Drilling, but not for oil

I'm drilling for skill, baby!

I've been a fiend for piano practice over the last four days. It's those lazy days of summer and with nothing much else to do, I spent the mornings over the holidays doing yardwork and the afternoons beating the daylights out of my piano. I've been working from my jazz chord book and from Hanon. In the latter, I made it all the way to the scales, and I have been working pretty hard on them for two days. I'm a little confused about the utilization of the melodic minor and "ancient" (I think that's what it's called) scales, so I sort of let that taper off for now until after Wednesday when I can ask my instructor about them. (I'm also going to ask him about the practicality of my current drill routine - though I don't think he'll say anything one way or the other.) In the jazz chord book, for now, I'm not trying to make any sense out of anything, just playing. And playing. I figure, this stuff has to become second nature to me, somehow, so for now, I don't need to analyze too much, just get the muscle memory going.

Of course, I also play a few tunes, and I can almost make Ornithology go, but I can't play the left hand parts yet. I've also managed to put a skeletal version of Maiden Voyage together, which is something. It's just good to feel my hands bending to the task. Now, if I could just get my back to do the same...