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
Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Improvisation
It's time to Discover, Learn, and Play Jazz Piano!
Keywords
Jazz Piano, Improvisation, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Christmas Jazz, Jazz Skills, Music Education, Piano Techniques, Jazz Harmony, Melody Analysis, Jazz Standards
Summary
In this episode of Jazz Piano Skills, Dr. Bob Lawrence explores the classic Christmas tune 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' with a focus on developing improvisational skills. The session is structured around a three-tier approach: harmony, melody, and improvisation, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's strengths and weaknesses in jazz piano. The episode includes practical exercises and techniques for improvisation, culminating in a comprehensive exploration of the tune.
Podcast Packets
Illustrations
Lead Sheets
Play Alongs
Takeaways
The three-tier approach to studying tunes is essential.
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is crucial for improvement.
Improvisation can be systematically developed using specific techniques.
Listening to various renditions of a tune enhances understanding.
Practicing with stationary threads helps develop harmonic vision.
Incorporating silence in music is as important as sound.
Eighth note movement adds complexity to improvisation.
Half-step approachments create tension in musical phrases.
Improvisation is a lifelong journey that requires patience.
Consistent practice leads to significant growth in jazz piano skills.
Titles
Mastering Jazz Piano: A Christmas Special
Improvisation Techniques for Jazz Pianists
Unlocking the Secrets of Jazz Piano Skills
Santa Claus is Coming to Town: A Jazz Exploration
The Art of Improvisation in Jazz Piano
Jazz Piano Skills: Christmas Edition
Sound Bites
"It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano."
"Today, we're going to wrap things up."
"There's no better way to improve our playing."
"You are in the right place at the right time."
"It's time to discover, learn, and play Santa Claus is coming to town."
"Music is sound and silence."
"This is a lifelong journey. It doesn't happen overnight."
"Merry Christmas to all and most of all, have fun!"
Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.834)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Well, today is Christmas Eve, and what better day to finish our exploration of Santa Claus is coming to town with a little improvisation. A few weeks ago, we took a deep dive into the harmonic foundation of the tune, followed by a melodic analysis. Right? And today, we're going to be wrapping things up. Did you catch that? Right? Wrapping things up Christmas Eve. Okay. Anyway, today we're going to wrap things up with a challenging look at various ways to use Santa Claus is coming to town to develop our improvisational skills. Very cool. You know, what's great about our three-tier approach to study in tunes, harmony, melody, improvisation. In fact, it's the approach that we've used all year long with every tune that we have studied. This approach quickly reveals our strengths and weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses regarding essential jazz piano skills. And I have stressed all year.
How imperative it is that we know, we literally and legitimately know our jazz strengths and weaknesses. You know, why? Because honestly, there's no better way to improve our playing than without having an accurate understanding. Not a better way, there's no way. There's no way to improve our playing.
Without having an accurate understanding or assessment of our playing. So our three tier approach that we've been utilizing all year does precisely that, right? It gives us a very accurate, like I like to say, report card, right? We learn very quickly, A, B, C, right? We discover where we stand with our ability to play the critical jazz piano skills that are necessary for playing tunes. You know, I have made a
Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:56.141)
point to mention several times since the start of the year that there's a sequential order to learn how to play jazz piano. There truly is. You know, in all high level skills, and playing jazz piano definitely qualifies as a high level skill, right? All high level skills, you cannot successfully develop without a strategic game plan. And I think you all can attest to the fact that
scattered shot approach, a YouTube approach to trying to learn how to play jazz piano just causes confusion, frustration, and honestly, a sense of being overwhelmed with information overload. So you know, my goal from day one with jazz piano skills has been not only to introduce you to the essential jazz piano skills discover, right, but to provide you with a way to successfully study the skills.
learn, and a process for developing a physical command of the skill, right? Play, discover, learn, play. You know, I've also mentioned throughout the year that that if you've been a faithful jazz piano skills listener for the past five years, you've become honestly, you've become very intimately familiar with the jazz piano skills needed to successfully begin tune study.
I've also mentioned that if you haven't been grinding along with us over the past five years, well, you know what? No worries. No big deal. Today's a great time to jump on board and begin developing and enhancing your jazz piano skills right now. And the tune study that we do every month will help you sift through and prioritize less five years of podcast episodes so that you can begin maximizing your jazz piano skills immediately.
So, makes no difference, right? If you're Jazz Panel Skills Vet, fantastic. Jazz Panel Skills Rookie, wonderful. You are in the right place at the right time to begin a Jazz Panel journey that will have a very profound impact on your understanding of music and of course, your Jazz Piano playing. So today, today, Christmas Eve, we are going to discover how to practice improvisation
Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:19.206)
using the Christmas classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We're going to learn how to systematically develop improvisation skills using Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And we're going to play six essential improvisation steps applied to the standard Santa Claus is Coming to Town. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, you're a beginner,
an intermediate player, an advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced pro, you're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills podcast lesson exploring Santa Claus is coming to town to be very beneficial. But before we get started, before we jump in, 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 Piano Skills podcast and you're new to Jazz Piano Skills, welcome.
I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Now your membership grants you access, many privileges, grants you access to the premium content for this podcast episode and for every weekly podcast episode. And the premium content will help you thoroughly and correctly discover, learn and play the jazz standard and the jazz piano skills that we are currently exploring. Right? And so much more. For example,
As a Jazz Piano Skills member, you can access the past, the current, the future Educational Weekly Podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs or the backing tracks that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode to help you get the most out of the podcast episode. Now you'll also have access to a self paced and sequential Jazz Piano curriculum which is loaded with comprehensive
courses, all of them containing educational talks. There's interactive learning media to help you conceptually digest the Jazz Panel Skill being explored. There are video demonstrations of the skill in all 12 keys and so much more. You also have as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have a reserved seat in my online weekly master classes, which are held every Thursday evening. And if you can't attend, it's no big deal because the master classes are recorded.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:46.781)
and you can listen to the class whenever and as often as you wish. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you can also hang out in our online interactive, online private Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums. And finally, last but not least, your Jazz Panel Skills membership grants you unlimited private, personal, and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it.
Now all of these amazing perks, these privileges are waiting to help you discover, learn and play jazz piano. So check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com and of course become a member to enjoy premium podcast content and all of the other perks that I just mentioned. Of course, you get to the site, you have some questions, you're poking around, you need some assistance. Do not hesitate to contact me. I'm happy to
spend some time with you, answer any questions that you may have, help you in any way that I can. All right, so on to the question of the week. And this week's question comes from Lee Solomon living in New York City. Lee says, recently, wait a I recently started learning the locked hands technique used by George Shearing and finding it to be quite difficult.
you have any tips or suggestions that will help learning this technique at least a little easier? Thank you for your help. I love the podcast. Well, Lee, wow, your assessment of the locked hands technique made popular by George Sherry is spot on. It's not easy. And it's going to take some time and practice, right? Of course, before it starts to click for you.
You know, it's funny, I think we've dealt with this question in the past, but, you know, locked hands. I was just discussing this, the locked hands with a student on Sunday. So your question comes at the perfect time. Now, before I go any further, I want to make you aware, if you're not already aware of a series of podcast episodes that I dedicated specifically to locked hands. So check out the month of September 2021.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:08.031)
So you got to go back a few years, the entire month of September and the first week of October. And you'll find a podcast episode teaching Locked Hands for each sound, major, dominant, minor, half-diminished and diminished. And I think you'll find them to be very beneficial. So the first thing I would say is to check out that podcast, those, those podcast episodes. There's a whole series dealing with Locked Hands.
Now, with that being said, let me take this time to just give you a couple quick tips for studying and practicing the locked hands technique. Number one, I would approach them by sound, right? So approach learning them by major dominant minor half diminished and diminished sound. And I would start learning the locked hands for the minor sound first.
then the dominant sound, then the major sound. Why? Because you will eventually be practicing locked hand exercises that move through the two five one progression. And why the two five one progression? Because it is laced throughout practically every jazz standard that you want to play. So learn how to play locked hands through the two five one progression.
learn how to play locked hands in tunes. It's kind of a process, right? That's the first thing I would say. The second thing I would say about locked hands, keep in mind that the right hand carries the load. The right hand carries the load. The melody is going to be played in your little finger on the right hand, and then the chord tones in the rest of the hand. The left hand doubles the melody that is played in your right hand little finger.
it's going to double that melody one octave lower. Okay. Now, just a little side note, if you do not have a command of your chords and inversions, right, chords and inversions, then your locked hands are going to be impossible. Just impossible. So I would say to you make sure that you have a functional command.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:34.242)
playing your major dominant minor half diminished and diminished chords in root position, first, second, and third inversions. Okay, make sure you have those under control. Okay, so now the next thing I would say is begin learning locked hands, playing locked hands using arpeggio motion. Arpeggio motion. So for example,
I'm playing C, middle C in my little finger, then I'm gonna play E flat. I'm gonna do this on C minor. So C in my little finger, I'm gonna play E flat my little finger, G in my little finger, and then B flat with
So I'm just moving up the piano with my little finger C E flat G B flat. Now underneath that C, I'm going to fill in the rest of the C minor chord. So that's C minor in first inversion. C minor in second inversion. C minor in third inversion. C minor in root position. See why I say you have to know your chords.
in root, first, second and third inversion. Otherwise, blocks are to be impossible. So now if I go back, got my C with played with my little finger in the right hand. I got the rest of the chord underneath it. I'm going to double that C an octave below. I have the George Sharing locked hand now right the melody doubled in octaves with the rest of the harmony of the chord in between.
If I play the entire arpeggio that way... So now I've just played the C minor arpeggio using the locked hands technique.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:29.161)
Okay, so I would start with arpeggio movement, arpeggio motion, and be able to play that for your minor chords, be able to play it for your dominant chords. dominant B flat major
Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:53.321)
251. So again, arpeggio motion, locked hands, little finger in the right hand. The right hand is going to carry the load. Little finger is playing the melody. It's doubled in the left hand an octave below with the rest of the harmony filled in. Okay, now once you have a command of arpeggio motion, you can add the passing tones to establish scale motion. right? So ideally, then you want to be able to play the C minor scale.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:32.744)
using locked hands. Now, just to give you a little tip on this, think in practicing scales using the locked hands, I think in groupings, two note groupings, right? So I'm going to group my C and my D together, my E flat and F, my G and my A, and then my B flat.
to the octave, Bb and C. So again, C and D, Eb and F, G and A, Bb and C. Okay, so the reason I group those pairs is because the melody is moving, but the harmony inside the melody is not. So from C to D, the same harmony inside the octave, Eb to F,
Same harmony inside the octave, G to A. Same harmony inside the octave, and then I finish it out. Okay, so again, make sure that you have a command of your chords in root position. First, second, third inversion. Know that the locked hand, the right hand carries the load. The melody is played in the little finger in the right hand.
melody is doubled an octave lower in the left hand, typically using your thumb in the left hand to double that melody. Fill in the harmony between the octaves. Start with arpeggio motion, learning locked hands for arpeggios, for your minor, dominant and major chords first, so you get the two five one relationship. Then once comfortable with that, add the passing tones to create the scale movement.
and I would recommend thinking in pairs when you do that, knowing that the melody, the scale moves, but the harmony stays the same inside those pairs. Play in and out of time. In other words, like I was just playing right there, I had no backing track, no play along, just working through the shapes, right? Working through the shapes. And then, of course, once I feel like I have the shapes under command, I can certainly turn to
Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:56.134)
some application to provide a backing track for me to play to play this technique in time. Okay, so those are just a few of the quick tips that I would offer to you right now. Lee, I would encourage you again to go back and listen to the five podcast episodes that were released September of 2021. In the first week of October 2021, where I dedicate an episode to each
to the locked hands technique for each sound major dominant minor half diminished and diminished. I encourage you to go and check those out. So anyway, it's a great question. It's a great sound. It's a classic jazz piano technique, classic jazz piano sound that you hear everyone using. So time devoted to learning this, this style and this technique is time well spent. And like I said earlier, it takes a little, it's going to take a little time, a little practicing to get
to get it under your fingers and to get used to it, but it's well worth the time and it's well worth the effort for sure. If you have any additional comments, Lee, or need any additional help, you wanna dig a little deeper with me, by all means, please reach out, let me know. Happy to shed some more light on it and clarification if needed. So again, great question. Thanks for submitting it. And now it's time.
get busy. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. It's time to discover, learn, and play Santa Claus is coming to town. It's part three. A little improvisation journey here today. So let's get busy. I have been presenting my outline for studying and learning tunes since the start of the year, every month, right? But it never hurts, as always, it never hurts to review.
And let's do that right now. So when learning a tune, genre makes no difference. Jazz, rock, pop, country, folk, R &B makes no difference. I approach it the same way, regardless of genre. Now, the first step always is listen. I like to listen to various artists from various genres, vocalist, instrumentalist, and of course, yes, pianist. I always
Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:18.486)
seem to first and foremost gravitate toward determining the form of the tune. Is it an A-A-B-A, A-B-A-B? Every tune has its form. I need to know the roadmap immediately. Then I turn my attention, maybe because I'm a pianist, I turn my attention to the harmonic structure of the piece. You know, am I hearing two five one progressions, one four five, one six two five?
So I like to learn the chord movement and then the voicings. Number four, I'll turn to melody, learning the melody by ear, of course, never reading it from a fake book or a lead sheet. And then I like to explore various treatments with that melody, right? Various treatments of the tune, styles, right? Ballad, bossa, swing. And then finally, explore improv improvisation approaches with the tune. So that's it, right?
those five steps. I listen, determine form, learn the chord changes, voicings, learn melody and treatments, and improvise. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less, right? So a few weeks ago, we focused on gaining a harmonic familiarity and command of Santa Claus is coming to town. So of course, we listened, we determined the form, we explored the chord changes, harmonic function, and the voicings. A couple, a couple weeks ago, we focused on
and in-depth melodic analysis of Santa Claus is coming to town, where we checked out various melodic guide tones and phrases, target notes, we transcribed the melody, fingerings, treatments. And of course, now today we're going to dive into the improvisation. So, you know, our goal always is to keep things really simple, keep things clean, keep things tidy. Of course, we...
This is our approach with everything we do, whether it's a tune or a scale, makes no difference. Because we've come to learn, right? We've come to realize that it's our conceptual understanding that drives our physical development. And our conceptual understanding must be clean, must be simple, in order for us to have any hope of gaining a physical command.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (22:40.768)
of the skills or of the tune that we are studying, right? I've said it over and over again for the last five years that your conceptual understanding of music, of a skill or a tune, right? If it's not structured, if it's not simple, then it's unorganized and confusing. And if it's unorganized and confusing conceptually upstairs, you have zero shot of executing it in your hands.
downstairs on the piano. Therefore, priority number one for us always is to keep our skill study or tune study structured, simple, and of course, replicatable. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to begin part three of our Santa Claus' Come into Town exploration.
we're going to discover, learn and play an improvisation approach. Number two, we are going to listen, of course, to a definitive recording of Santa Claus is coming to town. Number three, we will discuss the importance, the importance of establishing intentional, an intentional and formulaic approach for developing improvisation. Number four, we will stress the importance of gaining a command of
harmony from which of course melody flows. Number five, we will explore six essential steps that you can utilize using the form and the changes of Santa Claus has come into town for practicing improvisation. And finally, number six, I will be playing demonstrations today at a temple right around 100. So not too, not too snappy, right?
pretty comfy, right around 100 using a traditional swing groove. So right, as always, we have a lot to get through on this Christmas Eve. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to download and print your podcast packets. These are the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs, or backing tracks.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:05.047)
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. So please take a moment to print those. 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 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, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Pandora, the list goes on and on. Then I would suggest going directly to JazzPanelsKillsPodcast.com. And you'll find the active download links for each of the podcast packets in the show notes. Or you can log into your JazzPanelsKills 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. How cool is that? Okay, so now that you have your podcast packets in front of you, I want you to grab the lead sheets. We're going to begin there. And you should have you should have six lead sheets in your packet. So I want to walk through those lead sheets right now.
Okay. Lead sheet one is a classic lead sheet. No melody, all the chord changes, but we're going to use this lead sheet to create stationary threads, stationary threads, and we will get into that here shortly. Lead sheet two, we will use this lead sheet that you have in front of you to create quarter note strings, a quarter note string that
flows from the beginning of the tune, the very first C major seven all the way through the entire form. Okay, that's going to be lead sheet two. Lead sheet three is where we're going to practice mathematical silence, the insertion of mathematical silence in our thread. Lead sheet four is where we're going to practice our rand, the insertion of random silence to now start creating
Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:31.458)
musical phrases in our improvisation. Lead sheet five, we now spice things up a little bit with the addition of eighth note movement within our melodic ideas. And then lead sheet six, we begin adding some half step approachments to create some tension in our improvisational ideas. So those are our six lead sheets. We have a lot to work
a lot of work to do with each one of those. So let's get busy, right? It's time that we discover, learn and play today. So let's get after this. So what's the first thing that we do? Always listen, right? Very first thing that we do is listen. A few weeks ago when we started our harmonic exploration of Santa Claus is coming to town. We listened a couple weeks ago, we
started our melodic analysis of the tune, what we do, we listened. Today, before we dive into our improvisation exploration, guess what we're going to do? We're going to listen. So important. In fact, I go as far as to say it's probably the most important step of them all, is to spend time absorbing the tune, listening to tune, various artists, various renditions, various genres, soak it in as much as you possibly can, right?
Now, I typically listen to vocal renditions first. I like to listen to the vocalist. Then I turn my attention to instrumentalist. And of course, I always followed up with pianist. But the bottom line is I do a lot of listening when I begin to study and when I begin to learn a tune. So three weeks ago, we checked out the great Dave Brubeck's rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Two weeks ago, we enjoyed the one and only Ray Charles performing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And today,
We turn to none other than the iconic Bill Evans playing a killer solo rendition solo rendition of Santa Claus is coming to town recorded in 1963. So grab some eggnog. The reason I say that a neighbor brought over a bottle of Puerto Rican eggnog. They're from Puerto Rico. So they brought over this Puerto Rican eggnog that
Dr. Bob Lawrence (29:58.08)
Let's just put it this way. dug in my wife and I dove into that last night. I'm lucky here to be here today, recording this episode, but it was delicious. So anyway, grab your eggnog. I'm going to get what's leftover of my eggnog. Sit back and let's enjoy Bill Evans, Santa Claus is coming to town.
Dr. Bob Lawrence (34:47.873)
Wow, simply amazing. Bill Evans, what a musical mind, a master of harmony, which is why he's so good at creating those amazing melodic lines. Amazing. So now let's, let's explore those lead sheets. So grab lead sheet one. And let's discover how to properly begin developing are improvisational skills using the Christmas classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
