Tag: modal

Piano day (1h 30m)

Scale studies

  • Phrygian scales
    • Circle of 5ths from E
    • Cycle of 4ths from C

Left hand / Improvisation

  • Phrygian improv
    • LH: 5-1-10 + 7th arp descent, RH: shells
    • LH: 5-1-10 + octave jump back, RH: shells
    • LH: 1-5-10 + 1-5-6 recap
  • Blues scale recap (all keys, block — 1-3-4 — 7-1-2-3 accompaniment)

Jazz voicings

  • Fourthy voicings (D thru Bb)

Piano day (2h)

Chord tones / Left hand / Comping

  • All inversions of 7th chords over standard: All Of Me in G, C
  • 1-5-10-7-1-3-5 LH + Shells over All Of Me in C

Scale studies

  • All Lydian scales

Interpretation

  • Elvis — Can’t Help Falling In Love (1-5-10 + extensions, inversions, voice leading)

Observations

Always build the interpretation up from simple block chords!

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! :D

Piano day (2h)

  • Improvisation + modes
    • I — II, I — III, I — IV, etc. transitions with shell voicings / voice leading
      • Ion, Aeol, Dor, Phryg in F
      • Lyd, Mixo in A
  • Jazz voicings
    • Fourthy modal voicings (D Dorian to Bb Dorian) — another killer exercise from Dan Haerle!
  • Left hand focus
    • Stride bass patterns: basic stride, tenths
  • Comping
    • Stride bass + Mixo scale over dominant progression (+ “Just One of Those Things” opening)

Observation

I literally can’t help but skip a couple of bass sessions in favour of piano as I’m onto some extremely interesting topics (left hand + modal studies) and I just don’t want to lose focus!

Bass day (1h 20m)

  • Modes
    • Improv (emphasis on altered scale degrees) over Ionian, Aeolian, Lydian, Mixo and Dorian cycling progression (2 bars of each key)
  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • Dominant 7th chord arpeggios in all inversions consequently, chromatically up the neck, in two fingerings
    • Same with m7b5 arpeggios