Music and Practice - March 1

March 1, 2008 – Picked up The Art of the Trio Volume 1 by Brad Mehldau. Also got the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert of Benny Goodman last week. Listened to those and Freddy Cole almost exclusively this week. Spent the majority of practice time messing with Beatles songs, a few Christmas songs (I just got the Christmas fake book and I couldn't resist trying a few of my faves), and practicing scales. Lots and lots of scales. I managed to go through all modes in all keys, including arpeggiating and playing triads and inversions up and down. I need to start working from my jazz drill books again, as I’ve not even looked at those in the last month and I’m obviously not making any progress in them. I do, however, want to focus on working those exercises in time, because my counting and rhythm still are pretty rough. I did spend some time this week with the drum machine, so I’m getting a little better, but that really needs work.

I’ve listened to Sinatra and Wynton Kelly in the evenings. Sinatra really helps with phrasing, which I think would get better if my timing was better too. Lots to work on and consider. I ordered seven CD’s from half.com. I’m trying to fill up the Penguin core collection, starting by getting the crown editions that are less than $10 each. We’ll go from there for the more esoteric, hard to find, expensive stuff. In I Love You, I put a lot of quartal voicings and some esoteric rootless chords, but a lot of them don’t work, as usual. I’ll have to go back and look at that before tomorrow.