shells

Piano day (1h 40m)

  • Jazz voicings
    • ii — V —I’s (major & parallel minor over IV) in all keys, inverted arpeggios / inversions with LH
    • Major & minor 7th chords around the cycle in all inversions
  • Comping
    • Using shells & chord scales over a standard (Worth the Wait in F)
      • Mixo scale over dominant chords
      • Dorian & minor blues over minor
      • Lydian pentatonic over major

Piano day (2h)

  • Jazz voicings
    • Recap major 7th, minor 7th and dominant chords voice leading around the cycle (no pauses, at 86bpm)
    • Minor to dominant and back around the cycle
    • Same with dominant to major
    • II — V — I — IV in major & parallel minor
  • Harmonic minor
    • All scales with both hands
  • Improvisation + blues
    • 12-bar major blues in C & F
    • Minor blues scales separately: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
    • Transitions
      • Dominant 7ths: 3-7-9 — 7-3-6 in LH, matching minor blues scale in RH (I know, but it sounds awesome!)
      • Minor 7ths: 3-5-7-9 — 7-9-3-5 in LH, matching minor blues scale in RH

Piano day (2h)

  • Voicing skills
    • Recap all shell voicings (exercises from “Jazz Piano Voicing Skills”)
      • 3-7-9 minor, major & dominant around the cycle of 4ths
      • Same in 7-3-5
      • Same in 7-3-6
    • Cycle progressions
      • Minor 7ths (3-7-9 to 7-3-5, 7-3-5 to 3-7-9)
      • Major 7ths (same)
      • Dominant 7ths (same)
  • Improvisation
    • I — IV — V + 12-bar major blues
      • C, F, Bb (changing keys without stopping)

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 (2h)

  • 12-bar blues in LH & blues scale runs in RH — 1h
    • C-
    • F- (2 octaves ↑, 2 octaves ↓, 1 octave ↑, 1 octave ↓ x 2 + fills)
  • Harmonising Dorian scale with 7th chords (pattern: i — VII, i — viº, i — v, etc.) at 64bpm around the circle of 5ths starting on D (easy mode)
  • Cycle progressions with shell voicings (Dan Haerle book, skills 37a & 37b — Minor to Dominant) — with click at 72bpm

Observations

Inventing own exercises is cool! (E. g. blues pentatonic scale runs starting on different notes in RH played to the standard blues progression in LH). It helps to stay in the musical context while doing some stuff that’s often considered boring (such as learning new scales). I learned it from Rick Beato: he recommends not just playing the scale or arpeggio, but always put it in the musical context, because otherwise it’s just a scale or arpeggio you’ve learned. True that!