It’s the beginning of August and it’s most likely going to be my biggest “season of changes” for 2010.

Musically, I’ve played the first “official” gigs with the band “Waï”. For the first time ever, I’m playing over 90% of original (and fairly new) material. That’s a big step forward, I think. That is my personal “Milestone”.

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It really is a different beast : playing originals is (more…)

I’m in such a great musical phase right now!

It may not look or feel like it from an outside point of view (since I’m not blogging religiously about every detail of my practice…) but I’m doing great.

To make a long story short : (more…)

A big day of hard work today :

1. Learning tunes for choir
2. Practicing “for me”
3. Session (reading original pieces)

Picture this : waking up at 7 AM and digging right into it, take 3-4 meal breaks… and going to bed at 11 PM with only about an hour of winding down in the evening. Quite the day!

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Pop tunes for choir

I can play most of them now with the recordings. I looked at the charts for keys and specific arrangement… it’s all good. If I give myself another 2-3 hours, I’ll be ready “enough”. Things always change at the dress rehearsal anyways… (example : I spent time on a tune the nail it, then the choir director says : “ok, no guitar on that tune”… you know…)

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Practicing “for me”
(which is the bulk of my practicing)

• Relaxation and focus “à la” Werner
• Ear training and listening :
  • Exploring 5ths in C major
• Chords : learned a new voicing!
  • (low to high) 1 – 5 – 3 -7
  • Sounds like a piano voicing
• Polyrhythms : 9 over 2
  • Exploring applications to blues
  • Example : double-timed blues (everything twice as fast)
    • Play quarter note triplets on top (which comes back to being a 3/4 blues)
    • Subdivide each triplet in 3
    • Here you go : a blues in 9/8 !!!
    • Fun!
• Patterns in the key of Bb
  • All triads and 7th arpeggios
  • Ascending and Descending forms
  • Whole fretboard
  • with metronome
  • in eights and in triplets
• Working with metronome for faster tempos
  • 240 and 288 BPM
  • over C blues
  • it’s getting easier and easier!

The only thing I wished I had practiced today was the “triad pairs” concept… time was lacking though.

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Session : reading original pieces

As part of this new project that should be 8 months long (May to December), we will be writing and rehearsing many original tunes. Today was the first of the “Lundis Inédits” (or “Unreleased Mondays”, which is a lousy translation…)

The  new project itself is divided between the band (nammed Waï; which is a guitar trio) and this weekly monday session with rotating personnel.

The basic idea of the “Lundis Inédits” is different musicians each week (4 or 5) each bringing a few of their tunes to play. It’s great for us because we take the time to work on and make suggestions on each other’s tunes…

Today’s first weekly monday was a success : we played 4-5 of my tunes, 4 of the bassist’s tune and 3 of the saxophonist’s.

Personnel :

Dalhi Gonthier – Sax
Joel Ker – Bass
Pierre Haché – Drums
Yours Truly – Guitar

I’ll probably be recording and uploading clips of the “Lundis Inédits” in the future. Stay tuned for the Wai website and other infos!

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…)

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…

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…

Let’s forget about chords, scales, jazz and songs for a moment and reflect upon this :

Music is all about perception: A single-note or a simple rhythm can be perceived as many different things. So, a shift in your perception can change your playing drastically, right?

How can we do that then?

Technically speaking, you could rationalize everything you hear and attach numerous significations to the sounds (x chord, x note, x rhythm, etc.) That’s very useful in schools and various learning situations.

But on the “human being” level…

Becoming a “better person” will impact your perception of the world in general, that’s for sure. That includes music/aural perception. Thus, adopting newer, better ways of life *will* make you into a better jazzman.

Go on and create meaningful relationships, manage your moods and mindset, get rid of addictions, sleep and eat well, exercise (etc.) and your music will greatly improve.

Practice well,

Marc-A Seguin

[On a personal note : I've been changing my lifestyle(s) for a while now. My music/playing/composing is now greatly enhanced by my nutrition, scheduling, exercising and improved mindset.]

For those who wish to grow as a person, I suggest this website : StevePavlina.com I’ve been reading Steve for at least 5 years! He has great things to say (and suggest) about a lot of different matters.]

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).

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.

Many hours of practice today before the weekly gig.

• Shedding song FORM:
  • In Your Own Sweet way
    • Interlude in 5/4 , A’s in 3/4 and B’s in 4/4
    • With metronome @ 69

• • Someday My Prince will Come
    • Alternating choruses of 3/4 and 4/4 ala Bill Evans
    • @ 69 then 84
    • Surprisingly easy

• *NEW* 3/4 with metronome
  • Waltzes review :
    • A Simple Matter @84
    • Bluesette @ 84 then @ 69
    • Up Jumped Spring @ 69

• Shedding Tunes :
  • Woodyn You,
    • @84 and @ 100
    • @ 116 Trying to stay relaxed and focused at that tempo
    • Negotiating the minor ii-V’s…

• Metheny on Solar
  • Same as yesterday but cleaner and faster…

• Garzone stuff :
  • Major triads with metronome
  • @42 then 50 (playing 8th notes)

• Blowing free, inspired by Garzone stuff, up-tempo. Lots of fun!

Great practice session, gig tonight!

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The gig at night was ok. I liked playing with Pete and Mike but I felt a personal “non connectedness” throughout. I can’t seem to DIG my own ideas. I guess I’ll do some more relaxation/Kenny Werner stuff in the near future…