Tag: comping

Piano day (2h 10m)

  • Voicing skills
    • II — V — Is in major + relative minor (all keys, no stops, with click)
    • Dominant to major (7-3-6 to 3-7-9)
    • Dominant to major (3-7-9 to 7-3-5)
    • Recap all minor to dominant (7-3-5 to 3-7-9 and 3-7-9 to 7-3-6)
    • Recap (real quick) cycling major 7ths, minor 7ths and dominant
  • Improvisation
    • Major & minor 12-bar blues in C, F and — unexpectedly — C#- (just because I needed to play some brain games again :lol:)
    • Trying iv — i — vib5 — iib5 in 3-5-7-9 — 7-9-3-5 — 7-1-3-b5 — 3-b5-7-9 transition in several keys (damn it’s hard, and I didn’t even get to keys like Bb-, lol)

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Voicing skills
    • Recap shell voicings (exercises from “Jazz Piano Voicing Skills”)
      • Dominant sus 4 in 4-7-9
      • Dominant sus 4 in 7-9-4-6
  • Improvisation
    • Cycling dominant 7 chords + Mixolydian scales
      • RH patterns: diatonic, 1-7-1-4-1-3-4, 1-7-1-3-5-1-4
    • Cycling minor to dominant transition + Dorian & Mixo scales
    • Cycling dominant to major 7 transition + Mixo scale

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 😃

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Comping practice (“A Child is Born” by Thad Jones) — exercise from “Jazz Language” book by Dan Haerle
    • Playing a jazz standard from the Real Book (to walking bass + drums accompaniment) with roots / block arpeggios in LH & shell voicings in RH
    • Using 3-7-9, 7-3-6, 7-3-5 shells
    • Trying to follow the “minimum movement” principle
  • Improvisation (only left hand)
    • Cycling dominant 7th chords in 7-3-6 — 3-7-9
    • Cycling minor to dominant progression in 3-7-9 — 7-3-6

Piano day (1h 30m)

  • Jazz voicings (Dan Haerle)
    • Major ii — V — I, format 2 (skill 41 both pages) — 80bpm (30m)
    • Major ii — V — I, format 1 (recap) — 80bpm (30m)
  • Modes (40m)
    • Harmonising Mixolydian scale with 7th chords (all keys through the cycle of 4ths, starting on C)
    • Harmonising Lydian scale with 7th chords (all keys through the cycle of 4ths, starting on C)
  • Improvisation (20m)
    • Shell voicings over walking bass line (Shine by Dabney-Mack-Brown)