Piano day (2h 45m)

Improv / scales study
- Locrian 2-octave scales in all keys with two hands
- Improvisation: Locrian scale over m7b5 chords, all keys around the cycle (to the bass line and rhodes)
- 2-octave Lydian pentatonic in all keys (major shells in LH)
- 2-octave minor pentatonic in all keys (minor shells in LH)
- 2-octave “Locrian pentatonic” (1-b2-b3-b5-b6) + m7b5 shells in LH
- Hirajoshi scale (checked out in C)
Left hand
- Intervallic patterns
  - 1-5-6 in major & minor (cycling)
  - Broken tenths (1-5-10 + 1-5-6 8va) in major & minor (cycling)
  - Broken chords (1-5 + 1-3-5 8va) in major & minor (cycling)
Interpreting pop tunes (wow!)
- Muse — New Born
- Damon Albarn — Hostiles (looked up chords on UltimateGuitar and adapted to piano using intervallic patterns in LH and shells in RH)

Observations

Moving towards 3-hour sessions on weekend. Taking breaks after each hour is essential! Also, 3 hours really feel awesome in terms of stuff you can cram into this time without rushing and messing up. Musical observations: I finally go to Locrian mode! I have been avoiding it for such a long time. Professors in music school only mentioned it briefly saying it is not that useful, we weren’t asked to compose in it, so I totally ignored it. Until lately. And man it’s beautiful!!! Don’t believe anyone who tells you that Locrian is “ugly” or “scary”. It’s sad, tragic, dramatic, incredibly touching, anything but ugly. Also I discovered a whole family of modal pentatonic scales that can be derived from normal heptatoic modal scales by applying major or minor pentatonic patterns to them. For example, you can take 1-3-4-5-7 and apply it to Lydian mode, which will give you 1-3-#4-5-7, which is BEAUTIFUL! Fun fact: most people on the internets tend to use major pentatonic pattern to derive modal pentatonics (1-2-3-5-6), but it’s definitely worth looking at minor as well.

Another cool practice routine I came up with is adapting pop songs to piano using patterns that I already learn (or am learning). That is, taking chords and breaking them down to shell voicings and intervallic patterns for the left hand. Makes any song sound immediately like a “piano version”.

Piano day (1h 40m)

Improvisation
- Chromatic progressions
  - Mixolydian over dominant, 3-7-9 shells, all keys
  - Dorian over minor, same
Modal studies
- Harmonising Lydian mode
  - All keys, using 7-3-5 shells in RH and 1-5, 1-6 pattern in LH
Exotic stuff
- Just trying different polychods from “The Jazz Language”
Comping + soloing
- Airegin in A-
  - 2 runs of solo
  - 3 runs of comping with 1-5-1-6 pattern in LH
- Baubles, Bangles and Beads in G
  - Comping + broken 10ths in LH

Piano day (2h)

Jazz voicings
- +7 to m9 (dominant to minor)
- 7b9 to m7 (dominant to minor)
Imporvisation
- Minor & major blues scale recap in all keys
Modal studies
- Harmonising Lydian scale in all keys with shell voicings (7-3-5)
Left hand + reading
- “Just One Of Those Things”
  - Stride pattern
  - Breaking down voicings used in the left hand (octave bass + shells)

Bass day (1h)

Didn’t do too much consistent practice (only quick improv and mode runs sessions) during the last couple of days, as I was busy doing some production and other work. But I did play piano a lot while recording so it definitely counts! 😆

Chord tones
- Harmonising F Lydian scale with 7th chords in all 24 permutations (root inversion). Yeah, and it was just one key, one mode, and only root inversion… “What can you practice for 8 hours straight?!” is not a question anymore, lol!

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)