Author: Jan

Je suis cool.

Piano day (1h 20m)

Yo! A couple of sleepless nights, score submitted 10 mins before deadline, now back to practice.

  • Improvisation
  • Blues in shell voicings in LH + improv with modal & blues scales in RH
    • I — IV — V in C
    • 12-bar major blues
    • 12-bar minor blues
  • Cycling dominant chords + Mixo scales

Piano day (1h 40m)

  • Dominant chords in chromatic progression in 3-7-9 voicings (Lesson 13 from “Jazz Piano Improvisation for Keyboard Players”)
  • Blues progressions (Lesson 11 from the same book)
    • I — IV — V in Bb
    • 12-bar major blues in Bb
    • Only LH patterns this time
  • II — V — Is in major and parallel minor with no pauses in 3-7-9 / 3-7-5 around the circle of 5ths (my favourite exercise so far)

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • II — V — Is in major and parallel minor with no pauses in 3-7-9 / 3-7-5 around the circle of 5ths (skill 44 from “Jazz Piano Voicing Skills” book)
  • Recap blues progressions and corresponding scales (Lesson 11 from “Jazz Piano Improvisation for Keyboard Players”)
    • I — IV — V in C
    • 12-bar major blues in C
    • 12-bar minor blues in C-
    • C Blues scale + corresponding Mixo / Dorian / Harmonic Minor scales

Yeah, right hand’s getting better. No skateboarding this week.

Piano day (1h 20m)

Mostly left hand practice, as I — as stupid as I am — injured my right while skateboarding 😕 Nothing serious, but just need to give it some rest for a week or so.

  • Comping practice (“A Night in Tunisia” by Dizzy Gillespie (slowed down significantly)
    • Playing with shell voicings in LH
    • Trying to follow the “minimum movement” principle and choose the voicings with that in mind
  • Cycle progressions
    • Cycling dominant 7th chords in 7-3-6 — 3-7-9
    • Cycling minor to dominant progression in 3-7-9 — 7-3-6

Observations

The last two were pretty boring practice sessions, but it will get better. I’ve also got in a habit of doing a track analysis and writing a couple of bars of bass solo, so that compensates for the temporary lack of fun in the actual routine 😃