Lady Bird: Journey Through The Real Book

A jazz piano lesson to help you learn Tad Dameron’s jazz standard “Lady Bird.”

Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: https://keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-...

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Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird” as an essential jazz tune to learn 0:00
The musical form and tonal structure of “Lady Bird” 0:15
Learning jazz standards in a complete way 0:55
Learning about Tadd Dameron 1:22
Miles Davis’ tune “Half Nelson” as based on “Lady Bird” 1:57
Tadd Dameron as pianist 2:20
How to play jazz piano if you don’t enjoy soloing 3:02
Embellishing the melody during the piano solo 3:21
Thinking “orchestrally” at the piano 4:27
When was “Lady Bird” composed? 4:53
The beginnings of Bebop 5:16
The “Prebop” period of the Late 1930s/Early 1940s 6:32
Swing Era riffs in “Lady Bird” 8:07
Were the flat 5’s in the original version of “Lady Bird?” 8:34
Miles Davis’ use of the flat 5 in Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way” 10:33
The “Lady Bird” turnaround 11:01
Using the turnaround as an intro 13:08
Harmonizing the melody with big band-style block chords 13:22
“Jazzing up” the rhythms a little 13:50
Using a pedal tone on the turnaround 14:13
Continuing the pedal tone under the improvised solo 14:17
Playing the chord roots in the bass 14:29
Left hand rootless voicings 14:44
Left hand shell voicings 14:57
Developing a short motif 15:10
Longer right hand melodic lines 15:19
Playing faster notes in the solo 15:41
Returning to a simpler rhythmic feel 15:54
Block chords in the style of George Shearing and Milt Buckner16:05
Alternating block chord phrases with bass notes and chords 16:31
Single-note bebop soloing 16:57
Contrapuntal textures 17:25
Playing a left hand “bass” solo, with right hand comping 18:17
RH trills and flourishes over a LH melody 18:45
Harmonizing the tune’s melody with block chords 18:56
A softer feel, with chromatic inner lines in the voicings 19:10
Reharmonization 19:28
A more playful feeling 19:17
Repeating the turnaround for the ending 20:02
Playing the flatted 5th to evoke the tune’s melody 20:13
Explaining the ending 20:19
Learning “Lady Bird” and “Half Nelson” 20:48
The importance of enjoying what you can play and making the most of it 21:57

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Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron