And begin exploring different melodic possibilities within that rhythm, now I'm developing something else. I'm developing the ability to create. Again, I'm making musical decisions about which notes to play, which direction to move, where to introduce tension, where I want that musical idea to go.

And those decisions are not necessarily. predetermined. The musical framework may be established, but the musical expression belongs to me. And that is a very important distinction. Now, here's something else I want you to consider. Sometimes we think that creativity requires complete freedom, as I was mentioning earlier. That in order to be truly creative, we must be free to play absolutely anything at any time. But I've discovered

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something quite interesting over the years of teaching. Limitations can actually stimulate creativity. Think about it. If I give you the entire keyboard and say, okay, Daniels, be creative. Well, where do you begin? What notes should you play? What rhythm should you use? where should your musical idea go? There are so many possibilities. There are too many possibilities that simply getting started can become a challenge. But What if I give you, as we're going to do today, I give you a third and one measure of rhythm. And then I ask you to create one melodic idea, again, just as we're going to do today.

Well, now we have something very manageable and we have a musical framework that allows us to focus our attention on the decisions we're trying to develop. And here's the beautiful thing. Even though our musical vocabulary is limited intentionally, our creative possibilities are not. That's so cool because we can change our starting note, we can change our direction, change our destination, introduce a passing tone, intro introduce chromaticism, tension. We can repeat a melodic idea or modify it. and with every musical decision, we're developing a little bit a little more creative independence.

Now there's there's one final point I want to make, and this is something we're going to explore during today's piano lesson. Improvisation isn't simply about knowing what to play. It's also about knowing when not to play. And that's why we're going to practice what I was talking about earlier, rest and assess. We're going to create a musical idea, give ourselves a moment of silence to breathe, to assess, to listen to what we just played, determine the good, bad, and ugly of what we just played. In other words, create a moment to evaluate our musical decisions, a moment to anticipate what we might want to create next.

And while continuing to feel the musical time.

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So, Daniel, back to your question, does practicing specific rhythms, patterns, exercises take the spontaneity out of improvisation? Absolutely not. Not when we use those exercises to develop our ability to make independent musical decisions. Remember, we're not practicing to predetermine every note we're going to play. We're practicing to develop the skills that allow us to decide. What to play in the moment. And that is the relationship between preparation and spontaneity. So, Daniel, thank you for a fabulous question. And I want everyone listening today to remember this very important musical principle.

The purpose of practicing improvisation isn't to eliminate spontaneity, it's to develop the skills. That make spontaneity possible. And honestly, that's what improvisation development is actually all about. All right, before we head to the piano, I want to take a moment to thank all of our non-member listeners for joining, joining us today. I hope our discussion about improvisation has given you a fresh perspective on what it means to develop musical creativity. And remember, you don't need an enormous amount of musical vocabulary to begin making your own musical decisions.

Sometimes, sometimes all you need is a third, one measure, one third, one measure, one melodic idea, and of course, a little time to rest and assess. So thank you again for spending some of your valuable time with me today. I appreciate it more than you know. And I look forward to having you join us again next week. As we continue our exploration of Bobby Hebb's Sunny with a solo piano development episode. Until then, continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. All right, members, grab your podcast packet because it's time to head to the piano.