Misty, Improvisation

Illustrations
Lead Sheets
Play Alongs

Jazz Piano Skills Community

Summary
In this episode of Jazz Piano Skills, Dr. Bob Lawrence guides listeners through the process of improving their improvisation skills using the jazz standard 'MISTY'. The conversation covers essential foundational skills for new jazz pianists, the importance of membership resources, and a structured approach to learning a new tune. Dr. Lawrence emphasizes the significance of rhythm and time in music, and provides practical exercises for developing improvisational skills. The episode concludes with a demonstration of applying these skills to play 'MISTY' improvisationally.

Keywords
Jazz Piano, Improvisation, MISTY, Music Theory, Jazz Skills, Piano Techniques, Music Education, Jazz Chords, Melodic Lines, Rhythm

Takeaways
Improvisation skills are developed through structured practice.
Understanding harmony and melody is crucial for jazz pianists.
Membership in Jazz Piano Skills provides valuable resources and support.
Foundational skills include mastering chords, arpeggios, and scales.
Time is a rigid element in music that must be mastered.
Transitioning from amateur to professional requires intentional practice.
Listening to various renditions of a tune enhances understanding.
Composing melodic lines is essential for improvisation.
Rhythmically altering composed lines helps in improvisation.
Practicing with lead sheets aids in developing improvisational skills.

Titles
Mastering Jazz Piano: The Art of Improvisation
Unlocking Your Jazz Potential with MISTY
Essential Skills for Aspiring Jazz Pianists
The Journey of Jazz Piano: From Basics to Improvisation
Exploring MISTY: A Deep Dive into Jazz Improvisation

Sound Bites
"It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano."
"We work on developing our improvisation skills."
"Music is the production of sound and silence."
"You should be a subscriber to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel."
"The most important skill for me to focus on developing?"
"You will struggle unsuccessfully with learning how to play music."
"Music is held together by time."
"You transition from amateur to professional musician."
"You have some work to do to have some fun this week."
"Enjoy MISTY, an improvisation approach."

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:34 Discover, Learn, Play
• 5:19 Invite to Join Jazz Piano Skills
• 9:43 Question of the Week
• 23:19 Lesson Rationale
• 25:49 Today's Educational Agenda
• 29:07 Premium Content Message

Transcript

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:32.706)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. It's hard to believe, but here we are again, week three of the month. And of course, week three of every month is the week we dedicate ourselves to improving our improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of a tune. We're studying Misty this month.

followed by week two, a melodic analysis, and then of course week three. This week we work on developing our improvisation skills using MISTY to do so. Our harmonic analysis of MISTY, as we do with every tune, explores the form, the changes to harmonic function, common harmonic movement, and of course the voicings. We look at block shapes, shells, traditional shells, and contemporary shells, as well as two-handed structures.

Our melodic study always looks at the lyrics of the tune, the melody, the fingerings, phrases, target notes, and various melodic treatments. Today, our improvisation skills will challenge our ability to create melodic lines that we're going to use for improvisation development centered around the specific phrases that's found within MISTY. It's going to be a fantastic study today.

course, the study and practicing of all of these essential jazz piano skills must be governed by a crystal clear thought process that simplifies music conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing physical skills. If it's messy upstairs, I'm telling you it's going to be messy downstairs. Now we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that all we do musically, conceptually and physically

all that we do, we see it in light of the seven musical facts. And what are the seven musical facts? Well, you should know this by heart since I've been reciting it, I think in every episode since the beginning of the year. Number one, music is the production of sound and of course, silence. Sound being major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. Number two, sound is produced either harmonically or melodically.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:55.639)
We have harmonic shapes and we have melodic shapes. Number three, the shapes of harmony are called chords or voicings. Number four, the shapes of melody are scales and arpeggios. Number five, when playing are scales and arpeggios, we can only move in one of two directions, right? Up or down. And number six, we camouflage are scales and arpeggios with tension or chromaticism. And then finally number seven,

make musical facts 1 through 6 interesting, we add rhythm. That's it. Those are the seven musical facts, period, regardless of genre. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study centered around the seven facts of music using three distinct tune learning phases or stages. Harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development.

then of course we have fact number seven, rhythm. How interesting! What a coincidence that the daily challenge that I post every day at Jazz Piano Skills, the YouTube channel, focuses on one of these three pillars of music learning, harmony, melody, rhythm. What a coincidence. So if you're in

not a subscriber to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel, right? You should be, because you're missing some incredibly important jazz nuggets that will go a long way in helping you develop your jazz chops. So check it out. All right, so today we tackle improvisation development. Today we continue to discover MISTY improvisationally, and we're going to learn how to compose a melodic line

using the melodic phrases as our guide. And we're going to play improvisational lines by rhythmically altering our composed melodic lines. So as I always like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an intermediate player, or an advanced player, or even if you're a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Panel Skills Podcast lesson, Exploring MISTY, to be very beneficial.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:19.68)
But before we dig in, you know, I'd like to welcome all the first time listeners. if you are new to Jazz Piano Skills, if you're a new listener to the Jazz Piano Skills podcast, welcome. I'm thrilled. And I want to personally invite you to become a Jazz Piano Skills member. Now your membership, number one, it keeps Jazz Piano Skills podcast ad free, which has been my goal since day one. No ads, all education.

In addition to that, your membership grants you many perks. For example, number one, you receive premium podcast content, which basically means you get to listen to the entire episode. The first half of every podcast episode is free for everyone to enjoy. I deal with the question of the week, lay out the educational agenda, and the lesson rationale. The second half of the podcast for members only,

I introduced the lesson content, the demonstrations, we explore the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets and the play alongs. Now these podcast packets are the educational materials that I prepare every week to go along with every weekly podcast episode. to maximize the benefit of each episode, you should have these podcast packets in your hands when listening to the episode and of course, have them sitting on the piano or your music stand when practicing.

In addition to premium podcast content, as well as podcast packets, you also have access to the online courses, which are comprehensive, interactive, self paced and sequential courses. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have a reserved seat in my weekly masterclass that I host every Thursday evening at 8pm. That's central standard time. And again, I know this is not the best time for everyone around the world. And that is why all the masterclasses are recorded.

And you can watch and rewatch the video of the class at your convenience, at your leisure, and as often as you wish, whenever you'd like. So very beneficial. And then also as a member of Jazz Piano Skills, you have access to the private online Jazz Piano Skills community, which hosts a variety of education specific forums, as well as general jazz forums. It's a great place to meet folks, provide some

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:45.632)
member feedback and assistance. And it's also a great place to get some member feedback and assistance as well. And finally, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to unlimited educational support, private, personal and professional support whenever and as often as you wish. So all of these amazing privileges, these perks are waiting to help you discover, learn and play Jazz Piano. So take a moment and check it all out at jazzpanelskills.com and of course, become a member.

But once you get to the side, if you have any questions, by all means, please reach out to me. Always happy to spend some time with you, answer any questions that you may have and help you in any way that I can. Now, you know, I already mentioned this earlier, but it's worth mentioning again, because I'm fired up about it. I want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Piano Skills YouTube channel. I currently have five

playlists that you can check out that will help you with your jazz journey. Of course, I have the daily challenges, which center around harmony, melody and rhythm. There's a playlist called One Minute Lessons. Jazz talks are also available. And of course, the song study of the month, which we are doing now. And then all the podcast episodes are published there as well. And the episodes with any guests that appear on Jazz Piano Skills. So

I'm starting to populate these playlists with new videos every week, so be sure to subscribe so that you're notified when a new Jazz Piano Skills video is published. All right, so needless to say, I'm excited about it. I think it's a pretty neat dimension to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm looking forward to growing the channel to help us all discover, learn, and play jazz, jazz piano, or whatever instrument that you are studying.

All right, so on to the question of the week. This week's question comes from Betty Townsend. Betty's living in Cincinnati, Ohio. And Betty writes, I am new to jazz piano and jazz piano skills. I just discovered you on YouTube. Yay. I was just talking about YouTube. I'm curious. In your opinion, OK, I'm scared now because anytime anybody

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:11.934)
starts the question with I'm curious. Okay, what's happening? Here we go. I'm curious, in your opinion, as a newbie, what is the most important skill? knew it. What is the most important skill for me to focus on developing? I realize this may be a difficult question to answer, but I thought I would ask anyway. I'm enjoying the daily challenges, even though many of them are way beyond my ability at this time.

Thank you for all that you do. I'm excited about the journey ahead. Well, Betty, welcome to the world of jazz piano and welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. Super happy that you're a member and I'm super happy and excited about your journey as well. And I'm looking forward to getting to know you. So, all right, so you're 100 % correct. Your question is, you know, at least upon first hearing it,

is tough. And I've been asked this many times before. But after the initial whoa, reaction to your question, I actually think it's pretty easy to answer. Okay, so here it is the most important. Let me look at your question again. What is the most important skill for me to focus on? Well, okay, I'm going to kind of give you a little outline here.

Number one, without question, 60 chords in root position, 12 major, 12 dominant, 12 minor, 12 half diminished, 12 diminished. To go right along with that, 60 arpeggios, root position, which basically are the chords played melodically, right? 12 major, 12 dominant, 12 minor, 12 half diminished, 12 diminished. Number three, 12 major scales, root to seven. One, two, three.

60 chords root position, 60 arpeggios root position, 12 major scales root to seven. Number four, time. Learn to play two and listen for count one. I'm going to say that again about time. Learn to play two and listen for count one, which you should be doing when practicing your 60 chords, 60 arpeggios, and 12 major scales.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:37.344)
Okay, so there you have it. The answer to your easy, very easy question. One, two, and three are about learning the data. Number four is how to properly play the data. Without a command of one, two, three, and four, you will struggle unsuccessfully with learning how to play music. Did you notice I said

unsuccessfully, you'll you will struggle unsuccessfully with learning how to play music. It will always be a struggle without a command of one, your 60 chords without a command of two, the arpeggios without a command of three, the major scales, and without the ability to play two and listen for one, you will struggle unsuccessfully.

with learning how to play music. Now, I think everyone listening has no problem understanding points one, two, and three, right? They're pretty black and white. They're not abstract. They make up what I call the foundational data of music, data that is needed, needed in order to play music. In other words, if these tools are not in your toolbox, chords, arpeggios, scales,

you're in trouble. Again, foundational, foundational data, no way to skirt around it. It must have no exceptions, no workarounds, no escaping. You must confront it, study it and play it. Chords, arpeggios, scales. Now, number four, time. Learn to play to

to play two and listen for count one. Wow, what a big time skill to be able to play two and listen for count one. That's not so clear, right? Even if you understand what I'm saying, you have to be asking. I would think you are asking, well, how in the heck do I practice that? Okay, so let me pretend you do not understand what I mean.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (15:04.224)
by time. And what I mean by learn to play two and listen for count one. And what I mean is this. Music is held together by time.

And time is rigid. It marches on. Literally, I literally mean that it marches on beat after beat after beat. It stops for no one. It slows down for no one. It adjusts to no one. You're either on board or you're not. It's just that simple. Professional musicians

disguise the rigidity of time by their ability to play harmony and melody freely within the constraints of time. I'm going to say that again, cause it's really important. Professional musicians disguise the rigidity of time by their ability to play harmony and melody freely.

freely within the constraints of time. Okay. Now amateur musicians on the other hand, magnify the rigidity of time by illuminating its presence with the mathematical presentation of harmony and melody. And I'm going to say that again, because it's important. Amateur musicians on the other hand magnify

the rigidity of time by illuminating its presence with the mathematical presentation of harmony and melody. ironically, ironically, the way you transition from amateur to professional musician is to intentionally. This is why I say ironically, you intentionally practice time mathematically.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (17:13.903)
with an emphasis on playing two and listening for count one.

hope that makes sense. Right? You transition from amateur to professional musician, right? By intentionally practicing time mathematically with an emphasis on playing two and listening for count one. You know, I discussed this in a recent masterclass where I modeled an exercise that I have all my students do.

for practicing time by playing two and listening for count one. So Betty, what I want to do right now, I'm going to model that for you here in this podcast. Okay. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use a classic rock beat, not a jazz beat, not a bossa, not a swing, not a bossa, but a basic classic

rock and roll beat. And the reason for that is because it is much easier to play two and hear count one with a basic rock beat first. Okay, that's where you should start. So here we go. I'm going to bring the ensemble in. I'm going to model this for you. And I'm going to talk a little bit as I'm playing. Okay, so to just give you an outline real quick before I

play. I'm going to begin first by playing whole notes for an entire measure, playing to count one. And then I'm going to move to half notes for an entire measure, playing to count one of the next measure. And then quarter notes for an entire measure, playing to count one of the next measure. And then finally eighth notes for the entire measure, playing to count one of the next measure. Right? I'm trying to get to one to the next measure.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:22.263)
using basic note values, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes. All right. And I'm going to use the C major scale for this. So when I begin, I'm going to start with the note C with my whole notes. Okay. So here we go. Let's check it out and I'll give some guidance as I'm playing through this.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:47.111)
Okay, whole note C. There's count one.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:04.283)
Now half notes, C and D.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:24.007)
quarter notes.

She is count one.

One.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:42.887)
Right now, eight notes.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (20:47.367)
Takes me up to the ninth, the note D.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:04.903)
That's it.

That exercise is gold, right? Betty, if you can do that, and you do that with your 12 major scales, not just C, but your 12 major scales, and I'm playing, by the way, the chord in my left hand. So I'm playing C major. So I got my chord in my left hand. I'm playing the scale in my right hand. And if you can do that for your 12 majors, the next step would be doing it for your dominant minor half-diminished and diminished as well.

If you can do that, play in time, right? Playing two and listening for count one. Holy moly. You are well on your way to becoming a very, very good piano player. So Betty, answer to your question again, number one, 60 chords, root position, 12 major, 12 dominant, 12 minor, 12 half diminished, 12 diminished, number two, 12 arpeggios.

I mean, I wish there were only 12 arpeggios, 60 arpeggios, root position, 12 major, 12 dominant, 12 minor, 12 half diminished, 12 diminished, 12 major scales, root to seven. That's mission number one. The data right behind the data time, learn to play two and listen for count one. Right? Honestly, make this your top priority and you will be super, super glad that you did.

And here's the here's the real kicker. You will shave years off of your development process and being playing and you'll be playing like a pro before you know it. All right. Well, Betty, great question. Again, welcome to the world of jazz and welcome to Jazz Panel Skills. I'm thrilled to be a part of your journey. And I hope this simplifies the information overload era that we are

Dr. Bob Lawrence (23:05.755)
currently all living in and help you get started on the right foot. But of course, if you have any additional questions or further clarification is needed by all means, please reach out to me. I'm happy to help. All right, it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play Misty improvisationally. All right, when studying a tune, right? I have a

very specific approach, very specific outline that I utilize every single time. And that's basically what we do here at Jazz Piano Skills every month when we tackle a new tune. I approach it the same way. And again, genre makes no difference. Jazz, rock, pop, country, folk, R &B, makes no difference. I go about learning a tune by first, I listen, listen, listen. And you know what I do when I get done listening? I listen some more.

I listen to every artist that I can get my hands on, my ears on, from any genre, vocalist, instrumentalist, pianist, makes no difference. Listen. And after I listen, I always turn my attention to harmony. I always do a harmonic analysis. And I don't know, maybe that's because I'm a pianist. I just kind of gravitate toward the harmonic side of the tune first. I like to explore the form.

chord changes, the harmonic function found within the tune, the common harmonic movement within that tune, and various voicings, the blocks, traditional contemporary shells, two-handed voicings. Then after my harmonic analysis, I turn to a melodic analysis where I'll transcribe the melody by ear, you know, emulating the renditions that resonated with me during my listening.

And then after I have the melody, I'll drill down a little deeper and identify the phrases and the target notes within the phrases. And then I'll have some fun exploring various treatments of the tune, which forces me to articulate, to play the melody differently because of the different treatment. And then finally, I turn my attention to improvisation development. Typically we'll do chord scale relationships.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (25:27.3)
arpeggios and scale movement. I'll explore tension and chromaticism. And this is my outline. And this is what I do every time I start a new tune. This is what I teach every month. This is what we do every month when we tackle a new song here at Jazz Panel Skills. We go through this process. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we're going to listen

some definitive recordings of MISTY. Number two, we are going to compose melodic lines for each of the phrases in MISTY. Number three, we will experiment with rhythmically altering our composed melodic lines to experience improvisation. And number four, we will then apply our new

approach to improvisation development to the entire form of Misty. So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now, hit the pause button, and I want you to download and print your podcast packets. Again, the illustrations, the lead sheets, and the play alongs. I mentioned it earlier, your membership grants you access to premium content and

podcast packets for every weekly podcast episode. So take advantage of this, right? Have those podcast packets in your hands when listening to the episode. And of course have them sitting on your piano or music stand when practicing. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets, I want you to grab your lead sheets. And you should have five, five lead sheets in your packet this week. Lead sheet number one.

is a melodic line for phrase one of Misty. Lead sheet two, I'm highlighting melodic, another melodic line for phrase two of Misty. Lead sheet three, a melodic line for phrase three of Misty. Lead sheet four, melodic line for phrase four of Misty. And then lead sheet five, the whole kit and kabuto, the whole form of Misty.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (27:48.963)
Kitten Kaboodle. Kitten Kaboodle. I don't even know what that is. If anybody knows, let me know. Anyway, now typically I would in the past always play one definitive recording of the tune. But as you all know, this year, right, I have a director of listening recommendations working with me, Lisa, and we put together an

a list of definitive recordings that you should check out, and those are posted in the Jazz Piano Skills forums. So what I want you to do is I want you to the pause button and spend some time listening to those recommendations before moving on. And again, you know, this is a much better format because we get to suggest more than just one tune to check out.

but I also get to preserve as much time as possible for educational content within the podcast episode. So again, head over to the community, spend some time listening to the recordings, and then we get down to business. And once you have listened, right, grab the lead sheets, we're going to start there as we always do, and grab lead sheet one. And let's take a look at how to begin.

developing our improvisational skills by constructing melodic lines that we are going to then alter rhythmically. All right, so lead sheet one . . .

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