Author: Jan

Je suis cool.

Piano day (1h 20m)

  • Jazz voicings (Dan Haerle)
    • Major ii — V — I’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 1 (skill 40) at 90bpm — 20m
    • Major ii — V — I’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 2 (skill 41) at 70bpm — 20m
    • Applyiing patterns: playing from chord chart to the walking bass line & shuffle, using 3-7-9, 3-6-9 and 7-3-5 voicings as well as some chord tones based fills — 20m
  • Scales & harmonisation
    • 2-octave scales with both hands in similar motion (just needed to recap): Ionian, Aeolian and Dorian around the cycle — 20m

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 30m
    • Major / minor / dim triads in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • Major / minor / dominant / dim 7th chords in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • Slow focus on dominant and diminished, not looking at the fretboard (as a singing bassist, I need to improve this skill)
  • Walking bass lines — 1h
    • Partido Alto + Cha Cha Cha over random blues progression from iReal Pro app, played in Latin rhythm
    • 2-octave dominant walking bass line exercise (b7 ascending, b7 & b6 descending) in all keys (well, not ALL 30 according to Victor Wooten, haha) around the circle of 5ths, very slowly

Observations

After all generations of music educators and thousands of practice techniques, the best piece of advice remains unshaken: EVEN SLOWER DAMMIT! 😆

Piano day (1h 20m)

  • Harmonising Ionian scale with block 7th chords
  • Harmonising Aeolian scale with block 7th chords
  • Same with 7-3-5 voicings

Observations

Yikes! I found the way to apply my  jazz voicings studies to the scale harmonisation, just like I recently found a way to blend Phil Mann’s Chord Tones course with Scott’s Jazz Survival Guide in my bass days. Shell voicings! I can play them more or less quickly, plus I can harmonise major modes, and now how about harmonising them in 7-3-5 or 3-7-9?! JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU GOT GOOD— Lol. It’s so fun actually. I love the endless possibilities to improve that jazz offers you.

Bass day (1h 20m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 30m
    • Diminished triads in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • Major and minor triads in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • All repeated several times without stopping between inversions or triad types
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 50m
    • Composing bass line using techniques I learned from Scott’s course to a new standard (Moondance by Van Morrison)
    • Soloing over same standard

Observations

Looks (and feels) like I got pretty good at triad & 7th chords inversions! Still struggling a bit with 2nd inversions of  7 and m7b5 when playing at faster tempos, but not terribly bad. So I guess it’s time to move to a new course!

Piano day (1h 40m)

Jazz voicings (Dan Haerle)

  • Major ii — V — I’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 1 (skill 40) at 84bpm — 20m
  • Major ii — V — I’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 2 (skill 41) at 84bpm — 20m
  • Minor ii — V — i’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 1 (skill 42), without click, then at 70bpm — 30m
  • Minor ii — V — i’s around the cycle of 4ths, format 2 (skill 43), analysis + playing without click — 30m

Observations

Man, minor is hard! 😵 But I’m also getting better at recognising 3 -7-9, 3-7-6 and 7-3-6 shell voicings (that are harder than 7-3-5 where you just need to see the 7th, and the rest of the chord is already there). Also, m7b5 — 7b9 — m9 is the an incredibly beautiful way to voice minor ii — V — i!