Rehearsal, Gig, Thoughts, Piano

The rehearsal on Wednesday went well. I thought there was some good playing all round. Some nice interplay between the rhythm section behind the soloists and also a couple of blinding solos by the two Andys.

The gig in Stockton went fairly well. I was the first Thursday night jazz session at the venue so the audience could have been bigger but apparently those who were there had positive things to say... more importantly the guy who books the gigs was very complimentary!

I didn't feel particularly free when comping. I felt like I was just treading water a lot of the time - playing the same few ideas over and over rather than making any kind of meaningful statement. I think I need to spend a lot more time practising at around the 200 bpm and up tempo range. A lot of our tunes fall into that bracket so hopefully this will help.

My own soling didn't feel particularly good. I felt I was too tense and anxious to allow myself to play 'properly.' Again more practice should improve this. The tunes I solo on are all uptempo numbers so it might be good to solo on a slower tune instead which would bring out some different ideas. I also thought it might be an idea to do a free/open solo leading into one of the tunes.

Piano wise I am starting to get much more comfortable with the first half of the Bob Mintzer etude and I have now worked all the way through the Reinecke piece (at a verrry slow tempo) I now need to move onto the next section of the Mintzer piece. This has more varied voicings and different bass line so it might take a while!

I bought the new Mintzer big band CD this week.

Bob Mintzer = insanely talented and hard working genius... Me = none of the above

Pre-gig practice and more piano

Alter Ego have a gig tomorrow night so my drum practice this week has involved running through some of the tunes from that pad and trying to get a little more comfortable with some of the soloing/time playing that I need for the gig. There's a rehearsal tonight so I'm looking forward to seeing and playing with the guys again - its been a while since we were all in the same room together!

Piano practice has been a little more structured today as I have the day off. I've decided to limit my practice to little mini-sessions of 15 minutes at a time. There is no underlying musical or motivational reason for this. It is more a question of taking care of my back which has been causing me pain for the last week. Spending a few hours last Monday hunched over my keyboard and laptop seem to have set this off.

So far I've done four blocks:

15 minutes - Bob Mintzer Etude 1, first 12 bars at crotchet = 50. Not quite comfortable yet

15 minutes - Grade 2 Scales. Review G major 8 times then D major for the rest of the block. Both at crotchet = 50. I'm ALMOST comfortable with the fingerings over two octaves with both hands together.

15 minutes - Reinecke piece. Bars 5-8 then reviewing bars 1-8 at crotchet =40. Not quite there yet

15 minutes - Playing the Biehl piece at five tempos from crotchet = 72 up to 88 and then without click trying to include the ralls and dynamics a bit more. The rest of this block was spent reviewing the Mintzer Etude.

Getting better...

Having dusted off my keyboard chops I feel I'm actually starting to get better than I was before my little break. I bought the Grade 2 Scales book and although it was hard work I'm starting to get used to playing the scales over two octaves with both hands together. The tricky fingerings and coordination took some getting used to but a few short bursts of practice took care of things.

I've also started working on a second Grade 2 piece - Carl Reinecke's Allegro Moderato (First Movement from Sonatina in G, Op. 136 No. 2)

The combination of the scales and the new piece have had me practising the way I did when I started in the Summer: verrrry slowly indeed and going a step at a time. It can take a long time just to get a few bars to feel comfortable. I've had to take the same approach with the Bob Mintzer book but it really seems to pay dividends. Working on things that I can barely play forces me to improve. Things normally take shape after a few short sessions so it isn't too disheartening but it IS hard work. The path of most resistance seems to reap the greatest rewards somehow. Now if I can transfer the same approach to my drum practice...

I've been doing quite a bit of in-car listening recently and I still can't get over how phenomenal Steps Ahead Smokin in the Pit is. Listening to that album excites me in a way that only a few other performances ever have. In spite of my initial indifference I am now completely into the latest Yellowjackets CD too. There is some beautiful playing and writing on there.

My latest idle thoughts involve a sax/bass/drums trio to work on some different ideas. I'd really have to play some serious drums then - the path of most resistance indeed!

I think that's a much longer term project. I need to focus on Alter Ego and my quartet idea for now.