Author: Jan

Je suis cool.

Piano day (2h)

  • 12-bar blues in LH & blues scale runs in RH — 1h
    • C-
    • F- (2 octaves ↑, 2 octaves ↓, 1 octave ↑, 1 octave ↓ x 2 + fills)
  • Harmonising Dorian scale with 7th chords (pattern: i — VII, i — viº, i — v, etc.) at 64bpm around the circle of 5ths starting on D (easy mode)
  • Cycle progressions with shell voicings (Dan Haerle book, skills 37a & 37b — Minor to Dominant) — with click at 72bpm

Observations

Inventing own exercises is cool! (E. g. blues pentatonic scale runs starting on different notes in RH played to the standard blues progression in LH). It helps to stay in the musical context while doing some stuff that’s often considered boring (such as learning new scales). I learned it from Rick Beato: he recommends not just playing the scale or arpeggio, but always put it in the musical context, because otherwise it’s just a scale or arpeggio you’ve learned. True that!

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) 1h
    • Major triads in all inversions, saying all notes out loud, around the cycle, no stops at 45bpm in 8ths
    • Same, but without saying notes, 80bpm (that’s what I call shape slavery, lol)
    • Minor triads in root and 1st inversion, saying all notes, around the cycle at 40bpm in 8ths
  • Break
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) 35m
    • Static chord patterns (major & dominant) over C▵7 & C7, then D▵7 & D7

Observations

Remember Victor Wooten’s “Do you practice in all keys?” joke? Yeah, so, minor keys are the PITA when it comes to playing & calling the notes around the cycle. Because there you have keys like Db- with Fb and Ab- with Cb and Gb- with Bbb :blink: And you either play safe and go C#-, G#- and F#- or you try to grind and your brain really starts to melt even at 40bpm. I know a lot of players who just don’t care about such keys as Gb-, but then again when you see this chord in the chord chart and you have to play a walking bass line over it, what are you going to do? I was always converting to enharmonic key with lesser amount of accidentals, but maybe I should bite the bullet and practice also these guys “as is”.

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Comping polychordal exercise / Blues in C from Dan Haerle book (skill 73a)
    • Tried to play with original fourthy  voicings in RH, but it was too overwhelming combined with LH voicings
    • In time at 84bpm with block voicings in RH
  • Harmonising Dorian scale (pattern: i — VII, i — viº, i — v, etc.) at 72bpm
  • Diminished arpeggios recap (only Cº7 shapes)

Observations

Things NOT to do: try to change routine in the middle of a practice session. Because polychordal exercise was exhausting, I thought why wouldn’t I play me some diminished arpeggios, started to do that, realised that fingering was screwed up I haven’t practised them for a while, started looking for my fingering chart, got even more frustrated, kinda lost the fun. So, no throwing in unplanned things when already playing!

Bass day (1h 20m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • Major triads in all inversions around the cycle of 4ths
    • At 50bpm calling out all notes while playing
    • At 70bpm without such madness
    • Minor triads in all inversions around the cycle, without click
  • Walking bass line (Scott Devine)
    • Autumn Leaves in D-
    • Chord tones + chromatic notes
    • Adapting G- patterns to the new key

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Polytchordal voicings from Dan Haerle book (skill 61a) — in time, 92bpm, from memory
  • Cycle progressions w/ shell voicings: Dominant to Major (skill 38a) — without click, then with click at 92bpm
  • Dorian scales in all keys, in similar motion
  • Harmonisation of Dorian scale with 7th chords, all keys, without click, then with click at 70bpm (pattern: i — VII, i — viº, i — v, etc.)
  • Dorian ii7 — v7 — i7 around the cycle of 4ths, 70 bpm
  • Attempted to run i — ii — bIII▵7 — IV7… in all keys at 70bpm, but it was a bit too fast for this pattern