Author: Jan

Je suis cool.

Piano day (2h)

  • Technical
    • A Dozen A Day
      • “Stretching”
      • “Going Down Stairs”
      • “Flinging Arms” in all keys
      • “The Push-Up”
  • Modal studies + left hand
    • 2-octave Mixolydian 7th chord arpeggios in broken 4ths (C7 — Fm7 — BbM7 — EbM7 — Am7b5 — Dm7 — Gm7 — BbM7 — EbM7 — Am7b5 — Dm7 — Gm7 — C7) — LH and RH
    • Harmonising Dorian scale with shells & stride patterns
    • Voice leading, A — B voicings in C Dorian (i — ii: stay in A, i — III: A to B or stay, i — IV7: A to B, i — v: A to B, etc.)
  • Jazz voicings
    • Recap minor to dominant
    • Recap (augmented) dominant to minor
  • Improvisation
    • Major blues scale over dominant chord in all keys
    • Minor blues scale over minor chord in all keys

Bass day (1h)

  • Soloing
    • Free improv (focus on avoiding roots) over Worth The Wait
  • Improv + piano catch-up
    • Minor blues scale in all keys around the neck over dominant chords around the cycle of 4ths
  • Major 7th chords around the cycle of 4ths in all inversions, permutation used: 1-3-7-5

Piano day (1h 40m)

  • Technical
    • Dohannyi: continuing to try out exercises
    • Hanon: back to book 2
    • 7th chord 2-octave arpeggios: all keys, LH
  • Modal studies
    • Harmonising Mixo with shells in RH & 2-octave stride patterns in LH

Observations

Although Dohannyi looked cool at first, it turned out to be a little too complex for me. Also diminished-based exercises are really very “classical music-y”, and that’s not exactly what I’m going for. Playing that kind of stuff only makes you realise how much you suck in comparison with classical pianists. My goal is essentially jazz comping and more freedom in left hand patterns, so I might not need to go in this direction. This is why I picked up Hanon book 2 again that I put to the side back in 2017, and I must say it felt just right now. So I’ll stick to it for a while and go back to my voicing studies.

Piano day (1h 40m)

  • Technical
    • A Dozen A Day
      • “Stretching”
      • “Going Down Stairs”
      • “Flinging Arms” in all keys
      • “The Push-Up”
      • “Deep Breathing” in all keys
    • Oscar Peterson — Jazz Exercises
      • Exercise No. 1 (recap)
      • Jazz Menuet No. 1 (recap)
      • Tried out some other exercises and decided to use this book only for reading; quite boring, really
    • Hanon (ran a couple of random exercises from memory)
    • Dohannyi: checking out the book
  • Modal studies
    • Harmonising Mixolydian mode
      • LH: stride patterns: 1 — 1st inversion
      • RH: 7-3-5 shells

Observations

It seems like there are a lot of technical exercise books that might not be good for everyone. So it really is useful to take your time and go through some exercises to figure out whether they actually suit your goals. My goal right now is more freedom in left hand, so Peterson unfortunately didn’t work for me (although some minuets are very beautiful, so I’m going to go back to them time after time to practice sight reading). Dohannyi, on the other hand, seems to be my thing — it’s not as boring as Hanon, but technical enough to keep you challenged.

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones / Walking bass
    • Major & minor 7th chords around the cycle of 4ths in all inversions, permutations used: 1-3-7-5, 3-1-7-5
    • Inverted arpeggios in permutations + “splits”: play first three tones in higher register, slide down to play the last one, start second arpeggio in lower register and slide back on the last tone, e. g.:
      • 1-3-7-5 permutation, 2nd inversion: C2 — E2 — B1 — G1 (D string) → F1 (D string) — A1 — E1 — C0 (E string) → Bb1 (D string) — D1… and so on around the  cycle of 4ths
    • Walking with inversions & permutations
      • A Beautiful Friendship in Eb (trying to stick to this standard for a while)