Tag: sight reading

Piano day (1h 40m)

  • Improvisation (Dan Haerle — Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players)
    • Lesson 11: Blues progressions
      • F blues scale over 3 classic progressions (I — IV — V, 12-bar major and minor), shell voicings with LH
      • F blues scale + passing Mixo, Dor & H. M. scales over same progressions
      • C blues scale + passing modal scales over same progression in C
      • All scales used in progressions separately with both hands in 2 octaves

Observations

Just as I expected: running the scale and then immediately using it is the best way to make this process NOT boring. Just running scales is cool, but it only helps internalise the fingerings and does not really make them just pop out when you need them in the middle of the chord progression.

Bass reading (30m)

Reading a random contrabass etude just because I had some time for it 😄

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • Walking bass practice with Nashville number notation (keys of C — Ab around the cycle of 4ths)
    • 7th chord inversions (1st and 2nd) with 2 different fingerings up and down, not looking at the neck
    • Practice 7th chord inversions over a standard in Nashville notation (1st and 2nd, up and down + improv)
  • Pick + reading practice
    • Learning a part (What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye)

Bass day (2h 10m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • All triads / all inversions round the cycle — 20m
    • All 7th chords / all inversions round the cycle — 20m
    • Harmonising the major scale with 7th chords — root inversions (20m)
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 30m
    • Improvised bass line over jazz standard (The Preacher by Horace Silver)
    • Soloing over (slightly modified) 12-bar blues progression trying enclosures and chromatic passing tones
  • RealLifeReading™ — LOL — just picking up a random sheet with a bass transcription for a popular / jazz song and trying to fluently play and / or learn as much as possible within 30 minutes’ time. I think it’s a bit closer to the real life sight reading situations than endlessly going over contrabass etudes. Hence the name

Bass day (1h 20m)

  • Chord Tones (Phil Mann) — 40m
    • All triads in all inversions without stopping around the cycle (70bpm)
    • All 7th chords in all inversions without stopping around the cycle (70bpm)
    • Special focus on dominant and dimishied 7th chords
  • Break
  • Random reading / quick part learning excercise: Coldplay — In My Place — 40m

Obesrvations

Although I haven’t been sight reading too much recently, my skill didn’t noticeably deteriorate, which is fortunate! Also,  picking up a random song transcription and learning as much of it as you can within half an hour feels much better (and actually closer to real session circumstaces) than forcing yourself to sit down for the same half an hour and read contrabass etudes or walking bass lines (which I did for a long time, causing a lot of frustration, although it is also a wonderful exercise). Yikes, another routine improvement!