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.

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.

21/2/09

20 Minutes

Swing It And C working from 60-80bpm. I like playing this piece and it seems to put me in a calm frame of mind (most unlike my normal self!)

Im still loving the Blue Note 7 CD.

20 Minutes

Contemplation from 66-80 bpm
Softly as in a Morning Sunrise 69-84 bpm

I'm starting to feel more comfortable soloing on these tunes now.

Another 20 Minutes

St Thomas 92-108 bpm. Starting to get my teeth into the more challenging changes in this tune.

C Jam Blues 112-132 bpm. This is almost up to speed now and (surprise surprise) I'm most comfortable soloing on this tune.

20 Minutes AB Jazz Grades 1 & 2 scales and arpeggios at 60 bpm

20/2/2009 - 2 1/2 hours (so far)

20 Minutes:

Michael Garrick "Swing It and C" Sketching through the whole piece and then working on the first page at crotchet = 60

20 Minutes:

McCoy Tyner "Contemplation" several times at crotchet = 60 and then working up to 72bpm. I could definately make the solo section a bit more interesting!

20 Minutes:

Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, working from 66-80 bpm and then at 100 and 126 as an experiment. This piece is coming together fairly quickly - an encouraging sign.

In the solo section I'm attemting to play thematically and working on highlighting the guide tones of each chord.

20 Minutes:

St Thomas 88 - 104 bpm. I need to get more comfortable soloing on this tune.

10 Minutes:

C Jam Blues 108-126 bpm

10 Minutes:

Jazz Grades 1 & 2 Scales and arpeggios. These need more work as it has been a while since I regularly practised scales with both hands together *hangs head in shame*

20 Minutes:

More work on 'Swing It And C' playing the whole piece through at 60 bpm

30 Minutes Fly Me To The Moon. This was my first attemp and the piece came together fairly quickly. The "learn lots of pieces to improve my reading" idea seems to be working well.

I'm still alive and still practising...

This is my first post in about two months. It has been a hectic time in many ways but I'm still practising and (I hope) improving.

Having gone through a number of Grade 1-4 pieces I started to realise that although my facility was improving I was learning by sheer repetition rather than actually reading the music. In order to try and rectiy this I have gone back to the early grade jazz pieces and am learning as many new pieces as possible in order to make myself read a lot more. It seems to be working so far. I'm also enjoying playing more familiar material and improving my fairly modest comping and improvisation skills.

Last night I went to see a fantastic gig. Steve Grossman/Damon Brown quintet with the phenomenal Sebastian De Krom on drums. I loved every minute and have had a huge grin on my face ever since. Swinging band and great soloing all round - thats how its REALLY done!

Also got the new Blue Note 7 CD in the post this morning. It also sounds great and I'm feeling very happy and excited about music at the moment :)

I will put my practice details in a different post.

Friday

Just over an hour:

30 minutes: Allegro Assai - up to 48bpm

15 minutes: Kabalevsky first 8 bars @ 40bpm

15 minutes: Grade 2 Sight reading ex 11-20, F, C, G, D, A, E, B major scales.

Thursday

I'm getting back into the swing of things now. I've had a busy few days but I'm starting to get to the end of my 'to do' list and enjoy my time off.

Today:

30 minutes: Allegro Assai - 40-46 bpm (lots of times thorough the whole piece)

15 minutes: starting to look at a second Grade 4 piece by Kabalevsky

15 minutes: Grade 2 sight reading examples 1-10 & F, C, G, D, E and B major scales