Teach Me Tonight, Melodic Analysis

Dr. Bob Lawrence: 00:32
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Week two of the month. And as we all know, week two of every month is when we dedicate ourselves to developing our melodic skills. Last week we explored the harmonic structure of Teach Me Tonight. We examined the form, we looked at the unique chord changes found within the piece. We explored the harmonic function, examined common harmonic movement, and we studied several essential voicing approaches. In other words, we spent the entire lesson exploring how harmony organizes sound. This week we turn our attention to melody. And if harmony provides the structure, well then melody actually provides the story. Harmony provides the environment, melody provides the conversation. Or another way of looking at it, harmony provides the architecture, melody gives it life. Which is why melodic development is one of the most, at least I think, it's one of the most misunderstood aspects of jazz education. Most students think melody is simply, you know, kind of a collection of notes, something to memorize, something to get through before improvising. But the melody is much more than that. The melody reveals phrasing, it reveals direction, it reveals targets, it reveals contour, it reveals rhythm. Melody reveals musical intention. And in fact, if you study the melody correctly of any tune, you begin discovering the exact same truths that govern great improvisation. Because great improvisation, as I have said many times, is not random. It is not separate from melody. Great improvisation actually grows out of melody, which means today's lesson is not simply about learning the melody of Teach Me Tonight. Today's lesson is about discovering how melody organizes movement, organizes motion. And that leads directly to some thoughts that I want to share with you. One of the most fascinating things about jazz education, about teaching, is that it becomes pretty apparent that nearly every student wants to improvise. But but few students truly want to study melody. I find that to be incredibly ironic. Think about that for a moment. Students eagerly practice scales, they practice arpeggios, as they should, right? They practice licks, they practice patterns, they practice vocabulary, they practice improvisation. But when it comes time to study the actual melody of a tune, actually study the melody, many students become really impatient. They want to move past it. They want to get they want to get to what I call the fun stuff. They want to get improvising. And honestly, I get it. I understand. Because improvisation appears to be the destination. It appears to be the ultimate goal. It actually appears to be the highest level of musical achievement. At least it's been crowned as that. But here's the reality improvisation without melody is usually nothing more than it's really nothing more than organized wandering. Notes moving through harmony, ideas moving through scales, patterns moving through chord changes. It's technically correct, but musically forgettable. Wow, that's that's important to think about. Technically correct, but musically forgettable. Well why? Because melody teaches us things that scales and arpeggios cannot. Melody teaches us how musical ideas breathe. Melody teaches us how phrases begin, how phrases end, how phrases rise, ascend, how phrases descend, how phrases uh uh create tension, and how phrases create resolution, how phrases communicate. And isn't that the entire goal of music, really, right? When you play, there's gotta be some kind of communication. Somebody listening should feel like you're speaking. After all, nobody leaves a concert uh humming an arpeggio, right? No one leaves a concert humming a scale. No one leaves a concert humming a 251 progression. They leave humming uh melodies. And why? Because melody is what people remember, melody is what people connect with, melody is what is what people sing, melody is what people feel, which means something very important. If your goal is to become become a better improviser, then you must become a better student of melody. It's just that simple. If you want to become a better improviser, you must become a better student of melody. And and it's not because melody and improvisation are separate skills, they're not. But because melody and improvisation are actually well, they're the same skill. One is composed, one spontaneous. But both require, both require intention and both require direction. Both require shapes, require targets, require rhythm, require phrase organization. And that's where many, many students miss the point. They think improvisation begins with scales. It doesn't. They think improvisation may begin with theory, understand a better understanding of theory. It doesn't. They may think that improvisation begins with vocabulary. It doesn't. Improvisation begins with melodic understanding. Because before you can create your own story, your own melody, you need to understand how great stories, how great melodies are told. And every great melody is a is really truly a masterclass in musical storytelling, which brings us directly to Teach Me Tonight. Because the melody of Teach Me Tonight, it's beautiful precisely because it is simple. We're going to find that out today as we explore the melody. It's clear, it's logical, it's singable, it's it's memorable, intentional, right? Every phrase has direction, every phrase has a purpose, every phrase has a destination, which means today's lesson is much bigger than simply learning the melody of Teach Me Tonight. Today we are going to study how melody works, how melody moves, how melody organizes motion. And in doing so, we will begin discovering one of the most important truths in all of music. Harmony organizes sound, melody organizes motion, rhythm organizes time. And when those three truths work together, it's magic. Music comes alive. So today we tackle melodic analysis. Today we are going to discover the melodic architecture of Teach Me Tonight. We are going to discover how the melody is constructed, how it is organized, how it moves, and why does it work so well? We are going to discover the phrases, the targets, contour, direction, and the logic behind every melodic idea. We are going to learn how great melodies communicate, how they breathe, how they create tension, how they create release, how they establish expectation, how they surprise us. And you know what? Perhaps most importantly, how they tell a story. Because melody is not, like improvisation, melody is not random movement. Melody is organized. It's organized thought and it's organized communication. And we're going to play the melody of Teach Me Tonight using various treatments and approaches. We will play the melody as written, we will examine the phrases, we will identify targets, we will study direction of the melodic movement. And of course, we will begin preparing the melody for future improvisational development. So that's a lot, right? So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, whether you are a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you consider yourself a seasoned professional, you will find this Jazz Piano Skills Podcast lesson exploring Teach Me Tonight: A Melodic Analysis, to be very beneficial. But before we continue, in fact, before I welcome all you new listeners, I want to take a moment to revisit the truths that govern everything that we do in music. See, y'all thought I forgot about the seven facts of music, but I did not because we're going to go through it right now. The seven facts of music, this governs everything that we do here at Jazz Piano Skills. The seven facts of music, the truths, simplify music. These facts organize our thinking, they provide clarity, and perhaps most importantly, they help us avoid becoming overwhelmed. Because while tunes change, which we change our tune study every month, while the tune changes, these facts never do. So let's just go through them quickly. Fact number one, music is the production of sound and silence. Our primary sounds are major, dominant, minor, half diminished, and diminished. Every tune, every phrase, every improvisational idea, every melody begins and ends with these sounds. Fact number two, harmonic sound. When we talk about harmonic sound, we're talking about chords and voicings, harmonic shapes. And harmony organizes sounds. Harmony creates context. Harmony provides the environment in which musical ideas live. Okay, so fact number three, melodic sound. When we talk about melodic sound, we are talking about scales and arpeggios, melodic shapes. Now, melody organizes motion. Think about that. Not notes, not scales, not arpeggios, motion. Melody is movement with purpose, movement with direction, movement toward a destination. And that's exactly why we're studying melody today, because every great melody demonstrates how musical motion should unfold. Fact number four, harmonic sound moves using three types of motion: circle motion, chromatic motion, diatonic motion. Fact number five, melodic sound moves in one of two directions, up or down. Simple, right? Simple but profound. Every melodic phrase, every improvisational idea, every musical statement is moving in one of two directions. So you know what? The question is never, is it moving? The question is where is it moving? And why is it moving there? We're gonna talk about that today. So great melodies answer those questions. Fact number six, we decorate melodic movement using tension or chromaticism, right? Notes that exist outside of the harmony, you know, approach notes, passing tones, neighboring tones, enclosures. And fact number seven, to make all of this interesting, facts one through six, we add rhythm. So harmony without rhythm is static, melody without rhythm is incomplete. Rhythm organizes time, rhythm creates energy. Quite honestly, it's rhythm that creates emotion. Without rhythm, there's no music. It's really that simple because there are only notes. And how boring would that be? All right, so last week we explored harmony, today we explore melody. Next week we'll explore improvisation, and the week after that, we'll take a look at some solo piano approaches, right? Different focus, different perspective, different skills, but but nevertheless, they all embody the facts. The facts remain exactly the same because the deeper your understanding becomes, the more you realize there aren't a thousand things happening when playing music. There are only a few musical truths being expressed in countless musical ways. And that's exactly why these seven facts, I go through them every single month. It's exact every single week, because these seven facts matter. They help us simplify music, they help us organize our thinking, and ultimately they help us understand, or I guess I should say, they help us discover, learn, and play music. All right, I want to take just a few minutes right now to welcome all new listeners to the Jazz Piano Skills Podcast. If you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, listening to the podcast for the first time, welcome. I am very glad that you are here, and I want to encourage you to explore becoming a Jazz Piano Skills member, because everything that we discuss here that you will hear, the structure, the clarity, the organization is fully supported inside the Jazz Piano Skills membership. As a member, you'll have access to the complete weekly podcast episodes, the entire episode, including all the demonstrations and the lesson content, plus the downloadable educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play-alongs. You'll also have uh access to a sequential online library of courses designed to be very practical, organized, and sound based. You'll also have, as a member, a reserve seat, as I like to say, in the weekly masterclass that I host every Thursday evening. These masterclasses are recorded so you can watch the video at your convenience whenever you wish and as often as you wish. Also, as a jazz panel skills member, you have access to our private online jazz piano skills community for discussion, questions, and support. And finally, you'll have direct access to me whenever you need some additional guidance. So everything at Jazz Piano Skills is designed with one simple goal in mind to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano. And to do so in a very clear, very structured, very meaningful way, helping you understand not only what to practice, but why you are practicing it, helping you to understand not only what to play, but how music actually works, and helping you to organize your study so that your growth becomes consistent, predictable, and enjoyable. Now you can learn more at jazzpianoskills.com. So check it all out. And if you have any questions, please let me know. Now, one other thing. If you are not already receiving the weekly Jazz Piano Skills blog, I encourage you to join the email list. Every weekend I publish a written recap of the week's lesson designed to reinforce what we are learning this week, help you stay organized, and to keep you help you keep moving forward in your musical development. Okay? Again, check it all out at jazzpianoskills.com. And if you have any questions whatsoever, please let me know. All right, let's move on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Jennifer Maynard. Jennifer Maynard of Seattle asks, Dr. Bob, should I memorize the melody before I begin improvising? How important is it to have the melody memorized? Well, Jennifer, it's a fantastic question. Again, I've selected your question because it goes hand in hand with our study today. And honestly, this may be one of the most important questions any jazz student can ask. Because hidden inside that question is a much larger question. And that is what role does melody actually play in improvisation? And unfortunately, many unknowingly answer that question incorrectly. They view the melody as kind of a like a like a hurdle. Something to memorize, like you're asking, right? Something to memorize, something to get through, something to complete before moving on to the real jazz, right? To the improvisation. But here's the problem. If you think melody is separate from improvisation, then you've misunderstood both. Think about that for a second, because it is one of the most common, if not the most common, misconception in jazz education. Students often think melody first, improvisation second. And if they're unrelated, if one ends and the other begins, but that's just not how it works, right? That's not how jazz improvisation works. That's not how music works. And honestly, that isn't how improvisers think, right? Great improvisers understand something very, very important. And that is improvisation is simply melody being created in real time. That's it. Melody being created in real time. Improvisation is melodic thinking. Improvisation is melodic storytelling. Improvisation is melodic organization, which means the better you understand melody, the better prepared you are to improvise. Now, does that mean you must have every note memorized before improvising? No. But it does mean that you must understand the melody. That's the key. You must understand the melody. And there's a difference, a very, very big difference. Memorization is mechanical. Understanding is musical. That's the difference, right? Memorization is mechanical, understanding is musical. A student can memorize every note of a melody and still have no idea what the melody is doing. No understanding of the phrases, no understanding of the targets, no understanding of the direction, no understanding of contour, no understanding of the rhythm, no understanding of the storyline. And if that's the case, right, memorization alone provides very little benefit. On the other hand, a student who understands the melody, who understands the phrases, the shapes of the phrases, the motion, destination of the phrases, tension tones, and the release of those tension tones, right? Well, that student is already learning how to improvise. Why? Well, because great melodies teach us how musical ideas are organized. Remember what we've discussed before. Harmony organizes sound, melody organizes motion, and rhythm organizes time. If you want to become a better improviser, you must become a better student of melodic motion. You must learn to hear movement. You must learn to hear direction. You must learn to hear targets, target notes within. The phrases. You must learn to hear phrase organization.

Right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence: 22:05
I can't tell you. Many times I ask students how many phrases are in the A section, they can't tell me. How many, how many phrases are in a B section of a tune? They can't tell me. Right? That's that's a problem. You must learn to hear organize phrase organization. Because those same elements, right? Movement, direction, targets, phrases, phrase organization, those elements appear in every great improvised line. And in fact, one of the quickest ways to identify weak improvisation is to ask a simple question. Does it sound melodic? That's it. Think about that. You don't ask, does it sound theoretical? Does it sound complex? Does it sound fast? How about this? Does it sound impressive? See, those are all the wrong questions. The question that has to be asked is, does it sound melodic? Because listeners don't connect with scales, as I mentioned earlier. They don't connect with arpeggios, they don't connect with theory, they they connect with the melody, which means the greatest improvisers are actually master melodists. Is that a word? I don't you get what I'm getting at, right? Great improvisers understand how melodies work, how melodies breathe, how melodies communicate. And that's exactly why we spend an entire week each month studying melody. Not because we're preparing to memorize a tune. No, it's because we're preparing to understand musical motion. And when you begin understanding musical motion, something amazing happens. Your improvisation begins sounding less mechanical, less random, uh, less scattered, and more musical, more organized, more intentional, more conversational, more melodic. Wow. Imagine that. Which brings us back to your question, Jennifer. Uh, should you memorize the melody before improvising? I think what you want to do is understand the melody before improvising. Because understanding will always produce better improvisation, much better than memorization. Always, hands down. And here's the beautiful part. If you study melody correctly, you'll eventually memorize it anyway. It's funny how that works. Because understanding always makes memorization easier. But memorization does not guarantee understanding. I guess there's the difference, right? Um, that distinction, every jazz musician should remember that memorization does not guarantee understanding. And it's the understanding of the melody that we're actually aiming for. So, Jennifer, the goal is not simply to memorize the melody. The goal is to understand the melody, understand how it moves, how it breathes, how it communicates, how it tells a story. Because when you understand that, you're no longer just learning a tune, right? You're actually learning how music works, and ultimately you're learning how to improvise because improvisation is not separate from melody. Improvisation is melody. It's melody created in real time. So, Jennifer, I hope that helps. Um, if I've if I've caused more confusion than clarity, please let me know. I'm happy to spend more time with you and explore this really important question uh in greater depth. So uh please let me know. All right, so speaking of melody, speaking of improvisation, let's take a moment to revisit the rationale behind the jazz panel skills monthly tune study approach. Because every month, without fail, someone always asks, why do we spend an entire week studying melody? And honestly, the answer is it's very simple because melody is the bridge. It's the bridge between harmony and improvisation. Think about the progression of our monthly tune study, right? Week one, harmony, week two, melody, week three, improvisation. Then week four, we have a little fun with solo piano approaches. This sequence is not accidental. Harmony, melody, improvisation. In fact, we've been talking about it this entire podcast, right? It's intentional, it's sequential, it's logical. And most importantly, the the format, the sequence, it's musical. Week one teaches us how sound is organized. Week two teaches us how uh motion is organized, and week three teaches us how to create organized motion within organized sound. That's improvisation. And then, of course, week four, then we combine everything into a complete musical experience uh from a solo jazz piano perspective. So, in other words, every week uh builds upon the previous week. Nothing is isolated, nothing is disconnected, nothing stands alone, which is why melody deserves an entire week, as does harmony, as does improvisation, because melody is where harmony becomes musical. Melody flows from harmony, melody is where chord changes become uh conversation, melody is where harmonic function becomes expression. And melody is where sound becomes a story. And if you think about it, that's again, that's exactly what great improvisation is. It's storytelling, musical storytelling. It's not scales. I know we talk about scales and arpeggios and patterns and all that a lot, but but that's not music. Scales, arpeggios, patterns, licks, right? Now, certainly all of these all of these devices can be useful. Of course, the that that becomes our arsenal, right? Scales are useful, arpeggios are useful, patterns are useful, vocabulary useful. But but they only become really meaningful when organized melodically. That's the key, melodically, melody. Which is why every month our melodic analysis really focuses on phrases, direction, targets, right? We look at fingerings, then we apply our voicings to hear that melody in relationship to the harmony. We also explore melodic treatments that we'll do today, because these are the elements that teach us how melodies work. And if we understand how melodies work, we begin understanding how improvisation works. And remember our week two mantra: memorization is mechanical, understanding is musical. I'm gonna use that moving forward, I think, in every um every melodic analysis week. Memorization is mechanical, understanding is musical. Improvisation, likewise, improvisation is not separate from melody. Improvisation is continued melody, right? Created in real time. And that's why we spend, again, an entire week studying melody. Not because we're trying to memorize the tune, right, Jennifer? Not because of that, but because we're trying to understand musical motion. We're trying to understand how great musical ideas are constructed and how they breathe, how they communicate, how they create emotion, how they create meaning, and again, how they tell a story. The reality is this: the deeper we study melody, the less mysterious improvisation becomes. And that's exactly why today's lesson matters, because today we begin discovering how Teach Me Tonight, right, tells a story, one phrase at a time, one target at a time, one musical idea at a time. And in doing so, we actually begin today, we actually begin preparing ourselves for next week's study of improvisation development. Because remember this week one teaches us how sound is organized, week two teaches us how motion is organized, week three teaches us how to create organized motion within organized sound, and then week four teaches us how to bring it all together. It's pretty cool. It's pretty logical, it's pretty musical, and that's exactly why the jazz piano skills tune study process works. So, the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, first, as we always do, we are going to listen to several definitive recordings of Teach Me Tonight. Because before we study a melody, we should hear the melody. Right? We should become familiar with its sound, its personality, the character, its emotional identity, various treatments of that melody. Every great melody has a voice, and before we analyze that voice, we should hear it, right? That's why we have a killer listening list every week that uh we enjoy in that's housed in our online jazz piano skills community. Lisa does a fabulous job with this list every week. Uh, we spend time listening. Second, we are going to transcribe the melody to the best of our ability. We're gonna poke it out, right? A little ear training development. Every time we do this, uh our ears grow. So we're going to spend a little bit of time discussing how best to uh begin transcribing the melody. Then we will look at the fingerings, how best to I'll give you my recommendations for how to finger the melody based on our transcription of the melody. And then we will, after we spend time with fingerings, we will then begin to digest that melody, or I should say, dissect that melody. We'll look at the phrase structure. Where do the phrases begin? Where do they end? Where do they breathe? Where do they pause? Where do they continue? And so on. Understanding phrase structure is one of the fastest ways to improve your musicality because great improvisation is ultimately really its great phrase organization. And great phrase organization begins by studying great phrases that are found within songs like Teach Me Tonight. Then we're going to uh identify within those phrases uh target notes, right? Destination points, as I like to call them, or arrival points, and also resolution points. The notes that give each phrase a sense of purpose, its sense of beginning and end. Okay. Now remember, motion without destination feels random. Motion with destination, phrases feels musical. Great melodies always know where they are going. And then finally, we are going to explore various melodic treatments. We will examine the melody as a ballad, bossa nova, a swing tune, uh, because a great melody should remain recognizable regardless of the style. Different rhythmic environments, same melodic identity. And understanding that principle is incredibly important for developing uh flexibility and creativity needed for improvisation. And finally, we are going to apply everything directly to Teach Me Tonight, right? We're going to use those voicings that we discovered in week one last week, our traditional block voicings and our shell voicings, and we're going to apply that to the melody of Teach Me Tonight as we look at those various melodic treatments as well. Now, if you are a jazz panel skills member, I want you to take just a few minutes right now to access, download, and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play-alongs. Again, this material is developed. I develop this material every for every weekly podcast episode, and I want you to have these in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course, I want you having this material sitting on your piano or your music stand when practicing throughout the week. Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets, I want you, as always, grab your lead sheets. We begin exactly where every great melodic study should begin with the melody. Not the improvisation, not embellishments, not reharmonizations, but the melody, right? The story, the communication, the musical ideas. Remember, again, I love this. Memorization is mechanical, understanding is musical. So we're going to do some serious musical understanding today. At the end of the podcast, I'll talk a little bit about the illustrations and the play-alongs that are found in your podcast packets as well. Okay, so I want you to grab, we have seven lead sheets in your lead sheet packet, seven lead sheets, one uh lead sheet. The first lead sheet deals with our transcribing of the melody. Lead sheet two is actually a clean lead sheet with our transcribed melody notated. Lead sheet three, fingerings, lead sheet four, uh, the phrases, lead sheet five, identify the targets within those phrases. We're gonna walk through all of this here today. And then lead sheet six and seven deal with our block voicings and melody and our shell voicings along with the melody. So we're gonna go walk through this entire packet uh right now. So, with that being said, grab lead sheet one. Thank you for listening to Jazz Piano Skills. The remaining premium content of this episode is available to Jazz Piano Skills members at Jazz Piano Skills Podcast.com. Visit jazzpianoskills.com to learn more about membership privileges and become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Thank you.