I’m playing my last duo gig @ L’independent for the summer tonight. Yet another gig we lost to the terrace…

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Practicing :

• Warmup in E major Scale
  • Hearing/Listening 4ths and 5ths in key
  • A few scalar patterns for fingers…
• Slonimsky
  • #22 – Interpolation of 4 notes
  • experimenting w/different groupings
  • very odd!!! (5, 7, 3)
  • then #23 and #24 as is
• I Should Care
  • Blowing through the form
  • @144 then 176
• Triad Coupling : F and G
  • A few exercises (routine…)
• Fast Ab blues
  • Metronome as “quarter time”
  • Max 288 today
  • that’s fast and I’m still relaxed and free!

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Gig at night was fun. Clinton is always “on top” of things and inspires me to play better.

Practicing :

• Slonimsky book :
  • division of the octave in 2 parts with 2-3 notes (messed up stuff!)
  • Good technical exercises to warmup the muscles

• Playing/Improvising on a pair of triads : C to Db

• Improvisation on Cm7 vamp with a few different triadic sounds :
  • Eb to Bb, Eb to Ab, Gm to Ab, Ab to Bb, etc.
  • Sounds nice and different

• Working on polyrythms with metronome (@ 56, 76, 108)
  • 6 against 4 (aka quarter-note triplets)
  • 12 against 4 (aka triplets) but in groups of TWO
  • coming “in and out” of it from quarter, eighth, triplets and sixteen notes…
  • Improvising quite random melodic lines and keeping the rhythms very strict…nice!

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Gig at night. Duo with Clinton Ryder (bass). Incredible : for the first time “for real”, I felt like a was drawing strength for someone’s else playing. It felt great and both of us played really good. (I don’t think I was “draining” Clinton’s energy, it’s more like we were feeding each other’s…)

April 1st again this year. Happens approximately once a year these days…

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On the practicing level : still a lot to do on Stablemates. Also working on a specific triad pair (C major to D major) in a specific inversion today.

I felt like working on a VERY small idea for a long time today…got it from Micheal Brecker…

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At night : our weekly restaurant gig. It’s coming to and end…

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PS : I’m still a lot into the “relaxed/tai chi/Werner” stuff everyday. I’m getting into this routine of doing the Effortless Mastery steps first thing when I touch the guitar. It really works. I’m freeing myself up from all the usual ways I play my instrument (physically and musically). I’m slowly getting in touch with my true nature. Love it!

Started with the Kenner Werner stuff today :

• Steps from Effortless Mastery Book
  • Step 1 – 4 fingers, breathing, relaxing
  • Step 2 – Free, using the playalong …
  • Step 3 -”Letting go” on Lady Bird
    • I improvised quite a lot and after 5-10 minutes, really started to “stretch out” on the form and the changes. I had a glimpse of what I would always like to feel like when I play! It’s like letting go and observing your playing… and you smile!
  • I will try to apply Step 4 as best as I can in my situation. It’s to stay in the “relaxed zone” and let the fingers do the work… when practicing new material! Quite the challenge!

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• Pat Metheny Transcription : Continuing on Solar
  • First four choruses only
  • With recording (up to 90%) then with metronome (up to 224)
  • I was able to “let go” sometimes and stay relaxed, “in the zone”, and let my fingers dance on the fretboard. Feels good!
  • To wrap up : trying first choruses “at tempo” and playing only “what wants to come out” (leaving out the lines my hand simply couldn’t play…)

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• Trio Gig @ Night (Pierre and Clinton). Restaurant was packed with customers! (Alot of them just see us play in the window and walk straight in; jazz marketing? …or maybe it’s just the tie?)

Anyways, during the first tune, I felt something different… it’s hard to explain since it’s a “feeling” but… It’s like whatever I played was right. The tune was just a Bb blues, but when I played some “outside” notes, they sounded ok in my ear! So I went on and “explored” these wrong notes (and that’s when/where I got this feeling of freedom). I usually don’t play “out of key” too much… but this time, I stretched a lot and very far (thanks to Clinton on bass for following and enduring me…)

And, yes, it ONLY happened in the first tune of course! More on that later…

Accomplished a lot of paperwork, re-organizing, mailing, e-mail, changing strings, guitar polishing, guitar setup (etc.) in the morning. I only had the opportunity to sit down and practice around 2PM.

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I practiced blowing (A LOT and fast) on Cherokee, what a great tune! Blowing also on Invitation and Giant Steps.

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Later : Looking and playing through some principles/examples found in the Liebman book (Chromatic Approach to Harmony and Melody). As the author suggests, I’m looking for something that “strikes me” and that I’d like to work on from the book. (one tiny idea may be enough to go a long way.)

I like the “Alternate II-V substitution” principle. It basically means improvising on any other II-V (than the actual key!) and resolving back to the real key center, I chord in the end. It gives a feeling of tension-release and it’s my favorite concept in the book so far…

For example on a regular Dm7 – G7 – C

I tried 3 things :

1. Cm7 – F7 – C
2. C#m7 – F#7 – C
3. Fm7 – Bb7 – C  (this sound is familiar to me)

The accompanist(s) should still be playing the “real”, original II-V-I in C. That’s what gives the contrast. More on that later…

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At night : regular trio gig @ the resto.

Great gig (on my part). I felt good about my playing and the music in general (we played some really “up” tunes and I was relaxed most of the time!)

I’ve been in a good “musical mood” for a while now. I’ve played so much in the past 1-2 weeks that it seems like the music “plays itself”. I’m probably in the best musical shape ever!!!

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I’m very grateful for that. It’s too easy to go on “un-satisfied” all of the time.

Long musical day : I had at least 6 PLAYING hours today. Some practice and writing, a session and then a gig. I wish everyday could be like that…

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Practicing in the morning :

• Blowing on Lady Bird in different keys :
  • C, F, Bb
• Some other “un-organized” practice/blowing
• Started to write a new tune

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Trio session with friends @ McGill U.

• We worked on some different time signatures and played standards.

Lots of fun.

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Gig : three sets in duo with Clinton Ryder for a private cocktail event. It was hard to concentrate because of the people talking loud sometimes…

A pretty usual Thursday (outside of the fact that I was sleepy almost all day!) :

• Practicing very slow stuff :
  • Improvising around the melody to Beatrice
  • Re-learning You Don’t Know What Love Is from yesterday…
• Very fast stuff :
  • Cheryl (Parker tune), head + blow
  • Kept blowing for a long time.
  • Focused, relaxed, yes!

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• Modern Method vol. 3
  • pages 31-33
• Working on Garzone triads
  • major triads slowly
  • some applications to Bb blues
  • trying to resolve my ideas convincingly

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• At Night : trio gig…

This one gig is worth of mention : trio Gilles (that’s me!), Pierre and Phil. We use to play a lot in our second year of university. We called the band Syllogisme (and then later Triologilles). So the little restaurant gig felt like a “reunion tour” to us. The mood and spirit of the music was great. Smiles all around (in the band and coming from customers!)

Once a year, it’s my birthday. It’s today (oh my!) Too many emails and phone calls to handle!

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Today’s Practice :

• Modern Method for Guitar Vol. 3
  • p.12-13-14-15 and 17
  • The minor triads are still fuzzy in my ears and fingers

• Working on / Memorizing You Don’t Know What Love Is
  • incredible version by Sonny Rollins…

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Gig @ night. Kaza Maza BASS-less trio (sax-guitar-drums)… then we went out for drinks.

Today’s Practice :

Trying to apply some Lee Konitz concepts. He uses the melody of the song as a springboard to creating meaningful improvised lines (before completely forgetting about the whole “theme” of song and blowing scales and arps…)

I’m improvising slowly on familiar standards and try to make sense of all this …

• All the Things
  • @52 metronome as 2&4

• If I Should Loose You
  • @52, then @104 (as 2&4)

• Days of Wine and Roses
  • @52, then faster (as 2&4)

Wow! Sounds and feels great. That’s new territory for me.

Later :

Practicing and recording Solo in Bb from A Modern Method Vol.3

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Gig @ Night. Trio with Clinton. Had a great time, as usual (and an even greater time because I was mostly improvising on the melody, not just “reinventing the wheel” each time!)

… a few beers surely helped!

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(tomorrow’s my birthday)

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.