Monday morning : very productive (teaching, website, shores, etc.) As always, too much stuff to do and so little time… I tried to check the “to do’s” off my list as efficiently as possible.

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Finally sat down to practice around 2 PM :

• “Zoning In”, relaxing ala Kenny Werner stuff
  • really does it for me these days…
• Still Relaxed
  • Practicing the first four choruses of Metheny on Solar
    • with metronome, from 180 to 240 (fast… and deceptively easy now)
    • Great!
• Blowing on Stablemates and Cherokee for a while.

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Buritoville jam around 5 PM. Very few people BUT it was fun playing

There’s a new kind of “freedom” in my playing and I feel delighted to play even the simplest stuff. I play very “detached”, yet, very interested and curious (and hungry!) for “the next note”.

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At night : beers and hot-dogs + sleep early.

Website work today. Writing newsletter and new articles.

Practicing (guitar):

• Modern Method Vol. 3
  • Solo in Bb
  • p.12-13 (major triads in one pos)

• Blowing on tunes
  • Lady Bird
  • Solar

I have to prepare for Friday’s gig : we’ll be playing bass-less sax-guit-drums. I have to tune back into that zone!

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At night, burritoville jam. It was very cool and I hadn’t been there in two weeks. I stayed late and played a lot of tunes. Feels great to play with people again.

Monday. Woke up too late. I’m having trouble sleeping (mostly because of neighbors upstairs.) Nevertheless, I had a great, productive day. I taught an hour on Skype, practice and went to the burritoville jam.

Here’s what I practiced :

• Blowing on I Hear A Rhapsody

• Reviewing Metheny Solo w/o recording (first four choruses)

• Learning 5th chorus of Metheny on Solar
  • then playing choruses 1 through 5 @ 80% then 85% speed

• Left for Burritoville jam
  • Short jam, very few people

Yeah baby!

I started to use a new “journaling” tool today. It works great. (and YES, I keep a log other than this practice-blog!)

By far the busiest day I had in a long time.

I worked (website, emails, phone, etc.) in the morning, then practiced, then rehearsed then jammed @ Burritoville. It’s a 6-7 hours of music day (and a 3-4 hours “work on other stuff” day!)

It’s a “quickie” practice blog entry today because I “only” practiced 45 minutes : I played/improvised on the tune I hear a rhapsody until I got fed up of it.

Monday. Woke up too late but still had time to do email stuff and yoga.

Little practice, sadly… (30 minutes, rhythm changes and Stablemates)

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I taught on Skype (great new student, by the way; he’s very experienced) and then went to the weekly Burritoville Jam. It’s hosted by my (drummer) friend Pierre. A lot of people came out to play :

• 4 saxes
• 2 drummers
• 3 bassists
• 5 guitarists
• no keys… sadly

There’s usually 1-2 pianists around but they didn’t make it.

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When the jam was dying out, we played a quick trio session Pierre, Kyle (bass) and myself. It was a lot of fun. Stablemates is a hardfun tune to jam on. (yes, that right hardfun !)

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After I got home, I composed the bulk of my music for a short video clip (4-5 minute) for the Planet Earth Project.

The new week begins.

I thought I’d practice like a madman but I didn’t.

During the day, the only practice I did was practicing composition (!), if such a thing exists. I’m working through some writing exercise from a Jazz Composition book… I’m doing that in the optics of writing MORE MORE MORE… for my own personal project (that doesn’t exist yet, by the way). See yesterday’s post.

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At night, I attended the last Burritoville Jam before Christmas and then hosted another jam/open mic with this blues/rock project I’m in.

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After both jams, I worked on defining what “my music” is. I wrote and draw on paper. It’s getting there!

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Good day. Talked about the universe, galaxies and stars life cycles and birth with my girlfriend before going to sleep. (?!)

Woke up early again today. It feels great; I did yoga right away.

Then  I answered a few emails for JazzGuitarLessons.net and had very little time to practice. A lot on my plate today :

1. Practice Quickly
2. Teach a lesson on Skype
3. Meet with a friend @ Burritoville
4. Jam with friends @ Burritoville
5. Rehearse / Gig with this blues / rock project

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What I actually practiced :

• Kenny Werner steps  (on Stella)
• Miles on Solar w/o the album
• Lines from the Bert Ligon book (special attention to #17 and 19)
  • This is a book I’ve been saying I would do a review “soon” in many posts. It’s my new “discovery”. I don’t like to get too excited about a jazz improvisation method… but I surely am. More on that later…

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Then I gave a good lesson on Skype : am I ever grateful to have such interesting and passionate students. What I like the most about getting private students through internet (JazzGuitarLessons.net) is that they come to me with a specific interest. Thank you universe!

Right before leaving home for jam + gig, I quickly reviewed the tunes for the blues/rock band.

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At about 4PM I met with a German friend of mine… he’s going back to Germany (for good) this week. He’s a drummer and music teacher; we played together for the first time today. We met randomly at one of my gigs.

The burritoville jam was very special tonight : my German-drummer friend jammed and brought a bassist that is originally from Switzerland. A classically trained jazz pianist (that I met only Saturday!) joined in shortly after. The amount of musicians was decent, for once! We had

• 2 guitars
• a bassist
• 2 drummers
• 2 pianists
• a saxophonist
• a trumpeter

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Lastly, was my rehearsal/gig for the rock/blues band. It was simple and fun; we also had an open mic at the end. No comments.

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Debriefing :

Long, hard and fun day. I’m proud of all the music I make now. I must sleep and start over tomorrow!

I woke up late today (much needed). I will be going to Burritoville to jam with friend and I have a rehearsal after. Here’s what I actually worked on :

• Reviewing about 10 tunes for the rockabilly/blues band tonight. Took me an hour or so. They’re simple and fun tunes to play. I love playing NOT jazz for once!

• Personal practicing (I only had about 2 hours to do that) :
  • Kenny Werner (10 minutes)
  • Miles Davis’ solo on Solar +first line of saxophone solo (25 minutes)
  • Improvising using only triplets and quarter-note triplets on the form of Blues for Alice @ 100 and 116 BPM (10 minutes)
  • Highly focused improvisation. Special attention given to phrasing along with mixing triplets and non-triplets figures on the form of  Freight Trane @ 116 and 138 BPM (10 minutes)
  • Improvisation on I Should Care (@ 138 then 168 BPM) (10 minutes)
  • Improvisation on Stablemates @168 BPM (5 minutes) (out of focus. tired, have to leave…)

As you can see, this “quickie” practice session was timed to fit in less than 2 hours. Look for my blog post called “Making the most out of your practice time” for more info…

Things I skipped today :

• Pentatonics
• Chords in Ted Greene’s book
• Yoga… (yes, I know I know…)

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After the practice, I went jamming for 2 hours (jazz) and then rehearsing for 2 hours (blues/rock). It was a long day of music making… that’s why I barely put in 2 hours of personal practice today. Looking forward to tomorrow’s practice session!

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I didn’t think so but the long hours of sleep really “got to me” by the end of the afternoon. Sleeping over 9-10 hours the night before, I felt sad, lost and tired when I got to the Burritoville jam… That’s what happens when you sleep 4-5 hours a night, 5 days in a row and then a big night of oversleeping. Damned human body!

Woah, a good night of sleep feels very good. I really needed that.

I can finally work at “full speed”. I’ve the jam @ Buritoville at 5PM and then I have to rehearse for a rock/blues project I’m in. I want to practice before… catch up for my teaching weekend!