The Girl From Ipanema

Dr. Bob Lawrence  0:32  
Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence, it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. The last two weeks we've hit it pretty intensely, with a key of F major harmonic workout and a key of F major melodic workout. Our harmonic workout explored four different approaches to voicing the chords found in the key of F major plus various rhythmic copying patterns as well. Our melodic workout methodically tackled the scales the modes and arpeggios for each of the chords in the key of F major plus various linear lines to help develop improvisational vocabulary. So needless to say, our workouts require a ton of work. But as is always the case, as is always the case when you practice correctly, the proper skills proper approaches, the dividends earned are significant, the payoff huge. And how do we measure our gains? Well, we use a pretty straightforward form of measurement. Our gains are assessed by our ability to successfully apply our new jazz piano skills to a tune and that is exactly what we are going to do today. So today you are going to discover a classic jazz standard by Antonio Carlos you'll beam the Girl from Ipanema you're going to learn the chord changes harmonic function and musical form of The Girl from Ipanema. And you're going to play various voicings and correct chord scale relationships for the Girl from Ipanema, which will then be cultivated into a jazz solo. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player, an advanced player or even if you are a seasoned professional, you will find this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring the jazz standard, the Girl from Ipanema to be very beneficial. I want to take a couple of minutes right now as I always do at the beginning of every jazz panel skills podcast episode two welcome all new listeners to the jazz panel skills podcast. And if you are new to jazz panel skills, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz panel skills member. All you have to do visit jazz piano skills comm check out all the abundance of jazz educational resources, materials and services that are available for you to help you on your journey to becoming an accomplished jazz pianist. For example, as a jazz panel skills member, you have access to all of the educational podcast packets. Now these are illustrations, lead sheets and play alongs that I develop for each and every weekly podcast episode. So these are tools that are invaluable tools that you want to have at your fingertips as you listen to the jazz panel skills podcast. And you certainly want to have them resting on your piano as you practice as well. Awesome. As a jazz piano skills member, you have access to the sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is loaded with comprehensive courses, all of them using a self-paced format. There are educational talks, interactive media, video demonstrations, and all 12 keys of the jazz panel skill being taught that are play along tracks plus much much more. You also have a week, a reserved seat to the weekly online masterclasses, which are in essence, one hour, jazz piano lessons with me each and every week. And also as a jazz piano skills member, you have access to the private jazz piano skills community, which is growing each and every day. The community hosts a variety of engaging forums from podcasts specific forums, course-specific forums and of course, just general jazz piano forums as well.

You also I forgot to mention this over the last Couple of weeks you also have access to an online interactive Fakebook that new tunes are being added each and every week that consists of lead sheets, harmonic function lead sheets. There's historical perspectives that you can read about on for each tune, play long tracks banned in a box files that you can download and use as well. So check out the fake book. And last but certainly not least, you have unlimited private, personal and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. So again, just take a few minutes visit jazz panels skills.com To learn more about all the educational opportunities that await you, and how to easily activate your membership. If you have any questions at all. Please do not hesitate to reach out let me know. I'm always happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can. Okay, let's discover learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play the great jazz standard by Antonio Carlos you'll be the Girl from Ipanema. Okay, as I mentioned earlier, the last two weeks have been pretty intense with our key of F major harmonic workout and our key of F major melodic workout. Our harmonic workout was an extensive exploration of four very specific approaches to plain sound harmonically playing chords. In other words, our exploration was not simply about playing the seven chords of the key of F major, it was about how to approach voicing the chord so that you are playing sounds that are stylistically correct. In other words, your chords need to sound like jazz. So we looked at basic block shapes and their inversions. We looked at traditional left-hand three-note shell voicings, we looked at contemporary quarter voicings, and of course, two-handed voicings, all of them, all of them need to be in your arsenal, our melodic workout, or melodic workout was just as hard right? It was a thorough investigation of ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion through each of the seven chords in the key of F major. And our primary focus was to begin developing root independence by shifting the entry points of our scales and arpeggios from the root of the sound to the third, fifth, and the seventh neat. Needless to say, if you've never practiced like this, if you've never intentionally played scales and arpeggios, varying your entry and destination points, then this was a pretty tough workout. And you probably found it to be very challenging, which is great. That's awesome. So the whole point of our key of F major harmonic workout and our key of F major melodic workout. Really, the whole point was to prep us for applying our skills to tunes. So we're going to take the practice approaches that we have explored over the past two weeks and apply them to the Girl from Ipanema. And not only are we going to put our harmonic and melodic jazz piano skills to work within a jazz standard, but we are also going to use our jazz panel skills to construct and play a jazz panel solo over the core changes of the Girl from Ipanema. Now cool. Tune study has always, always fun. So the educational agenda for today is as follows number one, we're going to explore the jazz standard The Girl from Ipanema, we're gonna look at the chord changes and the harmonic function number two, we are going to discover learn and play various voicings for the Girl from Ipanema block voicings traditional shells contemporary shells, two-handed voicings number three, we are going to discover learn and play the chord scale relationships for the Girl from Ipanema, in other words, appropriate ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion. And number four, we are going to discover learning play a jazz piano solo for the Girl from Ipanema using 100% diatonic scale and arpeggio motion, and number five we are going to be using a comfy bossa nova tempo of 135 today and of course the play alongs that are included in your podcast packets, use various tempos from 85 to 100 to 120 to 135. Now if you are a jazz pianist As a member, I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button. I want you to download and print, the podcast packets, the illustrations, and the lead sheets. Again, you have access to all the podcast packets, and you should be using them when listening to this podcast episode, and of course, you should be using them when practicing. And if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google, Amazon, Spotify, I Heart Radio Pandora, the list goes on and on and on. Then be sure to go directly to jazz panel skills podcast.com To download your podcast packets, and you will find the active download links within the show notes, jazz piano skills podcast.com

And one final, but extremely important note that I mentioned each and every week and each and every podcast episode. If you are listening, and you are thinking that the Girl from Ipanema and the various skills that we are about to discover, learn and play. For your thinking that these skills are over your head, then I would say to you sit back relax, continue to listen. Take a deep breath. Continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by listening to this podcast episode. All skills are over our heads when first introduced. And that is precisely why the first step that we need to take in order to improve our musicianship is to simply listen, do not shy away from conversations, discussing foreign topics and using unfamiliar terms. Right. Stepping outside of our music, musical comfort zone is what actually spawns significant growth. Now, you've all heard me say this a million times. I'm gonna say it again. All musical growth begins upstairs mentally conceptually before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn and the play will come in time. I guarantee it. Okay, I want you to grab your sheets packet. And inside that packet, you'll find 11 different skills. So you should have 11 different pages. Okay, so I want to take a look at skill number one and skill number two, right from the get-go here. Skill number one is just simply a standard lead sheet of the chord changes. But I want to draw your attention to a couple things. This is an A B, a form The Girl from Ipanema. In other words, three sections are exactly the same. Section A, Section B, and Section D on your lead sheet are exactly the same. It's that Section C that is that varies. Not only does it vary with regards to the chord changes, but the section itself varies with regard with regards to the length. Section A section B in section D are all standard eight measures in length. But Section C is an extended Bridge, which lasts for 16 measures. So yes, it's a standard ABA form. But there's a little twist to it with that bridge being extended an additional eight measures. The other thing I want to point out on this lead sheet is that you'll notice some altered chords we have a G flat seven sharp 11. And we also have down in measure 30 you'll see a D seven fully altered sound that the fifth, the fifth and ninth is altered or altered. And then you'll also see right there two measures over the C dominant seven with an altered fifth and an altered ninth as well. So we have altered sounds to deal with in the girlfriend Ipanema as well. Now if you look at the very second lead sheet that you have in your packet skill number two, this is the harmonic DNA of the girlfriend Ipanema. Right so you'll see that all the chord changes now have been swapped, over switched over to Roman numerals. And those Roman numerals are signifying indicating the harmonic function of each chord change, right? So for instance, in section A, they're the very first chord that we is notated here as a one major seven. So the one chord in the key of F is a

F major seven. Right? The third measure, you'll see two seven. Right? So the second chord in the key of F is a G, a G chord. Typically, theoretically speaking, it should be a minor, but in this case, Antonio Carlos you'll beam has broken a rule, and he has made it a dominant chord. So we have a two seven. Now, why is the harmonic DNA understanding the harmonic DNA of a piece so very important, because this is actually how you should be learning tunes following the harmonic DNA blueprint, if you will, it's great for the ears, the ears can lock into relationships and start hearing root movement. And not only that, once you learn the court based on its harmonic DNA, and assuming that you know your keys, you can then easily move this song from one key to another key to another key. So I can't stress the importance enough of spending some time studying every tune that you approach learning, studying its harmonic DNA. So lead sheet one lead sheet to one standard, the first one standard chord changes of the of The Girl from Ipanema and lead sheet to skill number two, the harmonic DNA harmonic function of The Girl from Ipanema. Alright, so grab lead sheet, number three, skill number three, and you'll see it up in the upper left-hand corner, it's labeled block chords. So here are our standard block chord voicings that include the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh of each chord. And the idea that you'll see there on the lead sheet. I'm moving from one chord to the next chord, using inverted shapes to get from point A to point B to point C with minimal motion. A couple things I want to point out number one, you'll notice that on the altered sounds, that G flat seven sharp 11 our D seven fully altered sound or C seven fully altered sound, you'll notice a little note underneath each one of those chords. That note reads voicing not intended to handle alterations. So in other words, do not talk try to squeeze in sharp elevens Do not try to squeeze in the flat fives and flat nines because these voicings, these block voicings utilizing the root, third, fifth, and seventh are not intended to handle alterations. Those would be handled by a very different voicing type. Okay, so keep that in mind number one. Number two, feel free to experiment with various inverted shapes on your own. This lead sheet is intended to be a suggestion. This is how I would go about playing the chords for the for The Girl from Ipanema using these voicing types. If there's an inverted shape that your ears say to you, that you like better than I would, by all means, encourage you to do so. Okay, so I want to bring the ensemble in right now and I'm going to play through the Girl from Ipanema twice the first time through, I'm playing left hand alone with these voicings and these inverted shapes as written in your lead sheet. The second time through I will drop the melody in on top of these voicings so that you can hear how the melody and the harmony work together with these fundamental block voicing shapes. Alright, so here we go. Let's bring the ensemble and let's check it out. See what you think. Here we go.

Very nice, right? Nothing wrong with those voicings. In fact, if this is where you are in your jazz journey, you're sorting out these block shapes, root, third, fifth, seventh, and inversions, this is where you should be that this is fine. In fact, when I was learning how to play, I went out and did many many gigs, only knowing how to voice chords in this manner. So these are valid voicings to use and as you just heard, they sound fantastic. Okay, so now I want to take a look at scale number for your very next lead sheet. In the upper left-hand corner, you'll see that it says traditional shells. So once again, I have voicings for the Girl from Ipanema mapped out there on your lead sheet using these three-note traditional shells 379 and 735 shapes. You'll also notice take a look at that G seven in measure three, you'll see the little asterisk making a note that says top note optional wind plain melody. This is the avoid the conflict between the two hands, the left hand or the right hand, or I should say not necessarily to avoid the conflict, but actually to help the two hands coexist and work nicely with one another. Right so the Asterix every time you see an asterisk on this page with a voicing, I'm saying feel free to use a two-note shape instead of a three-note shape when playing the melody while you're utilizing these voicing shapes, the 379 and the seven three fives. So what I want to do now is I want to bring the ensemble back in and I'm going to do the same format the first time through. I'm going to play the Girl from Ipanema just the chord changes I'm going to use these traditional shell voicings as notated on your lead sheet. Then the second time through, I will play the melody so you can hear these voicings coexisting with the melody as well. I want to draw one your point your attention to one other point. Look at measure three, I'm sorry, measure 30. You'll notice the D seven, flat five flat nine the fully altered sound that 379 voicing, the nine is flatted to honor that sound, and then on the C seven flat five flat nine fully altered voicing two measures over you'll see that the 379 is actually a three seven flat nine. Again to honor that sound. Alright, so let's bring the ensemble in first time through voicings alone, second time through voicings with Melody. Let's check it out. Here we go.

I love it. Right? Can't go wrong with traditional three-note shells. Just another way to approach voicing chords when playing not just the Girl from Ipanema, but any tune. Whether what another point I want to make real quick to even though I'm isolating each of these voicing types, your block shapes, your traditional shells, we're about to look at the contemporary shells and then the two-handed voicings. All of these voicings are meant to be interact with one another, right? So it doesn't mean that if you're going to play the Girl from Ipanema and you start off with using traditional three-note shells, that you have to use traditional three-note shells throughout the entire song, right? I'm just this is for learning purposes. And examining each chord type each way to voice chords, putting each one under a microscope, sort of speak and studying those shapes in the context of a tune. Ideally, you will be interchanging these voicings as you play. So with that being said, let's look at skill number five, your very next lead sheet and you'll see again, in the upper left-hand corner, it's labeled contemporary shells. These are three-note structures too, but you'll notice that the intervallic relationship between the notes is the interval of a fourth, primarily an interval of a fourth. You'll also notice the very first chord there the F major seven, you'll see another asterisk and it says here top note again, optional when playing melody. Again, this is to get the boat both hands coexisting and playing nicely with one another. So you can feel free to leave that top note off and use a to note shape underneath the melody as you play. Alright, let's take a look at measure 30. Again, with that alter D seven. You'll notice that the voicing is an F B flat and E flat, my F is to sharp nine, my B flat is a sharp five, my E flat is a flat nine Krait voicing panel that fully altered D seven sound. For the C seven fully altered the flat five flat nine. Look at that voicing E flat, A flat D flat. So my E flat, my sharp nine, my a flat sharp five, and the D flat is a flat nine. Again, fully altered sound, great voicings pay attention to those as you play them. So let's bring the ensemble in. We're going to do the same format two times through first time through I'm going to play these contemporary shells as written in the lead sheet on your lead sheet. Second time through I'm going to drop the melody in. So again, you can hear the melody in relationship to this voicing type. So here we go. Let's check it out and see what we think.

Pretty cool, right? It's a great sound. I love those voicings. Alright, so now look at your next skill number six. Look at this lead sheet up in the upper left-hand corner, it says two-handed voicings. So now we're going to be playing voicings that require both hands stretched over both hands. And you'll notice right away is just glance at the lead sheet. All the structures look very familiar, very, very similar. I have two notes in my left hand, I have three notes in my right hand. So these are five-note voicings that I'm utilizing. Alright, you'll notice a couple things, the G flat seven sharp 11 and measure six, I have a C up on top. That's the sharp 11 sound, I want to get that into my voicing. I also want to draw your attention over to measure 30. Again, with that D fully altered sound, I have the third and seventh of D seven in my left hand. And once again I have my F B flat E flat in my right hand, the handle the altered sound. Likewise, two measures over and the C seven fully altered. I have the third and seventh in my left hand again. And I had the E flat a flat D flat in my right hand, the handle the fully altered sound crate voicings. So once again, I want to bring the ensemble Len going to play through Girl from Ipanema twice first time through I'm going to play these two-handed voicings as written. Second time through, I'm actually going to play the melody using a muted trumpet sound. So you can hear these two-handed voicings but accompanying an instrumentalist to see how, see how it sounds. It's gonna I think you're gonna love it. So here we go. Let's check it out. See what we think.

I told you it's pretty cool, right? I love it. I hope you love it as well. It's a great sound, those voicings are fabulous whenever accompanying a vocalist or instrumentalist. Okay, so that concludes our examination or for voicing types in relationship to the harmonic structures of harmonic form the chord changes for the Girl from Ipanema. Now we want to turn our attention to chord scale relationships. So, look at your very next lead sheet skill number seven, and you'll see it notated up in the left-hand corner scales, ascending Root Entry. So why our courts got relationships so important. Well, they're kind of the precursor prerequisite to the development of jazz vocabulary, they represent a pool of notes that you can draw upon, when improvising, that does not mean that you're just simply going to go up and down the scale. This is these notes represent the musical landscape, if you will, the foundation that you will use when improvising. So it's so very important to understand the chord scale relationship as you try to develop your improvisational skills. So what I'm doing here is I'm just going to play through each scale over each chord. Now, I'm going to play straight down the lead sheet, but this is not how I recommend practicing it. I actually recommend practicing isolating each of these chords and spending time playing the scale as we did in our melodic workout. Playing the scale from the root from the third from the fifth from the seventh, ascending and descending. But for the sake of time, I'm going to just play right through the lead sheet. I'm going to play every chord scale relationship so you can hear it match up the scale matching up with the harmony. Okay, so one time through Girl from Ipanema chords in my left hand, scales, ascending scales in my right hand. So let's check it out and see what we think. There we go.

Pretty cool. Now, I said, this is not how I would practice this exercise. But you know, it's, it's kind of a fun way to kind of test your skills. Once you think that you have a command of these chord scale relationships, it's kind of a fun way to say okay, I'm going to start at the top and play to the lower right-hand corner to the piece, and I'm going to see if I can, on a fly in time, nail each of my courts get relationships, just kind of a fun little challenge. But again, I would actually spend time isolating each of these chords, and practicing these scales as we did in our melodic workout. So with that being said, look at your next lead sheet, skill number eight, scales again, descending from the Root Entry, right descending from Route entry. So once again, I'm going to play one time through Girl from Ipanema when played descending chord scale relationships with the root being my entry point. So let's bring out some of back in let's check it out and see what we think here we go.

Nice, you know the idea again here is that we want to be able to move from any entry point using ascending or descending motion. So we have to become familiar with this skill by intentionally practicing this skill, right and not only ascending and descending from the root, ascending and descending from third from the fifth and from the seventh. So, if we do that, with scale motion, we should do that utilize that same approach with arpeggio motion. So look at your next lead sheet. Skill number nine, upper left-hand corner it says ascending arpeggios Root Entry. So it's going to be the exact same process right? Now I'm just going to ascend through each of these chords, use ascending arpeggio motion through each chord found within the Girl from Ipanema. Alright, now one thing I do want to draw your attention to again, those altered sounds down there in measure 30 And measure 32. The default D seven fully altered in the C seven fully altered. Notice that I have in the arpeggio altered the fifth and I have a little note there that says lower or raise the fifth in the arpeggio to to include an altered sound in your arpeggio. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble back in. And let's check this out. Here we go.

Very nice. And once again what goes up must come down. So if you look at your very next lead sheet skill number 10, upper left-hand corner descending arpeggios Root Entry. And again, I want to remind you that you should be doing your ascending and descending arpeggio motion, not only from the root, but also from the third from the fifth and from the seventh again, just like we did last week in our key of F major melodic workout. So for now, and for the sake of time, let me play through the Girl from Ipanema using descending arpeggio motion with the entry point being the root. So here we go, let's check it out, see what we think.

So that includes our melodic examination of the girlfriend, Ipanema. So we've gone through our voicings, we've looked at chord scale relationships using ascending and descending, scale and arpeggio motion. So now for the grand finale, we want to put it all together, right, we want to draw, draw from these skills, these jazz panel skills. We want to be able to play a solo using these skills using ascending and descending scale and arpeggio motion and using some of those nice voicings that we've been examining and practicing as well. So the very next lead sheet, you have skill 11, I have a solo for the Girl from Ipanema. And your job is to analyze the solo to be able to study this solo before you even try playing it, you should study this solo and make note of where arpeggio motion is occurring, where scale motion is occurring. You know what, what type of rhythms are being utilized? And how are those altered sounds being handled Where where is the melody being quoted and referenced within the solo. So a lot to to examine, for sure, and you should study not just this solo, but any transcription that you look at, you should be studying in this manner as well. So what I want to do right now, though, is I want to draw upon our jazz panel skills that we've been working so hard on over the past couple of weeks with our key of F major harmonic workout and our key of F major melodic workout and I want to play the Girl from Ipanema. I'm going to play three courses. I'm going to play the melody first. And I'm going to play my solo. And then I'm going to play the melody again, using a standard form that we all utilize when we get together and play with other musicians. So here we go the Girl from Ipanema using all of our jazz piano skills, and 100% diatonic mo diatonic motion, right diatonic relationships, diatonic in reference to each individual chord, so nothing fancy. I'm not playing any notes outside of the harmony suggested by the chord scale relationships. Alright, so here we go. Let's check it out. Have a little fun.

I love it. It never fails. Though we always unpacked a ton of information in each and every podcast episode, and today was certainly no exception. As we set out to discover, learn and play the girlfriend Ipanema fact, I felt like man I was, I've been rushing to try to get all of this in within an hour. As I tried to do with every tune study that we do, I want to model for you. I wanted to model for you today how to begin truly learning attune how to connect, what and how you're practicing to an actual piece of music. In other words, how do the jazz piano skills you are practicing translate to real plane. And of course, I'm being a little sarcastic here when I say real plane, right kind of air quotes, because real plane is actually having a command of jazz piano skills, which in turn, allows you to eventually add a melody. And once we add a mallet melody to our jazz piano skills, guess what? We give it a fancy name like I don't know the Girl from Ipanema. In other words, we call it a tune. And now everyone is happy, right? You're happy because you're playing a tune and listeners are happy because they know the two. I want you to think about this. If you are unable to apply your practice approach to the learning of tunes like we did today. I would say that you need to seriously examine the what why and how of your practicing. Now another way of saying this is if in the tunes You are playing, you do not see the jazz panel skills you are practicing, then you have a disconnect between the two, which is not good. You you've heard me say many times, on many different occasions that that harmony and melody are one. And the same and, and indeed they are. But I can also say that jazz piano skills and tunes are one and the same as well. Now what I'm trying to say is that if you do not practice jazz piano skills, then you will not be able to successfully play tunes. It's that simple. And hopefully, you are beginning to see that jazz piano skills our tunes, and tunes our jazz piano skills. The only difference? One has a fast fancy name like the Girl from Ipanema, and one does not. If you're beginning to see jazz piano skills as tunes, and tunes as jazz piano skills, then you are on the right track, you are on the correct path. I said this in previous podcast episodes since the start of the new year, and I want to stress it again today, if you hang in there with me. This year, you're going to experience a ton of jazz piano growth. You will love where you are musically, a year from now. And once again, I want to encourage all jazz piano skills members to use the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. And you've heard me say this over and over and over and over again as well. Conceptual understanding determines your physical development. So the time you invest in study and mapping out voicings and ascending descending scale and arpeggio motion from various entry points is time very well spent. The return on your investment cannot be adequately expressed. Most importantly, as always Be patient. Developing mature jazz piano skills takes time. Begin structuring your improvisation development or harmony developing your voicings, your chord scale relationships right after the plane demonstrations that I modeled for you in this podcast episode, and you will begin to see you will begin to feel and hear your musical progress. Well,

I hope you found this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring the great jazz standard by Antonio Carlos you'll beam the Girl from Ipanema to be insightful and of course beneficial don't forget if you're a jazz piano skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring the Girl from Ipanema in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Be sure to use the educational podcast packets, the illustrations lead sheets play along for this podcast lesson and also be sure to use the jazz piano skills courses. To maximize your musical growth. Make sure you are an active participant in the jazz panel skills community. Get out there, get involved contribute to the various forums. Most importantly, make some new jazz piano friends. As always, you can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 My office extension is 211 by email Dr. Lawrence drLawrence@jazzpianoskills.com or by SpeakPipe fancy little widget found throughout the jazz piano skills a website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy Antonio Carlos yo beams The Girl from Ipanema and most of all have fun as you discover, work and play jazz piano