What Does it Really Mean to Learn Jazz Piano?

What Does It Really Mean to Learn Jazz Piano?
A Conversation About Becoming a Musician

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. You know, every once in a while, I think it's important to stop, to just stop. Step away from the tunes, step away from the lead sheets, step away from the voicing, step away from the scales, step away from all the information, and ask a much bigger question. What does it actually mean to learn jazz piano? Think about that. Not how do I play this tune? Not what voicing should I use? Not what scale fits this chord, not how do I improvise over two, five, one? Those are all important questions. But they're not the most important question. The most important question is what does it actually mean to learn jazz piano? So I thought this would be a good time, week five of the month, to answer that question. And after teaching jazz piano for decades, I've become convinced of something. Most students don't struggle because jazz is too difficult. Most students struggle because no one has ever shown them how all of the pieces fit together. And honestly, that's understandable. Never before in history have jazz students had access to so much incredible information books, videos, podcasts, online courses, master classes, social media, thousands upon thousands of lessons taught by extraordinary musicians and educators from literally around the world. It's amazing. And I genuinely believe we're very fortunate to live in a time when so much outstanding educational content is available. So I think it's I think it's fair to say the problem isn't information. The problem isn't access. The problem isn't opportunity. The challenge today is something entirely different. The challenge is organization. The challenge is understanding. The challenge is knowing what to practice, why to practice it, when to practice it, and perhaps most importantly, how everything connects. Because information alone doesn't create musicians. Understanding creates musicians. Heck, think about your own educational journey. How many books have you purchased? How many videos have you watched? How many scales have you practiced? How many voicings have you learned? How many licks have you transcribed? How many courses have you completed? Now let me ask you a different question. How much of it is actually connected? How much of it became one complete musical picture? Because learning jazz piano is not about collecting information. Learning jazz piano is about connecting information. And that's a very different process. Information accumulates, understanding integrates, and that is huge to understand. And that's the conversation I want to have with you today. Not about another tune, not about another voicing, not about another scale. I want to talk about learning. I want to talk about learning itself. Because I truly believe that once you understand how jazz piano is actually learned, everything else begins making sense. And perhaps most importantly, everything else becomes much simpler. And that's that's our journey today. So today's educational journey is unlike any we've taken before. Today we're not exploring a tune. We're exploring a process, a process that governs how every jazz musician develops. A process that never changes, regardless of the tune, regardless of the style, regardless of your current level. Whether you're just beginning your jazz piano journey or you've been playing for decades, the process remains the same. First, we discover not information, relationships. We discover how harmony relates to melody, how melody relates to rhythm, how rhythm gives life to harmony and melody. Because music is not isolated concepts. Music is interconnected relationships. That's huge. Then we learn, not by memorizing facts, not by collecting more information, but by developing physical command of the essential skills, harmony, melody, rhythm. Because understanding without physical command is incomplete. And physical command without understanding is equally incomplete. Real learning occurs when our hands and our mind begin working together. And finally, we play. Not to prove what we know, not to impress others, but to communicate, to express, to tell a musical story. Because ultimately that's isn't that why we're studying jazz? Not to accumulate knowledge, but to transform knowledge into personal expression. Think about that. Discover, learn, play. Those aren't simply three words. I know many people think it's a little cute marketing slogan, but they are not just three words. They're the educational process. They describe how musicians grow, how understanding develops, how creativity emerges. And perhaps most importantly, they remind us that learning jazz piano is not an event. It's a journey. It's a journey that never really ends because every tune teaches us something new. Every practice session deepens our understanding, and every performance reveals something we hadn't noticed before. And that's exactly why learning jazz piano remains one of life's great adventures. So today I invite you to set aside the idea of collecting more information. We're going to set that aside. And instead, let's spend our time discovering how everything you've already learned begins to connect. Because when the connections become clear, music becomes clear. And that is when real growth begins. So let's begin with what I like to call the brutal facts. The brutal facts. Not because they're harsh, but because they're true. And sometimes truth has a way of simplifying everything. So, brutal fact number one. I think you already know this. There are no shortcuts, there are no secrets, there are no magical voicing, there is no magical scale, there is no magical mode, uh, there's no magical chord substitution, no magical transcription, no magical exercise. The list goes on and on and on. If there were, every jazz pianist would already be playing at the highest level. The reality is much simpler. Musical freedom has always required musical command. That's it. Musical freedom has always required musical command. So that brings us to brutal fact number two. You cannot creatively play what you cannot physically command. I'm going to say that again. You cannot creatively play what you cannot physically command. If your hands are uncomfortable playing harmonic sounds, your music will be harmonically limited. If your hands are uncomfortable playing melodic shapes, your music will be melodically limited. And if your hands are uncomfortable expressing rhythmic vocabulary, guess what? Your music will be rhythmically limited. Creativity does not replace technique. Creativity depends upon techniques. Technique is not the destination. Technique, as I like to say, is the vehicle that allows your imagination to become audible. Wow. So technique is the vehicle that allows your imagination to become audible. Think about that. All right, brutal fact number three. Everything in jazz, and I mean everything in jazz belongs to one of three musical skills. I bet you can guess what they are. Harmony, melody, rhythm. That's it. Think about all the concepts you've ever studied Voicings, harmony, chord substitutions, harmony, reharmonization, harmony, arpeggios, melody, scales, melody, patterns, melody, licks, melody, and rhythm, transcriptions, harmony, melody, and rhythm. Bill Evans, harmony, melody, rhythm. Oscar Peterson, harmony, melody, rhythm. Herbie Hancock, harmony, melody, rhythm. You get my point? No matter what concept you encounter, it ultimately belongs to one or more of these three essential musical skills. That's not a personal opinion. That's simply how music works. Now, brutal fact number four. The better you become, the less you actually study. What? Say that again. Sure, I'm happy to. The better you become, the less you actually study. I know, right? I get it. That sounds backwards, but it's true. Beginning students begin seeing fifty different subjects, right? A beginning student sees harmony, melody, voicing, scales, modes, um pentatonics, substitutions, three harmonizations, transcriptions, licks, patterns, uh, upper structures, altered dominance. I'm trying to think of more, but you get my point. And so on and so on and so on. Experienced musicians, though, see something very different. They see relationships. They recognize that all of those topics that I just rattled off are simply different expressions of the same three musical skills: harmony, melody, and rhythm. So mastery is not adding more information. Mastery is connecting what you already know. And that's why great musicians often appear to think so simply. Because you know why? They do. Not simple music, simple understanding. And that kind of understanding changes everything. It changes what you practice, it changes how you practice, it changes what you hear, it changes what you play, and ultimately it changes how you communicate through music. Those are the brutal facts. And once you embrace them, learning jazz piano becomes far less mysterious and much more intentional. So if everything we've discussed is true, then the obvious question becomes what exactly should I practice? And the answer is simple. Not easy, but simple. You should devote yourself to developing three essential musical skills harmony, melody, rhythm. That's it. Everything you will ever encounter in jazz piano belongs to one or more of these skills. Now, before you dismiss that statement as overly simplistic, let's think about it. Every tune you've ever played is simply harmony, melody, and rhythm. Every great jazz pianist you've ever admired communicates using harmony, melody, and rhythm. Every improvisational solo, every arrangement, every solo piano performance, every accompaniment, every musical conversation is ultimately expression of what? Harmony, melody, and rhythm. Nothing more, nothing less. Now here's where many students unknowingly get off track. They begin practicing musical information. Instead of musical skills, they practice musical information. And that's and there's a huge difference. Information is endless. It's endless. Skills are foundational. Think about that. You can spend years collecting voicings, or you can develop harmonic command. You can spend years collecting scales, or you can develop melodic command. You can spend years collecting licks, or you can develop rhythmic command. Do you hear the difference? One approach accumulates information, the other approach develops musicianship. And musicianship is always the goal. So let's briefly define these three essential skills. Okay? So harmony. Harmony is your command of sound, your ability to see, your ability to hear, and physically play harmonic structures, chords, voicings, chord qualities, chord function, harmonic function, harmonic color. Everything we talk about every month with our harmonic analysis. Right? This goes beyond merely knowing chord names. It becomes physically comfortable creating harmonic sound. That's what we want. Next, melody. Melody is command of motion. Your ability to see, your ability to hear, and physically play melodic structures. Herpeggios, scales, tension, direction, contour, shape. Again, everything we talk about when we do our melodic analysis every month. And again, this is not merely running scales. It's becoming physically comfortable creating melodic motion. And finally, rhythm. Rhythm, I like to think of it as your command of communication. Rhythm is communication. Rhythm determines personality, it determines style, it determines feel, it determines energy. Rhythm transforms harmonic sound and melodic motion into musical conversation. And without rhythm, harmony is static. Without rhythm, melody is incomplete. Without rhythm, music has no life. Now, here's what I believe may be, this may be the single most important realization of today's episode. These three skills are never isolated, they are always working together. Harmony creates the environment, melody creates the motion, rhythm creates the communication. One musical thought, three inseparable dimensions. Remove one of them, right? Remove one of these inseparable dimensions of music, and music immediately becomes incomplete. Strengthen one, and the others benefit. Strengthen all three, and your ability to communicate grows exponentially. Which brings us to a fascinating realization. Students often ask me, I mean, I get this question all the time. Every day, every single day. Dr. Bob, what should I practice today? My answer is always the same. You know what? I think you should practice harmony, melody, and rhythm. Because if you consistently strengthen those three skills, every tune becomes easier, every improvisation becomes more natural, every arrangement becomes more musical, every performance becomes more expressive. Not because the music changed, because you changed. Your understanding changed. Your physical command changed. Your ability to connect harmony, melody, and rhythm changed. And that's the entire point today. We don't practice to learn more tunes. We practice to become better musicians. The tunes simply give us an opportunity to develop the skills that never change. Now, I'd like to share with you what I believe is one of the great ironies of learning jazz piano. And honestly, it's an irony that took me many years to fully appreciate it. I mentioned it earlier when I was talking about the brutal facts, but here it is again. The better you become, the less there is to learn. Not because music becomes smaller, right? Not because you've learned everything, but because you finally begin seeing how everything connects. And again, right, I rattled off an entire list that you know beginning students see hundreds of subjects when they start studying piano, hundreds of different subjects. And the list honestly never seems to end. It feels to the beginning student, as it should, right? It would for anybody, it feels overwhelming. And honestly, it is overwhelming. Not because there's uh too much information, but because none of it appears organized, none of it appears connected. So students naturally conclude, man, I I need to learn more. And you know what? I need to get that book. I need to watch another video. I need, you know, I need to enroll in that course. Uh man, I need more exercises. There's got to be a secret to this, right? How about a shortcut? But you know, that's all natural. And I think we've all dealt with that thought process. But something remarkable begins to happen as your understanding matures. You stop seeing isolated topics and you begin again. Begin seeing these relationships that I keep mentioning. You realize that a Bill Evans voicing isn't another subject. It's harmony. And you realize that the altered scale isn't another subject. It's it's melody. And you realize that incredible rhythmic vocabulary of, say, I don't know, of Oscar Peterson isn't another subject. It's it's rhythm. Suddenly, what once appeared to be 100 different concepts becomes three essential musical skills viewed from a hundred different perspectives. And that is a that's a profound shift because you're no longer just simply collecting information. What you actually begin doing is organizing understanding. You know, think about a master carpenter or a master chef or a master architect or a master physician. Masters don't succeed because they've memorized the greatest number of isolated facts. Right? Masters succeed because they understand relationships. They recognize patterns, they understand principles, they know what matters, and perhaps even more importantly, they know what doesn't matter. Music is no different. The greatest jazz musicians aren't carrying around thousands of disconnected ideas. They are hearing one integrated musical language: harmony, melody, rhythm, working together continuously and naturally. And here's another irony. As your understanding deepens, your practicing actually becomes simpler. Again, not easier, simpler. Right? Because you stop chasing everything and you begin refining what matters. You spend less time asking, what should I learn next, and more time asking, this is crucial. More time asking, how can I deepen what I already know? That's a completely different mindset. Because depth always outperforms accumulation. Every single time. Depth, not accumulation. That's where artistry lives. That's where creativity develops, and that's where confidence grows. Not from knowing more, but from understanding more deeply. And that's exactly why the greatest musicians often make the most difficult music seem effortless. They're not thinking about more things. They're thinking more clearly about fewer things. That's the great irony. Mastery is not complexity. Mastery is clarity. Mastery is connection. Mastery is depth. And once that realization truly begins to take hold, everything about learning jazz piano changes, including you. So again, if everything we are discussing today is true, which it is, then the obvious question remains How should I practice?
 
Dr. Bob Lawrence: 25:49
What should I practice? How should I practice? And I believe the answer surprises most students. Because you don't need to practice more things. You need to practice fewer things more deeply. Fewer things, greater depth. That's the practice paradox, because most students assume improvement comes from increasing the amount of time, the amount of information they consume. More voicings, more scales, more licks, more transcriptions, exercises, videos, more courses. Hey, we need another tune, right? And before long, the practice routine becomes a collection of disconnected activities. They're busy. They are busy. Busy bees. They're working hard. They're spending hours at the piano. But unfortunately, being a busy bee and making progress are not the same thing. Because progress is never determined by how long you practice or the number of things you practice. Progress is determined by the depth with which you practice the things that matter most. Think about learning a language. Would you rather know 1,000 random words or understand how to construct meaningful sentences? I think the answer is obvious. Music works the exact same way. The objective is not collecting musical vocabulary. The objective is learning how to communicate. And communication, guess what? Requires fluency, not accumulation. That's why I continually encourage jazz piano skills members to devote themselves to the essentials, harmony, melody, rhythm. Every day, every week, every month, every year. Because these skills never become obsolete. Tunes change, styles change, technology changes, educational trends change, but guess what? Harmony, melody, and rhythm remain. Always. Now, here's something I hope you'll remember long after today's podcast episode ends. Don't measure your practice by asking what did I cover today? Instead, measure your practice by asking what became more comfortable? What became more familiar today? Because comfort and familiarity create confidence. Confidence creates freedom. Freedom creates expression. And expression is the entire reason we are drawn to making music. Think about that progression. Comfort, confidence, freedom, expression. That's not just a practice routine. That's musical growth. Every productive practice session should move you one step further along that path. Comfort, confidence, freedom, expression. Not because you've learned something new, but because you've strengthened something essential. And that's that's a tremendous difference. And perhaps the greatest misconception in music education today, students believe they need more information when in reality they need more command, more command of harmony, more command of melody, more command of rhythm. Because command changes everything. It changes what you hear, it changes what you feel, it changes what you play, and ultimately it changes what you are able to communicate. Again, that's the practice paradox. The more deeply you develop the essentials, the less you'll feel the need to chase everything else. And ironically, that's exactly when your musical world begins expanding. How crazy is that? Wow. So, you know, as we begin wrapping up today's conversation, I'd like to leave you with one final thought. And honestly, I think it's the most important thought of this entire episode. When you sit down to practice, what are you really trying to accomplish? Think about that. What's the destination? Is it to learn another tune? Is it to memorize another voicing? Is it to play another scale? Transcribe another solo? Again, these are all worthwhile activities. They're fantastic. But they're not the destination, right? They're the vehicle. The destination, listen, is you. Think about that. You are the destination. Every practice session changes you. Every tune changes you. Every struggle changes you. Every breakthrough changes you. Every hour spent at the piano changes you. Music isn't simply something you play. Music is something that transforms you. It transforms the way you hear, it transforms the way you think, it transforms the way you practice, it transforms the way you communicate. And eventually, eventually, it actually transforms the way you live. And I'm serious. Because music has a way of teaching patience, discipline, humility, curiosity, persistence, creativity, joy, and hope. Those aren't merely musical qualities. Those are life qualities. And that's why I've always believed that we don't practice jazz piano to become better pianists. We practice jazz piano to become better musicians. And in becoming better musicians, we become better listeners, better thinkers, better communicators. And perhaps, let's hope, better people. That's a journey worth taking. That's a destination worth pursuing. So the next time you sit down at the piano, don't ask yourself, what tune should I practice? Ask yourself, what part of me am I trying to strengthen today? My harmony, my melody, my rhythm, my understanding, my patience, my discipline, my creativity? Because every practice session is shaping something far more important than your repertoire, for heaven's sakes. It's shaping you. And one day, without even realizing it, you'll sit down at the piano and you'll discover something very remarkable. You're no longer trying to remember what someone else played. You're no longer trying to imitate someone else's voice. You're no longer chasing the next magical concept. You're simply making music. Your music, your sound, your voice, your story, and that's the destination. Not perfection, not information, transformation. That's why we study. That's why we practice, that's why we play. Because ultimately the tunes change, the skills remain, but the greatest change of all is the musician. You. Now, I want to leave you with one final thought. I'm on a roll, so I'm going to keep going here. I want to leave you with one final thought. Learning jazz piano has never been about chasing secrets. I was taught that very young. There are no secret pathways. There are no shortcuts. It's never been about finding the perfect voicing or the perfect scale, the perfect lick, the perfect exercise. They don't exist. They just simply don't exist. Learning jazz piano has always been and always will be about developing harmony, melody, and rhythm. Understanding how they work, understanding how they connect, and developing the physical command needed to communicate them with confidence. That's the path. It's always been the path. And it will always be the path. Again, the tunes will change, the styles will change, the technology will change, educational resources available to you will continue changing. But again, guess what? The essential skills never change. Harmony, melody, rhythm. And neither does the educational process change. Discover, learn, play over and over again. Each tune revealing a little more. Each practice session strengthening a little more. Each musical experience transforming you a little more. Never forget, you're not practicing simply to learn another tune. I stress this, I think, every week with our tune study. You're practicing to become the musician capable of playing every tune you'll ever encounter. That's a lifetime pursuit. And it's a beautiful one. So don't become discouraged by everything you don't yet know. How easy it is to do that. But don't. Don't become discouraged by everything you don't yet know. Instead, take great joy in strengthening what matters most. One harmonic shape, one melodic line, one rhythmic idea, one thoughtful practice session at a time. Trust the process. Be patient with yourself, stay curious, celebrate, this is so important. Celebrate small victories. And never underestimate the power of consistent intentional practice. Because one day you'll sit down at the piano, place your hands on the keys, and discover that the things which once felt difficult now feel natural. The things which once seemed disconnected now feel beautifully connected. The things which once required an enormous amount of effort now flow with confidence and ease. Not because the piano changed, not because the music changed, because you changed. Your understanding changed, your hands changed, your ears changed, your confidence changed, your musicianship changed, and ultimately that's why jazz piano skills exist. Not to give you more information, but to illuminate the path, to organize the journey, to help you discover that music is not a collection of isolated concepts. Music is one beautifully connected language. Harmony, melody, rhythm, working together always. So keep discovering, understanding, keep learning, connecting, keep playing, creating. Keep growing as a person because again the tune changes, the skills remain. And the greatest transformation of all is the one taking place within you. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next time, never stop becoming the musician you were created to be as you continue to discover, learn, and play jazz piano.