Piano:
30 Minutes practising Huw Warren's Swing Fun.
The adventure continues
16 years ago
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Friday, 27 February 2009
Friday
40 Minutes Composition:
I sat at the piano when I got to work and started re-working through Ted Pease's Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice. I was fairly pleased with the results of the first few melody exercises.
1 Hour Drums:
30 Minutes Bill Bachman Singles (as featured in the new Modern Drummer)
30 Minutes doing 500 bars of Gaddamacues
Piano:
15 Minutes Barrelhouse Blues from 63-76bpm
15 Minutes Fly Me to the Moon & Swing Fun
I sat at the piano when I got to work and started re-working through Ted Pease's Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice. I was fairly pleased with the results of the first few melody exercises.
1 Hour Drums:
30 Minutes Bill Bachman Singles (as featured in the new Modern Drummer)
30 Minutes doing 500 bars of Gaddamacues
Piano:
15 Minutes Barrelhouse Blues from 63-76bpm
15 Minutes Fly Me to the Moon & Swing Fun
Thursday
When I was a teenager and didn't have a set of drums yet I used to go find it difficult getting to sleep because there was always music going on in my head and I was so excited about the prospect of going to school the next day and practising or working on tunes I was writing. Although I sometimes go through periods where I lose my motivation a little it usually comes back stronger than ever. I feel really inspired to work at things at the moment and I'm hoping this will translate into improved performace.
In conversation with my friend John the other day we discussed an idea based on one of Mike Mangini's theories. John claimed that he once practised a particlar lick for 1000 repetitions non-stop and that he has never needed to work on it since but has pretty much mastery of it at a variety of tempos. It seemed to work for him so in the interests of science I gave it a try. I selected a lick that I can play but have never felt 100% comfortable with - the Steve Gadd ratamacue. I managed 500 repetitions but got interrupted when my first student walked in! It took about half an hour but it definately did some good.
I stumbled across an interesting video last night too:
In conversation with my friend John the other day we discussed an idea based on one of Mike Mangini's theories. John claimed that he once practised a particlar lick for 1000 repetitions non-stop and that he has never needed to work on it since but has pretty much mastery of it at a variety of tempos. It seemed to work for him so in the interests of science I gave it a try. I selected a lick that I can play but have never felt 100% comfortable with - the Steve Gadd ratamacue. I managed 500 repetitions but got interrupted when my first student walked in! It took about half an hour but it definately did some good.
I stumbled across an interesting video last night too:
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Wednesday 25th
20 Minutes running through all of the Jazz Grade 1 & 2 scales. My hands are starting to remember what to do!
20 Minutes playing Barrelhouse Blues from 60-72 bpm.
20 Minutes running Fly Me to the Moon from 120-144bpm and then sketching through a third Jazz Grade 3 piece - Huw Warren's Swing Fun at a slow 60pm.
I then spent three hours in a rehearsal room with my friend John swapping ideas and marvelling at his expensive new kit. It was supposed to be two hours but we were having too much fun so we stayed for an extra hour! What with all the talking and set-up time we probably only got about 90 minutes drumming done but I really enjoyed it and have come away with a few new ideas to work on... I'll have to do this again sometime.
I also dug my Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice book out of storage so I intend to brush up on that - particularly next week when I'm working away and won't have my keyboard.
20 Minutes playing Barrelhouse Blues from 60-72 bpm.
20 Minutes running Fly Me to the Moon from 120-144bpm and then sketching through a third Jazz Grade 3 piece - Huw Warren's Swing Fun at a slow 60pm.
I then spent three hours in a rehearsal room with my friend John swapping ideas and marvelling at his expensive new kit. It was supposed to be two hours but we were having too much fun so we stayed for an extra hour! What with all the talking and set-up time we probably only got about 90 minutes drumming done but I really enjoyed it and have come away with a few new ideas to work on... I'll have to do this again sometime.
I also dug my Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice book out of storage so I intend to brush up on that - particularly next week when I'm working away and won't have my keyboard.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Tuesday 24th
I managed just over two hours of drum kit time today, mainly working on ideas inspired by some of the stuff I heard Sebastiaan De Krom play last Thursday with Steve Grossman.
I also spent about 40 minutes working on some of the material in Gary Chaffee's Technique Patterns book. I'm using it with one of my students at the moment and its been a few years since I last played through it. I'd forgotten how much fun it is and how good it makes my hands feel.
Piano:
20 Minutes Barrelhouse Blues at 60bpm. This is coming together fairly well. Almost ready to start upping the tempo.
20 Minutes Fly Me to the Moon 120-144 bpm then lots of times at 144.
I also spent about 40 minutes working on some of the material in Gary Chaffee's Technique Patterns book. I'm using it with one of my students at the moment and its been a few years since I last played through it. I'd forgotten how much fun it is and how good it makes my hands feel.
Piano:
20 Minutes Barrelhouse Blues at 60bpm. This is coming together fairly well. Almost ready to start upping the tempo.
20 Minutes Fly Me to the Moon 120-144 bpm then lots of times at 144.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Inspiration/Education
My good friend John brought these to my attention today:
Awesome stuff. Its interesting to see that Brecker seems almost shy and very humble here. I'm going through a big Brecker phase at the moment!
Awesome stuff. Its interesting to see that Brecker seems almost shy and very humble here. I'm going through a big Brecker phase at the moment!
Monday
30 Minutes drums:
Trading fours with myself using Weckl Nine idea, paradiddle-diddle plus foot/feet and flammed rolls. Playing with diferent note rates and trying to come up with variations of each idea/combining the different ideas.
Piano:
20 Minutes working St Thomas up to minim = 60. More study is needed before I feel freedom improvising over the changes. I understand it but need more practice before I can... well... put it all into practice!
20 Minutes working Fly Me to the Moon up to the marked tempo - 144 bpm and then playing the whole thing a bunch of times through with solo section.
20 Minutes sketching through a new piece - Barrelhouse Blues at 60 bpm. I got through the whole piece with solos but it is far from fluent!
30 Minutes Improvisation
Last week I got the John LaPorta Method for Jazz Improvisation and worked through the first three 'lessons'. Tonight I spent half an hour on lesson four. This is a little trickier than the first three and the playalong tune is quite quick. I will need to repeat this lesson a few times before moving on.
Trading fours with myself using Weckl Nine idea, paradiddle-diddle plus foot/feet and flammed rolls. Playing with diferent note rates and trying to come up with variations of each idea/combining the different ideas.
Piano:
20 Minutes working St Thomas up to minim = 60. More study is needed before I feel freedom improvising over the changes. I understand it but need more practice before I can... well... put it all into practice!
20 Minutes working Fly Me to the Moon up to the marked tempo - 144 bpm and then playing the whole thing a bunch of times through with solo section.
20 Minutes sketching through a new piece - Barrelhouse Blues at 60 bpm. I got through the whole piece with solos but it is far from fluent!
30 Minutes Improvisation
Last week I got the John LaPorta Method for Jazz Improvisation and worked through the first three 'lessons'. Tonight I spent half an hour on lesson four. This is a little trickier than the first three and the playalong tune is quite quick. I will need to repeat this lesson a few times before moving on.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Sunday
About 15 Minutes:
Running through all of the AB Jazz pieces I have looked at so far.
40 Minutes:
Swing it and C 66-84 bpm
Contemplation 69-84 bpm (accidentally worked beyond the marked tempo here!)
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise 72-88 bpm
St Thomas 96-112 bpm
I'm hoping to get a bit more done shortly...
Another 40 Minutes:
Fly Me to the Moon working up to the marked tempo. Some mistakes here and there but coming together fairly well.
A quick run through some other pieces at marked tempos to see how they sound.
Running through all of the AB Jazz pieces I have looked at so far.
40 Minutes:
Swing it and C 66-84 bpm
Contemplation 69-84 bpm (accidentally worked beyond the marked tempo here!)
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise 72-88 bpm
St Thomas 96-112 bpm
I'm hoping to get a bit more done shortly...
Another 40 Minutes:
Fly Me to the Moon working up to the marked tempo. Some mistakes here and there but coming together fairly well.
A quick run through some other pieces at marked tempos to see how they sound.
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