The Jazz Language

Keywords
jazz piano, jazz language, music education, improvisation, harmony, melody, jazz skills, music theory, practice techniques, jazz progressions

Summary
In this episode of Jazz Piano Skills, Dr. Bob Lawrence introduces a structured approach to learning jazz piano, emphasizing the importance of understanding the seven facts of music. He explores the concept of the jazz language, breaking it down into its essential components: harmony, melody, and improvisation. The discussion highlights the significance of having a clear practice objective and how each component interrelates to maximize musical growth. The episode concludes with encouragement for listeners to engage with the jazz language and continue their musical journey.

Takeaways
A well-thought-out plan is essential for studying jazz.
Understanding the seven facts of music is crucial for growth.
Jazz is the production of sound and silence.
Harmony, melody, and improvisation are the core components of jazz.
Practicing small units can lead to significant results.
Transcriptions are not the only way to learn jazz language.
Melody involves understanding various arpeggios and scales.
Rhythm is a key element that makes music interesting.
Every practice session should have a clear objective.
Engagement with the jazz community enhances learning.

Titles
Unlocking the Jazz Language
Mastering Jazz Piano Skills
The Seven Facts of Music Explained
Improvisation Techniques for Jazz Musicians
Understanding Harmony and Melody in Jazz

Sound Bites
"What is jazz the study of?"
"No awareness of the seven facts of music."
"You have zero chance of becoming an accomplished musician."
"Practicing in this manner is what I like to call smart practice."
"The jazz language is much more than just transcriptions."
"Harmony, melody, improvisation."
"Scales, arpeggios, zones make up the melody component."
"Four plus three plus five equals improvisation."
"Everything we do musically must adhere to the seven facts."
"Enjoy the jazz language and have fun!"

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Jazz Piano Skills
09:39 Understanding the Seven Facts of Music
21:06 Exploring the Jazz Language
40:38 Components of the Jazz Language
47:41 Conclusion and Next Steps

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 9:39 Understanding the Seven Facts of Music
• 21:06 Exploring The Jazz Language
• 27:40 Premium Content Message

Transcript

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.974)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Hard to believe, it's hard to believe that January, 2025 is quickly coming to an end. Here we are in week four, which means we have completed learning our first tune of the year using our very organized, very structured,

very systematic, very logical, three tiered approach. A three tiered approach consisting of a harmonic analysis, a melodic analysis, followed by improvisation development. You know, and what makes this year even better is that we have now added a rhythmic component to each tier of our tune study. I love it. I absolutely love it.

I love it as a student, which I am, and I love it as a teacher, which I am. I always love a well thought out plan. That's the bottom line, a well thought out plan. You know that old saying, people don't plan to fail, they just simply fail to plan? Well, that saying rings ever so true when referring to the study of jazz. People dive in head first,

with absolutely no plan, no idea as to the what, the why, the how of jazz study. Now, you gotta love the ambition, right, for sure. But that approach, which is used by many, easily the majority, eventually leads to a surrender. And this is exactly why jazz piano skills exist.

provide you with a plan, a plan that is derived from the seven facts of music, which I stress over and over and over again. The seven facts of music derived from the most important question of all that should be asked by everyone wanting to study jazz. And what is that question?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:56.844)
What is jazz the study of? What a great question. What is jazz the study of? Doesn't that make sense? You know, if you want to study something, should you not have a clear understanding what it is the study of?

It's so obvious to me that it seems silly to say, but you know what? It's not obvious. I know it's not obvious because I have the following conversation. Here's a conversation that I have with every student I teach at their very first lesson. And keep in mind, I have been teaching for over 35 years. So this is what, here's how the conversation goes. First lesson. So you want to study jazz.

The response, of course, is always, yes. And then I ask, well, then tell me what is jazz the study of?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (04:09.304)
crickets.

I wait.

even more crickets. Then I break the awkward silence and I present the seven facts of music. I say to them, here's what jazz is the study of. Number one, jazz is the production of sound and silence, right? Sound being major, dominant, minor.

half-dimension, those are the sounds of music. Those are the sounds of jazz. Number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. These are the shapes, right? These are the shapes of jazz. Harmony, harmonic shapes, melodic shapes. Number three, when produced harmonically, we are playing chords or voicings. And number four, when produced melodically,

We are playing either scales or arpeggios. These are the melodies. Number five, when playing scales and arpeggios, melodies, we are moving in one of two directions, up or down. Number six, we camouflage or we decorate scales and arpeggios with tension. That's notes outside of the key center.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:42.382)
chromaticism, right? And finally, number seven, to make musical facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. That's the study of jazz. Those seven facts literally frame for us the study of jazz. And the key words from those seven facts, we have sound,

silence, shapes, harmony, chords, melody, scales and arpeggios, movement, up and down, tension, chromaticism, and rhythm. So how important is it for you to know and understand these seven facts of music? How important? Well, I'll be

I'll be brutally honest with you. No awareness of the seven facts of music. No way to formulate an effective practice game plan that will ensure and maximize your musical growth. That's it. No way. No way to formulate an effective game plan to ensure and maximize your musical growth.

means the odds of you becoming an accomplished musician.

someone who can actually play tunes, someone who can actually formulate enjoyable treatments of tunes, someone who can embellish or improvise over the changes of tunes, right? The odds of doing that are massively stacked against you. If you are unaware of the seven facts of music and personally,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:44.414)
I would go as far as to say you have zero chance of becoming an accomplished musician. know, the bottom line, bottom line, the study and practicing of essential jazz piano skills must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies music conceptually, right? Simplifies music conceptually.

so that we have a legitimate chance of developing physical capabilities. If it's not simple conceptually, good luck physically, right? Music must become simple conceptually. And we achieve this crystal clear thought process, this simplification, by making sure all that we do musically, conceptually, and physically

plugs into adheres to the seven facts of music. So today, today, the last episode of the month, I am presenting a lecture series episode titled the Jazz Language. And the objective of this episode is to further clarify and simplifying our understanding

and practicing of jazz by framing it with the seven facts of music. So today, today you are going to discover the three components of the jazz language. You're going to learn the essential jazz skills found within each of these three components, and you're going to play conceptually

the essential jazz skills of the jazz language. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills podcast lecture exploring the jazz language to be very beneficial.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:08.226)
But before we get started, before we dig in, I want to, as I always do, welcome first time listeners to Jazz Piano Skills. And if you are indeed a new listener, you're new to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, new to Jazz Piano Skills, I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. And your membership grants you many very cool perks.

Number one, you have access as a member to the premium podcast content. That means the entire podcast episode. The first half of every episode is 100 % free for all listeners, right? We always have the question of the week in the first half. We have the educational agenda and lesson rationale laid out for us in the first half. And then the second half, members only, the premium content. That's where we...

I unveil the lesson content, the demonstrations are available to you and of course the weekly assignments as well. As a member, you also have access to the educational podcast packets. These are materials that I designed and developed for every weekly podcast episode, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. You also as a Jazz Piano Skills member,

have access to the courses. These are online courses, comprehensive, interactive, self paced and sequential. Interactive learning media is found within each of the courses to help you conceptually digest the jazz piano skills. And of course, there are video demonstrations of the skills in all 12 keys as well. You also as a jazz panel skills member have a reserved seat in my weekly master classes.

And those master classes are held every Thursday evening, 8pm Central Time. And it's no big deal if you can't make the master classes, they are recorded. You can listen to audio or video recordings of the classes as often as you wish. You also as a Jazz Piano Skills member have access to the online Jazz Piano Skills community, which hosts a variety of

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:23.334)
intriguing and interesting forums, episode specific forums, as well as just general jazz forums. Tons of member feedback and assistance available as well. You'll love the community. And finally, as a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional. You can reach out and contact me anytime through SpeakPipe. There's a web form. My office number here at the Dallas School of Music is available as well.

And of course, the old fashioned way email if you prefer just sending an email, happy to help you that way. So all of these amazing privileges, these perks 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 begin enjoying premium podcast content. And all of the perks and privileges that I just mentioned, of course, if get to the website, poke around a little bit, you have some questions, please do not.

hesitate to contact me. Happy to spend some time with you, answer any questions that you may have, and of course help you in any way that I possibly can. Okay, so on to our question of the week. And this week's question comes from Gary Walker, living in Melbourne, Australia. And Gary writes, your last episode, laying out a step by step process for developing improvisation skills was masterful.

Thank you, Gary. I appreciate that. Your demonstrations focused on playing through the changes found in the first eight measures of Fly Me to the Moon. I am curious if there are any standard two or four measure progressions like the 251 progression, you would recommend applying your approach. As always, thanks for your insight and

help. Gary, great question and even better instincts, really great instincts. I say great instincts because you are spot on in thinking that you can effectively develop your improvisation skills by working with a small two or four measure harmonic progression.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:49.622)
In other words, you do not have to improvise over a 32 measure form of a tune or even an eight measure section of the tune like we did with Fly Me to the Moon. You can, and I would even argue that it is much more advantageous for you to use a smaller unit like a two or four measure block, right, for developing your improvisation skills.

So with that being said, you already mentioned the most common progression of all that you should be using for improvisation development, and that is the two five one progression, right? This progression is laced. I mean, it is laced throughout jazz literature and of course deserves your undivided attention, especially, especially from an improvisation perspective and

you can easily and you should practice this progression using a two measure format and a four measure format as you suggested. You know, so when using a two measure format, all right, the two chord, just for clarification, the two chord and the five chord will be placed in measure one, right? Beats one and two played with the two chord, beats three and four played with the five chord.

And then of course, the one chord is played for the entire second measure, right? And you will find this format, right? In just about every jazz standard you play. it's vitally important to have a command of the two, five, one progression placed within a two measure context, no doubt about it. Now, the four measure

251 progression is equally important where the two chord is played in measure one, followed by the five chord in measure two, and then the one chord is played for measures three and four, right? So gaining an improvisation command of the 251 progression using both the two measure and the four measure formats is an absolute must if you are serious about becoming

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:14.72)
and accomplished jazz musician. Now, to go along with the two five one progression, I would recommend two additional progressions to use when practicing your improvisation skills. I would suggest practicing the two flat two dominant going to one chord progression. And I would also practice the two chord going to a flat seven dominant to the one chord progression. So you have two five one

two flat two one, two flat seven one, right? Both of these, all three of these progressions, all three work beautifully using the two and four measure formats. So with the two five one progression, you have circle movement. With the two flat two one progression, you have chromatic movement. And with the two flat seven one, you have

diatonic movement in that you are moving a third from the two to the flat seven, and then you're moving a whole step up to the one chord. So both those intervals moving a third moving a whole step, you know, a second, these are common intervallic distances found in chord progressions that you should be familiar with, and of course are used in many jazz standards. So so there you have it, right? Three,

very, very important progressions to use for developing improvisation skills that easily, easily fit into the two and four measure formats that you are looking for, Greg. So, in fact, you know, I would, I would say that if you can, if you can improvise over those three progressions and all 12 keys, wow, you have

you will not have difficulty, I promise you will not have difficulty improvising through the form of a jazz standard. Right? That's how important that is how important these progressions are. You know, I had a teacher, I had a teacher who used to say to me, Bob, I know how you're progressing by the questions that you ask and the statements you make. Wow.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:40.302)
And I can tell you as a teacher, that comment is spot on. I know how you're progressing by the questions you ask and the statements you make. And Greg, I can tell you, I can tell you, your question says it all. Your instincts are excellent, which tells me that you are thinking small to produce huge results, right? Thinking small to produce huge results.

Practicing in this manner, these little two and four measure blocks. Practicing in this manner is what I like to call smart practice. It gets right to the heart of the matter. It's efficient and it maximizes your musical growth. No doubt about it. So I hope my input, my insights here help. And of course,

If further clarification is needed, Greg, or you simply just want to kick this can around a little more, I'm happy to do so. So do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm happy to speak with you and dig even deeper into your question, which is a great one. All right, let's discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's take a look at this thing called the jazz language. Okay.

The Jazz Language.

What do you think when you hear this expression?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:17.452)
which I believe the jazz language, that expression, I believe that was coined by the late great jazz educator, Dan Hurley, with the publication of his classic jazz theory book titled The Jazz Language back in the early eighties. Dan was one of my influential mentors while I was doing my jazz graduate studies at North Texas State University, University of North Texas. It's a great book.

great title. I highly recommend it. But back to my question, what do you think when you hear that expression when you hear the jazz language? And we hear it said a lot, especially by jazz, jazz teachers, jazz educators. In fact, we hear it so much it's become

dare I say, cliche-ish. It's one of those expressions that sounds fantastic. It sounds fantastic when spoken, the jazz language. It makes the teacher sound really, really smart. Like he or she has access to some profound, some esoteric insider information.

that you need, you need this information. However, you will never obtain this information unless of course, you're brilliant. And of course, you got to be hip too. You got to be brilliant and hip to understand the jazz language. And if you had this information, you would immediately sound like a jazz musician because after all, you now know and will be speaking the jazz language.

So I'm having fun with this. So back to my question. What do you think about when you hear the expression, the jazz language? I bet I know. I bet I know exactly what you are thinking. You're thinking licks. You're thinking notes. Notes played in a certain order with a certain feel.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:43.886)
That's what you're thinking. And how do you get these licks, these notes? How does somebody get access to that jazz language, these licks, these notes played in a certain order so your jazz club membership is granted? How do you get this? Well, of course, we all know that these notes, these licks that you need in order to speak the jazz language are found in... Say It With Me.

starts with the letter T.

Transcriptions. That's where the jazz language is. Transcriptions. Transcriptions and the jazz language, those are synonymous terms. Of course they are. Wrong. Very, very wrong. In fact, such an understanding, such a belief, such teaching,

is a very wide and very, very, very shallow representation of jazz and what is embodied by the phrase the jazz language. Now, don't feel bad if that is exactly what you think when you hear the expression the jazz language because you know what? There are a whole lot of people

teaching jazz, jazz teachers that actually think the same way. You know what we call that? We call that bad teaching. Now, of course, there are many components to the jazz language. And of course, melody is one of the dimensions, one of the components, but melody

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:45.406)
is much more than the rote learning of licks, notes, which of course I will address in today's lecture. So what is the jazz language? What are the various components of the jazz language? What are the skills within each of the components of the jazz language? Well,

That is what we are tackling today. And my goal is that at the end of this episode, you will know the various components of the jazz language and skills found within each of the components. You will see how the components, how the skills are illuminated by the seven facts of music and

As a result, be able to govern, monitor successfully your practicing so that you maximize your jazz growth. So there's going to be three takeaways today. You're going to know the various components of the jazz language and the skills found within each of the components.

You're going to see how the components and the skills are illuminated by the seven facts of music that I outlined earlier. And as a result, be able to govern, monitor your practicing successfully, accordingly, so that you maximize your jazz growth.

Needless to say, we have a ton to get through, so it's time to get busy. So let me give you the three essential components of the jazz language.

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