Piano day (1h)

Left hand + modes

Filling the gaps in Dorian (C — Ab) — play the high root with RH, octave lower with LH and fill the gaps using only chord tones with the remaining fingers of the LH
LH 1-5-10 / 1-5-9-7-6 Dorian I — IV7, I — VI, cycle

Interpretation / comping

All Of Me (first 4 bars)

Bass day (1h 45m)

Scale studies
- Scale dissection
  - Minor blues: R, b3-4-#4, 5, 7 (recap)
  - Major bebop
    - R-5, b6-6, 7-R
    - 7-R (below), 4-5, b6-6 (above or below), 7-R (all chromatics) — COOL!
Walking bass / chord tones
- Voice leading / connecting inversions with passing tones (Phil Mann exercise) over All of Me in G
Reading
- Afro Blue
- Afternoon in Paris
- Airegin

Observations

Just found another very effective way of internalising a new scale. Instead of going up and down the neck, you can first figure out all chromatic intervals in it and them play only them, memorising their position relative to the root. Semitones are normally the simplest to memorise and visualise on fretboard (like, major 7 below — root), therefore there’s a big chance that you will get familiar with them really quickly, and afterwards it will be much easier to learn the rest of the scale. In the case of major bebop, the chromatics are: 7 below — root, M3 — 4, b6 —6 and 7 — R (above). I played them around the cycle of 4ths in all keys, sometimes playing b6-6 run below — because it is quicker to find — and must say that I’m definitely feeling much more confident with this scale!

Bass day (1h 30m)

Scale studies
- Scale dissection
  - Lydian pentatonic: R, #4, 5
  - Major blues: R, 2-b3-3, 6, 5
  - Minor blues: R, b3-4-#4, 5, 7
- Cycling scale degrees
  - Minor blues: b3, 4, 5 (above), b3, 5, 4 (below)
Walking bass / chord tones
- Voice leading / connecting inversions with passing tones (Phil Mann exercise) over All of Me in G

Piano day (2h)

Improv + scale studies
- 2-octave Locrian scales in all keys
  - Both hands
  - In harmonic thirds + 1-5 shells in LH
Jazz voicings
- Dorian fourthy voicings (D, G, C, F) — man I needed it so badly!
Left hand + technique
- Intervallic patterns
  - 1-5-10 (all m & M)
  - 1-5-10 — (5) — 1-5-10 over ii — V — I – IV + iiø — V7b9 — i (major + parallel minor) in shells in RH — KILLER!

Piano day (1h 30m)

Technical
- A Dozen A Day
  - “Stretching” — in C, F and Bb
  - “Flinging Arms” in all keys
- Hanon
  - No. 26 (full)
Modal studies + left hand
- 2-octave Mixo 7th arpeggios in LH, voice leading with shells in RH, e. g. (KILLER EXERCISE!!!)
  - I7 arpeggio going to ii arpeggio with I7 chord in 7-3-5 (A) voicing going to ii chord in 7-3-5 voicing (A)
  - I7 arpeggio going to IV△7 arpeggio with I7 chord in 7-3-5 (A) voicing going to IV△ chord in 3-7-9 voicing (B)
  - Repeat with all movements (I7 — ii7, I7 — iii⌀, etc.)
- Harmonising Dorian mode with 7-3-5 shells (in all keys)

Observations

Just as Rick Beato says — any practice should be musical, never boring. Yes, you do need to spend some time just playing arpeggios, but after you’re somewhat familiar with them, you should immediately start introducing musical context, otherwise you’ll either be stuck or just eventually grow tired of perfecting your 2-octave runs and forget about them. Combining 2-octave arpeggios with voice leading and A-B voicings did the trick for me! The moment I felt the thought “Oh, those boring Mixolydian arpeggios—” creeping in, I knew I needed to change something. So I did, and it was a success, I literally couldn’t stop playing these combinations (although they sounded like crap at first). So yeah — whenever you can, add context. Even if your academic self tell you “it’s too early”. Sum hooligan advice here!