Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote Let’s Fall in Love in 1933, the same year as their hits Stormy Weather and It’s Only a Paper Moon (two songs featured in my recent blog posts). Several years ago, I realized that today’s featured standard, Let’s Fall in Love, would actually be a terrific tool for teaching my students how to implement the walking bass technique.
This is one left hand accompaniment style that continues to fascinate many of my piano students. Not only do they find it energizing, but they also can’t wait until they can learn to use it too. As a teacher, I find that the best way to help a student expand her pallet of piano playing accompaniments is to select a song that helps her start using the specific style she is studying. This piece is the perfect pedagogical vehicle for introducing her to the walking bass technique.
What a far cry from constantly focusing on fingering exercises!
Once I make a few minor changes to the chords found in the verses of Let’s Fall in Love, the student is able to get started on his way to swinging piano playing. For our first step, my student and I review the ii-V-I progression concept which is so central to the music of the American Popular Songbook. Then the fun begins! He’s ready to understand how to create his own walking bass lines. Starting with the I-vi-ii-V (you’d recognize this as the Heart and Soul pattern); I explain how to construct what I call the anchor bass line. Using this for the turn-around (set of chords that bring you back to the beginning of the song); this student sees the secret for his success.
So often an adult student will apologize because she can’t remember something that I’ve taught her. This usually happens when we need to apply the material in question to the music that she is playing. My response to her (and to you) is that learning in school by studying, taking tests and forgetting most of what you learn is the opposite of the way that you gain musical knowledge. Whether my student is 6 or 66, my advice is always the same: “If you don’t know the answer, look it up rather than guess. The more often you do this, the more quickly the material will become second nature to you.” Needless to say, every time I provide this guidance to a student, I remember how many times I had to revisit the anchor bass line concept before I was able to understand, personalize and teach it.
Just to give you an idea of what mean, I’ll tell you that my learning process began during rehearsals with jazz guitarist John Dougherty in the summer of 1972. A decade later, this musical element became clearer when I listened and talked with Boston jazz pianist Joe Morocco after he had tuned my piano. Several years later, another piece to the puzzle fell into place when the well-known jazz composer, arranger and band leader Gerald Wilson was guest lecturer at one of my graduate school classes at New England Conservatory.
Now it’s time for my piano student to play Let’s Fall in Love with the walking bass line. First, she’ll need to meet the challenge of negotiating the notes of the left hand part. In order to do this, she’ll have to pay attention to the phrasing. By taking advantage of these patterns, she’ll finalize the fingering necessary for playing smoothly connected lines. Besides this, she’ll need to develop the independence required to coordinate the counterpoint between the left hand part and the right hand melody. I’m sure that you can see how doing this would provide you with a terrific way to improve your technique.
As you probably know by now, I am convinced that listening to different performances of your selected song for study will energize, inspire and inform your own piano playing. Fortunately, our featured composer Harold Arlen is a favorite among jazz musicians. Perhaps with this fifth song in the Harold Arlen series, you’ll take advantage of finding the variety of versions of Let’s Fall in Love that that will serve as your models for developing your new keyboard swing style skill.
Some of my favorite Let’s Fall in Love renditions include a few by Diana Krall, whose vocal and piano styles both reflect her strong sense of swing. Though they don’t have the dual capability that Ms. Krall has, Oscar Peterson, Hank Jones, Dave Brubeck, Ralph Sharon (Tony Bennett’s accompanist), Paul Smith and Ahmad Jamal each offer an excellent and inspiring example to piano students. Three other performances of Let’s Fall in Love also caught my attention. Jazz vocalist Betty Carter (whom I mentioned in a recent post) incorporated some horn-like inflections into her interpretation. Trumpeter Chris Botti, whom I first saw on a recent PBS TV special, combines his personalized performance with a background that is subtle yet swinging. Finally, jazz bassist Jay Leonhart‘s Quartet featuring clarinetist Ken Peplowski, not only contributes to the catalog of Let’s Fall in Love recordings, but his bass playing will serve as a terrific model for developing your own left hand walking bass technique.
Whether you want to start using the walking bass technique, play a slower standard from the American Popular Songbook, compose a piece or play your favorite pop tune on your keyboard, taking piano lessons can help you enjoy music more than ever before.
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