Going Further with Lead Sheets - NCKP with Bradley Sowash
Another session taught by Bradley Sowash that I attended at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. This workshop was a nice follow-up to the Understanding Chord Symbols class. Once we understand and can process the language of chords and chord symbols, we can take lead sheets to a whole new level and stretch a one-page lead sheet into a full performance. Sowash used the perfectly fitting acrostic LEAD to break it down into a step-by-step process.
L - Lay it out
E - Embellish the melody
A - Add a solo
D - Dress it up
Sowash mentioned that this pattern follows some of the research in human psychology (I think he referred to it as auto form) in which we first establish a pattern and then mess with it. (Can I admit that this got me excited to study the relationship between self-determination theory and piano pedagogy? More on this later.)
L - Lay it out
Learn the melody, then decide on a style choice to go underneath the tune. It is best to know the melody inside and out before starting to add chords so you are free to focus on thinking about harmony and bass while playing, instead of thinking about how to play the melody. This step also refers to what you would do in a performance--give the audience a sense of what is coming. It’s a front door for the rest of the song.
Sowash covered a large range of style choices (from easy to advancing): --roots only, or roots & 5s (C G C G C G etc.) --block two-note voicing --block triads with common inversions --block triad rhythmic pattern (short short long) --reverse rhythmic pattern (long short short) --simple stride, non-alternating bass (boom chick) --basic waltz (boom chick chick) --broken chords in 3/4 (closed pattern - CEGCEG, closed then open - CEGCGE) --jazz waltz (do-dah do-dah syncopation) --Alberti bass (bottom top middle top) --syncopated broken chords in 4/4 (123-123-12 rhythm) --basic boogie (intervals of 5th 6th 5th 6th) --New Age bass with RH harmony (with melody note on top) --walking bass (scale steps: 1 3 5 6 7 6 5 3 or 1 2 3 5 will do)
These were all outlined in the workshop handout, as well as a few others. It was nice to have just one place to see them all next to each other. (I highly recommend getting Sowash’s ebook here to see these choices laid out in notation form. This book is very easy for teen and adult students to follow as well.) It was fun to hear him transform a basic tune like Happy Birthday from folk to jazz to classical just with simple style choices. (I loved his demonstration for what to do if you get stuck in a party situation where they ask for something classical and all you can think of is non-classical tunes--just turn the style into alberti bass and it will instantly sound classical to the majority of party goers. I had heard of this trick before in other materials, but Sowash was a true master at disguising rock/pop hits with Alberti!)
E - Embellish the melody
Great ways to embellish the melody are by: --using repeated notes --adding neighbor notes (including mordents up or down, turns and trills) --filling in the gap between two notes, when there is a gap bigger than an interval of a 2nd (such as playing a scale)
For neighbor notes, Sowash used the language “moving one house over and back” for explaining this concept to beginners. For filling the gap, it doesn’t have to only be the major scale notes. Chromatic and whole tone scales work well, too.
A - Add a solo
This refers to having some space to improvise in the performance. If we stick to pentatonic “safe notes” (half-steps removed), it creates a very flexible scale, where there are “no ouchies” as Sowash called them--nothing that will clash with the LH chords. This allows us to break tradition, so we don't have to feel like LH chords must contain the RH melody notes, and it opens up more chord possibilities.
Another simple option is to “hover” over the chord tones and experiment with the rhythm. If you have practiced the harmonic progression with blocked chords in both hands ahead of time, you will have the foundation and structure down, which then frees up our mind to think more about playing with the styles and rhythm, even if it’s very different from the melody.
D - Dress it up
Go back to the melody, but add a key change, a different LH, or more embellishment--essentially have an ace up your sleeve so you end in a big way. If you use all your cards up front, you won’t have anything to offer later.
If you want an easy way to modulate, Sowash discussed playing the V chord of the key you want to modulate to and it works almost every time. Dominant chords help people hear what the first note is.
Sowash went over some popular ending styles (outros, as opposed to intros): repeat the last few measures and add a ritardando, play the final chord in a couple different octaves like a concerto style, use the ever-showy Liberace-style hand-over-hand chord with the final low tonic note, add an ascending scale, or a corny ending like “shave and a haircut.” His demo mashup ending was quite impressive!
Other great articles Sowash has published that cover this topic in depth are found in the Clavier Companion magazine issues Nov/Dec 2013, March/Apr 2014, and May/June 2014. I also highly recommend the supplementary article “Unlocking the Mystery of Playing by Ear” found in the same publication, Nov/Dec 2009, or here as part of the free resources packet you can request on Sowash’s homepage.