Jazz Piano Skills
A podcast introducing aspiring Jazz Pianists to essential Jazz Piano Skills. Professional Jazz Piano Lessons by Dr. Bob Lawrence, President The Dallas School of Music
Jazz Piano Skills
Don't Blame Me, Melodic Analysis
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills; it's time to discover, learn, and play Jazz Piano!
Every Jazz Piano Skills weekly podcast episode introduces aspiring jazz pianists to essential Jazz Piano Skills. Each Podcast episode explores a specific Jazz Piano Skill in depth. Today, you will discover, learn, and play "Don't Blame Me." In this Jazz Piano Lesson, you will:
Discover
The classic jazz standard, “Don't Blame Me”
Learn
Melody, Guide Tones, Fingerings, Phrases, and Target Notes for “Don't Blame Me”
Play
“Don't Blame Me” using three different treatments, tempos, and grooves
Use the Jazz Piano Podcast Packets for this Jazz Piano Lesson for maximum musical growth. All three Podcast Packets are designed to help you gain insight and command of a specific Jazz Piano Skill. The Podcast Packets are invaluable educational tools to have at your fingertips while you discover, learn, and play Don't Blame Me.
Open Podcast Packets
Illustrations
(detailed graphics of the jazz piano skill)
Lead Sheets
(beautifully notated music lead sheets)
Play Alongs
(ensemble assistance and practice tips)
Educational Support
Community Forum
SpeakPipe
Episode Outline
Introduction
Discover, Learn, Play
Invite to Join Jazz Piano Skills
Lesson Rationale
Exploration of Jazz Piano Skills
Conclusion
Closing Comments
Visit Jazz Piano Skills for more educational resources that include a sequential curriculum with comprehensive Jazz Piano Courses, private and group online Jazz Piano Classes, a private jazz piano community hosting a variety of Jazz Piano Forums, an interactive Jazz Fake Book, plus unlimited professional educational jazz piano support.
If you wish to donate to JazzPianoSkills, you can do so easily through the Jazz Piano Skills Paypal Account.
Thank you for being a Jazz Piano Skills listener. I am pleased to help you discover, learn, and play jazz piano!
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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. I hope everyone enjoyed this past week exploring the harmonic structure of the great jazz standard. Don't blame me. As always, we tackled many essential jazz piano skills. We looked at the form of Don't blame me. The standard chord changes of Don't blame me. We're looking at the harmonic function of Don't blame me the common harmonic movement found within Don't blame me. And of course, last but certainly not least, my suggested voicings for Don't blame me for that question, right, a ton of information that, hopefully, hopefully, the process of harmonic study is getting easier each and every month. You know, I mentioned on several occasions that there is a sequential order to learn how to play jazz piano, which indeed there is, and there is also a sequential order to learn how to play tunes. Step one is always harmony. This week, we take step two and thoroughly study melody next week. Step three, improvisation, Harmony melody improvisation is 123 Punch, right? That allows us to discover, learn and play a tune successfully. Now, I mentioned last week, that if you have been a faithful jazz piano skills listener for the past four plus years, then you have become intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to successfully begin tune study. And I also mentioned that if you haven't been granted along with us over the past four plus years, no worries, no sweat. This is always a great time to jump on board begin developing enhancing your jazz piano skills. The tune study that we do each and every month will actually help you sift through and prioritize the last four years of podcast episodes so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano skills right now immediately. So if you're a jazz piano skills Vette fantastic if you're a jazz piano skills, rookie, wonderful. You're in the right place at the right time to begin jazz piano journey that will have a profound and I mean, a profound impact on your understanding of music. And of course, on your jazz piano playing as well. So today, you are going to discover a melodic analysis of the jazz standard Don't blame me. You're going to learn melody guide tones, finger phrases target notes, for Don't blame me. And you're going to play three different melodic treatments of Don't blame me, Ballard Basa swing. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, right, whether you're a beginner, an intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're gonna find this jazz panel skills podcasts lesson, exploring Don't blame me to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to as I always do welcome first time listeners to jazz piano skills. And if you are indeed a new listener to the jazz panel skills podcast or if you're just simply new to jazz piano skills, I want to invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Your membership grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode and for every weekly podcast episode. premium content will help you thoroughly and correctly discover learn to play the jazz standard that we are currently exploring, and so much more. For example, as a jazz piano skills member you have access to the past current and future educational weekly podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs that I designed and developed to go along with every weekly podcast episode. You also have access to a self paced and sequential jazz piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive courses containing educational talks. There's interactive learning media video demonstrations of the jazz panel skills and all 12 keys and so much more. As a member your premium content reserves a seat for you in my online weekly masterclass. which is held every Thursday evening. If you can't attend, it's no big deal because the master classes are recorded. So you can watch the video of the class and rewatch the class whenever and as often as you wish. You'll also have access to an online interactive fate book containing must know jazz standards with excellent chord changes, chord scale relationships, harmonic function analysis, there's listening suggestions, historical insights, and more. So wellworth as a jazz piano skills member, you can also hang out with some old friends and meet some new friends in the online private jazz panel skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums. And finally, as a jazz panel skills member, your premium content allows you unlimited private, and personal, professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. So all of these amazing privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazz piano skills.com. And of course, become a member to enjoy premium content, plus all of the other privileges that I just mentioned. So check it out. And as always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to spend some time with you, and answer any questions that you may have. Okay, on to the question of the week and this week's question comes from Pat do shit. Living in Houston, Houston, Texas. And Pat writes, I know it is important to study music theory, especially as an aspiring jazz pianist. However, there are so many different music theory books available today. And it's overwhelming. I would like to know if there is a specific book that you would recommend for a beginner. As always, thanks for your help, and guidance. Well, Pat, you're 100% Correct. There are an overwhelming number of music theory books available today. And I'm talking to jazz music theory books, right? It's overwhelming. No doubt about it. But if I had to pick one, one jazz music theory book, for you to have sitting on your piano, it would have to be the book called The jazz language by DAN HURLEY, the jazz language by DAN HURLEY. Now this book has been around for a very long time. And it's considered a classic within the world of jazz education. And in fact, this book has been used for years, and it still may be used at the University of North Texas to teach jazz theory to all of the jazz majors. The entire the entire title of the book, however, is check this out. The entire title of the book is called the jazz language, a theory text for jazz composition and improvisation. Right? The title is pretty telling write a theory text. In other words, get ready to read, get ready to think, which of course is right in line with what I preach all the time, that your conceptual understanding drives your physical development. In other words, you have to know jazz first and foremost in your mind before you can have any chance of physically executing it in your hands. So I absolutely love the entire title of this book, The jazz language, a theory texts for jazz composition and improvisation by Mr. DAN HURLEY. Now a quick side note, Dan, who I had as a guest on jazz piano skills back on July 6 2021. In fact, he was he served on faculty here at the Dallas School of Music for eight years as well, so I get to work side by side with him. Dan was considered one of the jazz education pioneers. There's no doubt about it, you know, after John Mohegan. Dan was part of a trio of jazz educators who are all legends in the field. The two other giants, Jerry Coker, David Baker. So it's DAN HURLEY, Jerry Coker, David Baker, pioneers in the field of jazz education. Okay, so back to the book. It's a thin book, which is deceiving right? It's a thin book but it is packed packed with essential jazz information,
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the absolutely no fluff, zero fluff to this book. So to my point, let's check out the various chapters of this book. We have chapter one intervals, chapter two basic chord construction, Chapter three modes of the major scale chapter four basic substitution and function, chapter 5/13 chords, chapter six modes of the harmonic minor scale, chapters seven voicing and connecting chords, chapter eight modes of the ascending melodic minor scale. So you see he's got modes of the major scale modes of the harmonic minor scale modes of the ascending melodic minor scales. He goes on chapter nine poly chord nomenclature really very important. Chapter 10, symmetrical altered scales, fabulous Chapter, Chapter 11. Advanced substitution and function chapter 12, pentatonic and blues scales. Awesome. Chapter 13, five part harmony. Nice. That's maybe why I have all my two handed voicings or five note structures, chapter 14 synthetic scales. And then there are several appendix in the book as well developing improvisational skills, Melody harmonization checklist, hints on transcribing solos, mode identification guide, and a suggested course syllabus. See what I mean? No fluff, zero fluff in this book. Now, each chapter This is fabulous. Each chapter ends with a set of study questions, followed by written exercises, paper practice, as I like to call it. And keyboard exercises where you physically play, right. So he spends all this time in each chapter, helping you digest the jazz theory conceptually, right, gives you some paper practice exercises to help with that process. And then you do then you execute you play, right? So the conceptual understanding comes first, the physical application. Second, right. So this entire book is organized and structured extremely well. And honestly, I can't think of another jazz theory book. That's better. They just can't. And I would highly recommend. So Pat, I would suggest picking up a copy of the jazz language, a theory text for jazz composition, improvisation by DAN HURLEY, available at of course, Amazon. And I think you will find it to be very rewarding, right? It's not going to be necessarily an easy book, not by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of reading and a lot of thinking, right? Packed in these within the pages of this book, but but I would strongly recommend picking up a copy and that would be the one if I had to pick one, that would be the one I would recommend. So great question, Pat. And as always, if you want some additional guidance regarding jazz theory material, do not hesitate to contact me again. I'm always happy to help you in any way that I can't. So, okay, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play. Don't blame me. Okay, so, since the beginning of the year, I have presented I think just about every week my outline for studying and learning any tune. And again, for me, the genre makes no difference. I don't care whether it's a jazz tune, a rock tune, pop tune country folk or r&b. I approach learning a tune the same way regardless of the genre. Number one, I listen. I always listen and I like to listen to various artists I like to listen to vocalist, I like to listen to instrumentalists. And of course, I listen to pianist number two, I will always lock in first and foremost on after listening on determining the form of the two. Every song has a form. What is Is it a BA A B A B A B A C and so on. After I have form identified, I will then turn my attention to learning the chords and the voicings for the to the harmonic movement to come up common harmonic progressions. I like to lock in on various cadences to five ones one, four or five, fill in the rest of the harmonic movement of the piece. So once I have my chord shape ranges, then I'll turn my attention to learning the melody of the tune. And then finally, after I have my chords, my melody under control. Now the fun we wrote, the real fun begins I get to turn my attention to various treatments, and of course, improvisation. And that's it right? Nothing more, nothing less. Listen, I determined form checkout, I learned a chords and the voicings, I learned the melody, and I explored various treatments. That's it. All right. This week, last week, we did our harmonic work, right. Last week, we did. Listen, we did determine form we did look at the chord changes in harmonic function, common harmonic movement and the voicings for Don't blame me. This week, we turn our attention to a melodic analysis. And don't blame me. Right. So our goal, as always, right, like to keep things really organized, really structured, clean and tidy. As I like to say, you know, and I do this with my skill study or tune study, again, that makes no difference, right? Whether I'm focusing on a skill or learning a tune, I want it to be very organized, very structured, very clean, very tidy, conceptual understanding of all that we do musically, must be structured and simple. That's the goal, right? So that it can be replicated over and over and over again, right. And y'all can attest to the fact that I've said it many times over the past four plus years. In fact, I've already said it when talking about Dan Hurley's book, The jazz language, your conceptual understanding of music drives your physical development, therefore, your conceptual understanding of music, the goal is to get it to where your conceptual understanding is simple. It's simple, it's organized, right? Because if it's not simple and organized, then it's unorganized. And it's confusing, right? And if it's unorganized and confusing conceptually upstairs, you have no shot zero shot of executing it in your hands downstairs on the piano. brutal fact, just as simple as that, you have to sort out the details conceptually first, therefore, we keep our tune steady, very structured and simple and replicatable. We do the same thing, right. Every month, harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation, we have an outline. So with that being said, the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we begin part two of our exploration of Don't blame me with a melodic analysis part two. All right, number two, we are going to listen of course to a definitive recording of Don't blame me. Number three, we're going to turn our attention to the melody of Don't blame me. Number four, we'll discuss the fingerings that I suggest for Don't blame me. Number five, we will discover learn and play the melodic phrases of Don't blame me. Number six, we will discover learn and play the melodic target notes of Don't blame me. And number seven, we will discover learn and play the melody with voicings of Don't blame me right using three different treatments, three different treatments. So we have a ton to do no doubt about it. So if you're a jazz panel skills member I want you to take a few minutes right now hit the pause button I want you to download and print your podcast packets. These are the illustrations the lead sheets, the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode for every podcast episode, past, current and future right. So I mentioned that every week you should be using these podcast packets when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course you should be using them when practicing as well. So if you are listening to this podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google Spotify, I Heart Radio Amazon Pandora The list goes on and on. Then I would recommend going directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com jazz piano skills podcast.com And
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you will find the active download links for each of the podcast packets in the show notes. Or you can log into your jazz panel skills account. And from your Dashboard, navigate to this episode where you will find one convenient link to download all three podcast packets in one convenient bundle. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab lead your lead sheets right and you should have six lead sheets. lead sheet one and provides you a great template for learning the malady of Don't blame me, using your ears, right not reading that, but using your ears with some help from the lyrics and we'll go through that here shortly. Number two, lead sheet two provides you with the melody of Don't blame me. Number Number three, your lead sheet three provides you with my suggested fingerings that I would recommend using when playing the melody for Don't blame me. lead sheet four highlights five phrases that we'll use for really solidifying our understanding of the melody and learning the tune, don't blame me. And number five, or lead sheet five illuminates the target notes, the beginning and ending of these phrases that we use for melodic development and quite honestly for improvisational development that we will be focusing on next week. And then finally, lead sheet six combines the melody with my suggested voicings that I presented last week with our harmonic analysis for Don't blame me. So no question about it. Right. We have some invaluable tools to utilize today to discover learn and play. So what so let's get busy. What's the first thing that we're going to do? You got it right? We're going to listen, because that's what we do. Right? We do it every every week, the first thing we do, always, always and I stress it all the time because I believe quite honestly, I believe that is the most important step of all. I can't even imagine attempting to learn a tune without doing a lot of listening of that tune without checking out a lot of different artists and you know what artists from different genres genres to, I always course select jazz musicians because it's jazz piano skills. But if there are redundant renditions of this tune from other genres, I'll check those out as well. So I typically listen to vocalist first, as you know, right followed by instrumentalist followed by Panis. Regardless, bottom line, I listened. And that's what we're going to do right now be going before we go any further, right now, last week, we checked out Nat King Cole. This week, we turn our intention to an instrumental treatment. And I've selected none other than the great the iconic, Charlie Parker. And now this is taken from the album One night in Washington, which features Parker with an orchestra which is fabulous. So as always, right as always, I want you to grab your favorite beverage cup of coffee or whatever you enjoy drinking. I want you to sit back and I want you to enjoy simply the best of the best. This is Charlie Parker. Again from from the album One night in Washington. Plain Don't blame me and nine teen 53 Check this out.
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is pretty amazing, right? You know, as with all recordings, I want to encourage you to listen to it over and over and over again. And every time you do, I promise you every time you do, you'll hear something new. And it will have a profound impact on the development of your treatment of the tune. So check it out, listen to it over and over again the great Charlie Parker plain Don't blame me. So now, let's explore those lead sheets. I want you to grab lead sheet one let's discover how to properly begin learning the melody of don't blame. 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.
