Piano day (1h 30m)

Blues day!

Improvisation (Dan Haerle — Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players)
- Lesson 11: Blues progressions
  - C blues scale over:
    - I — IV — V in 3-7-9 — 7-3-6 voicings
    - 12-bar major blues (in 3-7-9 — 7-3-6)
    - 12-bar minor blues (in 3-5-7-9 — 7-9-3-5 — 7-1-3-b5 — 7-b5-7-9 — 7-b9-3-5 — etc.)
  - Mixo, Dorian and Harmonic minor scales over:
    - I — IV — V
    - 12-bar major blues
    - 12-bar minor blues
  - Mixing up C blues scale with corresponding Mixo / Dorian / Harmonic minor scales over the same progressions

Observations

Finally, I’m progressing at jazz pian improvisation ! Mr. Haerle, sir, you’re the best! 😃

Bass day (1h 30m)

Walking bass practice with Nashville number notation (keys of C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab)
Tons of Runs (Andy Laverne book) — recap 1st dominant figure + new one, apply to several chords
Practice 7th chord inversions over blues progression in Nashville notation in several keys (root, 1st, 1st reversed)
Run all 1st inversions of all 7th chords in 2 fingerings around the cycle of 4ths (to a click)

Piano day (1h 40m)

Improvisation (Dan Haerle — Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players)
- Improv over major II — V — I in C, F, Bb, G and D
  - 2 left hand voicings (same as last time)
- Improv over minor ii — V — i in C- and F-
  - Same 2 left hand voicings
  - Trying to stay within harmonic minor scale in RH and start on proper chord tonic
- Writing down all “less-movement” fingering patterns for II — V — I

Bass day (1h 40m)

Latin rhythms & walking bass
- Cha-cha-cha in G & E
- Walking bass practice with Nashville number notation (keys of G, E, C, Bb)
Chord tones
- Recap all 7th chords in all inversions around the cycle of 4ths
- In context of the song (very briefly)
Tons of Runs (Andy Laverne book) — reading in treble + learning licks for soloing: dominant 7th run in 3 keys

Observations

OMG! I don’t know if it’s just a recent update or was always there, but I have just discovered that you can display chord charts in iReal Pro in NUMBER NOTATION!!! YAAAAAY!!! That’s an absolute killer. Keep improving walking bass line skills and at the same time finally internalise all scale degrees relationships (even though the app is not smart enough to detect mode mixing and modulations to other keys, but still!). Priceless.

Piano day (1h 30m)

Improvisation (Dan Haerle — Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players)
- Improv over major II — V — I in C, F, Bb, G and D
- Left hand voicings:
  - 3-7-9 — 7-3-6 — 3-6-9
  - 7-1-3-5 — 3-6-7-9 (yes, not 3-5-7-9!) — 7-1-3-5
- Improv over minor ii — V — i in C- and F-
- Left hand voicings:
  - 3-b5-7-9 — 7-b6-3-5 — 3-5-#7-9
  - 7-1-3-b5 — 3-5-7-b9 — #7-1-3-5

Observations

I’m so glad that I spent some time with Mr. Haerle’s other book “Jazz piano voicings” before staring with this one. He’s using shell voicings all the time, and I’m already somewhat familiar with them, so that helps me adopt the improvisation concepts much quicker.