Thanks Hayden. I am totally using your practice plans, actually pretty much to a T. I do often spend way more time than the recommended 5 minutes just because I am exploring things.
The 5 minutes is just a suggested time so feel free to do what works best for you.
The most important thing is that we visit different theory areas in 1 sitting, and not just spend the whole time on 1 exercise. That’s what I was told by many teachers and musicians… “break our practice time into small chunks so we can cover lots of different topics”.
Very beautiful arrangement. Kawai mp7 ? Jealous Pierre. I hope to be able to play the major and minor 251ś within the next few months. In Ecuador for the month at a beach house. Study lessons on rootless 251 each day but no keyboard to play on. Visualize keyboard in my mind and how each chord is played. I hope this helps me
Thanks for posting.
Dr. Dean
arg … no more plan of practice for a long period now …
I really need to calm me down and play less new songs
my plan seems not adapted to me i have to find another way
So being more realistic:
big lacks are time placing so i have to incorporate exercice for it everyday even few minutes
second goal of the month will be to play target notes in my improvisation , for the moment playing them is not enough focused and enclosure is not fluent at all
third and last will be to work on motivic development
AND incorporate this in my old songs
now i have to find specific exercice for each goal
For time placing, check out Tuomo’s lesson on “how to practice time”:
Perhaps spend 15 minutes per day following those exercises.
I’m also guilty on focusing on too many tunes and moving on too quickly.
When working on my improvisation, I now spend more time on a smaller number of tunes and I find this to be effective.
I think that listening to jazz blues recordings is great for these goals. Particularly for working on motivic development. Each 12 bar chorus gives us the opportunity to create a new motif, and develop it for the whole 12 bars.
After playing many jazz standards, I realised I hadn’t spent enough time listening to the blues… which is where it all began!
combine lightly things thinking about scales and timing , comping chords and timing and some exercices on 16th with claping i have learn for the getting funky bass line
and yes the blues will be the begining for target note and the motivic development thks !
I disconnect from my practice log this summer for improving my bass technic … but thats another story
After discovering funky tango de luis Salinas i cant resist playing something around
so i create a loop with drums recorded a bass line and with my electric piano jam on it … even find a pro guitar player to jam it with me … it is done on the thumb but have really fun to do it
here it is … hear this guitar playing … lovely lines
in btw a good exercice to improve the rootless minor 251
PS if someone want to jam with the back track and the chords ; just ask , i will share it with pleasure… for waiting the funk teacher it is a cool song …
After trying to have routine with my others instruments
hard to combine both for the moment
Pannonica is one i will try to add to my repertoire
working diminished harmony : aware this will need time , so still playing around … and discussing around it seems to help me going inside a bit … thanks Tuomo
still working around the scale : this could be an awesome lesson @Hayden@Tuomo@Jovino how to play around a scale …
two difficulties comes around even when the scale is well known
1. finding patterns
keeping pattern going : for instance some ideas
skipping a note in the scale , numbering fingers and moving the hand to the next note of the scale keeping same order of fingering for 135 124 123…
finding some triads in a scale
rhythmic idea repeating to create a motive
for diminished scales the symetry of the scale helps us adding the moving in minor third of whatever pattern that fit
2. playing them with fluidity otherwise whatever we play it sound bad
and the most important coming quickly out is the fingering (we cannot playing shapes as easy as guitarists ) any exercice, rules that could help ?
I try not to think purely in terms of scales when improvising.
Scales can certainly play a role in improvisation, but I try to pay more attention to voice leading chord tones, adding interesting approach patterns and enclosures, and using chromaticism. I cover these concepts in my course on the jazz blues progression.
Jovino and Tuomo both created lessons on deriving triads from scales and using these as the source of melodic creativity:
For fluidity and control, my biggest recommendation would be to master the scale at slow tempos with a metronome, and then very gradually increase the tempo. Always playing along with the metronome.
It takes a lot of patience but that would be my #1 exercise for improving fluidity when playing scales.
I’ve pretty much come to same conclusion. Practicing seems to have gotten all over the place. If you apply all of the areas that you should practice regularly focusing on a specific tune, you’ll get what you need. With another tune, you’ll be adding to your skill set. It’s still a lot of work, but at least there’s music at the end.