Started to practice as soon as I woke up (and had a coffee in hand)

• Modern Method Vol 3 :
  • P.5 Solo in Bb
  • P. 9-10 12 major scales and 9 melodic minor scales in pos II
  • P.12-13 twelve keys : 4-note major triads in all inversions pos.V
  • P.17 12 major scales in pos III
  • Looking at duet p.18-19

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After that I went to run errands and relaxed at home…

Duo gig @ night. Restaurant was PACKED with happy customers! It’s the year’s one and only “all nighter” for the subway and bus systems. A lot of stuff was happening downtown, hence the good patronage.

Woke up late… because we had a few beers yesterday after the gig… had breakfast in restaurant, etc.

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Today’s practice :

• Modern Method Vol 3 – solo in Bb only
  • On my classical guitar
  • It’s starting to sound like “something” now
  • I’ll record it soon (just for kicks)

• Piano :
  • Rootless II-V-I in LH in a few mores keys
  • Blues

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Teaching at night, like most fridays…

Next Friday I’ll be playing this new GIG instead of teaching!

Today’s Practice :

• Piano :
  • Rootless II-V-I (2 useful inversions)
  • In 4 keys : C Bb Ab Gb

That stuff is harder than I thought at first… the rootless inversions on II-V-I are NOT easy to memorize/ingrain/hear for me on the keyboard. I guess that’s why I have to keep working at them.

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On the guitar : Modern Method Vol 3 : Some work in the book… (for 15-30 minutes)
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Fun gig at night : Our usual Thursday night resto gig turned out to be lots of fun. Our bassist Clinton Ryder was so tired that he couldn’t really “mess with us” as much as he usually does (!) He had just drove back from his lesson with Gary Peacock in NY (!!!) It seems like his “tiredness” made him play simple and beautiful stuff.

Time was good and everyone seemed to be listening hard at all times.

Today’s Practice :

• Modern Method Vol 3 :
  • pages 5, 7, (Solo in Bb thenTriads close/spread)
  • Pages 9, 10 (major scales : 12 keys in pos II, mel min : 9 keys…)
  • Page 11 (Triads close/spread)
  • Top of page 12 : Arpeggios : 4 notes maj triads in pos V (very HARD!)
  • More on p.5 Solo in Bb, still not “flowing”
  • Page 17 (major scales : 12 keys in pos III)

Piano Practice :

• C blues, comping and blowing my ass off.
• Mintzer Comping Etude on C blues, going for the second chorus
• II-V-I rootless voicings in a few keys (from Cocker book)

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Teaching at night.

Yes!

One more month before Spring and… It’s time for a Mini Report :

I had scattered and weird days of practicing recently. Piano took over for a few days… (of course!) and I barely touched the guitar. I feel somewhat bad about that. There’s really no reason for me to panic because I’m simply working on “other stuff”.

In very short, I wish to spend more time :

• Composing
• Training my ears/listening
• Rhythm and polyrhythms training
• Working on the website

-and today… (I don’t know if the “fire” will last for long)

I’m feeling good working in Volume 3 of Modern Method for guitar. Resurgence of  positions and all they imply.
We’ll see…
I’m spending less time “technical” and more time listening/exploring. I like that. It’s mostly on my classical guitar and I like that too! (a more natural feeling, overall, for sound production)

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Regarding positions and the berklee method : I put “positions” aside for a long while and I believe it was beneficial for me. Less time “in the fingers” and more listening!

I believe the resurgence now comes from the fact that I can really HEAR what I play (as compared to 5 years ago, for instance). By keeping the ears wide open and restricting my fingers to certain “patterns” (positions or other), I will expand my overall freedom on the instrument.

In short : Hearing one thing and having more than one option for making the sounds. It should lead to some “openings”, I hope!

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Monday :

Mostly working on the website. Some practice in “A Modern Method…” : Solo in D (to practice and record)

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Tuesday : Great practice day.

Back to basics!

• Playing on single strings
  • 1st string : 7 modes of C major for 2.5 min each.
  • Improv/listening/experimenting

• Playing intervals in C major
  • 2nd, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths
  • All over the fingerboard, up and down

• Exploring some more concepts from The Advancing Guitarist book

• Practicing and recording “Solo in D”
  • Last page from 2nd volume of “A Modern Method for Guitar”
  • Great!

• Starting to learn “Solo in Bb”
  • From 3rd volume… (hard stuff!)

• Some more work in Volume 3 :
  • Triads, spread and open.
  • Playing 12 major scales in position two! I didn’t know I could do that. 90% good!

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Woah… I think I’m due for a little report here.

Saturday : shopping and practicing piano.

• LH Maj7th chord, inversions, 50 in half notes
• Mintzer C blues etudes, first chorus @ 56
• More Mintzer C blues etude
• Rootless II-V’s in all major keys (2 inversions) Hard stuff!
• Some more at night (until I fell asleep on the keyboard)

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Sunday : Teaching 9-5 as usual and practicing piano during my break (1-2 hours of actual practice!)

More work on website at night (more than 7 hours in a row).

Today’s “work” (because saying “practice” would be lying!) :

• Writing a little “fragment” of composition.

• Re-running over 8 bars of compo (Soup Song)

• Ear Training Session with overtone series (ala Gary Peacock)

• Rhythms : quarter-note triplets (aka 6 over 4)
  • Signing different ride patterns –> 1 bar of regular 4/4 becomes two bars of 3/4
  • The possibilities of “ride patterns” are VAST! I practiced the most obvious ones swing and straight eights.

Coming up : Same “6 over 4″ with metronome + singing ride pattern … but I will add Right and Left hand tapping some kind of subdivision of the beat (of 4 …or of the implied 6!)

• Piano Stuff
  • LH all inversions Maj7th chords in half notes @ 50

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Teaching at night.

Not much actual “practice” today. I spent a lot of time writing an original melody (I’ll call this tune Soup Song).

It’s the first time ever I write something NOT using the guitar; I know 8-bar melody isnt much… but you got to start somewhere!

After I had a solid (signable) melody, I took the guitar and figured out some harmonization. I’m pretty happy with the result. I have to write some kind of “bridge” or contrasting section and I’ll have another ballad to my arsenal or original composition.

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Later on, I practiced Piano :

• Maj7th closed chords in LH, through cycle. All inversions.

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Gig at night. Trio with Clinton Ryder. It was fun; Mr. Ryder is playing VERY differently these days. It makes me listen even more… and that’s a good thing.

Monday : no actual practice! (but I spent the night out)

2 jams at night :

• A very quiet Burritoville (jazz) jam and
• Rock/Blues jam later.

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Tuesday

• Writing a new tune : Okerd
• Trio session @ McGill U : fun
  • We worked on some metric modulations
• Getting a used keyboard (Yamaha CP 30)
  • … and practicing keyboard!
  • So tired I fell asleep on the black notes!

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Wednesday

Practicing piano during the day and teaching at night (and then practicing more piano before the bed!)

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Outstanding : I’m not practicing a lot of guitar stuff these days. I feel the piano playing is opening new doors in my music (harmonically and ear-wise).