Christmas Time is Here, Improvisation

Podcast Packets
Illustrations
Lead Sheets
Play Alongs

Forums
Jazz Piano Skills Community

Keywords
Jazz Piano, Improvisation, Christmas Time Is Here, Music Education, Jazz Skills, Melodic Analysis, Harmonic Analysis, Music Practice, Jazz Checklist, Music Learning

Summary
In this episode of Jazz Piano Skills, Dr. Bob Lawrence guides listeners through the intricacies of jazz improvisation, focusing on the classic tune 'Christmas Time Is Here.' The discussion covers harmonic and melodic analysis, the importance of a structured approach to improvisation, and the creation of a beginner's checklist to combat information overload. Listeners are encouraged to develop their improvisation vocabulary through melodic motifs and rhythmic variations, emphasizing the joy and process of learning jazz piano.

Takeaways
Week three focuses on improving jazz improvisation skills.
The tune studied this month is 'Christmas Time Is Here.'
Improvisation development is crucial for jazz musicians.
A clear thought process simplifies music conceptually.
The seven musical facts guide our approach to music.
A beginner's checklist can help manage information overload.
Melody is the starting point for improvisation.
Rhythm and feel are foundational to playing music.
Great solos are built from simple, developed ideas.
Joy and curiosity are essential for progress in jazz.

Titles
Mastering Jazz Piano: Christmas Time Is Here
Improvisation Essentials for Jazz Musicians

Sound bites
"We focus on improvisation development."
"Improvisation begins with the melody."
"Joy fuels progress in music."

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 5:27 Discover, Learn, Play
• 6:32 Invite to Join Jazz Piano Skills
• 10:29 Question of the Week
• 27:48 Lesson Rationale
• 29:57 Today's Educational Agenda
• 31:29 Premium Content Message

Transcript

TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED BY AI. ERRORS GAURANTEED!

Dr. Bob Lawrence (00:33.154)
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano. Week three, week three of the month. I know, hard to believe, but here we are again. And as you all know, week three of every month is the week we dedicate ourselves to improving our jazz improvisation skills. Week one always begins with a harmonic analysis of a tune.

course, this month we're studying the Christmas classic, Christmas Time Is Here by Vince Guaraldi. We always follow up our harmonic analysis with a melodic analysis that we just completed last week. And then of course, week three of our tune study always focuses on improvisation development, developing our improvisation skills. Our harmonic analysis of Christmas time is here. Well, explored the form, the changes.

harmonic function, the common harmonic movement, and of course our voicings. Our classic iconic block voicings, root position, first, second, and third inversion, as well as our traditional shell voicings, 379, 735 shapes. Our contemporary left-handed shell voicings, those voicings are built using the, with the primary interval being the fourth. And then of course our two-handed structures.

Last week with our melodic skills, our melodic analysis, we looked at the melody of the tune, we transcribed it right to the best of our ability, we transcribed it, we checked out fingerings, phrases, target notes within the phrases, and of course melodic treatments. Today we turn our attention to improvisation development. We're going to take a classic progression that we find within the standard Christmas time is here, and we're going to use that harmonic motion.

compose and play melodic motifs to help us develop our improvisation vocabulary. So no doubt about it, our three-week study of every tune that we dive into is very thorough. We always do a close examination of essential jazz skills within the harmony world, melodic world, and improvisation world. So, you know, this study and this practice of these essential skills must be governed by a

Dr. Bob Lawrence (02:54.731)
I like to call it crystal clear thought process that simplifies music for us conceptually so that we have a legitimate chance of developing our physical skills. Right? Because you've heard me say it many times. If music doesn't become conceptually easy for us, we have no shot at being successful with it physically. So we achieve this crystal clear thought process by making sure that all that we do musically

right? Conceptually and physically within the realm of harmony and melody and improvisation, we make sure that it all plugs into and adheres to our seven musical facts. And I know all of you faithful Jazz Panel Skills listeners can recite these seven musical facts by heart because we go through these facts every single week, every single month, and we've been doing so

for the entire year. So let's just do it one more time. Okay, at least one more time today. Seven musical facts. Number one, music is the production of sound and silence. Sound, our primary sounds, of course, major dominant minor, half diminished and diminished. Fact number two, sound is produced harmonically and melodically. Fact number three, when sound is produced harmonically, we are playing chords.

or we often refer to them as voicings. Fact number four, when sound is produced melodically, we are playing arpeggios and or scales. Fact number five, when playing arpeggios and scales, we are moving in one of two directions, up or down, that's it. And fact number six, we want to camouflage or decorate those arpeggios and scales with tension.

or what is commonly referred to as chromaticism. And then finally, fact number seven, to make facts one through six interesting, we add rhythm. That's music. That's it. All wrapped up within those seven musical facts. And this is precisely why we approach our tune study at Jazz Piano Skills centered around these seven facts of music.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (05:17.76)
using three distinct study camps, right? A harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, and improvisation development. So today, we continue our journey. We tackle improvisation development. And today we are going to discover Christmastime is here improvisationally. We are going to learn how to create, how to compose and play melodic motifs

using common harmonic movement found within Christmas time is here. And we're going to play these melodic motifs a variety of ways to help us formulate muscle memory, aural memory, visual memory, with the goal of improving again our improvisation vocabulary. So as I like to say, regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner, an

intermediate player, advanced player, or even if you are a seasoned and experienced professional, you're going to find this Jazz Piano Skills Podcast lesson. Exploring Christmas time is here improvisationally to be very beneficial. But before we get started, I want to, as I always do, I want to welcome all of you first time listeners to the Jazz Piano Skills Podcast. And if you are indeed new to Jazz Piano Skills,

podcast or to the website in general, welcome, I want to invite you to become a Jazz Panel Skills member. Your membership comes with many perks. For example, as a Jazz Panel Skills member, you have access to premium podcast content, which basically means you get to listen to the entire podcast episode. The first half of every Jazz Panel Skills podcast episodes, they are free for everyone to enjoy. deal with

Question of the Week, the educational agenda, the lesson rationale. The second half of every podcast episode for members only deals with the lesson content, the demonstrations, and of course the exploration of the podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs. And these are the educational materials that I design and develop for every weekly podcast episode that you want to have in your hands when listening to the episode to get the most out of it. And of course you want this material

Dr. Bob Lawrence (07:42.921)
on your music stand or sitting on your piano when practicing throughout the week as well. You also as a Jazz Panel Skills member have access to the online Jazz Panel Skills courses. These are comprehensive, interactive, self-paced, sequential, sound-based courses that explore various harmonic, melodic, and improvisational skills. As a Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have a reserved seat in the weekly

masterclass, which I hold every week on Thursday evenings, 8pm Central Time. Not the best time I know for everyone. However, the masterclasses are recorded. And you can watch and rewatch the video of the class at your convenience and as often as you wish. As Jazz Panel Skills member, you also have access to the private online Jazz Panel Skills community, which hosts a variety of educational forums, podcast specific forums,

general forums. And we also have every week a killer and I mean killer listening list that is put together that coincides with the episode to help us with our jazz journey and our jazz development as well. And then finally, as jazz panel skills member, you have access to educational support, private, personal, professional support. So you know, all of these perks are

waiting to help you discover, learn and play Jazz Panel. So check it all out at JazzPanelsKills.com and of course become a member. you have any questions once you get to the site, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm always happy to answer your questions and help you in any way that I can. I also want to take just a few minutes to encourage everyone to subscribe to the Jazz Panel Skills YouTube channel to begin receiving educational videos that I'm publishing every week.

There are weekly recap videos that go out weekly challenges, weekly quick tips. So if you are subscribed, you'll get notified every time I release a new video. And you can take advantage of that educational opportunity as well. Finally, if you are not receiving the Jazz Piano Skills blog post every Saturday morning, I would encourage you to take a moment to visit the Jazz Piano Skills website and join the email list.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (10:07.049)
All got to do is put your name and email in and you're good to go. And every Saturday, I publish a blog that summarizes our week's activity and summarizes the podcast episode in about a four minute read, which is awesome. It's definitely worth checking out. It's definitely worth reading to help keep you on track, both conceptually and physically. All right. So now we are on to the question of the week.

And this week's question comes from Paul Brandt living in Tampa, Florida. And Paul's question is fantastic. Paul says, I am overwhelmed.

You're not the only one man, I'm telling you, that's normal. But let's go on. I am overwhelmed. The more I study jazz, the more confused I become. You have referred to information overload in many of your podcast episodes, and I'm afraid I haven't. Have you ever put together a beginner jazz improvisation checklist? If so, where can I get a copy? If not,

Would you consider creating one? I think having a checklist to follow will cure my information overload and help me stay focused, organized, and on track. Thank you, and thank you for considering a beginner jazz improvisation checklist. Wow. What a great idea. And I got to be honest, I wish I had thought of it.

before your question. But I do not have a beginner jazz improvisation checklist. But you know what, there's no better time than the present to put one together. let's let's do this. Okay. Okay, so let me think about this.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (12:11.982)
Okay, I think the best. Let's start this way. You've heard me say this. At least all the regular listeners have that. And I've done, I've mentioned this many times over the past five years that most beginning jazz students struggle with improvising struggle with improvisation, not because of a lack of ability. It's not because of lack of talent.

right? It's because they lack clarity, right? They have no game plan. And a lack of clarity, a lack of a game plan or a sequence is typically is typically caused by information overload. So I you know, I agree, Paul, a checklist will definitely help you stay focused, help all of us stay focused, help us remain confident.

And most importantly, help us be productive. So I'm going to try to give you a checklist here today off the top of my head in a sequential order. may modify it. I may modify it after this episode is over and I listen to my answer here. But you know what I'm going to do? This is going to be at least the start.

may end up modifying the order of things here a little bit. But what I'll do is I'll end up, I'm going to put this together as like a free PDF that everyone can access and download. I'll put it on the Jazz Panel Skills website. So, okay, so improvisation. I think when we talk about improvisation, we have to start with melody, believe it or not melody, because that's what we do. We, I know there's, we improvise harmonically and rhythmically as well, but

when we when we talk about improvisation, the first thought is melodic improvisation. So if I'm talking about improvising over a tune, Christmas time is here or any standard, I have to ask the question part of the checklist has to be, can you play the melody accurately and comfortably? We talked about that last week with our melodic analysis, can you play the melody accurately and comfortably, you want to be able to put a check next to that question, right?

Dr. Bob Lawrence (14:36.552)
do you know where the phrases begin and end? Again, we talked about that in our melodic analysis. So there should be a box to check that as well. And can you slightly embellish the melody without losing it? We talked about that last week as well. So there should be a little checkbox there. So under melody, you should have three checkboxes. Can I play the melody accurately and comfortably?

Number two, do I know where the phrase is beginning in number three, can I slightly embellish, interpret, reinterpret the melody without losing it? Right? improvisation begins with the melody, not our arpeggios and not scales. I know that's maybe shocking because we talk about arpeggios and scales all the time. But this is a checklist for improvisation. So okay.

melody would be number one. Number two, I would turn my attention to harmony. Do I understand the harmony, at least at a basic level? So can I identify the key that I'm playing in? There should be a box for that. Check. Do I know the chord progression? Right? We in our harmonic analysis, we spend a lot of time looking at the chord changes, we do a harmonic function analysis of the chord progression.

That's what I mean by do I know the core progression? Check. Can I play basic voicings, block voicings, root position, first, second, third inversion? Or if I'm more advanced, my shell voicings and my two handed voicings, right? That's if you can do that, that's a that's a very deep understanding of harmony. But

we want at least be able to say, I understand harmony at a basic level? that's what my checklist would be centered on. Okay. So I guess I would say, can I play, can I play the harmonic shapes of this piece, the chords, at least in root position, first, second, third inversion? Number three,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (16:56.966)
Am I capable of using that harmony? Am I capable of producing melodic ideas with that harmony court using chord tones, right? So can I target chord tones? Check or no check, right? Gotta be able to put a check there. Can I outline the harmony, the harmonic motion?

movement of the piece, can I outline the harmonic movement of the piece using simple arpeggios? And what I mean by simple arpeggios, again, mirroring our harmonic shapes, our basic harmonic shapes of root position, first, second, and third inversion. All right, so, so far we got, we got a little checklist for melody, we got a little check with checklist for harmony at a basic level. And we got a little checklist for chord tones, right?

being able to the utilization of core tones. Category number four is my rhythm vocabulary. Is it capable of doing heavy lifting? Right? Because you know, in our seven musical facts, that's the last fact, we add rhythm to create interest. So I guess under my rhythm,

category on my checklist? Am I playing, am I capable of playing fewer notes with better placement? We're going to learn about that. We're going to be doing that today with our improvisation development. Am I using space? Check, not check. Am I using repetition? Check or not check. Right? And does my playing of my melodic ideas

rhythmically, right? Does it feel relaxed? conversational, right expression? Right? Again, jazz, jazz, the jazz field is rhythmic. It's not a theory. We talked about that in the masterclass last week. So, okay, so so far, I have, I would have a category for melody category for harmony at a basic level, chord tones, rhythm.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (19:20.772)
got to have a category on time, right time and feel. So I'd have some checkboxes there that would say, Can I can I lock in? Can I play this tune? Can I lock in with a metronome or some kind of backing track? Okay. Am I consistent with my feel with my my ability to play, play a swing groove, right? Or boss a groove or a ballad, you know, the three treatments that we typically look at when we

study a tune. And am I comfortable playing behind the beat or what you will hear jazz musicians refer to oftentimes as laid back, right? So I think time there should be a few checkboxes under the category of time and feel. Because after all, right time, feel, quite honest.

Honestly, it's the foundation of playing music, certainly the foundation of improvisation. It's if your time is good, and your feel is good, you don't have to play a whole lot of notes to be making great music. Right. So if your time is bad, and your feel is bad, it doesn't matter how many notes you play. Right? It's not going to help. So okay, another category, I think I would

place emphasis, you know, we do this in our melodic analysis, emphasis on those phrases, I think I've already mentioned that. But, you know, when it comes to phrases, my phrases improvisational, not not the phrases of the melody of the tune, but my phrases that I play when, when I'm improvising, you know, are my phrases kind of representation of, say, musical sentences, right? Do they make sense? You got to be able to put a check there and

or not a check, right? Or another way of saying that do my ideas have a beginning and an end? And can I repeat and slightly vary my melodic ideas? Right? So keep this in mind, great solos are built from simple ideas. And those simple ideas that are developed throughout, throughout the solo. So anyway,

Dr. Bob Lawrence (21:45.303)
I think that should be on the checklist somewhere. I think another category on the checklist of helping you keep focused and not becoming overwhelmed with information overload. I talk about this all the time, practicing one skill at a time. So on your checklist, we should have something that is my practice focus for today clear and specific.

another box might be am I not trying? Am I trying to do everything at once? Not trying? Am I not trying to do everything at once? Hopefully we can put a check there. And I think this is really important too. And this is why I try to model in in these podcasts, episodes and in the weekly recaps, you know, you have to have the ability to say, you know, do do I know exactly what success sounds like? Do I know

Do I know when I'm playing it right? Whatever it is I'm practicing, am I capable of assessing? Am I playing it correctly? Right? I always say, and I stress it, you know, when I practice, for every single practice session, I have one practice objective and one goal in mind. And that helps me not get overwhelmed with too much information, right? One skill, one objective, one goal.

And then another category, you know, we do, we spend a lot of time talking about this every week. You know, am I listening as much as I'm playing? So am I listening to great jazz players on a daily basis? Check or not check? I, am I, am I aware of their phrasing, articulation and feel? In other words, am I, if am I actively listening, listening as opposed to just passive listening? And am I modeling my sound after someone?

you do I have musical role models that a sound that I'm trying to emulate? Right? We should be able to put a check next to that as well. And I think maybe then the final two categories I would have on my checklist.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (24:01.154)
Do I understand that improvisation is a long game? Check or not a check, right? It's a long game. Am I patient with my progress? Do I accept that growth is gradual? Of course, not overnight. And, you know, do I trust the process? And of course, that's why jazz piano skills exists, right? To help you formulate a process. That's why we have

harmonic analysis, a melodic analysis, improvisation development, we have a process that we go through every single, every single month with every tune that we study, right? So our fluency, our musical growth, it comes from consistency. And that's why we have a process that we consistently go through. And then I think finally,

my last category on my checklist would be, am I enjoying the process? Check or not check? Right? Am I curious rather than frustrated? There's a big difference between that. Those two right being curious and frustrated. So am I curious rather than frustrated? How about this? Do I celebrate small wins? That's so important. Like today.

today's about a lot of small wins. You'll see when we get into it. It's about a lot of small wins. And then I think maybe as the last is, I hope this doesn't sound corny, but am I remembering why I love jazz? Right. And I think, you know, joy fuels progress. There's no question about it. Joy fuels progress. You know,

Give you a little example that I was on my way to the school this morning and on the radio came Bing Crosby with the Andrews sisters singing Here Comes Santa Claus. And I couldn't help but to smile because I could hear the joy in Bing Crosby's voice when he was singing this Christmas tune, right? And I smiled the whole way to work.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (26:23.505)
listening to Here Comes Santa Claus. I was saying that I hope nobody sees me. you know, it was it was obvious that he loved singing. So I hope that we keep that in mind too. And that should be on our checklist as well. So, you know, I, I hope this helps Paul, I'm definitely going to go back and listen to my answer, because I can't remember everything I just said. But I'm to go back.

and kind of transcribe my answer and clean it up a little bit for you and put it into a really clean checklist, beginning jazz improvisation checklist with check boxes that you can kind of keep track of and see how you're doing. But I hope that what I just shared with you, again, off the top of my head is helpful. I hope I didn't cause...

create more questions and answers. if I did and more clarification is needed, by all means, please let me know. I'm happy to, like I said, jump on, maybe jump on the phone call with you or a Zoom call and dig a little deeper with you. But I'll try to get that PDF put together and emailed out to you. And then I'll place that on the Jazz Panel Skills website so everyone can enjoy that as well. So

Alright, so it's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Let's discover, learn and play. Christmas time is here improvisationally. So speaking of process and consistency, one of the things that we stress every single week, every single month, every single tune study is listening and

that's number one on our process, right? And again, it makes no makes no difference what genre music we're studying. If we're if we're trying to learn a tune, the genre doesn't make any difference, right? We're go about it the same way. I don't care whether I'm looking at a jazz tune or a rock tune, R &B, folk, pop, country makes no difference. I go about it the same way we go about it the same way we listen. We listen to various artists.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (28:40.788)
vocalist, instrumentalist, pianist, professionalist, amateur, makes no difference. We have a killer listening list that is put together every single week that is so beneficial for our musical growth. After we do our listening, we turn our attention to harmonic analysis, form, changes, function, common movement, voicings. We move on to melodic analysis with transcribing the melody, phrases, target notes.

exploring various treatments, ballad, bossa, swing, and then wrap it up with improvisation development where we study chord scale relationships, arpeggio scale movement.

melodic motifs as we're going to do today, tension. So we go through this process consistently every single week. Listen harmonic analysis, melodic analysis, improvisation development, very thorough, very complete approach. And so this month, obviously, you know, we're studying Christmas time is here. We've already completed our harmonic analysis. Last week, we completed our melodic analysis.

And now of course, means that it's time for us to do some improvisation development. So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, we are going to listen to various recordings of Christmas time is here. And number two, we are going to isolate a specific progression specific harmonic motion found

in Christmastime is here to help us develop our improvisation vocabulary. Number three, we are going to utilize that progression to compose and play melodic motifs that focus on illuminating the harmonic motion and also focuses on rhythmic development. Fact number seven of our musical facts.

Dr. Bob Lawrence (30:45.619)
So if you are a Jazz Piano Skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now, hit the pause button. I want you to download and print your podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the play alongs. Again, your membership grants you access to this material and you should have it in your hands when listening to the podcast to get the most out of it. And of course, I want you having it sitting on your piano or music stand as well when practicing throughout the week. Okay, now that you have your podcast packets,

I want you to grab your lead sheets. We'll talk about the illustrations and the play alongs a little later in the episode, but I want you to grab your lead sheets. And let's take a look at what we are going to be dealing with today.

PREMIUM CONTENT FOR MEMBERS ONLY

Join Jazz Piano Skills

https://www.jazzpianoskills.com/membership