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!

Piano day (1h 40m)

Technical
- Dohannyi: continuing to try out exercises
- Hanon: back to book 2
- 7th chord 2-octave arpeggios: all keys, LH
Modal studies
- Harmonising Mixo with shells in RH & 2-octave stride patterns in LH

Observations

Although Dohannyi looked cool at first, it turned out to be a little too complex for me. Also diminished-based exercises are really very “classical music-y”, and that’s not exactly what I’m going for. Playing that kind of stuff only makes you realise how much you suck in comparison with classical pianists. My goal is essentially jazz comping and more freedom in left hand patterns, so I might not need to go in this direction. This is why I picked up Hanon book 2 again that I put to the side back in 2017, and I must say it felt just right now. So I’ll stick to it for a while and go back to my voicing studies.

Piano day (1h 40m)

Technical
- A Dozen A Day
  - “Stretching”
  - “Going Down Stairs”
  - “Flinging Arms” in all keys
  - “The Push-Up”
  - “Deep Breathing” in all keys
- Oscar Peterson — Jazz Exercises
  - Exercise No. 1 (recap)
  - Jazz Menuet No. 1 (recap)
  - Tried out some other exercises and decided to use this book only for reading; quite boring, really
- Hanon (ran a couple of random exercises from memory)
- Dohannyi: checking out the book
Modal studies
- Harmonising Mixolydian mode
  - LH: stride patterns: 1 — 1st inversion
  - RH: 7-3-5 shells

Observations

It seems like there are a lot of technical exercise books that might not be good for everyone. So it really is useful to take your time and go through some exercises to figure out whether they actually suit your goals. My goal right now is more freedom in left hand, so Peterson unfortunately didn’t work for me (although some minuets are very beautiful, so I’m going to go back to them time after time to practice sight reading). Dohannyi, on the other hand, seems to be my thing — it’s not as boring as Hanon, but technical enough to keep you challenged.

Bass day (2h)

Walking bass lines / chord tones
- Major 7th chords around the cycle of 4ths in all inversions, permutations used:
  - 1-3-5-7
  - 3-1-5-7
  - 5-1-3-7
  - 7-1-3-5
- Walking with permutations & inversions
  - A Beautiful Friendship in Eb
Rhythmic studies
- Riff from “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
  - Starting on 1-e-&-a (original version)
  - Starting on 1-e-&-a (moved 1 1/16 forward)

Observations

This exercise with taking the riff and moving it in 16th notes? Dude, it’s genius. It’s mind-boggling, but once you get it right, it makes you groove like crazy! Thanks Mr. Brown, sir!

Piano day (1h 50m)

Modal studies
- Harmonising Harmonic minor (as if it was not already harmonic enough — IT’S NOT FUNNY DAD — I know — okay let’s change the topic)
  - Hm1 (key of C), shells 7-5-3, 3-7-9, 7-3-6
  - Hm3 (key of C), shells 7-5-3, 3-7-9, 7-3-6
  - Improv with “blanket scale” over Hm3 (A Harm. minor over 3rd mode of C)
Left hand
- Stride patterns: recap 2-octave jumps with 7-1-3 and 1-3-7 kind of stuff
- Rolling tenths
Jazz voicings
- Voice leading patterns (A — B, A — A, etc.) while switching between different scale degrees (Dan Haerle, “The Jazz Language”, Chapter 7)

Observations

I must say I’m finally starting to like Harmonic minor. It was really weird at the very beginning, because of the rather unique chord qualities: minor / major 7th, augmented major 7th and fully diminished, not to mention two m7b5’s. It’s a really harsh sound, and while the scale itself is beautiful, the modes that it produces sound at first kinda ugly. But that’s where the power of modal approach comes in. Just because you don’t like minor / major 7th chord as your I (the Roman numeral, lol), doesn’t mean it sucks. It simply means you should try and start on another degree and see if you will like the new progression. I decided to start on III, which makes the 3rd mode of Harmonic minor. I like the sound of augmented major 7 chord, and I like how it falls into the pure minor IV (i. e. II in the 3rd mode). Now we’re talking! Instead of unsure and a bit intoxicated Cm/M7 to Dm7b5, I have beautiful, complex and fragile, unexpected and really otherworldly Cmaj7#5 to Dm7. Wow! So yeah. That’s how you get to love the stuff that makes you feel uncomfortable at first.