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
I Wish You Love, 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 "I Wish You Love." In this Jazz Piano Lesson, you will:
Discover
The classic jazz standard, “I Wish You Love”
Learn
Melody, Guide Tones, Fingerings, Phrases, and Target Notes for “I Wish You Love”
Play
“I Wish You Love” 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 I Wish You Love.
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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Bob, 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 standard. I wish you love as always, right, as always. We
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tackled many essential jazz piano skills. Last week, we looked at the form of I wish you loved the standard chord changes for I wish you love, the harmonic function, the common harmonic movement found within I wish you love. And of course,
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we looked at my suggested voicings for I wish you love, without question. We covered a ton of information. But hopefully, hopefully this process, this process of a harmonic study is getting easier. No doubt about it that since the start of the year, we have truly solidified a three tier approach to tune study. Step one is a harmonic analysis, like we did this last week, form changes, function, harmonic movement, voicings. This week we take step two and thoroughly study melody. And next week step three, improvisation, harmony, Melody, improvisation, a logical and sequential order allowing us to discover, learn and play a tune successfully. I mentioned it every week that if you have been a faithful jazz piano skills listener for the past four plus years, you have become intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to begin tune study. And I also mentioned that if you haven't been grinding along with us over the past four years, no worries. It's no big deal. This is a great time to jump on board begin developing enhancing your jazz piano skills.
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In fact, the tune study that we do every month will help you sift through and prioritize the last four years of podcast episodes so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano skills immediately. So as I always say, if you're a jazz piano skills, vet, fantastic. If you're a jazz piano skills, rookie, fantastic. You're in the right place at the right time to begin a jazz piano journey that will have a profound impact on your understanding of music, which in turn will have a profound impact on your jazz piano playing. So today, you're going to discover a melodic analysis for this jazz standard I wish you love, and you're going to learn melody, guide tones, fingerings, phrases, target notes for I wish you love, and you're going to play. We're going to take a look at three different melodic treatments of I wish you love, classic ballad, bossa nova, swing.
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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 are a seasoned and experienced and crusty old professional,
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you're gonna find this jazz piano skills podcast lesson exploring I wish you love 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 a new listener to the jazz piano skills podcast, you're 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 of course, for every weekly podcast episode, the premium content will help you thoroughly and correctly discover, learn and 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.
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These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs or backing tracks that I design and develop to help you get the most out of each weekly jazz piano skills podcast episode. You also have access to a.
Important. But as I think it's important, because you've heard me say many times on this podcast that sounds and types do not enjoy autonomy, which is which is fabulous. Because what that means is that when I practice F minor, when I tackled F minor this morning, all the other sounds, all the other types, were improving as well. So never make the mistake of thinking that if you practice less like F minor by itself, that somehow you are ignoring all of the other minors and sounds, because you're not. I guess it's the classic example of less is more. So what did I do this morning with F minor? You know, I always begin. I always begin with some good old fashioned scale and arpeggio practice, right? I love practicing scales and arpeggios through the entire sound from the root to the 13th. And I do this to warm up five ways. There's actually five ways that I that I practice my scales and arpeggios. Number one, I practice my arpeggios, my scales from the root to the seventh. Right? Those of you been with with me for a while and listening to the podcast? No, I refer to that as zone one, root to the seventh. Number two, I'll practice scales and arpeggios from the third to the ninth, which I call zone two, I practice scales and arpeggios. Number three, I practice scales and arpeggios from the fifth to the 11th, which I would call zone three, and then number four, from the seventh to the 13th, which I call zone four. The fifth way I like to practice is root to the 13th, up and down arpeggio and scale. So in other words, all four zones together. So there I always start, regardless of the sound, regardless of the type. I always start with scale and arpeggio practice. Now I will use a play along file to establish time, and I will take my time with this process. I do not practice speed. And never practice speed instead, instead, I focus on playing with a legato articulation and balance sound from the bottom to the top of my arpeggio and from the bottom to the top of my scale. You know, after all, speed is a product of familiarity, so more familiar I become with the sound, the more familiar I become with the shapes of that sound from the different zones I tend to. My speed tends to take care of itself, right? I think, you know, I think we place way too much emphasis on playing arpeggios and scales faster and faster and faster. Somehow we get this, I think we have this mindset that that's what we're supposed to do right play arpeggios and scales faster. And unfortunately we we fall into that trap, and then we typically sacrifice our sound and articulation as a result, I would actually encourage you to focus on playing with a legato articulation and balance sound and put less and less emphasis on speed. Right? So after I did my arpeggio on scale work this morning with F minor, I then turned my attention to voicings, and I practice the following. I practice my blocks block shapes, but I practice my block shapes using a locked hands approach like a George sharing style, where I like to play the the melody or the scale in both my left and my right hand, and then I fill in the rest of the sound. So in other words, my F minor scale. But I'm going to play this with F minor I'm playing that F in octaves with the minor sound and filled in in the middle, so you can hear that right? So I just played up the entire scale using these blocks. So I love to do that. I love to use practice my voicings left hand shells, primarily chordal or contemporary shapes. And then, of course, I practice my two hand voicings that I'm always speaking of in these podcasts, in our tune study. So I like to play these voicings using arpeggio and scale motion. In other words, I practice my voice scenes. This is important. I practice my voicings by harmonizing my arpeggios and my scales. So again, my F minor arpeggio, my. Sound something like this, right? Or it might sound something like this, depending on which voicing type I'm I'm practicing, right? So my scale again would be something like this if I'm practicing blocks or if I'm practicing chordal shapes, chordal voicings, I'll play it as a scale, right? So I'm always practicing voicings, but I'm thinking in terms of arpeggios and scales when I do okay? So after I've done my voicing reps, I turn my attention to improvising, and my improvisation practice focuses on each zone the sound using arpeggio and scale motion only, right? So once I have practiced diatonic improvisation, chord and scale tones only. I then begin to insert tension using half step approachments neighboring tones to specific target notes, right? So by the time I get through this entire process that I just quickly went through, we're talking about a 15 to 20 minutes process, my coffee now is cold, so I make a new cup and I get a hot cup so I can start the day. Now, throughout the day, I will continue to practice. I will continue to sneak practice time in five minutes here, five minutes there. And it typically when I do this kind of practicing, it involves exploring a tune. Maybe I'm playing, focusing on playing the melody of the tune, or maybe my focus is on the chord changes of the tune, or maybe my focus is on some common harmonic movement within the tune. Or maybe I'm practicing improvising through the through the tune, right? But I'm always sneaking, like I said, five minutes here, five minutes there. So my practice, my practicing, yes, I practice every day. I think my longest practice session is the first session of the day where I do about a 1520, minute walk through like I just described, and then after that, it's always little five minutes here and five minutes there, but always with a very specific I always have a very specific objective before I sit down to do any practicing, whether it's for five minutes or whether it's for 20 minutes, it makes no difference. I always have a very specific objective. And I tell students all the time that if you go to sit down the practice and you haven't already defined an objective too late, it's already too late. You're going to end up probably doodling and not getting much done, right? So, so important to have very set objectives that you are focusing on when you sit down to practice, right? And, and I tell students all the time, every single practice session. Should have a single practice objective, right? Single practice session, single practice objective. You know, I know this is a quick answer. I probably should devote an entire podcast to this question and do a lot more demonstrating and modeling with it. And I may do that because I think it's that. I think it's a great question. I'm happy to share with you how I approach practicing on a date, on a daily basis. So Lucas, I I hope this, hope this helps a big a few big takeaways here. Number one, have very specific skills that you are practicing, and be sure to approach that skill practice using sounds and types as your foundational approach. Remember, right, less is more. Number two, I would tell you, improvisation practice is intentional practice, it is formulaic and structured, which I know sounds like the opposite of improvisation But therein lies the irony. Right to develop improvisational skills,
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you have to establish an improvisational approach which is discovered through formulaic and structured improvisation. Practice number three, I
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would say, Make articulation your priority with everything you practice, right? Arpeggio, scales, improvisation, tunes, your sound and articulation is priority number one. Sound like a professional from day one. I tell this to students all the time. When you sit down the play, I don't care what you're practicing, sound like a professional, right? Do not sacrifice how you sound for speed ever. And I think the last thing I would say is, when practicing tunes, make it skill centric, right? Make it a skill centric endeavor. It's so important that you learn from tunes that you are not simply and that you actually learn. From the tunes, and yet that you're not simply trying to memorize the tune to play. These are two very different things. These are two different approaches with very different results, I guarantee it. So again, great question, Lucas, I
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hope my answer provided you with some insight to how I approach practicing. And if you want additional insight, please do not hesitate to contact me again. I'm happy to spend some time with you, go a little deeper and help you in any way that I can. Okay, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play I wish you love here we go with a melodic analysis. Okay, so last week, I presented my outline for studying and learning any tune I in fact, I do it every week, so I want to just go through that again, real quick, quickly here and again, the genre makes no difference, right? Whether it's jazz, rock, pop, country, folk, R and B makes no difference. Number one, I
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always listen, I check out as many artists as I possibly can. Vocalist, instrumentalist, and, of course, pianist. Number two, I always determine form of the piece. I like to know whether I'm dealing with a classic, A, a B, A or a B, A, B. You know, every tune has a form. I need to know what it is. Number three, I'll turn my attention to learning the harmonic structures or the chord changes for the tune voicings, common harmonic progressions, like 251145, so on. Then I like to turn my attention to the melody after that, and then, of course, explore various treatments and improvisation after that. And that's it, right? Nothing more, nothing less. That's how I approach learning a tune. Last week, we focused on gaining in harmonic familiar, familiarity and command of I wish you love. So we listened. We determined form, we explored the chord changes, the harmonic function and the voicings okay. Now this week, we turn our attention to a melodic analysis for I wish you love and our goal as always, right, keep things really clean tidy with our approach. And again, whether it's a skill study or tune study, again, that it makes no difference, right, our conceptual understanding of all that we do musically must be structured and simple, even our practicing must be structured and simple so that it can be replicated over and over again. And it's through that replication that we develop our muscle memory and our aura memory, right? Y'all can attest to the fact that I have said it many times over the past four years, that if your conceptual understanding of music or any musical skill is not structured and simple, then it means that in some way, shape or form, it's unorganized and confusing. And if it's unorganized and confusing, conceptually, upstairs, as I like to say, you have absolutely zero shot of executing it in your hands. Downstairs on the piano. Therefore we like to keep our tune study structured and simple and, of course, replicatable every single month. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to begin our melodic analysis to discover, learn and play I wish you love. Number two, we're going to listen to a definitive recording of I wish you love number three. We are going to learn the melody by ear for I wish you love number four, we will discuss the melodic fingerings that I suggest when playing I wish you love number five, we will discover, learn and play the melodic phrases. Number six, we will discover learn and play the melodic target notes. Number seven, we will discover learn and play the melody with voicings. The voicings that we studied last week, we will now apply the melody to those voicings for I wish you love and number eight, we will discover learn and play three different treatments. I always like to look at a ballad, Bossa and swing treatment. Okay, so no doubt about it, we got a ton to get through. And right now, if you are a jazz panel skills member, I would encourage you to take just a few minutes right now, hit the pause button and download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to the premium content for every weekly podcast episode, which of course, includes all of the educational podcast packets, and I mentioned it every week. You should have this material in your hands when listening to the podcast to get the most out of it. And of course, you should have them sitting on the piano as well when practicing. 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 go directly to jazz piano skills podcast.com and 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, 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 and your hands, I want, I want you to grab the lead sheets. And you should have six lead sheets, and I want to just walk through them very quickly. Lead sheet one is a great template for learning the melody of I wish you love using your ears with, of course, some help from the some guide tones. Okay, number two, lead sheet two provides you with the entire melody now written out for I wish you love so you can kind of compare the work you've you've done with lead sheet one to lead sheet two. Just see how close you are with deciphering the melody orally. Okay, number three, lead sheet three, provides you with the fingerings that I recommend when using the melody of I wish you love. And then if you look at lead sheet four, I have the phrases indicated or highlighted. And then lead sheet five illuminates target notes used for melodic and improvisational development. And then, of course, the last lead sheet six combines the melody with the voicings that I introduced last week with our harmonic analysis. So we're going to walk through all six of these lead sheets today, right? No doubt about it, right, that some invaluable tools that you now have in your hands to help you discover, learn and play. I wish you love so. So let's get busy. The very first thing we do always when learning a tune, we did it last week. We're going to do it again today, because we should always be doing it right. Always. I stressed last week that listening to various renditions of the tune is not only the first, but I believe, the most important step of the entire process. And again, I can't even imagine attempting to learn a tune before spending time becoming familiar with it through listening, absorbing it, right? I typically listen to vocal renditions. Last week we listened to Nancy Wilson singing, I wish you love followed by instrumentalists, which we're going to listen to today, followed by pianist, which we'll do next week. Bottom line, I listen, and that's what we're going to do right now before going any further. As I said last week, we checked out Nancy Wilson. This week we turn our attention to an instrumental treatment, and we're going to check out one of my favorite of all time, Mr. Chet Baker. This is from a 1965 recording with Bob James on the piano. Now, Chet plays the introduction to I wish you love which is beautiful, by the way, so we don't on the lead sheets. I'm dealing with just the tune. The introduction is not included. But so when you hear this, just know that you're hearing the introduction, and then you then, of course, hear the tune. So let's sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and let's sit back and listen to the great Chet Baker along with Bob James performing. I wish you Love check This out. Oh,
Ha, yes, indeed, pretty amazing If I was a trumpet player, I'd want to be Chet Baker. Man, gosh, was that guy something else? I want to encourage you to listen to it over and over this recording, and every time you do, I promise you, you're going to hear something different. And of course, it will have a profound impact on the development of your very own treatment of I wish you love so now let's explore those lead sheets. So grab lead sheet one. Let's discover how to properly begin learning the melody. 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 jazzpanelskills.com to learn more about membership privileges and become a jazz piano skills member. Thank you.
