Cool 
, half the work is done just writing this done , keep the next half going !
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Thanks Pierre, I need the public accountability to keep going, but it is making me practice and I’m loving it!
Thanks Guillaume! It’s your practice log that inspired me to start one myself!
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14-20 September 2019
Back to my happy place for a new week
Theory
- Major 251 progressions round circle of fifths Type B
- 9th chord around circle of fourths. going well
- B major, natural, harmonic & melodic minor
- So what chords - figure out chords on my own
- 7th chords
Jazz standards
- Tune Up, hands together 110bpm on ireal pro
- Just friends
3. Christmas time is here, first 8 bars hands together put these off until just friends is learnt??
4. Misty
Transcription
- Beginner transcriptions exercises : 7,8,
Scales practice
`
- Intervals of 3rds
- Intervals of 4ths
- Intervals of 5ths
- Intervals of 6ths
- Intervals of 7ths
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I hope hearing some of your playing soon !
You even could put it as a goal … its challenging and can help you achieving it …
ps if you need help doing it , dont be afraid to ask. We talk about it here
Share Your Music, Recordings, & Performances 🎵 from posts 69-80
Pierre
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Im so pumped to see your motivation, keep my wanting to post! 
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I had a go at recording this week, but I don’t have a tripod, and our furniture is really low so you can’t see the piano keys. I also tried recording audio on my ipad but the sound quality isn’t the best. I might upload the audio anyway for posterity. This is the beginning of my jazz journey and it will be nice to look back and see how far I have come 
Thanks Guillaume!! It’s great that we’re keeping each other motivated!
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Hi
Dont bother too much with quality
with ipad you can already do great recording and if we dont see the keys dont worry neither … just to have a motivation point and you ll be able to see your improvement with the time
and it motivates all the community
30 September - 6 October
Theory
- Major 251 progressions round circle of fifths Type B
- 9th chord around circle of fourths.
- Db major, natural, harmonic & melodic minor, intervals of 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths
- So what chords - chromatic & circle of fourths
- Herbie Hancock voicing
Jazz standards
- Tune Up (keep practicing!!)
- Just friends
Transcription
- Beginner transcription exercises:
Nice job Emma.
I think it would be good for you to introduce more tunes into your practice time.
I recommend that beginner students study both the Foundations Course, and the Chord Extensions Course in tandem.
In addition to working on “Tune Up” and “Just Friends”, perhaps spend a bit of time working on “Misty” and “Tenderly” from our Chord Extensions Course:
Much of the theory is interrelated and the tunes are similar in difficulty.
I think you will enjoy working on those tunes and it will give you some new and interesting sounds to play around with.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks Hayden for your feedback. Yes I’ll definitely introduce more tunes then. I don’t have much practice time - 30 mins on some evenings, and I try to get a couple of 1-hour sessions in a week. Because time is short, should I work on 4 tunes over the course of the week, but work on only 2 during each practice session?
I definitely feel like I am making progress. I’m starting to “intuitively understand” or “feel” the 251 progressions, and my ninth chords, so what chords and Herbie Hancock voicings are coming on well. I may be a bit of a theory geek, but I already get a great amount of pleasure just playing my Herbie Hancock voicings around the circle of fourths! What a lovely sound that voicing produces!! I actually quite enjoy the theory side of playing as well, and I love trying to get my mind around how chords are constructed, and all the different possible note combinations and the quality of sound that they produce. But of course, nothing beats working on a jazz standard 
6-13 October
Theory
- So what chords - chromatic & circle of fourths
- Herbie Hancock voicings - circle of fourths
- Db major, natural, harmonic & melodic minor, intervals of 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths (I feel like I don’t know it well enough yet to move on…)
Jazz standards
- Tune Up (record)
- Just friends - 3rds & 7ths + melody
- Misty (loop from 6.03 to 6.37)
- Tenderly / Christmas time is here (melody + 3rds and 7ths?)
Transcription
- Beginner transcription exercises: pick up at 7
My pleasure Emma.
Ideally, 1 hour per day should be the minimum, but of course we all have other commitments so it can be challenging.
I used to do theory drills early morning before I went to work (my brain was more alert in the morning) and then mostly jazz standards in my evening practice sessions. I found that to be effective.
Yes certainly split tunes over different days if you are tight on time.
Most jazz standards follow a similar format.
Understanding this can greatly help with memorisation. Check out this lesson which is from an advanced course, but the information covered is accessible to all levels of students:
Yes the HH voicing is great and that is a very worthwhile exercise that you are doing.
You will be familiarising your ears with the sounds of extensions and you will be visualising the chord tones and extensions in different keys.
It sounds like you are very much on the right path Emma. It’s wonderful to have such an interest in the theory which can be a great motivator. It certainly was, and still is, a motivator for myself.
Ultimately, aim to strike a balance between theory and playing standards.
Particularly if you have aspirations to play with other musicians in the future. It’s important to start memorising jazz standards so that you know the chord changes and forms off by heart.
The above lesson will help you with that. 
Every time you pick up a new tune, analyse the form and chord changes and try to remember that information. It will make your life a lot easier when you try to recall on old tune you haven’t played in a while!
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20-27 October
I’m back in the saddle after a very busy two weeks. Over the next two weeks, I’m going to try my best to do 1 hour practice per day.
Theory
- So what chords - circle of fourths without reading the sheet music (add chromatic once circle of fourths is mastered)
- Herbie Hancock voicings - circle of fourths
- F# / Gb major , natural, harmonic & melodic minor, intervals of 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths
Jazz standards
- Tune Up (post audio)
- Just friends - 3rds & 7ths + melody
- Misty work on extensions chapter
- Tenderly / Christmas time is here (melody + 3rds and 7ths?)
Blues
- 12 bar blues lesson
Transcription
- Beginner transcription exercises: pick up at 7
Practice time (it’s the school holidays so I can do more than usual)
Mon: 20 mins
Tues: 1 hr 23 mins
Wed: 2 hr 9 mins
Thurs: 1 hr 44 mins
Fri: 1hr 15 mins
Sat: 56 mins
Sun: 2 hrs 12 mins
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I’m moving my practice schedule to paper, just because I want to use screens less. But I still had a great week of practice.
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I’ve got the 3rds and 7ths of Misty down (I spent a long time working on it to make sure I knew it really well). I’m now moving onto the extensions.
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I started working on Tenderly - melody + root. It seems easy and I can whizz through these exercises with mediochre results quite quickly. But I’m making myself do each step properly until it is almost error free and that takes quite a lot more time!
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I’m working on a piece of boogie woogie sheet music I have at home. I want to keep up sight reading as a skill.
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I started the 12 bar blues lesson
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I’ve done 2 or 3 beginner level transcription exercises per day. I’m finding it difficult to distinguish between minor 6th, major 6th and minor 7th intervals, but I’m making progress.
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I’m using a random note picker to choose the notes of the Kenny Barron, Herbie Hancock and So What voicings. They are coming on quite well, but there is still a lot of work to do before I can play them instantly and spontaneously.
I did at least 1 hr practice a day this week. I hope I can keep it up as we enter the busiest period of the year at school. I have 18 meetings programmed after working hours for all the parents evenings and class meetings before Christmas. My evenings are short on those days (1-2 hours from getting home until going to bed). I’m determined not to let it to get in the way of my practice though. I might ask the music teacher if I can borrow his room and get some practice in while I wait for meetings to begin.
Thanks for sharing these Emma! It inspires me to get a bit more structure in my own practise. I see I’m tending to focus on the same things too much (hey it’s fun once you know something!) Hard to guage but we may be at a similar level (i’m def beginner) maybe I’m a bit behind though. I’ll see what I can squeeze into an hour.
Thanks for your reply Brett. Yes I’m a beginner. I did play the piano when I was younger, but after an almost 20 year hiatus, I’ve lost quite a lot of the skill I used to have. I’ve also never played jazz piano before, so a lot of what I’m learning is completely new to me.
I’m really enjoying working on the jazz standards. Hayden suggested to have 3 on the go at all times, so that is what I’m doing. I’m finding great benefit in not rushing through the lessons and trying to learn everything at once. I went quickly with Tune Up and I find that I struggle to remember it. I’m going slower with Misty. I spent hours and hours making sure I could play the melody with the root, 3rds and 7ths almost perfectly before moving onto the extensions and harmonisations. Now that I’m working on the extensions and harmonisations, I’m so pleased that I put in all that work on the root, 3rds and 7ths because it is much easier to remember where I’m going with the tune, and I can also see what is going on voicing-wise.
And I know about the temptation to always play what you know. I’ve noticed the same tendency with myself and I am developing a strategy to try and avoid it, whereby I practice 3 jazz standards at the same time. One that is really good and I’m just “polishing up” or maintaining in my repertoire, another that is well on its way (in the extensions / harmonisations phase) and a third that is new, and for which I concentrate on the melody, 3rds and 7ths. When My new jazz standard gets to the stage where I can start harmonisation, I’ll bump the best jazz standard off the list, and bring in another brand new one and work on just the melody, 3rds and 7ths.
I’m hoping that by doing this, I’ll always have a jazz standard in its interesting harmonisation stage (that I practice at the beginning of my practice session) and a newer jazz standard, which I work on towards the end of my practice session, because melody, roots, 3rds and 7ths are easier and I’m better doing as I get tired from concentrating.
Happy playing!
Similar here. I never learned piano (25 years ago my sister did and taught me the first section of fur elise but she got annoyed with me because I was too stubborn to use the “right fingering” haha), but I did trumpet, violin, and sang in choirs for a couple of decades, so there’s some foundation. (now I can play the full A–B–A–C–A at 90bpm with the right fingering, so I guess she was right!).
Yeah I read Hayden’s comments above about having 3-4 going at once, and he has suggested similar to me, with a longer term goal of aiming for 30 that I am familiar with.
When you say that you practise playing the melody with roots, 3rds and 7th what are you doing there? Reading from the lead sheet playing the melody through and R-3-7 in the left from theory knowledge? Are you chosing your own voicings or learning from the provided videos/transcriptions?
There’s a nice autumn leaves ballad video in the Intermediate section which starts off with a simple r-3-7 arrangement which I’ve spent some time on. I can play it through without mistakes and it’s much better than some other things I’ve rote learned from elsewhere because I can easily think about the chords. So now picking up another (Just Friends) to start.
One thing I’ve started doing is spending more time dedicated on a single scale. Playing major scale+triad around the circle is easy enough but it’s more rote learning and formula learning (next one has another b or another #), and I wasn’t really committing much to memory. So I’m spending a solid 15-30 minutes on a single scale now. note #s, rootless voicings in both hands in all inversions thinking of the numbers, notes, whats at the top, etc. intervals (1-2-1, 1-3-1 up two octives to 1-15-1_) The 5 7s, type AB 2-5-1s. That’s helping a lot.
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