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-...

You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.

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

Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: https://keyboardimprov.com/free-begin...

Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.

If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here: https://keyboardimprov.com/get-starte...

For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at rondrotos@keyboardimprov.com.

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