Saturday

20 Minutes Bach, concentrating on the middle section ar 40bpm and then running the whole piece at 40, 50 and 60 bpm

15 Minutes Mintzer Etude 1 at 40, 50, 60, 70 bpm

I then dug out my copy of the Mark Levine Jazz Piano Book and spent 30 Minutes working through the three note voicings chapter - Playing the 2/5/1 progression working round the cycle of fifths.

I have reached a point with my piano playing where I am enjoying learning and playing classical pieces but I need to take further steps towards using the piano as a compositional tool. I'm hoping that the Levine book will give me the knowledge and skills to do this.

Its all gone quiet...

I listened to another favourite album today on the way to work - John Coltrane's Blue Trane. The sleeve notes contain a receipt which shows that I bought this in April 1996, a few months before I started the Jazz Studies course at Leeds College of Music. I have spent countless hours listening and playing along to this recording and still hear new things with each listen. I enjoyed it so much I listened to it again on the way home before checking out Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil.

When I arrived at work I had a brief 15 mintes practice pad time so I sung a tune to myself (Blue Trane at slower tempos and Locomotion at quicker ones) and Practised triplets playing a chorus each of Single Strokes, Double Strokes, Paradiddle diddle with one accent and Paradiddle diddle with two accents. I chose these patterns as they are the ones I am using in the solo licks I am currently trying to work into my vocabulary. I started at 100 bpm and worked up to 220bpm in increments of ten. By the time my first student appeared I felt sufficiently warmed up!

Piano practice today as been an hour of the Bach piece (four 15 minute blocks.) I'm playing through the entire piece over and over at 40bpm and making fewer mistakes now. To finish off my session I tried playing the whole thing at 50 and 60 bpm and was pleased to discover that I could do so without sacrificing too much accuracy - an encouraging sign.

Busy Day!

Its been very hectic today - lots of new students and a meeting with housemates to sort out bills (ouch!) has left little time for my musical activities. I did manage:

Listening: Hank Mobley's Soul Station... twice. I love this album it is just perfect. An object lesson in how small group jazz 'should' be played.

Drums:

30 minutes working on Drum Legacy 3/4 3/4 2/4 ideas and also the 'Gadd/Elvin' 3 over 4 ideas. I worked these at five tempos from 126 - 152

20 minutes working on the Drum Legacy Paradiddle-diddle licks, trading fours with myself (four bars time, four bars solo) at five tempos from 96-112

10 minutes trading blues choruses (12 bars time, 12 bars solo) at 120 bpm. This is a really good way to combine new ideas with existing vocabularly within a musical structure.

20 minutes trading blues choruses at 120, 140, 160, 180, 200bpm

This feels much freer than trading fours with myself. There is more scope for thinking compositionally and developing motivic ideas. I started to feel as though my recent practice material is starting to work its way into my thinking and playing - a positive sign.

Comments: Having had a few slightly sarcastic comments on my blog I have implemented a new policy. If you want to comment... show yourself! I know you're there! No more anonymous comments. Sarcasm is allowed as long as I know who you are :)

Not so lazy Wednesday

My day off always seem to somehow end up being at least as hectic as a day at work!

Today I had a huge list of things to do so I made sure to get a little practice done first. As it turns out this was just as well. My errands have ended up taking the entire day - its 7:25pm and they're still not all done.

My practice today has been an hour working on the Bach piece at 40 bpm. I've worked on the whole piece but focused mainly on the middle section.

I also spent ten minutes running the Mintzer etude at 40 bpm.

I have done a little more reading. I'm currently about halfway through (don't laugh) Buddhism for Dummies. There is a lot of food for thought in it (and also some stuff I flipped right through because I found it a bit boring!)

No time for composition or drum practice today - I really need to work on incorporating this into my day more effectively.

A different kind of listening

Instead of my usual CD listening driving to and from work today I've been in the grip of election fever and therefore tuned into Radio Five Live all day.

Drums:

I managed an hour of drum practice today. More work on the Drum Legacy DVD ideas. I'm worked on this by Singing a blues to myself (Blues on the Corner) whilst trading choruses. 12 bars time, 12 bars solo and so on. I also did about 10 minutes of free-play trading, attempting to link the new material into my existing vocabulary.

Piano:

20 Minutes Bach. The first 20 bars at crotchet = 40. I also sketched through the rest of the piece with the hands separately.

20 Minutes playing the Mintzer Etude over and over at crotchet = 40. I agree with my anonymous commentator - it is indeed tricky but I feel better about it today than I did yesterday so that must count for something.

10 Minutes Scales. A, E and B major. I'm a little tired today and made quite a few errors. Hopefully this will be better tomorrow. I think I should also move onto a new scale tomorrow.

10 Minutes reviewing the Reinecke and Biehl Grade 2 pieces at sensible tempos.

No composition today, I've done a little reading but I don't really want to reveal what I'm reading because it sounds a little too cosmic (!)

Its also good to know that at least one person is reading this blog. Somebody has left a couple of anonymous comments so I've no idea if it is somebody I know or if they've stumbled across my blog by accident. Either way... thanks for reading :)

Time management/drums/piano

There are so many things I want to explore and it can be difficult finding time to do everything. I am making the following list as a 'reminder to myself' of some of the things that I would like to make time for on a daily basis (wherever possible.)

1) Listening to music
2) Practising the drums
3) Practising Piano
4) Composing/Arranging music
5) Reading
6) Improving myself
7) Quality recovery/relaxation time

Number six is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I am trying to learn different ways of looking at things and gain some more insight and wisdom to improve my quality of life and improve my actions and the results of my actions and my interactions with others. . .

Mumbo Jumbo? Quite possibly but that's for me to figure out!

So today I managed:

Listening: Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Night Dreamer albums

Drums:

I spent an hour today working on some exercises from the Steve Smith Drum Legacy DVD. I won't bore you with the details - its all in my drum practice diary.

Piano:

10 minutes: Working slowly through the next eight bars of the Bach piece verrry sloooowly.

10 minutes: Mintzer Etude. I'm going to change my approach slightly here - I'm still making lots of errors so I'm going back to just playing it over and over at 40 bpm instead of being impatient and trying to work it up to speed.

10 minutes: Scales. A major, E major and B Major. All at crotchet = 40 because of the pesky fingerings.

Composing: 15 minutes working on a short melody idea. I'm really out of the habit of composition AND also a bit rusty with Sibelius. I need to keep going with this stuff!

Reading: A book which will hopefully help me with item 6 as listed above.

Improving myself: See above. I also made a real effort to enjoy my life today instead of wishing I was somewhere else doing something else. I also tried make my interactions with others positive rather than negative or indifferent.

QRT: Went for a walk around Tynemouth and I'm about to continue by cooking, eating and relaxing :)