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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bobby. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. We started 2024 with a study of there will never be another you. In February, we explored an ever popular standard back home again, in Indiana. And last month, March, we tackled the beautiful ballad, these foolish things. Now we start the month of April and turn our attention to one of the greatest standards of all time, the Henry min seni classic days of Wine and Roses. This is going to be a great month. Alright, so today we start a harmonic analysis of these of Wine and Roses. Form chord changes harmonic function, common progression, progressions and voicings, which we will follow up with a melodic analysis next week, which will involve learning the melody of days of one roses, of course, learning it by ear fingerings, various treatments, and add some more twist. We then after all that our harmonic analysis and melodic analysis we then enjoy the grand finale, week three focusing on improvisation development, using various patterns, motifs, common tones, and zones. And of course, yes, of course tension. As always, our three week exploration is a process a systematic approach to discovering, learning and playing a tune. As all of you who have been faithful jazz panel skills, listeners know, we are taking all of those essential jazz panel skills that we have studied over the past four plus years. And now applying them to tunes all of our chord work, voicing study, scales, arpeggios, improvisational approaches fingerings, and more are now being put into action. All of that grunt work, right that we've done over the past four plus years. All that grunt work, of course, necessary for developing the musicianship needed to legitimately learn tunes, right? It's now paying off. All right, I love it. Now, if you haven't been a faithful listener, for the past four plus years, no worries, the tune study we are doing. And the process we have implemented will help you actually sift through all of the prior podcast episodes over the past four years, right? And will help you to begin maximizing your jazz piano skills immediately. So no worries. As mentioned last month, it makes no difference, right? Whether you are a jazz panel skills veteran, or a jazz piano skills, rookie, you are in the right place at the right time to begin a jazz piano journey that will profoundly impact your understanding of music. And, of course, your jazz piano plane as well. I'm thrilled, and I hope you are too because having established a systematic approach to tune study means that we now have an assembly line that we can use repeatedly. With every tune we tackle. This means our learning process will only get faster, each and every month. Now that's exciting, right and it's liberating. So today, we begin our harmonic analysis of these of Wine and Roses. Today, you're going to discover that classic 1962 jazz standard days of Wine and Roses, you're going to learn for chord changes and harmonic function for days of wine roses. And you're going to play days of Wine and Roses using my suggested voicings plus common harmonic progressions for ear training development. So, as I always like to say, regardless of where you are, in your jazz journey, a beginner an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcasts lesson exploring days of Wine and Roses, to be very beneficial. But before we
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Again, before we get started, I want to as I always do welcome first time listeners to jazz piano skills. And if you are a new listener to jazz panel skills podcast or to jazz panel skills, I invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Your membership grants you access to the premium content, not only for this podcast episode, but for every weekly podcast episode. premium content helps you thoroughly and correctly discover learn and play the jazz standard we are currently exploring and as the old saying goes so much more. For example, as a jazz panel skills member, you can access the past current and future educational weekly podcast packets. These are the illustrations the lead sheets in the play alongs are backing tracks designed and developed to help you get the most out of each weekly jazz panel skills podcast episode. You also as a jazz panel skills member have access to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks interactive learning media, there are video demonstrations of the jazz panel skill in all 12 keys and so much more. You also as a jazz panel skills member heavy reserved seat in my online weekly masterclass which is held every Thursday evening. Now if you can't attend, it's no problem because master classes are recorded. And you can watch the video and rewatch the video of the class whenever and as often as you wish. Now you also have access to an online interactive Fakebook which contains must know jazz standards like days of Wine and Roses with excellent chord changes chord scale relationships, harmonic function analysis, listening suggestions, and historical insights. And as jazz panel skills member you can hang out with old and make some new jazz panel friends in the online private jazz piano skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums. Now finally, that's not that's not enough. Finally, your jazz piano skills membership grants you unlimited, private, personal and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. All of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz panel skills.com and become a member to enjoy premium podcast content and all the other privileges all the privileges that I just mentioned. Of course, if you have any questions once you get the jazz panel skills poking around on the site, you have some questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you and answer any questions that you have. Okay, so on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Stan Nelson.
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Living in St. Petersburg, Florida. Stan wants to know.
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Here we go.
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This is funny. I am frustrated. My improvisation sucks. I say this because I don't feel I am improvising at all. I always end up playing the same ideas over the same chords over and over and over again. It drives me nuts. I never seem to play anything new. I have my licks as they say that I fall back on when playing nothing new ever. Is this lack of creativity due to a lack of talent and ability? Or is it something I can develop? Any advice to help me break out of my rut is greatly appreciated. Thanks for all of your podcast episodes. I find them very beneficial. Thanks.
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Wow, okay, Stan.
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A lot to unpack here. So, so here we go. Okay, number one first, your improvisation does not suck. Okay.
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It doesn't I promise you. If you've been a listeners jazz panel skills for some time, undoubtedly you have heard me say
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that your hands and your ears can never go where they have never been. So if you're playing the same things all of the time, is just a sign that you need to begin escorting your hands and ears to some new harmonic territory. I say harmonic territory because melody improvisation flows from your harmonic understanding. And I will give you a couple exercises here shortly to help you with this. Number two, thank goodness. I mean, thank goodness you have some fall back on
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on vocabulary under your hands, there's nothing wrong with that right? Doesn't mean you suck.
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Listen to any great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, Shukria, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans and so on. And you will begin hearing their fall back on vocabulary to write we all have our go to melodic ideas that we rely on when playing. So do not discount this vocabulary as being worn out licks that indicate somehow indicate a lack of ability or skill, because staying that's simply not true. Okay.
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Number three. So important. Keep this in mind. I think all jazz musicians, all jazz musicians, pianos, instrumentalist, vocalist, all jazz musicians get tired of hearing themselves play.
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Right, we always love hearing other people play because it's fresh. It's exciting. It's new material. It's something different from our plane, which is always inspiring to hear. So again, do not beat yourself up stand because you get tired of hearing yourself play, I want to welcome you to The Club. The fact that you are listening to yourself with such critical ears, tells me that you are on the right track. And that consistent musical growth for you consistent musical growth is inevitable.
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Number four.
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Okay, with all that being said, let me give you a couple exercises.
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To help you began exploring to help you associate a harmonic shape with different sounds, right? different chords, this will help you to begin expanding your vocabulary. Okay.
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So I want you when you're next time you're sitting at the piano, I want you to grow just the C major seventh in your right hand. So start with middle C, C, E, G, and B. Okay, simple C major seven.
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Now I want you to place the note A underneath that C major seven.
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Now we have an A minor nine, right, now we're going to place the note F underneath that C major seven.
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Now we have a F major, or the sharp 11 are Lydian sound right, now I want to play a place in D under that C major.
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Now we have a C a D minor, like 13th, right has the nine and 11 in there as well. So that C major shape what we know originally is a C major shape isn't really a C major shape when we place an A underneath it,
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or an F underneath it,
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or D underneath.
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So what I'm saying to you is you can practice improvising using the four notes of C major seven. Obviously practice improvising using those chord tones over C major seven. But also practice improvising using those four chord tones over a minor practice using those four chord tones over F major and practice improvising with those four chord tones over D minor, right. So you're associating this harmonic shape that we initially learn as C major seven. But now we're using that harmonic shape in relationship to a minor, F major and D minor as well. Okay? It's broadening your vocabulary over a minor, F major and D minor because now you're seeing that shape as being something very different than just B and C major seven. Now we can do the same thing with C minor seven. So if you grab C minor seven C, E flat, G and B flat, right? Obviously with C in the base, we have a nice C minor seven. But what if I put an A flat underneath it?
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Wow, now I have an A flat major like a ninth right what if I put F underneath that shape?
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We have an F minor 11 And what about A D flat? A D flat underneath that C minor?
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Wow we have like a scene I mean a D flat major 13th With a sharp 11. So now I can take that harmonic shape that C E flat G and B flat. And practice obviously practice improvising those four chord tones over C ma
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minor. But now, practice using those same for improvising using those same four chord tones over A flat major over F minor and over D flat major as well. So now you're associating that shape with so much more than just C minor. Right?
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Now, I just am demonstrating this today with C major and C minor, but I would encourage you to do the same thing for all the major chords and all the minor chords, right? Same process, this is a very simple way for you to start associating different harmonic, one harmonic shape in association with various courts. Does that make sense?
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Oh, before I forget how I got to those relationships,
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taking the notes C. C is the obviously one of C. So C is the one of C Major C as the three of a minor, C is the four of F major, C is the seventh of D minor.
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Okay. And then I did the same thing with C minor. So obviously, C is the one of C minor. C is the three of A flat major, C is the five of F minor, and C is the seventh, D flat major, with a sharp 11 sound. Okay, that's how I establish those relationships. And when you improvise, I cannot stress this enough, Stan, when you improvise using this shape, please, please just stick with the four notes of the shape. So when you're improvising using that C major, just stick with C E, G, and B. And when you're improvising with C minor, just stick with C, E flat, G and B flat. I cannot tell you how many times I tell students to do that. And two seconds later, they're off to the races playing a whole bunch of other notes. Makes no sense. You cannot develop an association of a shape with a chord and the sound if you're not honoring that shape and playing that shape. And you can play inversions of that shape, right? But you're still sticking with those same four notes. Right, you can play that shape and various octaves. But you're sticking with those four notes. I beg you, Stan, Please play the four notes only as you're establishing this association of a harmonic shape with different chords do not go off on a tangent. I cannot stress that enough. Okay, so that's a very quick little exercise for major and minor takes to expand your vocabulary stand and I hope I hope this helps play around with it. And if you have any additional questions or further clarification is needed. As always, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to spend some time with you. answer any additional questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can.
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All right. Well, let's discover learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play days of Wine and Roses. Okay, quick review. Again. Here is my outline for learning any tune the genre makes no difference. rock, jazz, rock, pop country folk r&b, again, makes no difference. Here's how I go about learning to tune number one lesson number one always is listen. Listen to various artists vocalist, instrumentalist, and of course pianist. Number two determine form, right? Is it a Ba, ba B? What is the form of the piece that we are studying?
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Number three, learn the chord changes the courts the voicings, right, common harmonic progressions like 251145, so forth.
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Learn melody number four, learn melody. Number five explore treatments and improvisation. That's it. Five Steps listen to turn form, learn to chords, voicings or melody, explore treatments and improvisation. that's it nothing more, nothing less. So this week's harmonic analysis will have us listen to determine form. To learn the chord changes the harmonic function and voicings for days of Wine and Roses. Next week, we will focus on a melodic analysis and in two weeks improvisation. Okay. As always, we keep things very structured, very organized, very clean and tidy, as I like to say, with our discover, learn and play approach, and it makes no difference whether it's a skill study or a tune study, right? It makes no difference. Our conceptual understanding of all that we do musically must be structured. Must be organized must be simple so that it can be replicated.
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repeatedly, I have said it many times over the past four years many times. If your understanding of music or any musical skill is not structured and simple conceptually, then it is unorganized and confusing. And if it is on an organized and confusing conceptually upstairs, you have absolutely no shot zero chance of executing it in your hands downstairs on the piano, right? Therefore, we keep our tunes steady. Right? As you've already figured out since the beginning of the year, we keep our tune steady, very structured, very simple and replicatable. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to begin part one harmonic analysis to discover learning play days of Wine and Roses. Number two, we are going to listen to a definitive recording of days of Wine and Roses. Number three, we will discuss the form of days of Wine and Roses. Number four, we will discover, learn and play the chord changes for days of Wine and Roses. Number five we will discover learn and play the harmonic function of days of Wine and Roses. And number six, we will discover learning play my suggested voicings for days of Wine and Roses. Wow. A lot to do. Now if you are a jazz piano skills member, which is take a few minutes right now hit the pause button. I want you to print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to premium content for every weekly podcast episode, which includes all of the educational podcast packets. And as I mentioned every week you should have these podcast packets in your hands when listening to this episode to get the most out of it. And of course you should have them sitting on your piano as well when practicing.
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Okay, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab your lead sheets. You should have six lead sheets, six lead sheets, lead sheet one diagrams, the form of days of Wine and Roses lead sheet to identifies the unique chords, just the unique chords that are found in days of Wine and Roses. lead sheet three gives you the chord changes, right just a classic lead sheet of the chord changes for days of Wine and Roses. lead sheet four provides you with the harmonic function, right the Roman numeral analysis of days of Wine and Roses. lead sheet five highlights five common progressions that we will use for ear training purposes. Very common progressions factoring.
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You're already familiar with them. And number six, lead sheet six. I give you the voicings that I suggest using when plain days of Wine and Roses. Wow. Again, right tons to dissect today. So let's get busy. Okay, so what is the very first thing we do when studying and learning to tune? Let's all say it together. Listen.
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Right because without question, listening to various renditions of attune is not only the first but most important step at least I believe it is a Kenny I can't imagine
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attempting to learn a time before spending time becoming familiar with it, absorbing it right listening to various renditions, various artists performing the two. Now typically, I turn to vocal renditions first because vocalist, for the most part remain true to the original melody, especially vocalists like Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, him some of my favorite if I really want to hear straight versions. I mean, really, really straight versions of the melody I will turn to folks like Andy Williams, Doris Day, Perry Como right. After listening to the various vocal renditions, I'll turn my attention to instrumentalist horn players some of my favorite as I've mentioned before, Chet Baker, of course, Cannonball Adderley. I love Clark Terry Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young. And last but certainly not least, I always check out as many pianists as possible, right. So the bottom line I listen, and that is what we're going to do right now before going any further, we're going to listen and select into recording, right of this standard days of Wine and Roses, really, of any standard right? It's always so difficult to do because there are just so many wonderful renditions to choose from. Right and days of wine roses is
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Absolutely no exception however, however, if you are new to this standard, I believe there is no better recording to listen to than Frank Sinatra with the Nelson Riddle orchestra. This album was released in 1964 I think I mentioned earlier 1962 but I believe it's 1964 and it still sounds as hip as ever. 60 years later in 2024 So I want you to grab your coffee or your favorite beverage get coffee sit back, get ready to tap your foot and smile from ear to ear. Here's Frank Sinatra with the Nelson Riddle orchestra days of Wine and Roses
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come on
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not the not the you know discount Frank Sinatra at all but come on man anybody's singing with the Nelson Riddle orchestra is gonna sound fantastic.
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Kind of anyway. Wow. How cool is that? Right. Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle swinging. As always, I encourage you to spend time checking out. Really there's an abundance of vocal renditions of this jazz standard. So check out as many as you possibly can. It will help you absorb the harmony. The melody the lyrics of this must know no standard right. So now, now that we know how this tune goes, let's explore those lead sheets sign so grab lead sheet one let's take a look at the form of Wine and Roses.
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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 jazz piano skills.com To learn more about membership privileges, and become a jazz piano skills member. Thank you.