Ahh yes.....

Switchero

2006-08-29T19:54:00.000-04:00

So, my practice blog is going to do a bit of growing up now. I've decided to move future entries of my practice journal into my current blog at bb.com: http://www.brendanburns.com/blog
All of the old posts will remain here.
The new practice journal posts will be a little bit more coherent and tidy than the ones on this blog. This blog is mostly stream-of-consiousness writing, and it's done that way on purpose. The new practice entries will be a little more structured and easy to read.
Thanks for checking in.
-Brendan

diyhxtq

2006-07-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

Healing:
So my high-priced insurance is finally paying off. I've got Physical Therapy underway, I had an MRI on Wednesday & this week I'm getting my EMG. All of these will most likely tell me that I've overworked my forearm muscles.
The way I understand it is that because I switch between finger-style and pick-style playing throughout the year, I send my forearm through a roller-coaster of overuse and underuse. When I'm playing finger-style, I end up using mostly my fingers to articulate the notes and keep my forearm relatively stable. When I play pick-style, I really use my forearm muscles to wag my wrist back n' forth. Because my forearm isn't always in shape, when I start using if for strumming I end up overusing it. As a result, the muscles swell and irritate my ulnar nerve, which causes my numbness.
My prescription for Physical Therapy will work to calm down my forearm muscles and then, when they are ready, work them back up and give them a plan to continually be strong so I don't yo-yo back & forth like I used to.
That's the plan, as far as I know. I'm deeply grateful that the people I'm working with have the education that they do. It's a great feeling when someone knows how bad you feel and why you feel that way, and can give you some help so you don't have to feel that way anymore.
On the practicing front, I've been keeping it kind of low-key. I've been trying to keep busy with other activities. I"m not sure if I will continue to take a break or gradually work back in playing some music. I've got a vacation coming up too. I'm not sure what will happen then either.

qbhqlp

2006-07-15T14:02:00.000-04:00

this week I got to see the neuorligist. I've been diagnosed with 2 pinched nerves, one in my shoulder and one in my elbow area. I've been prescribed Occupational Therapy at a nice performaning arts rehab center in Coolidge Corner. I'm also getting an MRI & some nerve testing to see how good/bad the situation is. I touch base with my Neurolgist in 8 weeks.
Being diagnosed, or defining my pain/problem was quite a relief to me. It helps me come to terms with why my arm doesn't always feel so well and how I can make it better. To help with the healing process I've been limiting my computer activities.
On the practice front, I've been looking at Charlie Parker & Joe Pass all week. Same old, same old..... I'm getting better with my Parker licks all but the ones that are blazingly fast. Those will take a little time. Joe's book is filled with some many great Jazz nuggets. I feel like I learn something each time I pick it up.
I also spent a small time this week looking over Ralph Towner's book. He's got so many good exercises for Right Hand work & Polyrhythms.

zjuxzfhy

2006-07-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

A little bit of everything today. I dug up an old Ralph Towner book and worked through a couple of exercises. He's such a weird guitarist. Sometimes he's techinque is amazing and masterfull; other times he sounds a little sloppy. Either way, he's got some good exercises to run through. I've had the book for about a year or so; I'm glad I had a chance to run through some of it today.
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Yesterday & Today I"ve been working pretty hard on Blues for Alice & Joe Pass Lines (over the same changes). I'm trying to work very slowly and accuarately. When I find a lick that I like, I put it into a grip and then move it around in different keys to see how it fits. It's good work. I think it will pay off some day soon.

egfxodef

2006-07-05T21:59:00.001-04:00

I'm torn about restarting these blog entries. I don't allways have profound observations when I practice. I don't allways practice.
But I do know that my memory is biased and I need to properlly document my practice if I'm going to be honest about it.
With this conflict, I want to come up with a different use of this practice blog. I'm not sure what it is right now, but I'm thinking it's going to be a little more brief. I think I can use the more observational comments on my other blog.
We'll see.
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Today I spent just about all day looking at Charlie Parker. The Blues, the licks, some Joe Pass licks over parker's changes... It was all be-bop all day.
My fingers are getting faster by listening to Charlie play. My phrasising is also getting better.
Having been looking at this music (jazz) for close to a decade now, I'm beginning to see how things come together. Isn't that crazy?!
What can start now that I'll be happy with 10 years from now? Microtonalism?
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qnzgusvh

2006-07-04T23:19:00.000-04:00

In the great Ebb & Flow of practicing, I"ve been on the ebbing side of things lately.
Since I've last made an entry, I"ve been practicing some jazz blues & be-bop blues. Most of the time there isn't much for me to write about. It's a big subject for me and progress is very slow.
Today I spent some time working on "Blues For Alice" again. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from those licks.
Lately, I've been working on arpeggios a lot. I'm trying to find uses for smaller and bigger arpeggios. I'm also working on using some chromatic approaches to the downbeat of a new chord. These 2 things have really held my priority in the past few weeks. Hitting the changes and approching the changes. so important.
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I finished my practicing by working on another chorus of "Blues For Alice." It was good to go back to the recording and study Parker's phrasing.
I'm curious to see how it all fits together after a night's rest.
---

dliiacg

2006-06-17T23:58:00.000-04:00

I had two nice gigs this weekend. I had great time playing, and it was good to feel my arm getting better.
From my perspective, I was a little dissapointed with the lack of chromaticism in my playing, especially on how the weekend before it was effortless pouring out of me. That raised a question: Why am I no longer using approach notes?
I sat down this evening to figure it out. I worked exclusively on the Joe Pass Blues Etude I've been working on these past weeks. I had a lot of fun with the loopstation, and switched between looping a chord progression and a walking bass line.
I played the etude several times, altering the rhythm and improvising of the reharmed chord changes. My big breakthrough of the evening came when I took my eyes off the paper and just thought about the changes going by. For some reason, not reading made it easier. It was almost as if reading the changes was taking up too much brain energy to really improvise and interpret the music. When I closed my eyes, or looked away from the paper, I found that I could influence my playing a lot more.
I did a lot of experimenting and found some good uses of the altered 5 and approach tones to the downbeat of a new chord. When things were going well it was exciting. When things were going bad, it was just because I was distracted or couldn't concentrate.
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chxbgu

2006-06-15T22:41:00.000-04:00

I should have known this before I started, but having a good practice day yesterday means that probabaly today's practice session won't be as good. If I only could have figured that out sooner....
All of a sudden everything became hard again today. What's a chord? What's an arpeggio? What's an alterted scale?
A couple of deep breaths and slowing the metronome down helped, but the real issue is accepting how long this will all take. I keep thinking I'm a patient man and then I'm proved wrong by my own actions.
Today I started by continuing on in my Joe Pass book. The only thing I did wrong (in retrospect) was move too fast. I worked really hard to get where I was yesterday. I expected that today would be easy for some reason.
In his book, I'm looking at some rhythm changes lines and some blues lines. They are delightful little lines and worth studying more than I can right now.
I'm bouncing back and forth between reading his etudes and exploring his ideas throughout the fretboard.
I'm trying to get these licks under my fingers so I can use them in my own solos. For some reason today, it's easier said than done.
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Recognizing my frustration is helpful. I took walk outside and got my legs moving.
One of the interesting things about my lifestyle is that I sit down a lot. My spine gets compressed and I don't use my legs very much. Lately for breaks, I've just been standing up and moving around a bit. It gives me a little more pep and focus for the next time I sit down with the guitar again.
After my break, I tackled the Joe Pass book again. This time I took a step back and put my focus on the blues. "Let's learn the dominants before we get to the ii-v's."
It was a good workout. Again, I was bouncing between reading and improvising. I have a photocopy of the page that I'm working on, and I think I'm going to add to my book. It's a great framework for any blues tune.
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I finished this evening with a recap of the Joe Pass Blues Etudes. They are beginning to remind me of the Guliani Exercises. With the Guiliani Exercises, the right hand is trained through a series of 120 examples using only the chords C & G. The exercises trained the hand in a very thourough and focused way, so that when it came time to play a real tune, the r.h. was ready to launch onto the strings and tear the tune apart.
I feel something similar is happening to me by learning this exercises (these and other things over the past year & half). I'm becoming more comforatable with the sound. I'm hearing more bebop approaches in my playing. The b9, b5 & #5 are all comforatable sounds to me, where before I was a little confused on what to do with them. I think these exercises are training my ears and fingers on a more subtler level than I imagined.

jistmufv

2006-06-14T22:52:00.000-04:00

This is a very interesting time of year for me. With gigs just about every weekend, I end up working on ideas or studies during the week and then exploring them in context on the weekend. It's getting to the point where I'm getting excited to perform, because I'll get to try out a new techniqure or theory and see how it flies. It also helps my practice because if the weekend is coming up and I haven't learned anything new, then I better get moving.
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I went down to the Berklee Bookstore this AM to pick up some books on Jazz etudes. I got the Joe Pass book Tim recommended and I got Fred Lipsius' Jazz Rhythms. Lipsius' book looks at different jazz rhythms and explores them over standards using guide tones, and full out jazz lines. It looks like a great book; a good mix of learning and doing. Pass' book, is just a classic. I have a couple of Joe's books lying around here somewhere, but Tim suggested this one to me for etudes in the back.
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There sure is nothing like being injured to appreciate the time when you 'can' play.
I'm learning a lot about my injury, and am becoming very sensitive about how I can change my posture and positioning while playing & sitting at the computer. Today was a good example where I had some pain, but alleviated it by alterning my sitting position and getting up and stretching throughout my practice time.
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With the weather & hummidty on the rise here in Boston, I'm gravitating to later practice times in the evening, when things have cooled down a bit. This has me with headphones, which I particularly like.
Today I put a lot of my effort into my new Joe Pass book. I spent some time reading it and then just playing it. He's a very interesting man and has some great approaches to the guitar. I worked on a couple of his reharm ideas for improvisation. I got two good licks out of it for the day. One over a minor or minor b5 chord, and one over a Dom7 or ALT chord.
I played through a lot of lines and feel better for it. I was singing my way through everything and would take breaks to improvise over the chords that I was playing. I"m gaining some control over this style of music that I didn't have before.
My ears are getting better as well. I would still like to have a little more structure to my ET, but things are coming along.

lhcgzbmb

2006-06-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

In health related news, I went to the Doctor today and got a referal to see a Nuerologist about my arm. My MD thought it could be irritation of my Ulna Nerve, some inflatmation in the Carpal Tunnel region, or something back in my shoulder. It could also possibly be all three. Either way, he suggested I see a Neurologist to figure out where the problem is and how to get it fixed. After that, I can take that info and bring it to a physical therapist and then take it from there.
My MD's observations and comments were helpful. He explained where the Ulna nerve was and how and irritation near the elbow can affect the ring and pinky finger. I'm going to try to be a more delicate and mindfull of this area when I'm at the computer or guitar. It brings up a senerio where I could also be damaging myself while I'm playing the instrument. Because I sit down so much when I play guitar, I tend to put a little bit of weight or pressure on my right forearm while I"m playing. This is something that should probably be changed.
We'll see how it goes.
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My afternoon practice session was mindfull of my right arm position. I tried to use good posture and not to much pressure on my arm.
I started with my Joe Pass etudes; the blues one. I've got about all the licks down into a chord shape by now and I can play it at fairly fast clip. I'm using some of the reharms to spice up my own Jazz-Blues improvs. It's helpful, but I think I need a little while and a few more keys before I retain it all. Right now I can either think of chromatic approaches or reharms, not both at the same time yet.
After that I moved on to my random chord exercise. This is fun compliment to reading music and thinking hard on improv. I try to be extra creative with it, and use wierd looped click tracks to keep time.
I bounced back n' forth between playing it real well, and then not so well. Sometimes when I focus on my fingers, or the shapes I do okay, sometimes when I focus on the sounds, I do okay. And with both I screw up too. I'm still not sure where the connection is there for me to get these notes together. I want to continue to work on the Teoria ET drills, because I think I need a little more clarity to my playing.
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qbbxi

2006-06-12T23:17:00.000-04:00

I spent more time on my "Without A Song" transcription this evening. Jim Hall & Sonny Rollins are so dreamy in this version. I worked on the same part that I did last night and just tried memorizing Jim's Lines. I don't really feel like writing this one out. I feel like it's going to be more work that it needs to be. It's very fast and I imagine it will be a lot of bars and eights notes. Maybe I'm lazy; maybe my priorities are in order.
So pretty much the head was what I was looking at today. Playing Jim's lines and chords. After the head, I would improvise in quarter notes (fast quarter notes) and try to hit chord tones and guide tones. It was a little tricky at that tempo.
I had a good time playing through the tune. There is an infectious joy to the tune that I"m enjoying as I play. After a while, I cap out and need to move on, but generally it's pretty fun.
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After that, I spent some time working on my Joe Pass Etudes. I've really only looked at one of these Etudes in depthly. It is a blues one. A nice blues one at that. The piece is very much under my fingers now, and I'm examing it to see how it fits into chord shapes and grips that I allready know.
I put a loop of a generic blues into the loopstation and then I start playing the lines over it. The fit nice (of course) and they're reharms are delightful. After a while of getting that under control, I started venturing off into my own territory, try to get the sound on my own. At first (a couple of days ago) it was all about the chromatic approaches to the downbeat. Now, I'm looking at the reharming of the chordprogression: playing a C dim over a F7 chord, adding a ii-7 before a V, and other simple tricks. They sound so nice when they are utilized correctly. I'll try again tomorrow. See what stuck.
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I conclude my guitar practice time with a 4 chord random progression improv. I just tried again, to use my ears, voice & whatever to make the notes come out in harmony with the chords beneath it. I'm getting better at this exercise, but I need to do it more.
When I get it right it's like holding onto an optical illusion. It's hard to mental hold onto some part of it. I'm sure that the more I do it, the stronger I get. I jsut have to remember to be inspired.
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While doing my random chord exercises, I was reminded that I haven't done my ET tests in a while. I figured I'd go back and give em a swing.
I've gotten a little better with the ET drills, but as a whole I'm still using tricks to remeber the pitches rather than hearing the pictches for themselves.
practice, practice, practice.
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Big Music Goals

2006-06-11T22:49:00.000-04:00

One of the things that is important when having a practice journal is to have a written set of Big musical goals. I recently realized that I have not done that here. These are just rambling journal entries.
I remember, a few years ago, one of my Big music goals was to play with the most amazing musicians on the planet. For some reason that was important to me. It gave me a lot of clarity when I was practicing. I would think about sitting down with Brad Meldau for a gig and then think about what I would need in order to play with him: ears, chops, reptoire, funk, rhythm, etc.
Right now, that Big goal isn't as important to me. Here's what I'm working on now:
Big Music Goals:
To express my imgaination & ideas through my instrument.
That pretty much gets me inpirsred and off my butt to practice and learn. Inside that goal is Ear Training, Scales, Theory, Harmony, Rhythm, Funk, Poeticism, Beauty, etc.
For me, right now, this is what I'm using to pick up the guitar and push on through the day.

Without A Song

2006-06-10T23:58:00.000-04:00

On my drive home yesterday, "Without A Song" popped up on the ipod. It was Sonny Rollins' version with Jim Hall on Guitar. Wow, was it nice. I made a quick voice memo to transcribe it later and forgot about it.
When I was tranfering my voice memos to their appropriate places, I plugged in the tune again and was in bliss.
I played a four-hour reception tonight (with one break) and after an hour's drive home, I found that I had to learn this tune and both Sonny & Jim's solos.
That's a pretty good feeling for someone who has a bum arm.
I spent about two hours transcribing lines from both guys and started working on Jim's solo section. Maybe I'll write some stuff down on this, but for right now it's easy enough to memorize.

still raining?!

2006-06-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

The past two days I've been working on my chromtic approaches to chord tones in Blues & Jazz tunes. Also, with some pop tunes (I need to sound like the Gratefull Dead today). Chromatic approaches are so beautiful and nice and so under-utilized in my own playing.
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Regarding my injury: yesterday I stayed away from the computer a lot and did okay with my arm. Today, I stayed away competely from the puter. I had a four hour reception gig, and didn't want to mess anything up. My arm/shoulder started bothering me on the drive up, so I drove mostly with my left hand. I played for four hours with absolutely no problems. I'm really proud and happy with that. I know this injury can really mess up my playing, I'm just glad it isn't from or aggrivated by me playing guitar. I'm lucky in that way.

Brookline sticker

2006-06-09T20:31:00.000-04:00

What else am i going 2do with a new cameraphone?

Phone test

2006-06-08T23:19:00.000-04:00

I cleanded out my book today.

gnqpsaj

2006-06-08T23:18:00.000-04:00

Being in such massive pain yesterday, I'm limiting my time on the computer. I'm officially scrapping my web re-design project until the fall and just trying to keep my right hand/arm healthy. It's not uncommon for musicians to get laid up with an injury for a while. I guess my time has come.
Today I've been going through my book editing and adding some tunes. I started with some Beatles tunes that I have to add for an upcomming wedding. After I had my required tunes in the book I couldn't stop playing beatles tunes. I have a good anthology book that has all of their tunes in lead sheet format, and i flipped through it page by page, just adding tunes that I liked.
I haven't really thought about it, but I've really gotten better as a Solo Guitarist & a reader. I was playing some of these tunes and wondering why they weren't in my book already. And then I remembered that there was a time where I had trouble reading leadsheets like the ones I was reading. There were some keys that were more difficult for me and there were some things that I could not do as a solo guitarist.
It's nice to have those observations. Especially when I'm feeling "not so well," to realize that I've really come a long way and that I can create some pretty nice music. I"ve just got to take better care of myself.
Luckily enough, I don't have many problems when I play. I've been very carefull in the way that I hold the guitar, and everything comes out the way I need it to. I"ve just got to stay away from clicking the mouse for a while. That's (I think) what's putting me in a bad spot.
live n learn -------------------
... now that the day is over, I'm very happy of my moderate use of computer, guitar and other things today. I really worked as an "injured" person and worked on things a little bit at a times.
the majority of my day was cleaning out my gig book. It's been something I've been meaning to do for a while and I'm happy that I've done it. I had tunes in there that I couldn't play, and didn't have tunes in there that i should play. Going through all the tunes really warmed up my fingers and put them in a good playing spot. I'm looking forward to performing this weekend.
Playing all of this Solo Guitar is getting me excited about recording again. I've got some many tunes that should be up on the website....
My big advancement in playing today was holding my guitar like a classical player, but resting the guitar on the chair between my legs. The guitar wasn't really resting on me; just very close to me. This allowed a very comforatable reach of the freboard and a balance to my sitting. I also could be a little more mobile, as I sat, and be flexible with my sitting posture.
Despite a moderate injury and lots of ibuprofin, it was a good day.
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rainy & painy

2006-06-07T23:02:00.000-04:00

I had some major shoulder problems today. Numbness & Pain. That's no good. I spent the majority of the day waiting for it to get over with.... rest rest rest = restlessness. When my arm isn't feeling well it become noticable how important it is to what I do.
In the evening I was able to play guitar and move around a bit. I tried not to over due it and just keep close the rest mantra. We'll see how it is tomorrow.
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Devil's Log 6/6/6

2006-06-06T18:06:00.000-04:00

I worked on some etudes Tim gave me. The are some Joe Pass Blues & Minor Blues etudes. Just running eight notes outlining harmony. They are so nice. He recommend I check out some Jimmy Rainey etudes as well. Right now, I'm just running trhough them. I put the chords in the loopstation and just read. After a couple hours of digesting I come back and there they are, under my fingers. My next step after just playing them is to analyze them from a chord shape basis to see how they relate the grips or scales that I already know. But right now, I"m just getting them under my figers and in my ear.
I've been singing along with them sometimes, but I've found that my voice gets tired quick. This could because either I need more caffiene, haven't done this in a while, or am still sore from playing baseball over the weekend. I'll start with caffinene and the move from there.
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I moved forward on putting the licks into grips. Playing them over and over had run there course. I'm looking at the lines as the relate to the harmony (or reharms) and trying to associate them with chord grips. It's pretty easy. We'll see if it sticks.
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I've got a couple licks under my fingers, but I don't think I really have it yet. The more know the less I know....
I dug out the Duke licks from last week and tried combing the two exercises. I came up with neat stuff on my own. My new favorite lick is a dimished sub arpeggio for a Dom 7 chord. It's my flashy lick right now.
My numbness is mildly back today and I'm a little bummed about it. This is a tough season for me to not to be feeling well. I'm just going to try to keep light and low stress for a while.
We'll see what the doctor says next week.
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I finished the evening with headphones on and working through some old files. I found a Tim miller transcription and a Wolfgang head. I had been working on them both a little while ago. I'm going to try to add them into my book when they're ready.
I also spent some time just "b.s.ing" over some jazz-blues using my new "licks." I brought out Blues for Alice again.
In retrospect, I think I'm appreciating my new organizational system that I have going right now. When I get bored, frustrated or maxed out on what I'm working on, I've got a whole folder of ideas to refrence.
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Captin's Log: Stardate June 2nd, 2006

2006-06-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to give my arm/hand a rest this week. It really hasnt' helped much. Too make sure I didn't get to far behind with my technique I did some transcribing of some Duke Robillard licks. It's from a Hot Licks video I got from netflix. The netflix versions do not come with paperwork, so I had to transcribe it myself. He's got a couple of jazz/blues licks that I'd like to work on. The first one I lifted was a Charlie Christian type riff.
It took me a little while to get my fingers back in order, and then I was good to go.
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In the evening I went back to my Hot Licks video to see if there was anything else on it worth looking at. It's a very brief "Best Of" video and none of the artists get too far in depth. Duke's lines are the best.
To continue forward in the direction I dug out an old Joe Pass method book that I have and played through some of his lines at the end of the book. He's such a neat player. I liked playing through his blues lines. I through down a quick vamp on the loop station and just took at look at each one, one at a time. We'll see if there still there tomorrow.
I'd to incorporate more of this type of reading into my practicing. I'm doing well at the transcribing, but there is something nice about just reading music. Plus, with all of my years of experience, reading is getting easier and easier (sight reading, that is).
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May 29, 2006

2006-05-29T19:42:00.000-04:00

I'm going to make an apointment with my Dr. this week to have my shoulder checked out. My nerve problem is quite minimal, but I don't have room for it in guitar playing. At worst, it's a little numb and can cause my hand to shake or not respond the way I would like it. So, to the doctor I go. I assume it's because of overuse at the computer (extending my right arm for the mouse) and lack of any physical development in my upper body.
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My gig yesterday went okay as far as pain goes. I was fortunate enough to switch back and forth between the nylon and the klein. If I'm in the right chair and have the right posture I think I can continue to play without any major issues.
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ddd

2006-05-26T23:45:00.000-04:00

My right hand isn't feeling to well today. I think part of is the way the nylon guitar contorts my right shoulder and I think another part is use of the computer. It's probably more of the computer than the guitar. Nevertheless, I'm going to try a little less computer and a little more Klein just to keep everything together.
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i spent some time just playing some solo guitar with the loopstation. I came up with a couple ideas and just kept trying to improvise for about an hour & a half. My right hand has gotten better, but there is still something wrong with it. It feels like there is a kink in my back. Everyonce in a while my r.h. doesn't do what I want it to do. I'm sure it's just some overuse related to the computer. I spent a lot of time the past couple days doing traces for the new webdesign.
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I gave my right arm some rest in the afternoon till evening. Ironing and seeing a Tim Miller concert in Natick helped me wait out my healing process. I'm glad I took a break from computer and guitar. A lot of my issues with my right hand have been aleviated. After the Tm Miller concert I came home and transcribed Wolfgang for another 45 minutes. I was really looking to Tim for some inspiration tonight. I don't really know what I was looking for, but from past experiences I had a feeling I would be inspired and leave with a clearer direction for my music. I was right, but surprised in the direction I was sent. Watching Tim play (and play fast) made me want to come home and transcribe licks all day and night. Listening to him tonight made me think of all the things I don't understand about be-bop, approach tones, and just generally playing fast. I really haven't played fast since high school. For some reason (probably looking at Frisell for years) I haven' had any need to be blazingly fast. But watching Tim reminded me how fast the fingers can travel on the guitar. Wolfgang's got it too. I've been slowing down and playing with this transcription for days now, and hes' still light years ahead of me. Somehow, watching and listening to tim made me want to come home and write down what I've been looking at and get biiger chunks of the tune down before I start memorizing the piece. Previously, I had been listening and transcribing the tune, piece by piece, memorizing each phrase allong the way. Tonight I wrote out everything I had transcribed before and then jumped into a new section, writing out what was played before really learning how to play it. This process is much more satisfing and exciting than the previous way. Maybe it just works better for me.
Either way, the licks I was looking at tonight were phenomenal (the reminded me a lot of Tim's from earlier in the evening; go figure). Most of what I transcribed tonight was an extended line that lasted for several measures jumping up and down the guitar. It was just what I needed. I used to do this kind of stuff wiht my rock n' roll studies back in the day. Transcribing the piece, writing it down and going over the fingerings, really empowered my left hand. And all the rest I was giving my r.h. must have kicked in, because I was crusing back n' forth with the pick. They are good licks and I'm sure they will take me a little while to dig into them, play them up to speed and understand what I'm doing.
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I finished up the day by just playing through some tuens. I'm feeling really good about my sound and my playing. I've been observing that I need to play softer and more relaxed, and i think that kicked in tonight. I'm sure listening to tim miller helped out as well. he's such a clean player.
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ssktmgp

2006-05-25T23:49:00.000-04:00

So I woke up on the early side of things today. For some reason 4:30am seemed like a good time to get out of bed. I worked on a Grateful Dead tune while the sun came up. It wasn't as magistic as it sounds. I did find the "lick of the day" from Jerry Garcia or the other guitar player (I can't remember his name). It's a nice countryish lick: 1 2 b3 3 4 5 6 b7, and then an octave higher. Pretty cool to me.... oh those country hippies.
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16 hours later I sat down with the guitar again and went over some standards in my book. I"m just getting used to playing with the amp and using my right hand again. My sound has changed a little bit since my holiday gigs. Some parts of my playing have changed, others are still there. My big observation of the day (and I hope to remember it) is to play softer. Often I play really loud and then have to maintain it. That's tough. Playing softer gives a lot of room for development and is a cleaner sound.
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Finally this evening I came back to my Wolfgang transcription. My licks are so stale to me. Wolfgang show me the way....

dd

2006-05-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

I worked another bit forward on the Wolfgang transcription. He has so many different sounds. Sometimes he sounds like Pat Metheny, then he sounds like Al Di Mela, then he sounds like Keith Jarrett. Transcribing this tune is helping me with my speed and hopefully my phrasing.
After about an hour of transcribing, I moved on to the loop station and tried out some ideas. I'm still a little shaky with the ear/singing thing, but once I get it, my whole sound cleans up. It's tough for me to get to right now, but I think (and hope) it will get easier, the more I access it.
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I came back to the wolfgang solo for a bit and worked forward on it. Nothing spectaclar. Learning a solo by ear and memorizing it without writing it down is helping my ability to focus. focus like a muscle.

I also spent some time, just playing through some tunes. I'm thinking about them differently than I used to. I'm going to try to have some recordings up here in June/July.
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I changed my strings on the nylon today, so I had to bring out the klein. Wow, did I miss that guitar. It's just so easy to play! I'm going to have to get another one like it, but with nylon strings.
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cptd

2006-05-23T12:18:00.000-04:00

I spent a good two hours looking at Wolfgang Muthspiel's composition "Air Love & Vitamins." It's a beautiful tune and it's something that I've been wanting to look at and trancribe for a while now. At first, I examined his chord voicings. He's playing a lot of open-voiced triads built off the E major scale, kinda like the Allman Brothers "Mellisa." He's using very nice chord voicing but doesn't give a strong sense of the root of the chords. Somehow the melody, which is played by the bass puts it in context. I'll have to look closer at it to be sure.
After getting the voicings down, I moved on to the melody, which was surprisingly tricky for such a simple melody. I think my fingers just might be sluggish or something. I took a break from that after a while, resigned to the fact that it would be in my grasp tomorrow.
Finally I started looking at his solo. This solo of his has been one I've been wanting to look at for a long time now. It's exciting to transcribe it because the process demistfies the solo instantly. Wolfgang is such a wonderful player and some of his lines are very simple and elegant.
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I went back to my random chord exercises and didn't do as well as I did yesterday. It took me a while to get back in the groove, but even then I felt like I was loosing my balance.

bisd

2006-05-22T23:52:00.000-04:00

My design project is officially on the back burner now. I spent last night transcribing and arranging some tunes for this weekend. This morning I was reviewing the tunes and putting some fine touches on the arrangements. As a challenge I went back to my random chord exercise and I fell into a nice experience.
I haven't experiemented with the random chord drill in a while and I haven't been signing what I'm playing as much as I used to. Today when improvising over the chords I had a much better connection that I had previously.
First off, I started with only triads, major & minor. The chord progression I came up with was several bars long; maybe 12-16 chords. When things were going well I began to hear what my next note would be. I was mentally testing each note before I played it. At first I thought I was playing the note very softly to hear if sounded good or not, but in reality I was just thinking about the next note. The more I tought about it the worse it got. I remember coming close to this experience before. For me, I feel like I'm learning what "voice" to trust. I'm learning on how to listen to my ear and not my intellect. My intellect seems to always steer me wrong. It's got good intentions, but it's not the ear.
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corn

2006-05-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

I spent a lot of today cleaning house and prepping for next week's launch of the wedding season. It's been a while since I've done stuff like this (really only since december) and I'm feeling good about coming back to it. I've changed a lot as a player in the last few months and I'm excited to see what I'm doing to do this weekend.
I noticed a difference when I was playing some of the tunes that I have to learn, and was surprised at how fast I was learning them and embellishing them. It's really quite a fluid process now. I remember it used to take me a whole week to prepare a tune for solo guitar, and now it takes a few moments.
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gf

2006-05-18T23:13:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if I've marked my surprise yet about how design has influenced my playing. I really thought this process would take away from my playing and musicianship and it's really been quite the oppisite. Some of the great structural and precise traits of design and code are enriching my playing and listening experience. For a while now I've exclusively been workign on music because when I was doing photography & music I felt I was limiting myself too much. Photo was almost getting in the way of my practincing. I thought that would happen with this design project. Surprisngly, just the opposite has happened.
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I spent some time this afternoon looking deeper into the dimished scale and harmony thanks to my Guitar Player magazine arriving and having a lesson on just the thing that I'm looking at. That's such a good magazine. Getting a lesson like this one gets me excited to go back and look at my GP archive.
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Wednesday, 5/17/06

2006-05-17T21:46:00.000-04:00

I'm spending a lot of time still on the design project and thusly have to keep up my fundamentals work on the guitar. My upcoming gigs are bringing geat focus to my practice time. I have specific tunes that I need to learn and I have re-build my stamina for 4 hour gigs.
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I continued with my scale exercises. They are become a nice warm up. They get my fingers centered on the guitar and in good time (the metronome helps). I'm primarily working on the chromatic, whole tone, half-whole dimished scale and ocassionaly the melodic minor scale. The soudns of these scales are getting really solid in my ears. Some of the sounds that I thought of as dissonacnes before are now charataristics of the sound. For example, b5 sounds like it belongs there.
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My Charlie Parker exercise is a lot of fun. The harmonic scructure on Blues For Alice is just a blast to play with. It's such a rich sounding tune.
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forget everything that i wrote before. My fingers are back! I dont' know what happened, but my fingers really connected today. All of these exercises are really paying off. the parker licks and the scales that I'm working on are all coming together.

tete

2006-05-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

I got a nice little slice on my index finger yesterday, so I stayed away from the guitar mostly. I'm really itching to play today, so I'm working on it, but I'm very weary because it's still quite an open wound. It's not bleeding, but it's open.
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I'm refreshing on my Charlie Parker stuff that Tim was talking about. I've got a little bit of finger-mechanics that I'm working out as well. I haven't been practicing as much lately. I've been really focused on the design project and not so much on guitar. I've got to make sure not to neglect the instrument because in a couple weeks I'm back to my 3-4 gigs. I've got to get my fingers in shape.
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rainy rainy

2006-05-14T23:33:00.000-04:00

Somehow without my knowledge, I was able to get the charlie parker tune up to tempo (at least the head). I was playing along with it when I when to see if I could play it any faster and then realized that I hadn't slowed it down in the first place. It was a good feeling.
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Tim really helped me put the whole tune into perspective. He showed me how to put some of the licks into familiar grips and some neat ways to think about improvising over the changes. When I shake this cold, I'll take a look at it again.
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Chp

2006-05-13T20:40:00.000-04:00

Some more Charlie Parker today. I'm up to 90% of the tune's tempo. It took me a little while to get synched up to it. It's such a tricky melody or tricky style of playing for me. After a while I really found the groove.
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fri

2006-05-12T23:16:00.000-04:00

I had a good chunk of time dedicated to practice today and a prepared for it by listening to "Blues For Alice" while I was doing the morning dishes, breakfast & shaving. I sang allong with the head as often as I could.
When I sat down to play the tune from the Omnibook, I took off like I never have before. Charlie Parker's rhythms are very intricate and complex when they are written on the page, but when the are sung, played or just heard, they are managable. Listening and understanding the tune helped me to just focus on the notes and let my intution and memory take care of the rhythm. I also slowed down the tune to 75% and played along with it, bit by bit until the whole head came together. Once I had that, I played the chords and sang the melody. How's that for thouroughness?! It was a good experience, and I'm going to try it working on his solo either later today or tomorrow.
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Blogging Note: so I just found the date button again on Blogger, so I'll be able to date these on the appropriate date. Also, I'm prepping for a revamping, relocation, merging of 2 other blogs and a new navigation system for this whole blog experience.
I would like to have one blog to encompass the three I'm tyring to deal with. I would like that blog to contain all of my personal and professial whimsys. And I would like to categorize it so people can find their way through it and get the contact they want. That should be fully functioning by June or July or August or sometime in the realitve near future. I've still got some things to learn and not that much time to devote to learning it.
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to work on my ear, I'm transcribing lines from a Wolfgang Muthspiel free-improv. I find a lick that I like, sing it over and over until I've got it and then see if I can put it on my guitar.
I did pretty well for a while and then I wanted to throw the guitar through the computer screen. That's when I took a break. A lot of his licks are bebopy and unfamiliar to me. I can listen to his licks, and because they are such a new sound I have trouble understanding the notes he's playing. As frustrating as it is, I'm excited about the experience, becuase frustruation usually means I'm learning. Progress is good.
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King Size Candy

2006-05-11T12:09:00.000-04:00

So, I'm on Day 4 of my Al Di Meola lick and it's coming together very nicely. All of this work with chromatic & whole tones scales (with the metronome) has been very helpful. My fingers are moving faster than they have in years.

Wednesday:

2006-05-10T23:09:00.000-04:00

My chromatic studies over the past couple of weeks have been paying off. I've been looking at that Al Di Meola lick this week (w/h dimished scale) and it's coming along better everyday. The whole w/h dimished scale is also coming along better. I used have trouble with the scale because there were so many options or different ways to play it. But now with all of my chromatic studies, the scale is easier for me to handle.
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From Tuesday:

2006-05-09T11:51:00.000-04:00

I spent some good time with the metronome today. I'm still in the mindset that I have rebuild my fingers in some way. I don't think that is really the case. I think I've still got a good feel for the instrument, or least as good as it was before.
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I revisited my Omnibook and switched tunes to spice things up a bit. I'm working on "Blues For Alice" now. It's a nice tune and I'm relatively familiar with it. I have two other tunes that I would like to be working on, but the ipod isn't feeling very well right now, so I'll wait for to be "restored"
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I also took a 2nd glance at the Al Di Meola lick from yesterday. It's coming along nicer today.
After my class at Newton last night, I was walking through the halls and I think I passed some students learning how to speak english. The trick was the students were deaf. Their experience of repeating a phrase "how are you" over and over and over again reminded me of my guitar playing experieince. When I learn licks I learn them over and over and over again. The thing is, I rarely ever get right the first day. After I'm done practicing and my brain is making sense of the whole experience, does the lick sort congeal. Then or maybe the next day the lick will be reading. It's kinda funny when you think about it, yet also very simple. The thing that all this guitar playing has done for me is really instilled a sense of patience for development. Things don't happen over night. No matter how much we want them to.
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Chromatic scales were also my friend. They are turning out to be a nice warm-up. I haven't had a warm-up in a very long time.
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adm

2006-05-08T23:55:00.000-04:00

At first glance, my hands really aren't as bad as I thought they would be. My hands & arms hurt when/from typing on the computer. When I play guitar, everything feels fine.
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On second glance, my left hand is a little sluggish. I have fast ideas, but not fast execution.
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I spent some time reviewing an Al Di Meola vid I got from Netflix. He's got a nice diminshed line that I took some time to work on.

I also spent a little time working on the ear/guitar/voice connection. I still need some work.

It felt good to be back in the practice saddle again, but I still got caught up a little on my design project.

In da house

2006-05-07T23:33:00.000-04:00

All right, I'm back. The past two weeks I've been working on learning XHTML & CSS, and I'm proud to say that for the first time, I now validate in both. That's a big step for me. The whole site should be completely overhauled in this new more flexible mark-up by June(ish). But this really isn't the place to write about such things.
With two weeks of intense computer work, I've increased my typing speed and wrangled my body up a little bit. For the most part I didn't do much guitar. I most certainly did not do any formal sit-down "practice session" where I "work" on something. The occasional times when I picked up the instrument I was just getting my fingers accustmed to the neck and sometimes running a couple of scales or arpeggios. The chromatic scale(s) kept me busy here and there. I also found myself going back to improvsing over "All The Things You Are."
During this break my finger strength/stamina has noticably decreased. I expected it would. Surprisingly, my voice has gotten better. I'm able to hit notes with more authority than I ever have and when I sing and I can visualize where it would be on the fretboard. I haven't really sat down with the guitar and see how much of this is really connected, but something has gotten better.
Improvements while doing nothing at all are always amazing. It's quite incredible how long the brain has to process information in order for it to be understood throught one's whole system. I worked really hard on this voice/ear/guitar connection and for weeks it wasn't coming together. Who knew all I had to do was step away for a bit?
So, back to the regular routine tomorrow. Until then.....

Break

2006-04-29T22:28:00.000-04:00

As it's been about a week since I've posted in my "daily" practice blog, i think it's time to mention that I'm taking a little break from guitar studies right now. I'm currently working and studing XHTML & CSS to redevelop my website. It is going very slow. I expect this break to continue until the 2nd week of May, and then re-focus my energies on the guitar and the upcoming busy wedding season.

dadnbc

2006-04-22T15:51:00.000-04:00

Chromatic scales all day & all night, plus some singing as well.
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Besides that, it's Gamelan all day and all night!

uyikk

2006-04-21T21:04:00.000-04:00

I'm prepping for some upcoming recordings. I'm going to have some new tunes up on the Solo Guitar site soon and I'm working them out right now so they are ready for recording time. The two tunes I'm working on right now are: Freddie the Freeloader & Can't We Be Friends.
As I'm working on these tunes I'm using them as exercises for my ear stuff as well as my new found appreication for chromatic scales. I'm using the loopstation for both of these. I dno't have any examples online of me using the loopstation. it will be fun.
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nvwdyz

2006-04-20T23:27:00.000-04:00

oh yeah, I forgot about chromatic scales. How quickly that fades from my brain.....
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We'll, I didn't realize it at the time, but the miles tune I was working on just had him playing on the head. There was one good lick in it, plus the chromatic scale observation. I'm going to try to use them both more in my playing. The miles lick was a nice arpeggio of a major chord startin on the on the 2 moving up chromaticly to the third and then descending down the triad an octave, until it ended on the third.... very simple lick.
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I've been putting my ET exercises to task at playing melodies by ear. Either I'm playing a tune that I know and just playing the melody, the best I konw it, or I'm playing along with CDs (or really the iPod). It's a good exercise and I think it's where I need to put the majority of my focus on. By listening to others I'll get my sense of approriatnesss, plus licks.
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Something unexpectd, but highly logical happened in my playing today. After playing all of those chromatic scales, when I went to just play over tunes I started coming up with chromatic lines. It's like a combonation of "duh" and "oh wow!"
Good things come to those who practice.
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uylfbpm

2006-04-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

I started working on Miles Davis' "Fran Dance" head/solo. I heard it last night and liked the sound of it. A closer look this morning shows some good stock blues licks. The whole thing sounds a little cheesy in the morning; a bit like Chris Botti. But the experience has led me to the importance and value of chormatic scales. I've got to work on those.
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I've always been worse at descending licks vs. ascending licks. As I worked on my chromatic scales today (one octave) I was trying to alleviate that problem. I worked on the scales slow and steady, asceding and descending, and just tried to be accurate. I'm sure after a couple of days doing this I'll get the hang of it.
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With my new focus on ET and listening my way through tunes I feel like I'm getting an immersion experience for understanding this material. I find the experience very invigoriting itellectually, because my mind is trying to make sense of all these sounds. I'ts a neat experince.
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I also spent some time just playing chords into the loop station and then playing the chord tones on top of them by ear. I'ts neat because it's rewiring the way I think and hear chords.
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zqckqghz

2006-04-18T23:46:00.000-04:00

I took some time and looked at my Parker tune again. I've made it to the b-section. Once I've made it through the head, I'll start at the beginning again with the recording. It's a cool piece and I'm enjoying reading, but I should be just working on my ears. Last week my ear studies were neglected, so I've got to get back to my ET studies.
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I spent the ear portion of tonights work on playing with CDs. Before that I was working on random chords and random ii-v's. The thing is that I'm getting better at hearing, but I noticing a real lack of things to play or phrases to hear over the chords. Therefore I thought listening and playing along with tunes would help.
I'm spending a lot of time just listening to melodic lines and mimicing them or echoing them. I like some of the more densely harmonic tunes becuase it pushes me out of my "in-key" licks and forces me just to think about melodic shapes or distances.
I spent some time working with some Abbey Lincoln tunes and then set the iTunes to shuffle. During this process I stumbled upon an old recording of mine from December. It was interesting to listen to because I'm using all the same techniques that I'm working on now, but I'm not that good at them. I wasn't honestly having a difficult day with my playing and progress, but listening to this really inspired me to continue. Noticing progress is so helpful. As things get more and more challenging it's nice to know that I'm getting better and the world is not getting harder.
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With my new found inspiration and confidence I continued the evening playing through shuffle learning and exploring dozens of tunes. My ears are getting better and I"m connecting to my instrument the way I used to when I was a teenager. I was much more of an emotional/ intutive player back then. Now I have a bunch of intellect and theory in my back pocket and I'm working to get back to that orginal place.
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xcggeu

2006-04-14T23:13:00.000-04:00

It's been quite busy here in Brendanville this week. I've either got to do my practice first thing in the morning or the last thing at night. Today I did both, but nothing too intense. Right now I'm reviewing for Valerie's student recital music (which is happening tomorrow), plus I'm looking at the Omni Book again. I'm using at as a nice reading exercise. They really are beautiful tunes. They soound good slow too!
As this week comes to a close I've noticed that I haven't been working on my ear exercises as much. I've got to get back to them next week.
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With the Omni book, I"ve been looking at "Confirmation." It's a nice blues and I've got the loop station play the changes for me. I'm spending time learning the melody and also just soloing by ear.

iwpqsx

2006-04-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

As I introduce balance in my playing, I'm beginning to discover that I'm pushing myself out of balance into this new realm and away from primary ear studies.
But new things are exciting.
I spent some time today playing around with parker's head on Confirmation from the omni book. I was working on the tune with a metronome, then the loop station (backing chords), and then downloaded the song and worked from there. The recorded version of the tune had a couple more approach or pick-up notes and illustrated what the trill or slur lines meant. I don't have a lot of background in reading those things.
While I was doing this I would also take a break with free-improv and then improvising over the parker changes by ear and just see what happens. My default fingerings, melodies and improvs are getting better and more clear. Some of the old stupid mistakes are clearing themselves up and other stupid mistakes are still there. I'm having a good time improvising and I'm curious to see what a Parker head will do to my ear & playing.
On top of that I'm working on preparing some tunes for Valerie's recital this weekend. I've got to break out the classical guitar for that. I'm not looking forward to it. I like playing one guitar for long periods of time and I don't want to put the Klein away. I should just get a nylon Kleinish guitar. I would never need another instrument.
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ziupgdva

2006-04-11T23:46:00.000-04:00

I continued my ear exercise with random modes again. I'm having fun while playing them. It's like trying to keep my balance on a platform that is moving.
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bike

2006-04-11T16:28:00.000-04:00

in the spirit of balance, TM has asked me to incorporate some drills mentioned in my previous journal entry. Today I worked through a Steve Rochinshki book that I've had for a while and didn't know what to do with. My recenty emphasis on the ear is perfect for the intro section of his book. There are much of simple bopish lines/licks that are to be learning in different rhythmic phrasings and every key. The emphasis is on hearing their motivic sound and not in analyzing them.
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A quick transcription of Coltrane's head on My Favorite Things.... always good to have.

ziiwoaz

2006-04-11T00:08:00.000-04:00

Tim's got me working on some other stuff now to give me some balance in my practice. I've got some reading, arpeggios and singing exercises to compliment my primary focus on ear development.
Tim also suggested that I use random mode drills allong with my random chord exercises. I'm finding this very satisfiing. They are like random ii-v's but with chaning tonality.
The exercise was good and strangely reminded me of some gamelan music we've been practicng recently. Moving modes is also an excelent compositional and improvisational techinque. I should use it more often.

srwryaii

2006-04-09T00:15:00.000-04:00

I was thinking that Hypnosis might be able to help me out with this singing and playing perdicment I'm in. I know I know the notes, intervals and melodies that I need to play, but I don't know how to effectively transmit the informtaion to my fingers. It's like imagining a beautiful picture to draw, but not having thd motor skills connected to do it.
Over the past couple weeks of obsessing on this idea has allowed my imgainiation or my mind to work in overdrive when it comes to melodies. I'm singing, playing and singing while playing; all in hopes that everything comes together. I'm making small progress everyday and for some reason I'm looking for a big turnaround day. I'm beginning to think that it may not happen that way. It's seems like it's more likely that I'll be hitting 70%, then 80% then 90% of the notes that I want to hit. Or at least that's the way I feel today.
I've been working on the singing and playing exercise with Stella & a random ii-v progression in the loop station. I'm both singing the melodies and singing while playing them.
My big breakthrough for the day was to sing stronger that I was playing. I was really concentrating on the notes I was singing, the direction and the space between them and then letting my fingers figure it out on their own. This has definately been the most powerful I've been with this idea. One of the problems I was having before was that I was getting stuck in my thought process. I was sing a note or imagine a note and then try to play it on my instrument. So in some sense I was giving mixed signals to who was in charge: fingers vs. voice, or imgination vs. intellect. When I pushed through that and just sang the notes out my fingers would just hit the melody. I was thinking about the what the note might sound like, I just played what I was singing.
The previous exercise of singing without the guitar has also been helpful in this process. I don't think I would be able to have the breakthrough I had today without just trying to hit the pitches with my voice.
This brings me to my progressive development hypothosis. As I make progress on my singing and ear and gutiar connection I presume I will make several small and important breakthroughs and push deeper into this area of playing and creation.
I guess that makes a lot of sense; not terribly profound, but a helpful reality to imagine.
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Part II in my practice day consisted of reviewing the 3 solos I"ve been working on. This week I haven't moved forward on the pat metheny tune under strict instruction from TM to get the rhythm down first. The rhythmic interplay between pat and charlie is amazing, and to mimic that, or play it perfectly is difficult. The more I do the more I get into the feel of it and the more I appreciate the genius of the two of them.
Lately, I"ve really had the most rewarding exerperiences during my transcription portion of my practice routine. There is something really nice about tuning into a master of the the guitar or the msuic in general.
As I was reviewing my Metheny tune I noticed that I had orginally transcribed the tune wrong and found a note that I wasn't including in my solo.
When I switched to go back to my Paul Desmond tune, I had spent so much time away from it that I had forgotten some of it. I had to redue some of the faster or more tricker parts.
Because of the all the connection development that I've made, I"m playing the tune a lot differently. I'm thinking about the whole thing a lot less. Some lines are just gestures and my fingers just sort of make it happen. Others times my fingers will find another way of playing the line that's more like Paul's saxaphone line. All the work I've been doing is translating. It's kinda wierd.
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Forget everything I wrote before. Something big is happening today. In one sense it feels like I'm learning how to sing through my guitar. It's like my brain is rewiring my voice to come out of my amplifer. When I listen to my self singing to see if I'm on the right note or not I'm not totally listening to my voice and the way it sounds but am linking my instrument's sound in the whole mix; as if my instrument were my voice.
Now that's what I'm talking about!
I can tell something big is happening because it's painfull and exhausting. I'm sending so many singals to my brain that it's getting tired and confused.
When I working on this last exercise (improvising over random chords in a groove in the loopstation) I was trying to listen to my voice rather than think about the right notes. I was trying to hear where I wanted to go before I got there. In that process I could hear how far away that note or series of notes was away from where I was at that momement. During this exercise I would get some right and get some wrong. For a while I would get some right and get excited and crash and burn and forget how I was doing it. For me, it's really tapping into an area of non-thought or non-thinking while improvising. The second I realize I'm not thinking about what I'm playing, I begin to think about what I'm playing.....
Anyways, during this exepirence of getting the notes I was singing right and wrong I was getting all sort of stress related signals from my mind. It was like I was doing sit-ups for a half-hour and my brain was saying: what are you doing?! My stomach was hurting and I was straining myself but my whole sense of being was in considerable pain.
This seemed like a good thing to me. In my opinion I have the resources to make this happen, but I dont' have the neurological wiring to make it happen. As I was playing today it felt like my brain was trying to make the connections. It was almost like it was trying things out and everyonce and a while one would work and then one wouldn't work. It's like flippingn fuzes in your house-hold fuze box to see which one controls what.
And then as I continued with this exercise I really started getting confused as to which was making the sound my voice or my guitar. That would be such a cool thing if I could get that happening. If I could imagine something musical and rather than sing it, it just pops out on my guitar as if it were my voice. damn, that would be great.
So anyway, needless to say, I'm exhauseted and it feels like my brain is pulsing. Good work so far.
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As I continue with this exercise and develop the connection between my imagination, voice & guitar I'm finding the most clear and prescise melodies that I execute on the guitar are the ones that I have a very clear idea of when I sing them. That sounds obvious, but it's still important. For some reason, I wasn't doing that before. I didn't have a clear idea of what I was doing.
I need to remember to tap into that, because when I do my brain doesn't know the difference between my voice & my guitar.
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And allong those same lines, I think differently when I'm siging and when i'm playing. When I'm siging I tend to think about how my note relates to the chord beneath it, but when I'm playing I'm think about the notes relationship to a scale.
That's seems like the problem right there.
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It's really been an exciting day for a guitar. A very signigant breakthrough and yet still so much more to accomplish.
One of the neat things about moving up a notch is that I don't always know how to get back to where I was. It's so new it takes me a while to remember how to do it.
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wifvyckf

2006-04-06T22:28:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to do as I've been told this week: sing what you play and review the 3 solos and play the perfectly.
My voice is simultaneously getting stronger and remaining the same. Sometimes I'm making big progress, other times I'm making the same old mistakes.
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I cleaned up the Metheny piece really well. The main theme has a tricky rhythm to it.
Not many new observations today. I'm just trying to keep my head down and pedal up that hill.
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zsqhh

2006-04-05T22:52:00.000-04:00

Today's big focus was on singing. I spent time singing allong with the Jamie Abersold recordings. My voice is getting stronger but it has some work to do. I also spent some time singing along with the "suffle" function on the iPod. I was trying to sing guide tone lines through the tunes that I knew. It's better, but I still need some work. I'm beginning to identify the intervalic relationship of the lines I'm singing. This is a good thing, but again, more work is needed.
Take Heed!
Practice Practice Practice.
Pound Pound Pound, Crack!

duncmp

2006-04-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

In the process to develop Awesome Ears and play what I hear, I'm finding so many fault or weaknesses in my own musianship.
I had some misc. things to do today and I popped in the "Maiden Voyage" play-allong CD and started singing lines over changes. My assingment this week is to listen to the chords more when I improvise and to use the chord voicings as target notes. As I tried the singing approach I noticed that I dont' sing very well and that I don't have a lot of control. I sing really weird intervals and sometimes jump outside the key in not a good way. It's remarkable similar to the way I play the guitar by ear sometimes. This brings me to the conclusion that I have to work on hearing the intervals correctly over the changes. I have a hard time singing anything but the highest note in the voicing or the root of the chord. I think if I work on this skill, it will help my playing out. It seems like it would.
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So I followed up this exercise by playing guitar over the same tunes and singing allong while I'm playing. I'm showing progress in this category. First off, I can sing longer. Previously singing would exhaust me and I would just stop singing. Now I can do it with a little more stamina. Second off, I noticed that my timing was better and that I'm picking up some influences from my Pat Metheny transcription. A lot of playing style is getting embraced in my playing. Third off, I noticed my ear getting a little better. I would sing a note right before I would play it and I had a better hitting percentage of getting it right. Most of the times it was good. Occasionaly I would screw up again.
I dont' think there is anything different or special that I'm doing to make this progress. I'm jsut doing it and it gets better, plain and simple. Tim has been very helpful in this process by given me great suggestions and pushing me into uncomforatable regions. My goal this week is to sing as much as I can with my improvs and just hope something sticks. I know all this stuff to well, for it not to come together eventually.
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When I first heard about the idea of singing allong to chord changes without an instrument I was very agaist it. I didn 't like it because I couldn't do it. It's a very difficult thing for me to do. I'm getting a little better at it. It's a combonation of singing and listening. Difficult stuff, but I'm making progress.
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As I continue to practice on the core subject of hearing what I'm playing, I notice a particular hang-up when it comes to my thought process. My brain is allways trying to wrap it's understanding around the notes and tell me what to do. Problem is, it's mostly wrong. To counter that I've been trying to play faster so I'm not thinking and to incorporate more slides in my playing, so that I'm gliding from note to note.
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It's seems that progress for me come in acknowledgment of incompetance. I'm working on improvising by ear through an Abbey Lincoln album (which may not be the best idea because of some of her weird chromatic melodic choices, but then again, it would be nice to sound like that) and I'm getting better. I'm listening to the tune and I'm listening to the melody in my head and I'm getting my hitting average up. I'm beginning to have enough experience doing this that I have a little bit of instinct to rely on. But when I just sit down and sing over a tune, it's a mess. I'm lucky if I can sing the root of the chord. I open my mouth and I try to find a good note, and then next thing I'm doing is singing a chormatic scale and I can't seem to find anything. I think this is becasue I'm comforatable with all of the intervals. Possibly I'm uncomfortable singing chord tones & tensions of voicings (there's an exercise right there), but I really can't sing ontop of tune. I can sing along and match pitches (and I suppose that's another good exercise), but I dont' have the strength to do it on my own.
These are all good and helpful observations for me. I just think it's funny that the better I get at this, the more I realize weakness all over the place.
On the blatantly positive side, I'm enjoying my tone (eventhough I've got week-old strings on). I'm picking up a lot of Metheny's feel. I accuarcy is getting better and I'm feeling a little more comforatable imporvising without a lead sheet.
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I spent a couple of minutes running through the Teoria exercises, I think they are an important part in this whole process. I'm using the limitation to a major 3rd. It's nice because this is usually what a melody moves in. I did well overall, but every once in a while I just get confused by everything. My correct answers were a mix of gut reaction and singing intervals. My ear is now relating the intervals to the fretboard. I'm happy with the work I've done today. I'm not seeing dramatic progress, but I don't think that's the point. I'm trying to keep my head-down on this and keep pushing steady. I wouldn't be surprised if I've got months of work ahead of me.

uswlwg

2006-04-01T20:52:00.000-05:00

I started today by working on the ET drills of 2nd & 3rds. I really amazed at how wishy washy I am on these intervals. If I require myself not to think and just "feel" the intervals I seem to average three out of four. That makes me think I don't know these pictches like I thought I did.
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I came back to the Teoria drills but this time used my guitar to identify the pitches. I was far more accurate than just by ear. I think this is an example on how I get confused in the thought processes of identifing the notes. I use tricks or crutches to identify the notes intelleculaly, but when I just have to play them, I just play them.
Ocassionaly I would make a surprisngly stupid mistake. I'd like clean those up. Mistakes are bad.
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Apparently I'm not moving forward on the Pat Metheny tune tonight. I've got 2 of the 3 chorus taken care of, I'll save the last one for this up coming week. I spent some time reviewing the other two solos I've been looking at to make sure the are still there in my memory. They are. I had to play through the TM piece twice before I fully remembered what happened. Every piece is better at the beginning. As the solo continues I get just a little bit worse, becuase I've proporitionately spent less time there.
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Finally, I worked on improvising over some Abbey Lincoln's tunes. I have an album of her's that I'm quite fond of and used the tunes as a templeate for the single string exercise. I'm showing progress, but it's still difficult.

czmxlojp

2006-03-31T22:50:00.000-05:00

There is something wrong with the way I listen to myself sing. I was trying to figure this out with Tim this weekend. I can hear more clearly when other people are singing or playing than I can when I do it myself. So in some sense my ears are okay. I can hear someone sing a line and I can (roughly) determine the intervals. But when I do it, I confuse myself. Therefore this either has to do with the way I hear myself singing or how I'm clogging my brain as I sing. Sometimes it feels like my brain is making judgement calls on what I'm singing rather than my ears. I feel like a blindfolded painter dipping my brush into what I think is green paint, but is really red.
I don't have any answers yet. I was just hoping that writing it out would help.
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I'm having trouble again today with Pat's phrasing, and sometimes, choice of notes. Some of his lines are wierd; awesome, but wierd.
I'm spending a lot of time singing the phrases first to get the rhythm and pitches together, and then sing them to myself to find them on my guitar.
Slowing down the track helps sometimes.
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It seems like it took the better half of two hours to add in about 7 seconds of music. I think I can work a little more efficiently with this project, but there is also a part me that understands that it might take this long to fully process a lick (or a set of licks).
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I think I just tapped into something big regarding my ear progress: I'm not very good at it. And what I mean by it, is that I'm not profoundly good at it. I can superficially identify the notes, but sometimes I have to think about it or sing the note, so sing the notes in between the notes. But when it really comes down to it, one has to hear the notes and identify the relationship between them. I need to hear or feel my when playing or singing. Therefore, what I'm going to try to focus on is getting in touch with a more gut-level association of these intervals. I really need to know what the notes sound like so I don't have to think about them.
I'm working on this with the Teoria ET drills and I was just amazed at how much I had to think about the notes. I even limited myself to intervals no bigger than a major 3rd and I still had to think about them. I should know that stuff inside and out.
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Having stumbled on this realization I've gone back to the Teoria exercises and focused on my weakness. I worked on the ET drills using my guitar for a bit and then I worked on using my gut-reflex through the drills. I was a lot worse off than I thought. I didn't really know the intervals. I was so dependent on my tricks to determine the notes that I actually forgot the big point of it all: hear the notes. It took me a while to build my hearing back up. This really wasn't so hard for me. In some sense I know the notes, but I didn't know how to access them in this format. By working from my gut on these exercises I was using my past exeriences of playing music (which I have a lot) to guide me through the decision making process. I feel really good now, having done it. It makes me wonder what I was thinking about before, but now I think I"ve got it together.
I spent some time after the ET tests and put in some random II-V's into the loop station. I was a delightful experience. I'm sure I'll forget some of this tormorow and have to refresh again, but I think I know how to hear this stuff correctly now.... we'll see
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vyjyfxw

2006-03-30T20:51:00.000-05:00

45 minutes on the Pat Metheny solo. He's playing couterpoint with himself and it's incrediably dynamic and awesome. The two lines are really more "call and response," but he has a different level of dynamics and sense of tempo for each line. Quite difficult to get around my fingers. Transcribing like this reminds me of my Gamelan practice, when learning a new piece. It's just played in front of you, over and over until you can handle in on your own. I spent about fifteen mintues with a 7 second loop that looked at 2 main lines and two response lines. I've just about got it. I'll give it a little while this afternoon and come back to it later. See how it's steeping in brain.
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I've got the first chorus of his solo 99% down. He switches his time-feel back in forth between three and four, and I'm not thinking about the rhythms right now, just the sounds. I'm playing it it time, but not thinking about the pulse (if that makes more sense). I think if I just stick with it everything will even itself out.
I'm singing wiht the solo as much as I can because I'm still having trouble with the random chord exercises. There is still a dis-connect with the pitches I sing and the way my ear hears them. Or what my ear hears and what my fingers play.
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ugerjxgz

2006-03-29T23:31:00.000-05:00

Another 8 seconds into the Pat Metheny piece. It took about a half hour of my time working on this and refreshing from last night.
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hitbt

2006-03-28T23:10:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a hiatus from my TM transcription because frankly it's too hard. I told myself that it was the only part of the tune that I wanted to learn, but apparently I was lying. His whole solo is awesome, it's just going to take me forever if I continued working on it now. I've got to get a couple more things under my belt.
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I've started working on Metheny's "Waltz For Ruth" (Hayen's Composition). I've got the melody down and found it to be very nice. It's a great exercise in hearing the minor and major seconds that I'm having trouble with. Right now I'm working on the solo and I was struck about a big difference in transcribing and learning to play the solo by ear: Right now, I'm working on a difficult phrase that looks quite simple on paper. The trick is that the rhythm is very loose and very important to the feel of the piece. I don't think I could get the same feel from the piece if I were reading the notes off the page. So now, by just listening to it, I'm working on getting it into my fingers in a much more profound way. I just loop it over and over and sort of teach my fingers right and wrong according to the groove.
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I spent an hour working on about 20 seconds of music. I learn it fast, but it takes a while to put it all together. I'm mostly training my fingers to recognize this tomorrow.

urqhay

2006-03-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

During my lesson with TM on Sunday we spent time discussing how and why I have a dis-connect with my ears, voice & fingers. The main thing I came away with was that I just don't have a lot of experience playing like that. I'm a very analytical persoan (and player) and would often think about the chord changes as I was playing through them. I'm finding this to be too cumbersome of an approach.
So my big resolution for these weeks is to find that connection where everything lines up and I don't think about what I'm playing, but think about what melody I want to get to or create. I spent some time working on this today. I would plug in a two chord vamp into the loop station and just sing my way through it. I had the best results when I played through a non-diatonic set of chords or two un-related chords. This helped me through my analytical mind out the window because it doesn't know what to do with such strange concoctions of harmony. My ear and my voice can navigate easy enough. Sometimes the melodies would produce pentatonic or sextontic (?) scales, while others would produce scales where certian available notes would change depending on what chord I started on.
My biggest problem right now is that I'm screwing up the major 2nd & minor 2nd approach. It's seems like it would be easy to distinguish between the two, but for some reason I keep screwing it up. I think partly it's because I'm thinking about it too much. The plan is to spend enough time doing it by feel and intution that I learn to trust myself in those situations and have something more stronger to rely on that what I'm using know (whatever that is).

drvyat

2006-03-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

As usual, I had a good lesson with Tim. One of the things that I really appreciate about studying with him is that he's a good sounding board and a good constant. In the 15 months I've been studying with him he's been consistant with his prescription for me: transcribe, transcribe, transcribe (and sing while you play). As such a stable guide post, it's helps me recognize some of the things that I'm doing wrong. We spent a lot of time today just trying to figure out why I'm having difficulty connecting the pitches I hear to my instrument. I'm not sure if we found an answer but I feel good that I know what direction to move in. This kind of stuff reminds me of zen training or peak performance stratedgies. I know that I have all the information I need to make the music I want to make, but it's coming out of me wrong. I'm thinking about it incorrectly or too much.
One of the things that I've resovled to do as a result of this lesson is to start a new or work up an old musical creative project. Either get some solo guitar gigs at a coffee house or club, or work on music for a trio or duet. I'm currently lacking enough creative outlets to make the breakthroughs I need with my ears and my playing (I think). Part of understanding or mastering this subject is just getting out there and doing it. My current Solo Guitar gigs don't really allow for such creative freedom, therefore I must set it up for myself some other way. I've been really itching to do this anyway. It's helpful to get a push.
One of the other things that I'm going to try to do is be more creative with other aspects of my life. I think for a while now I've been shutting those things down, thinking they got in the way of what I wanted to do. I have a feeling I was wrong.
And finally, I'm going to put my faith in this transcription project: transcribing tunes & the random ear exercises. I think I'm making progress with both of these and it's helpful to have sit-downs with Tim to serve as markers. When I'm doing this on my own I get discouraged by how long the whole process is. I'm still not getting it all, but I'm a little closer that I was before. It's helpful to see my progress.
ramble ramble ramble

mrksqyt

2006-03-25T20:22:00.000-05:00

I'm having trouble playing the last 11 seconds of Tim's solo up to speed. There is a sweep-picked arpeggio (I think) and it's done quite fast. Right now I'm thinking about it to much and I'm trying to the extended lick into my fingers at a 10% slowdown, hoping that this will help me to flow through the piece when it's time.
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I've got the lick pretty well down at 10% less and I'm going to take a break to let my fingers process the information. There is a point of diminishing results that we can run into with any sort of playing. Right now I feel like I'm at the point of diminishing input. I don't think I could do anything else to get my fingers to understand this lick. I've played it enough times, they've just got to figure it out on their own time.
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Half the day passed before I picked up the guitar again and before I did, I listened to Tim's Solo on loop in the background. As I picked up the guitar again the solo was better under my hands and only shaky in a few random places. The solo could use some steeping (maybe a week or two). So the solo has officially been learned and now I move on to tune #3.
When I came back to the Paul Desmond Solo I was a little out of place with it from having worked so much on the Tim Miller solo. Paul Desmond is such a different soloist. His time, feel and melodic sensibillity is so different I had a difficult time getting back into his swing. I'm too worried about it, as I bring these two tunes back into balance I think it will all even out.

bjyazas

2006-03-23T21:27:00.000-05:00

I finished the Tim Miller solo (again), or at least the 45 seconds of it that I want to work on. I have a little more memorizing of the whole piece that I have to work on. I only know segments alone at playing tempo. It's a good and fun tune to work on, and it's builiding my confidence with my playing. It's reminding me of when I used to play my Joe Satriani & Steve Vai records.
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I'm taking each lick now and playing it on its on from the end of the piece to the middle. I'm foggiest the most on the second half of the piece. This is what happens when you always start at the beginning.
I can play the licks by feel but I can't think about what I'm playing. When I think about what I'm doing then I have to slow down and implant it. It's kinda crazy that way. It's confusing my fingers a lot and I think it's best to take frequent breaks.
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I've been recognizing lately that I haven't been working on any creative projects and that doens't sit right with me. I've been feeling the creative void perhaps.
I sat down for a moment today and played through a piece that I had on my audition tape for NEC. It's a simple tune that I like. It doens't have a name. EIther way, during the improvised part of the piece I was very surprised and a little scared by my playing. I had a lot of new ideas for a G major vamp. It started out simply by playing an A minor arpeggio and then went crazy dissonant. I started using the C# from a Dmajor scale form and an A major arpeggio line. The strange thing was that I increadibly comforatable with the dissonance and the "wrong notes." They weren't really the notes I wanted to play from a sonic perspective, but my fingers were so confident from physicall perspective they kind of made them sound all right. It was very impressive and a little breathtaking. It's exciting to think what's ahead of me musicially is a little outside of my imagination, but today I think I hit upon something big. I want to play a lot more like that. There was a lot of power there.
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I spent a half hour working on the last 15 seconds of Tim's solo. I worked in increments, memorizing each chunk before I had another bit. I've played the whole thing before several times, but this time I'm trying to memorize it. It looks like in three weeks work I will have two solos under my belt for a total of 3 or 4 minutes of music.
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All this practicing is ripping through my strings. I put a new set on yesterday and I've just about worn them out allready. Damn sweat!

dee

2006-03-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

Wednesday: I forgot to post yesterday. Nothing exciting happened. Same old stuff with the Tim Solo. This time I slowed down the new section about 30% less to get the phrasing nuances. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this up by Sunday.

dfd

2006-03-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the same Tim Miller lick today. It took a lot to come back to this today. I'm working on a 10 second clip right now, slowing it down and gradually bringing it up to speed. It's a difficult lick to execute perfectly. I think I'll be able add on to it tonight. I'm beginning to understand the feel of the line.
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I've got the lick down to about 90% now. I think I'll be cleaning it up the next couple days. I have a few more things I want to get out of this solo and then I want to check out something else.
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My fingers are feeling a little sluggish today. I'm not sure why. It might be from the computer work I did early today or something else.
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I finished up what I wanted from the Tim Miller Solo. The entire excert is 44 seconds long and it will probably take me 2 or 3 more days to fully play up to speed. I'm going to take a break now and see how the Desmond tune is doing. I hope I haven't forgotten it.
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As I work on the ear-related exerices, I don't really know how much I know. When I played the Desmond solo again today, it had been a couple days since I looked at it. As I was playing it I was just thinking about the melody and I noticed that I came up with a totally different fingering on the spot. It made a lot of sense at the time, but if my fingers know where to go than why can't I acess that all of the time? I think this is the balance of control and letting go that I'm a little unsure of right now. I think if learn some more solos I'll have more language under my fingers to really let go in my playing. Right now I feel a little empty.
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My fingers are sluggish because they are dry. Silly me.
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fs

2006-03-20T16:37:00.000-05:00

So I've been working on this Tim Miller lick for about 2 or 3 days now. It's getting better and I can just about play the whole entire phrase (but not very well yet). I think I've got about 3 more days to go on this lick. My sweet-picking/arpeegios are getting better because of this lick and I'm connecting to my guitar like I used to when I played rock n' roll solos. Tim's got some fun licks.
I'm going to work on slowing them down, finding the best fingerings and memorizing them the best I can so I can fly through this section. The whole thing is only about 13 seconds long, but he crams a lot of notes in there. There's one more section after this lick that I'm going to transcribe and then I think I'm going to move on to a different tune or spend months learning this one.
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gres

2006-03-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

I had a big Gamelan day yesterday and no guitar. Today I started off with a review of my Paul Desmond solo. When I've gone a day or two without practice I have a little aversion to sitting down with the guitar. I'm not sure why, because when I play, practice or stretch my mind in any way I usually feel pretty satisfied. I'm surprised I confuse such a pleasant experience wiht "work."
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The Desmond piece is a good solo to warm up on. I worked on the 2nd half of the tune more than the entire piece because the 2nd half is rustier than the first half. I forget what I'm doing more in the second half of the piece.
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I like that the Gamelan work is really helping with my guitar studies. The process of memorizing my Gamelan tunes, or learning them by ear has helped with my overall musical competancy, and in turn has affected the way I'm improvising and thinking about tunes. The muscles in my brain are working out.
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As I'm practicing the Tim Miller piece I have to slow down and isolate (loop) more sections. By doing this my fingers do much more work than my brain and I find myself zoning out a lot, yet my fingers are processing the information of the form and the phrasing. It's pretty weird. I think I should be a little more mentally present, but what do I know?
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I had a very similar experience when learning gamelan music: When learning a new part there was a point where my hands could play the pattern and my ears could guide me, but when I went to think about what I was doing it all fell apart. I'm at that place right now with my Tim Miller solo, on this one lick. It's a very long phrase (really two stuck together - kinda like a run-on sentance), and my fingers and ears know it better than I do. I think this is a good indication to take a rest and move on to something else. My brain will probably understand what I was doing tomorrow and then I'll fly right through the lick (let's hope).
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I plugged into the random chord exercise and felt a better connection to my instrument and my ears thanks to the transcribing warm-up. I'm still lacking a big part of my ear-fingerboard connection. Today I worked hard on exposing my weaknesses in that area. That's a tough task by itself. It's hard to point out how you're not good at something. I would sing each note before I'd play it and then make myself play that note. I was overthinking the whole process and messing up more that I need to. I know what these intervals are, I just got to stop my neurotic thinking mind from getting in the way. It's just like the ET tests. When I think too much about them I screw myself up. The more I let go and just listen to the notes, the better I do.
Speaking of which..... I spent the last part of my playing by ear exercise improvising over the random chords and not thinking about what I was doing; just listening. I would just play random lines over random phrases and listen to the results. My ear would tend to steer me towards connsanant chord tones, which was neat. My rhythms and phrases are coming along from my Tim Miller & Paul Desomond studies.
It was a good exercise to inspire me to do this more.
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Friday Night

2006-03-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

I've started working on the Tim Miller solo for "TR." It's a solo that I've been admiring for a while. I transcribed some it a few weeks back, but back then I was just transcribing; not playing. Now that I'm coming back to it, I have to practice my arpeggios and speed picking technique. I've got the metronome out to help me get some of the licks up to tempo to the recording.
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I chose this recording because I like it, but also because I'm studying with Tim right now and I've never had the oppurtunity to talk to someone about their music one-on-one. Plus it's also a really nice tune. Next tune will probably be Keith Jarrett's "Stella."
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The lick I'm working on right now is tough. It will probably take me a couple of days to work it out. It reminds me of basketball & baseball drills I would do when I was a kid. I just keep doing it over and over and over again. Every once in a while I get the hang of it and I can move forward a bit. It's a very satisfying expericence.
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Now that I have one solo in my belt I'm going to try to incorporate this exercise 2-3 times a day. It doesn't take very long, and I think the repitition would be helpful.
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st.p

2006-03-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

I've got the Paul Desmond Solo pretty much down today. The last 1/4 of the piece is my shakiest, but I think I've cleaned that up now. It's only 1:35 long. Small steps are important ones.
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I ran into the same situation that I experienced a couple days ago: I'll be playing the solo and my fingers take me into a position that I'm unfamiliar with but still are the same notes. It's kinda neat. I'd like to have a little more control or comfort when they do that, but it's a good start (i think).
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I also spent some time with the solo competely zoning out. My fingers have played it enough to sort of figure out there way around the neck and through the solo.
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d

2006-03-16T22:18:00.000-05:00

I was really tight on practice time today. I'm glad that I forced some time into my schedule to make it happen. It's very easy when it's late at night to push it off to tomorrow, but this stuff is accumilative and compounded on the previous day's work.
I finished the Paul Desmond Solo (barely). Some of the licks are little foggy, but I've transcribed the whole thing (in my head) and it will give me something to review for the next couple days. Tomorrow I have to decide solo #2 and start working on that one.

nxqhdruy

2006-03-15T23:14:00.000-05:00

I worked on the next 7 seconds of the Paul Desmond tune. It was tricky section. It was rather fast and a little cumbersome on the guitar. I got down pretty well by looping and slowing it down against a metronome. I'm sure it will be ready for tomorrow.
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I'm very happy with my progress. I've practically memorized the entrie piece and I'm planning on picking up a second tune tomorrow. The thing that's been helpful for me is breaking it down into small pieces. I was really intimidated by all of the work I had to do at first, but I feel like I'm picking things up at a decent pace.
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My day didn't have a whole lot of practing, so at night I went back to my online ET tests and just tried simple intervals. There are a lot of compound results from the work I did in February paying off. I can hear things without humming them and because I'm going to be tested on it, I'm a lot looser about the whole thing. It's a pretty good feeling and one that wants me to continue working on it. This plus my other two exercises are really helping out.
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tf

2006-03-14T19:50:00.000-05:00

So I've got a minute & seven seconds memorized on the Paul Desmond piece. I've been singing a lot when I've been playing and I noticed that sometimes I don't always go to the right fingerings, but I go the right notes. Sometimes, if I get off on the wrong finger I end on a different string, but my fingers know how to get to the correct note. It's kinda neat.
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I played around with the same random chords in the loopstation and had similar results. I get a little uncomforatable becuase It's very difficult for me and a having a burning desire to get away from my guitar, but I persist and struggle to stay focused with this exercise. I'm always thinking about ways I can make this easier or more digestable for me. I haven't found one yet. I was day dreaming today of a sustain pedal like that on pianos or keyboards. I want one for guitar. I dont' know if that's possible.

tre

2006-03-13T23:18:00.000-05:00

I got about 20 seconds in to Paul Desmond and ran out of time for the day. I've played the entire solo before by reading a transcription, but I haven't transcribed it by listening to it until now. I noticed a couple of errors and I'm playing different than if I were reading it. When I judge by sound and phrase accents than my fingering and postioning shifts. I like this way a lot better. Small chunks are helpful as well.

mmm hmmm

2006-03-13T22:31:00.000-05:00

I started working on a wolfgang muthspiel tune but his ideas are too out there for me. It's a very beautiful solo with so many ideas, but I want to work on something with a cohesive and direct melodic statement. That brings me back to Paul Desmond.
I find it very interesting that I have approach/avoidance conflict with these exercises. There is part of me that wants to do them and then there is another part that recognizes that it's hard and that I'm not very good at it. That part wants me to stay away from the pain associated with learning. There really shouldn't be any pain with learning, but let's face it, admiting that you don't understand everything or that you are not very good at something is difficult, even if it is to your own self-conscious. So somewhere I'm protecting myself from embarassing myself from myself. Nice.....
The part that I am doing well with is the reason portion. I've made a comminment to do these exercises and I've seen what these exercises can do for people and I want that. I talk about this with Tim Miller often: When I was a teenager I used to play every rock n' roll guitar solo there was. I would play every note that Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brian May or Eric Clapton ever played. I had an amazing intuitive sense to my instrument and in some sense I'm working very hard to get back to that.
----
As I was working on "the memorizing the tune" portion of my exercise I recognized that I have trouble memorizing tunes. It's not that I can't do it, but that I haven't done it. I'm having the same trouble with Gamelan music that I'm having with memorzing solos or really any piece of music. I don't have the memorizing background. Because of that I think I'm making the process too hard. I'm taking the long way because I don't know any shortcuts. So much of my playing background is improvising and reading leadsheets to understand the form. This has now become my biggest weakness, or at least the oppiste of what I want to do right now: memorize music and know the form. It's helpful to acknowledge all these challenges that I'm having because I can address them and work with them rather than getting caught up them or being brought down with them.
---
tonight I'm going to transpose the Paul Desmond tune up a quarter-tone or so and work on the first chorus. Take small bites at first....

hummdy hum

2006-03-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

This weekend was all Gamelan all the time. I spent Saturday practicing for the concert & Sunday performing at the concert. Today I'm back to my regular schedule.
I spent all of today working on ear/guitar exercises. I plugged in several short random chord exercises into the loopstation for future use. I had previously had trouble with the exercise because I was remembering the chords that I had just played and was identifing the others ones as well. I was trying to listen to what I was playing, but I was intelleculizing it instead. So plugging in a couple of random chord progressions in the loop station helped. When I came back to them I found them fresh. When I started identifying a chord or the notes I was playing I would try to jump to a different string and start somewhere unfamiliar. This sounds weird when the end-goal is to be able to know what you're playing, but I'm intellecuatlizing it to much. I'm thinking chord tones or chordscales too much and not enough feeling or hearing the music.
I found that this is a very difficult exercise and that I don't like doing it very long. I like to take breaks or zone out as I play it. I think this is because it is still new and very hard. I try to come back to it as often as I can. I'm seeing progress and that is addiciting.
My other project is playing a solo I know by ear. I think I'm going to swing back to my wolfgang music for this because I know more from an ear perspective anyway. There's one piece of his that I've never written out. I'd like to couple it with the Paul Desmond tune, but there is a lot more prerequiste work I have to do for that.
We'll see how it goes.
---
Back to my random chord exercises..... I'm noticing the 3rd and the 4ths as well as the roots and major & flat 7ths when I play. These are kind of the exetremes or the outer layers of hearning (in my opionion). I'd like to hear the other intervals like I do in ET tests.
---

Lou Guitar

2006-03-13T15:40:00.000-05:00

A picture from yesterday's paper. In my opinion, it's hard to make the klein look cool. Lou Reed does a pretty good job.

strange

2006-03-10T19:17:00.000-05:00

I've been doing the ET exercises more casually since the audition has past. All of the work I put in to it in February is really paying off now. I can zip through the test with higher percentages than a few weeks ago.
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I've been coming back off and on to the two playing by ear exercises and I'm floored at how much it is changing my playing. The random chord changes is something I can only do for a small amount of time per session and then I'm exhausted. It's such a neat exercise because it really can expose my weakness. This can be both good and bad.... Inspiring and discouraging. As long as I take frequent breaks and keep coming back to it, I think I'll be fine.
---

Bango

2006-03-10T17:54:00.000-05:00

My random chord exerice practically exhausted me today. That must mean that I'm doing it right. I made some big progress with the exercise today. The key was to slow down the chord changes to about 4 bars for each chord. This gives me enough time to establish what note to move to and then build a little line. Some of the times I could hear the interval I was playing. The sus4, root, major 7th and altered 5's are easy to hear. Then all I have to do is string a line together to connect them. It's a neat idea to be able to hear what I'm playing and what's playing behind me. The work was exhausting and I'm glad I took a break. I might have to build in a break with the exercise.
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I also worked on Paul Desmond's "Strange Meadow Lark" solo. I first just sang the solo over and over as I was doing some paperwork and then I got the guitar and played along with the recording. I'm reading the solo, which is not what I'm supposed to do, but I've got to start somewhere. If I really get caught up in it and I'm not making progress, I'll shed the sheet music. It's going to take me a while to build up this solo. It's rather quick-moving and fluid. If it's not too much I'm going to try to couple this study with a Keith Jarrett solo on "Stella."
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Also, in Gamelan news, I finally figured out the gong pattern in Kebyar Duduk. It took me a while of singing and memorizing the melody. I've been putting a lot more work than I expect to in the Gamelan department, but when I finally get something, it makes it all worth-while.

part deux

2006-03-09T23:02:00.000-05:00

I finished the day with another batch of playing by ear drills with the loop station. I thought I had a good idea of how to use the pedal with the exercise, but it fizzled.
I loaded in about 15 solos, that I'm going to work on for this project, into the computer
and sang along to most of them. I'm going to have to choose which one I want to start with tomorrow. I'm leaning towards Paul Desmond & Keith Jarrett.

hmmm

2006-03-09T21:24:00.000-05:00

I had a chance to work more on the "playing by ear" exercise and I'm really exposing some profound weaknesses in my playing. It's a good feeling because it makes me think of the power I can have when I get this stuff together. work work work.....
To compliment this exercise I'm working on singing through some solos that I know. The first step in that process is actually to memorize some solos. I'm going to work on some Paul Desmond stuff tonight. We'll see what happens.

Last Night

2006-03-08T10:41:00.000-05:00

Blogger wasn't feeling well last night and for some reason I didn't save my journal entry at the end of the evening. If I remember correctly, it basicly illuminated the fact that I can do the random chord exercise pretty well, but I snagged when i play by ear through chord changes. I was playing over "Alice In Wonderland" and I noticed that the melodies I was thinking were not coming out on the guitar. When I'm playing the random chord exercise I can get a feel for what chord tone I'm on and then figure out where a whole line would be. When I'm playing a tune I have string a line over a set of chords and that exposes my problems with the disconnect between my ear & my fingers. It's a good thing to be aware of, because it's something I can work on.

Tong

2006-03-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

I just spent that last two hours transcribing about 30 seconds of Gamelan Music. I have some tricky gong hits to make on Kebyar Duduk and Alit said that I should "just listen to the melody." Where have we heard that before? I can't hear the melody very well because I'm still confused by the style, so I transcribed the part and sort of twisted western musical notation to make it fit:

Tomorrow I've got figure out what I'm doing at the begining of the piece. I'm too burnt out to look at it tonight.
---
In other gamelan news, I woke this morning to find that we (still) had no power .Nstar had a scheduled shut-off, but said it would be up and running by 8am. It didn't come back on until 3:30. With the power out and no internet disctraction I put on my headphones and transcribed the rhythm for Semara Wisaya on the iPod. It didn't take very long. It's the same as Gringsing; there some parts that are very much "in time" and others that I'll need to watch for my neighbors' cues. For the first time today I started to develop a "feel" for gamelan music. For the parts that weren't rhythmically obvious I would listen for the jublag & penycha to lead up the right note. It was the first time I could anticipate where a note would fall in gamelan music. That's good news.
----
With the power out I tried a fun experiment where I sang bass notes and improvised over them. I tried a simple I, VIm, IV & V, and had a blast. It's a little like talking to two different people at the same time. The more intricate I get, the more congested I get.
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My final guitar exercise was the random chord trick, but with the power out I really had to listen to the harmony before I played. I'm getting better at understanding what melody note I'm playing as it relates to the chord below it. I wish I had this together for my audition the other week. I just didn't realize that this was what I was supposed to do.
It's an exciting experience, and I think I"ve mentioned this before, but it's a little scary. It's almost too easy to improvise. Shouldn't music be hard? What a silly thought. I think this might be my biggest adjustment to this technique... learning how to let go and relax into the music. It gives me shivers to even think about it. Music is complex! How can one relax?
It will take some time.

Naps save lives

2006-03-06T15:40:00.000-05:00

One of the nice things about waking up early in the morning is that I have the chance to take care of the things that are important to me first thing in the day. Today was a big gamelan day. This week will be a big gamelan week. I transcribed the melody of Semara Wisaya & the rhythm for Gringsing:

I'm going in to work with Alit this afternoon and it will be good to spend some time with the instruments. Right now I'm just playing everything on guitar.
----
I worked on the random chord exercises and I did surprisingly well. My ears have come allong a lot more than they have since the last time I did this exercise. I made the observation as I was playing: "oh, I get it. I just listen to what I'm playing." It's sounds stupid, but it's incrediably profound for me. I can't always articulate what's happening but I can feel my way around the changes by really listening the chords and the notes I'm playing. Sometimes I can really hear the relationship of the notes that I"m playing, other times not. It was a very inspiring and freeing experience. It was a little scary too. It's tricky to let go that much when playing music. It's important to do, but I'd like to have a little more control or influence on my playing. I think that's where I'm going to be doing a lot of my work. How do I harness this way of playing? How do I know with more certainty what I'm playing and why?....

wha?

2006-03-06T05:32:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a big gamelan day. I woke up out of bed, got dressed and headed over to the gamelan room. I had 4 big tunes to work and really only got to three. With a performance next Sunday, I have a lot of work ahead of me this week, but all stuff I can manage. I think at the very least I will be looking at my paired musician for rhythmic and/or melodic cues.
-----
I had a great lesson with Tim. It very helpful (as always). The new agenda is a two-pronged approach to ear training. My focus is going to be on a select few transcriptions that I will play & sing on a daily basis, plus improvisation on random chords to develop melodic accuracy. I'm very happy & excited about the current plan. These are both exerices that I've looked at before, but I wasn't able to understand their use or value the first time around. Since the NEC audition I've had a better, more clear idea of what I need to do with my ears. I'm very gratefull for that.
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In some sense I spent 6 hours playing gamelan music on yesterday. I worked really hard transcribing and understanding the form of these crazy tunes. This evening/morning I was woken by an imaginary cockroach on my back. I was having several dreams about gamelan music, or one dream about several pieces of music. I think it was my brain's way of processing my experiance from yesterday. In the dream that woke me up I was playing a piece that had a fast part in it and that fast part was represented physically in the center of my back. For a split second I transfered the dream into a physicall sensation and then my brain had to figure out what it was. It's first conclusion was a sheet touching me, then a finger, and then ultimately a cockroach. I woke with a fright and threw the covers off me. I was quick to do a quick scrape of my back and throw the cockroach off and away with the covers. I very quickly realized the absurditiy of this premis, primarily because val & I are living in the most insect & rodent free apartment of our lives, plus why would I cockroach want to be in my bed, on my back. There are much better places to be than there.
Despite all this logic, I took it as a sign that I was a little wound up. As I tried to get back to sleep all that I could hear was gamelan music playing in my head. This would be cool if I knew that part that was stuck in my head, but I don't. That, plus the idea that I was stressed out about insects, and since it was 5am, led me to get up and do something productive. This journal entry is the first sidetrack allong the way. My plan is to transcribe the two jegogan parts into music notation (rhythm & pitch) and then organize the other two tunes that I have to learn. This is my goal for Monday in general; I just figured I'd get a head start on it in the AM. I'm eager and curious to see what Gamelan music for the jegogan looks like on paper. I'm imaging a lot of whole notes tied to each other.

good

2006-03-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

Liza was kind enough to give her performers chocolate for participating in her recital. It was nice little "Thank You." I'm eating them now. I'm not very happy with my performance last night. I didn't really feel in my element when I went out to perform. Usually during a performance I'll get a little rush of nerves and I'll use that in my playing. Last night I felt I was too casual; too much of an observer. I realized halfway through that I was peforming and I freaked myself out a little bit. It's a good reminder to develop a ritual or take a breath before performing (ecspecially in foreign enviroments) to center myself before I play. When I "freaked out" I went blank for a moment and really felt like a screwed some up (dropped a beat or something). Everything got back together at a point but I really was upset that I blanked out. There a small chance that my intuition kicked in and made the performance sound okay, but I really think I screwed up. These are feelings that I get when I'm unprepared for something and in retrospect, I was prepared for the piece, but unprepared for the performance. At the last note of the final movement I was concerned because I didn't know what came next. There was nothing next. It was the end of the piece. I thought to myself: "it's over? that was fast." I'm frustrated that I wasn't there for the piece, to connect and respond to the players. It's surprise to think that I didn't think through the performing aspect of the evening too well. Usually I think about my performance a little bit more. I think that would have helped last night.
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I listened to the second half of her recital from the audiance. She is a wonderful composer and had some amazing players. One of her last piano sketches stands out in my memory as well as the trumpet & piano duet. I had forgotten how beautiful a trumpet could sound...... anyways, my ear exercises over this past year have really improved my listening capabilities. Some things are still a little foggy, but it was delightful to listen to Liza's lines bend a swerve through tonalities. It's something I hear in great Jazz players and it's something I'm looking for in my own playing. I listened to an old Frisell classic that I love: "Verona" and I was surprised at how uninterested I was in the solo. I was looking for more intense lines and shapes in his playing, but they weren't there.
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Now that I have no audition and recital to prepare for, my practice time is quite open. Today I devoted a lot of time to a Tim Miller transcription. I worked on the solo of the tune I was looking at earlier: "TR." It did about a good 30 seconds of the solo and haven't had a chance to analyze it or really play it in time. From what I've glanced at it looks like I'm going to be learning the simplicity lesson again: "Brendan, don't work so hard. Music is easy"
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Here's the first page of the transcription:

fredo

2006-03-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

I did an irresponsible thing today. I put on a new brand of strings on the Klein (hours before a performance). The Klein is still a finiky instrument and doens't like change very much. It probably could use a set up, but I think it will be okay for tonight. I'm using La Bellas now, instead of the D'addario's. So far I like the La Bellas.
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Today is mostly practicing for the recitail. I don't really need to practice for the recitial, but it's kind of what I do when I have a performance in the evening. I'm going to try to move on and work on some other material today as well.
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I spent some time breaking in the new strings. It took a little while to get used to them, now I love them. They immediately had a differental tonal response (but that isn't uncommon for new strings), but as I continued playing I could tell the difference between new strings and new string brand. They are the exact same dimmensions of the D'addarios, but somehow they feel a little thicker. They sound a little beefier as well.
-----
I spent most of today practicing for the recital. Trying the pieces at different tempos and with and without the recordings.
After that I had a little while to work on my current "changes" project, where I'm illuminating the chord changes and able to use chromatic approaches.
It's good stuff.

tada

2006-03-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

another day slips away. It's amazing how much paperwork/busy-work I had to do on a weekly basis. I spent a lot of today shuffling papers but made sure I took a little time to work on the recital piece for tomorrow. I think tomorrow will be a "back to normal" day for me. I'm just about caught up from my February Madness and think things will be winding down a little bit for me.

ga

2006-03-01T22:40:00.000-05:00

Very busy day today. I spent a lot of today working on the Gamelan music. I'm really behind on my parts. I don't know the tunes very well and I have a hard time "feeling" any of the pieces. I spent a lot of time today listening and singing back. Tonight I'm going to go in early and practice with the instruments.
-----

i spent some time working on the recital piece and that's about all for guitar today. Tomorrow is much more open.
All day gamelan for me today.

Tues

2006-02-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

I haven't done my ET exercises in a while and when I sat down to do them today, I was really surprised at how well I did. I hit 100% for awhile and then I got confused with a major second. I still have trouble being able to hear the intervals in context, as a piece of music is happening, but I think I'm getting closer. My 1 4 5 work is helping with that as well.
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My 1 4 5 studies went well today. I'm getting stronger at navigating through them and more confident with approach tones. Sometimes I'll try playing chromaticly and land on chord tones at the strong beats. It's really helped my hearing/listening.
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I also spent a little bit of time transcribing the tim miller solo. I think I'm going to be mighty surprised as I look at this. So far, he's right in the chord changes and outline the chord shapes. This is going to be fun.

chopa cho

2006-02-27T23:05:00.000-05:00

I worked on the recital pieces for my rehersal tonight. It dawned on me today that the recital is this Friday and I've got to get the pieces into my daily practice routine so that I'm comforatable with them for the performance. I put them down for a while as I was preparing for NEC auditions.
----
Other than that, I worked a little on the "playing beautifully" thing and hitting the chord tones and approach notes on a 1 4 5.
simple and profound stuff.

cheepa cha

2006-02-26T22:14:00.000-05:00

Other than the recital prep, the other big thing that I was working on tonight was playing beautifully. Tim Miller was talking about this when we both were admiring Keith Jarrett. He said that Keith had a profound sense of how to play a beautiful melody over any chord. I've been working with this mindset for about a week now. It has some dynamic and technical aspects to it, but it also has some theoritcal aspects as well. Today I've been focusing on playing a simple 1 4 5 progression via a melody line (unaccompanied). Basically, I just play through the changes and make sure I'm landing on strong intervals, or at the very least, outline the chord progression. As I continued, I moved in some chromatic approach notes on the "& of 4." This really helped me with my chromatic sensiblities as well as my over all ET. I think I'll be coming back to this exercie often.
Also, I think I record an example of this exercise so you can't get a feel for what such a thing sounds like.

Rock n' Roll Setup

2006-02-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

Valerie's brother (Andrew) was in town late last week and I'm just getting back into the swing of things with practicing. I have the recital performance this Friday and our last rehersal tomorrow. I'm getting my showcase piece up and polished off so it can make tempo and that my right & left hands are in synch.
During a break, I came back to my practice corner and marveled in it's setup. I took a picture to share with the world:

It's kinda cozy. It reminds me of my dorm room days back at Berklee.

Princess Leia

2006-02-24T18:26:00.000-05:00

I had a transcribe Princess Leia's Theme for a lesson tomorrow. Here it is if anyone wants it. I barred the phrases rather than the rhythms.

Audition Recap:

2006-02-24T13:14:00.000-05:00

I've had a couple days to think about my experience. If I were younger, I think I would have been humiliated by my NEC audition day. My overall experience was that of humbling awe (if there is such a thing). I remember last year that I thought the audition process went so well. I really felt good about the whole thing. As this past year has gone by, I've learned so much and progressed immensely as a musician. As I took my Ear Tests, I was profoundly hit by how much I don't know all of these sounds. I can do well with ET tests when I take my time, sing the intervals or even play a couple notes to get my bearings, but that really isn't a mark of good ears. I don't have that instant recognition of intervals (except for a couple). I have to think a moment to intellectualize the pitches. During the Ear Test a chord was played and I recognized the chord. I had a good feeling of how to play that chord on my instrument and I had a good feeling of what notes I could play over it, but I couldn't identify it and I didn't have the skills to solfege my way through it. This is a concept that I really haven't looked at very much. ... The idea of hearing things and then responding to them can be a very intuitive process. I have my moments with this, but I don't have a lot of experience with looking at the theoretical perspective of playing by ear. I don't always know (by ear) that I'm playing the 9 or #11 of the chord that I'm on. I'm not sure if I need to, but I recognized for the first time that this is something to think about.....
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The singing portion of my exam didn't go so hot (in my opinion). I did much better last year because I worked so hard on the piece. This year I was more casual and in some sense didn't know the song that well. The chromatic scale was fine.
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During my audition, there wasn't much talking or questions. I just played my two pieces and they said thank you. There was an Ear Test where someone played a line on the piano and I had to sing it back and then play it back. I probably got 75-80% on that. I was particularly distressed at this situation because it's my strongpoint, but I didn't understand the melody that was being played. There is a lot about Jazz & Bebop that I haven't studied. I'm more of a tonal, straight through the changes kind of guy, and this led to me missing the context of this melody.
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the final part of the audition was to sing phrases over some changes and then to play over some changes. I don't think I did to well on that. I could make it rhythmically interesting, but I don't' have the pitch or ear control to hit the notes that I want. This is really when it hit me to how much I have to learn, or how I have to change my studies. My musicianship relies so much on my instrument and my intellect of what chord, scale or key were on at the moment. My ear makes executive decision but about the appropriateness of each lick, but I really don't hear to much ahead of what I'm playing. I hear possibilities, but not concrete ideas. I think this is also because I'm a little green in the jazz style.
---
So, my feeling after the audition was that of being shaken-up a bit. I was surprised at how surprised I was. I really felt inadequate as a Master's candidate.
---
I do recognize that there is a lot of "negative" thinking here. I'm looking into what I don't do very well (and that always is going to be a lot of things), but these things are skills that I think I need to make my music. Back to what I wrote earlier, about me being "humiliated" if I were younger: the difference is that now, the experience is a learning mechanism. I've learned that in some sense the current path I'm going on, isn't' going to bring me to where I want to go and that I have to work with focus in a different area that will probably require a decent amount of time and sweat. In that respect I'm really grateful for the experience because it helped show me what I'm doing wrong. It held a true mirror to my playing. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this spirit with me to guide me through my own musical journey (along with the help from some others).

TR

2006-02-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

I worked on a transcription of Tim Miller's tune "TR." This is a tune that I've had my eye (or ear) on for a couple months now. Now that the audition season is over I have some time to take a closer look at it. I'm unsure about the D/F# chord in the 10th measure and the rhtymn is probably a little more flexible in 15 & 16.
I'll work on the interlude and solo tomorrow.

Echo

2006-02-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back from the audition. All in all, I don't think it went very well. I did so-so on the exam and didn't have a very clean voice execution of the tune I sang. The audition went all right, but they were surprisingly quiet. I was expecting a discussion, some quesitons about what I wanted to musically, or something like that. I didnt' have a very positive feeling leaving the audition.
The truth is that I don't know how I did or if I'll make the cut. I felt really great about my experience last year and didn't make it in. This year I feel pretty lousy, so who knows?
Either way, I'm going to take some time to refocus and plan a new tragectory to make sure that something is happening in September.

Today's The Day

2006-02-21T08:05:00.000-05:00

My first step this AM was to do some ET tests while I changed my strings.
I kicked ass in Intervalic Ascending & Descending.
With Triads I i did ok. I'm hearing the #5 leading tone on the augementeds & the resolutions for the diminished chords.
7th chords are a piece of cake. The leading tone is the give away. Maybe it's just the Teoria, but I find it easier to hear the highest note in the chord. I wonder if it will be easier with an acoustic piano.
---
I sang the CI piece a couple of time as well as the chromatic scale. The CI piece is tricky for my voice. I have so sing louder than I can this morning to get the high notes to come out.
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gnight

2006-02-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

I'm going to bed a little earlier tonight and plan on waking up a little earlier tomorrow so that I can warm up before my Ear Test. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I don't have everything ready or as great as I would like to have it, but I have my musicianship to pull me through.

yep

2006-02-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

I just learned how to use the "Print Screen" function on my keyboard. I always wondered how to get pictures of your desktop. Above is the Teoria web ET tests that I use.

mmm

2006-02-20T15:37:00.000-05:00

I did some ET exercises with lunch today and finally feel confident with the ear test. I still have more work to do in the long run, but I think I'll be able to ace this test (or at least 85% it).
----

2006-02-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

Here is my arrangement of Mary Had A Little Lamb that I'm going to perform tomorrow. The "Interlude" is mostly improvised (or at least it is now) and the vamp section is the solo section until the end.
I'll try to get a recording up by next week.