A Beautiful Friendship, Harmonic Analysis
- Dr. Bob Lawrence
- Nov 7
- 3 min read
Discover . Learn . Play
Launching a New Month of Jazz Piano Skills
A Beautiful Friendship, Harmonic Analysis
Welcome to Jazz Piano Skills! I’m Dr. Bob Lawrence, and as always, it’s time to discover, learn, and play jazz piano.
A new month means one of my favorite things—we begin exploring a brand-new tune. And as I like to remind all of you: new tune, same comfortable, familiar, skill-centric approach.
It’s the consistency of this approach—thorough, organized, structured, and most importantly, logical—that allows us to learn jazz piano the right way. Because learning tunes isn’t really about the tunes at all. It’s about the skills that tunes illuminate.
And boy, do tunes illuminate those skills. Quickly.
Why Skill-Centric Study Matters
Every time we start a new tune, weaknesses jump off the page: voicings that need work, melodic articulation that isn’t quite there, improvisational vocabulary that needs refinement. And that’s great. Tunes act like mirrors—they show us where our jazz piano skills stand right now.
That’s why each month we revisit our three essential study “camps”:
✅ Harmony Camp
Form, harmonic function, common movement, voicings—blocks, shells, and two-handed structures.
✅ Melody Camp
Phrases, target notes, articulation, and treatments of the melody.
✅ Improvisation Camp
Rhythmic and melodic vocabulary, chord-scale relationships, and patterns.
If you lack the skills in any of these camps, the tune falls apart. But when you develop them, suddenly, everything becomes accessible.
The Seven Facts of Music—Our Weekly Foundation
Every week, we revisit what I call the Seven Musical Facts. These are not trivia. These are the pillars of musical understanding. Without them, your practice becomes skewed, and as I always say: If your conceptual understanding is skewed, your practice is skewed.
Here are the facts:
Music is the production of sound and silence.
The five primary musical sounds—major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished—are produced harmonically and melodically.
Harmonic shapes = chords (voicings).
Melodic shapes = arpeggios and scales.
Melodic motion moves only up or down.
We decorate scales/arpeggios with tension (chromaticism).
We add rhythm to make music interesting.
Everything we practice must connect back to these seven facts. If it doesn’t, we’re drifting.
Harmony and Melody: The Same Thing
This week’s Question of the Week from David in Allentown sparked a fantastic discussion about studying harmony. And here’s the big takeaway:
➡️ Harmony and melody are the same thing in two different forms. Harmony = a solid form of sound. Melody = liquid form of sound. Just like ice and water. Same substance.
Each primary musical sound contains seven essential notes. Played together? You get a chord. Played sequentially? You get an arpeggio or scale.
You cannot study harmony without studying melody—because they are one.
So when practicing harmony, your work must include:
Chords (Voicings)
Arpeggios
Scales
This is the complete canopy of harmony. Miss one, and your understanding becomes incomplete—and so does your development.
Let the Month Begin: “A Beautiful Friendship” (1956)
This month, we dig into the gorgeous 1956 Donald Kahn & Stanley Styne standard “A Beautiful Friendship.”
As always, we launch with harmonic analysis:
✅ Listening✅ Form✅ Changes✅ Harmonic Function✅ Common Movement✅ Voicings (blocks, shells, two-handed)
Next week, we’ll explore the melody. The week after that, improvisation.
Different tune.Same essential skills. New perspective.
Members: Grab Your Podcast Packets
If you're a Jazz Piano Skills member, you have access to:
Eight lead sheets (form, changes, function, voicings, harmonic movement)
Play-alongs and backing tracks
Illustrations and analysis guides
Make sure you download your materials—they’re designed to sit on your piano all week as you practice.
Listen, Listen, Listen
Before touching the piano, head to the community forums to access the curated listening list. Lisa has once again created a fantastic playlist of “A Beautiful Friendship” recordings—vocalists, instrumentalists, classic takes, fresh interpretations.
Listening is step one. Always.
Join the Community and Dive In
If you’re not yet a Jazz Piano Skills member, I invite you to join. Membership opens the door to:
Premium podcast episodes
Weekly masterclasses
Full educational courses
A vibrant community
Podcast packets
Unlimited support from me
Everything you need to discover, learn, and play jazz piano.
This month’s journey with A Beautiful Friendship is going to be a great one. Grab your materials, start your listening, and let’s begin developing the essential jazz skills this tune will illuminate.
Here we go!
Visit JazzPianoSkills.com to join, and subscribe on YouTube at youtube.com/@JazzPianoSkills.
🎧 Listen Now: [Jazz Piano Skills Podcast: "A Beautiful Friendship, Harmonic Analysis” – Episode] 📝 Become a Member: JazzPianoSkills.com 📺 Subscribe on YouTube: Jazz Piano Skills
Warm Regards, Dr. Bob Lawrence
Jazz Piano Skills
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