More piano, more drums and some arranging

I spent most of my piano-time last week getting back up to speed with some of my old pieces. I feel like I've now regained most of my (slightly rusty) skills.

I've also been enjoying plenty of drum practice - both on the kit and also on the practice pad. I really think I need to bite the bullet and get myself a set of Roland V-Drums (Electronic drums) very soon. The expense has always put me off in the past but it really is important to be able to practise at home. I can't see myself moving into a large soundproof detached house any time soon so I think electronic drums are the way to go here.

The Bob Mintzer piano book arrived this morning and it looks excellent. I've had the day off work today and I was just practising some Grade Two stuff when the Mintzer book arrived. It looks like it will take quite a while to play all the material and probably even longer to absorb all the ideas but it seems to be exactly what I have been looking for. I spent two thirty minute blocks working on the first study and then toying with some of the voicing ideas for other chord changes.

I then spent some time on the practice pad working on some Swiss triplet ideas and then moving between singles and doubles at a variety of tempos. My hands are starting to feel like they are in pretty decent shape now following a bit of a hiatus over the Summer.

I then started to work on a quartet arrangement of There Will Never Be Another You. I am hoping to do some fairly structured arrangements of a number of standards over the coming months. I would like to do some more small-group playing alongside the Alter Ego project. I want to avoid the usual Real Book jam sound and work on some really tightly structured arrangements with some nice hits/phrasing/voicings and background figures... The kinds of things that you HAVE to consider in a larger ensemble but can get overlooked in quartets/quintets. I also want to force myself to play in a wider variety of time feels and solo more - both unaccompanied solos and solos over vamps/background figures. I intend to do the arrangements in Sibelius and then mute the drums and practice along to them. When I have a reasonable number of charts completed I will try and get some guys together to play them.

I'm really pleased with the way Alter Ego has taken shape over the last couple of years but now I feel the need to create another playing situation to explore some other ideas. Hopefully the two situations will help me in different ways... I'll keep you posted!