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DISCOVER • LEARN • PLAY
Complete the Weekly Learning Cycle
Each week at Jazz Piano Skills begins with discovery, develops through focused study, and ultimately leads to playing.
The Blog Recap brings the week together—revisiting the essential concepts introduced in the Podcast and developed through the Masterclass, while highlighting the musical ideas and practical skills that matter most at the piano.
DISCOVER the concept. LEARN the skill. PLAY the music.
Jazz Melody Analysis: Music Is Movement With Purpose (Sunny)
How much music can you find inside a third? Discover how jazz melody analysis reveals the scale fragments, arpeggio motion, melodic phrases, and rhythmic relationships that make Bobby Hebb's Sunny so memorable. Five notes. One pentatonic pattern. An extraordinary opportunity to develop your jazz piano musicianship.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
5 days ago10 min read
Jazz Harmony Analysis: Why Simplicity Reveals the Musician (Sunny)
What makes a simple 16-measure song with just six unique chords so appealing to jazz musicians? Discover how jazz harmony analysis reveals the harmonic function, motion, and relationships within Bobby Hebb's *Sunny*—and why musical simplicity may be the perfect environment for developing creativity, confidence, and personal expression.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Oct 1011 min read
Jazz Piano Solo Playing: Develop the Skills to Create Your Own Arrangements (Our Love Is Here to Stay)
Solo piano doesn't begin with a sophisticated arrangement. It begins with developing the skills that make arrangements possible. Discover seven stages of jazz piano solo playing that bring harmony, melody, rhythm, stride, and improvisation together—and help you develop the independence to create musical performances of your own.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Oct 39 min read
Jazz Piano Improvisation: If You Want to Be Creative, Practice Creativity (Our Love Is Here to Stay)
What if better improvisation doesn't require more scales, modes, or licks? Discover how limiting your musical choices can develop creativity, strengthen your command of chord tones, and help you begin making your own musical decisions. This week's study of Our Love Is Here to Stay demonstrates why creative freedom begins with musical command.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Sep 269 min read
Jazz Melody Analysis: Don't Memorize the Melody. Learn How to Reconstruct It. (Our Love Is Here to Stay)
Memorizing a jazz melody is not the same as understanding it. Discover how jazz melody analysis helps you recognize phrases, target notes, motion, rhythm, and harmonic relationships—so even when your memory fails, your musicianship can help you reconstruct the melody.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Sep 198 min read
Jazz Harmony Analysis: Learn the Harmony, Not Just the Chords (Our Love Is Here to Stay)
Learning the chords to a jazz standard is not the same as understanding its harmony. Discover how jazz harmony analysis reveals function, motion, and recurring relationships inside Our Love Is Here to Stay—and develops skills you can carry into every tune you learn.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Sep 119 min read
Jazz Piano Solo Playing: Develop Skills, Not Arrangements (Satin Doll)
Jazz piano solo playing doesn’t require practicing an entire tune at once. Discover how just two measures of Satin Doll and the Seven Stages of Solo Piano Development can build harmony, melody, rhythm, independence, improvisation, and real musicianship—one skill at a time.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Aug 297 min read
Jazz Piano Improvisation: Creativity Begins With Less, Not More (Satin Doll)
Jazz piano improvisation doesn't always begin by adding more notes. Sometimes it begins by doing more with less. Discover how two notes from Satin Doll, rhythmic variation, and intentional limitation can help you develop creativity and a stronger improvisational vocabulary.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Aug 217 min read
Jazz Piano Melodic Analysis Makes Melody Understandable (Satin Doll)
Most jazz students learn melodies one note at a time. But great musicians hear relationships. Discover how jazz melodic analysis reveals phrases, target notes, direction, repetition, and the musical movement that makes Satin Doll memorable.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Aug 168 min read
Jazz Harmony Analysis: Why Great Musicians See Relationships, Not Chords (Satin Doll)
Most jazz students see a lead sheet as a collection of chord symbols to memorize. Great musicians see relationships. Discover how jazz harmony analysis reveals the harmonic connections inside Satin Doll—and why recognizing those relationships makes every tune easier to understand.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Aug 85 min read
Jazz Piano Improvisation: Why Improvisation Isn't Magic (Over the Rainbow)
Jazz piano improvisation isn't about talent or guessing. Discover how harmony, melody, and rhythm combine to create authentic jazz language and confident improvisation.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jul 263 min read
Jazz Melody Analysis: Why Great Pianists Learn to Sing Before They Play (Over the Rainbow)
Most pianists focus on their hands. Great musicians begin with their ears. Discover how jazz melody analysis helps you phrase naturally, identify target notes, and make the piano sing.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jul 183 min read
Jazz Harmony Analysis: Why Every Tune Begins with Harmony (Over the Rainbow)
Most students think learning jazz piano means collecting more scales, voicings, and licks. It doesn't. Discover why real progress comes from developing harmony, melody, rhythm, and a deeper understanding of how music connects.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jul 123 min read
Jazz Piano Improvisation: Why Melody Flows from Harmony (Teach Me Tonight)
Most jazz students think improvisation begins with scales. It doesn't. Discover why melody flows from harmony and how seeing harmonic shapes transforms improvisation from guessing into organized musical thought.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jun 203 min read
Jazz Melody Analysis: How Melody Leads to Improvisation (Teach Me Tonight)
Most jazz students want to improvise but few study melody. Discover how phrasing, contour, targets, and melodic motion in Teach Me Tonight provide the foundation for expressive jazz improvisation.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jun 134 min read
Jazz Standards Practice: Why the Tune Is Not the Goal
Most jazz students believe the goal is to learn and master a tune. In reality, every standard is simply a vehicle for developing harmony, melody, rhythm, and musicianship. Discover why the tune is not the goal—and why growth comes from understanding the music behind it.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jun 64 min read
Embraceable You Solo Piano Approaches (Melody Harmonization)
Week 4 of our Embraceable You tune study focuses on solo piano approaches — how to harmonize the melody step-by-step from one note to four-note shapes.
Dr. Bob Lawrence
Feb 284 min read
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