Saturday

Piano:

20 Minutes Scales (at correct tempo for Grade 3.)

20 Minutes Bergonzi all permutations on Lady Duck and On the Brink at 60 bpm.

20 Minutes Neat Feet. All traditional metronome markings from 60-100bpm, ironing out a few reading errors as I get more comfortable with the piece.

30 Minutes Ted Pease Composition exercises.

20 Minutes Scales.

30 Minutes Bergonzi: Lady Duck 1234/1345 and the three permutations. I did one chorus of each at 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 bpm and then played along to the CD four times - one for each permutation and then moved into mixing it up a little and improvising using these notes.

30 Minutes more Bergonzi. On the Brink permutations 60-100bpm

Jeff Tain Watts and Friday Practice

Drums:

1 Hour practice pad stuff - Bill Bachman Singles and Alan Dawson Rudimental Ritual.

Piano:

15 Minutes Neat Feet

I Came across these the other day:

Thursday

Drums:

45 Minutes 3/4 comping using a mixture of John Riley material and improvised ideas. I'm doing this to address a slightly weak area and prepare for one or two of the tunes I hope to be playing in one of my new projects.

30 Minutes Bill Bachman Double Strokes & Alan Dawson Rudimental Ritual

Piano:

15 Minutes working on the last 3 Grade 3 scales.

15 Minutes Bergonzi Lady Duck using the 3 permutations - 4 choruses of each one at 60bpm. Its hard work but I can feel myself getting better as I play through the piece in this way.

15 Minutes Neat Feet working from 60bpm to 100bpm (somewhat sketchily!)

Lazy Wednesday

I'm feeling very positive and excited about music at the moment. I'm looking forward to getting started with a new band featuring a number of people who I always enjoy playing with. I have also been a little more proactive than usual in the last few days and have instigated another new playing project . Rehearsals for both things should begin in the next few weeks - I can't wait. At least one of these projects should force me to flex my composition and arranging muscles (weak as they are!)

Yesterday I managed 90 minutes of drums:

30 Minutes Bill Bachman singles/Rudimental Ritual.

60 Minutes toying with some drum ideas for my new quartet.

Last night was my brother's 'Good Luck In America Part 2' dinner so I was busy eating rare steak and drinking red wine rather than practising piano!

Today:

20 Minute scale workout - all Grade 1-3 scales/arpeggios except C minor pentatonic, C blues and F bluues scales. I will start with these next time.

20 Minutes Pieces - Running through Barrelhouse and Moon then concentrating on Neat Feet including solo at 60 bpm

20 Minutes Bergonzi Lady Duck/On The Brink along to CD. Next session I will try some of the permutation exercises.

20 Minutes composition exercises.

Another great day...

Another great day of music yesterday. I really enjoyed seeing a number of familiar faces playing well in the Sage concourse and enjoyed catching up with some more old friends. I bought the last two Joshua Redman CDs and a live Elvin Jones disc before the evenings gig.

The Joshua Redman trio was outstanding last night. I think Greg Hutchinson is my new favourite drummer!

Today:

15 Minutes Grade 3 jazz scales up to C minor pentatonic.

15 Minutes Neat Feet sketching through the entire head - not solo section yet.

15 Minutes Bergonzi On The Brink 100-120bpm then CD playalong. I definitely could not do this a week ago... Progress!

15 Minutes Composition - Ted Pease melody exercises.

I think the structured aproach will help me achieve my current goals but will be more effective when I have a little more practice time available. Roll on Easter Holidays!

Fun yesterday... practice today

I enjoyed catching up with a lot of folks yesterday at the Jazz Festival. I even got up and played in the Jam session. I Also spoke to a very good local pianist about actually getting some lessons at long last. I heard lots of good music played and I played a couple more very tasty cymbals. I can see myself becoming considerably poorer in the next week or so! I also put the wheels in motion as far as developing a new playing situation goes...

Today:

20 Minutes scales workout - ALMOST ready to move on to some new patterns.

20 Minutes Pieces: 4 times through Fly Me to the Moon and Barrelhouse Blues, then working on Michael Garrick's Neat Feet - first 8 bars.

20 Minutes Bergonzi On The Brink 80bpm-120bpm using 1234/1345 patterns.

I'm considering structuring my piano time for a while by devoting equal time to each of the following areas:

Pieces
Technique (Scales/Arpegggios)
Improvistation (Bergonzi Melodic Structures)
Composition