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 :)

Nearly the end of my week off :(

As I come to the end of my week off I realise that I haven't achieved as much as I would have liked to. I have also realised that it doesn't really matter. There are some things that are more important, like spending time with family and friends- the people you care about. I'm also trying to improve myself in other non-musical ways and that requires time and concious effort too.

I have done some practice though... and a ton of listening.

Back to the Piano:

Today I played the first 16 bars of the Bach at six tempos - 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 bpm

Then I ran the Mintzer Etude at five tempos from 42 - 50

A Major and E Major Scales at crotchet = 50

A New Challenge

I saw a very good gig on Monday night - a local band playing all original compositions. There was some very nice playing and strong tunes... enough to kick my ass and make me want to go away and do some work.

I also bought the Grade 3 piano books yesterday. I spent a little time last night and an hour this morning working through the first sixteen bars of the first piece- Menuet in G from the Anna Magdalena Bach piano book.

I also spent some time playing through the Mintzer Etude - it is still difficult but sounds good.

Quick update

I've been away for a few days so practice time has been limited. I spent about an hour on Friday morning before I set off running through my current four pieces. I did the same thing last night when I got back. I worked in a less structured way than usual - more playing through the material than practising it. This morning I spent about an hour on Wonderful Tonight. This seems to be coming together quicker than the other two Grade 2 pieces. Maybe this means I'm getting better?!

Whilst I was away I bought an excellent biography of Wayne Shorter - Footprints by Michelle Mercer. I've nearly finished it already. Its definitely one of the better musician biographies that I've read (and I've read a whole bunch of them!)

I'm still listening to a lot of the first Brecker CD and it is fast becoming a favourite.

I've also been reading and toying with some of the sections in John Novello's Contemporary Keyboard Player. The improvisation chapters are based mainly on exercises Novello worked on with the enigmatic Charlie Banacos. I'm not expecting to become the next Bill Evans any time soon but its always fascinating to learn more about different approaches to improvisation.

Wednesday 22nd - Part 2

Went for a walk along the beach, listened to my new Brecker cd... then:

20 Minutes - Wonderful Tonight at 40 bpm. I played the whole piece through at 40 bpm with the hands separately and then worked in four bar blocks with both hands together. I can just about get through the first 12 bars with both hands together at 40bpm... there are some errors though!

20 Minutes - Bob Mintzer Etude 1. I ran the whole piece through (with the repeat) at five tempos from 40 up to 48 bpm. I'm still making errors but it is getting better.

20 Minutes:

Reinecke 5 tempos 46 - 54
Biehl 5 tempos 76 - 92 (I might just start running this five times at 92 in future)
G, A and D major scales

15 Minutes composition exercises from Ted Pease book.

Wednesday 22nd October - New Tune!

20 Mins - New piece...

I started my piano practice today with a look at my third Grade 2 piece. It is a short piano arrangement of (don't laugh) Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight. It doesn't seem as challenging as the other Grade 2 pieces YET. There are some tricky parts in the left hand though. I spent 20 minutes sketching through the whole thing a couple of times then tried working on bars 1-4 and 5-8 with a very slow metronome marking.

20 Minutes - Bob Mintzer Etude 1

I spent about half of the time making sure I was comfortable with the second half of the piece at crotchet = 40. I then ran through the whole piece at the same speed. I noticed myself tending to rush a little so I started to think (and sing to myself) the triplet subdivisions whilst playing. As I know from my drum practice this really works and seemed to relax me a little too. The time felt better and I seemed to have more time to make the changes. Next time I look at this piece I will try the five tempos method working at crotchet = 40, 42, 44, 46, 48

I need to make sure I don't over-do it with this piece - after the 20 minutes my right hand was starting to get tired as there are a couple of large stretches involved.

20 Minutes - Reviewing other material

Reinecke at five tempos 44, 46, 48, 50, 52

Biehl at five tempos 76, 80, 84, 88, 92

G major, D Major and A major scales at 50 bpm

I've started to blog in my practice breaks - I think this will work well as things will be fresh in my mind.

(Almost) A week on....

I can't believe it has been nearly a week since my last blog entry. Although I haven't been spending much time blogging I have managed to get quite a few hours of practice in!

Today I spent about an hour at the piano:

20 mins - Bob Mintzer Etude 1. I concentrated on the second half of the piece, particularly the right hand part. I can now just about get through the whole thing at a modest 40 bpm.

20 Mins - Reinecke. I am now running the whole piece through at five metronome markings per session. Last time I ran from 40bpm up to 48. Today was 42bpm up to 50 and so on. I run the piece several times at each tempo (trying not to look at my hands so much.)

10 Mins - Scales. A, D and G major with both hands together over two octaves. I'm still finding this tricky!

10 Mins - Biehl piece at five tempos from 76 up to the marked tempo of 92.

Tomorrow is probably my last Wednesday off as my teaching is starting to pick up. I intend to make the most of it by getting stuck into a third Grade 2 piece and trying to work the full Mintzer Etude up to speed.

15 Minutes Composition - I intend to go through some of the exercises in the Ted Pease Jazz Compositon Theory and Practice. I did a lot of this earlier in the year but I'm a bit rusty so I need to get back into the swing of things.

I've clocked up a fair bit of drum kit practice recently. This feels good but I still want a set of Roland V Drums to practice on at home!

A new CD arrived in the mail today courtesy of Amazon. I've been on a bit of a Michael Brecker trip recently so I ordered his first album. I'm especially enjoying the tune "Choices" which I used to play in a band ten years ago when I was at college. Its nice to hear it played properly!