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 from 8 AM today!

• Warmup in E major :
  • Scalar Patterns
  • Ear Training : 3rds and 4ths in key
  • Blowing on II-V and III-VI-II-V
• Tunes :
  • Recorda Me
  • Up Jumped Spring
  • Valentino (original)
  • Along Came Betty
• Chords : 1st inversion triads
  • Trying many voicings
  • Playing all diatonic chords in C major
  • Hard stuff.
• Triad Pair : F-G
  • Many exercises
  • Trying to apply in modal context
  • total train wreck…
• Slominsky
  • #14 to #21 backwards
• Playing fast blues w/metronome
  • click as “quarter time”
  • attained at good 276 BPM for blowing
  • clean phrases and ideas
  • yeah!

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Played a nice trio session with two musicians I respect dearly. We played a few standards and many originals. The session was also a great learning experience because of some rhythmic ideas we worked on (metric modulations…) My sincere thanks to : Clinton Ryder and Mark Nelson.

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At night : teaching + drinks with friends.

This week, two days were almost “twins” : I practiced the same things, was teaching at night… and even played badminton on both days!

Practice session (for both days):

• Some scale patterns in major scale(s)
  • Over 2-3 octaves
  • Thinking about creating a page on JazzGuitarLessons.net about that…
• Slonimsky interpolations (hard stuff)
  • 2-3-4 notes
• Triad Coupling (F and G)
  • a few exercises in triplets and in sixteenths
  • all over the fretboard
• Polyrhythms : 9 over 2
  • trying to hear from and to quarter notes, eight notes, etc.
  • with metronome
  • VERY hard to hear and feel right now!
• Practicing two Benny Golson tunes :
  • Along Came Betty (new!)
  • Stablemates

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So now for the difference between both days : on Tuesday, I played a session with the great saxophonist Frank Lozano. Beforehand, I was visualizing the session as going “yeah!” all the way through… it, of course, didn’t happen this way. Frank has at least the same amount of experience as the rest of the band combined (guitar/bass/drums)!

After the first tune (Stablemates), it became more of a workshop/masterclass for us. What a humbling experience! I expected to walk in and be “one of them” and I simply ended up having a free lesson… that’s bitter & sweet at the same time. For me, that’s also the time when I learn the most.

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On the very practical level, the aspect that struck me the most (and probably the topic on which Frank Lozano insisted the most) was playing “of the half note” or playing “of the whole note”.

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That is :

If the bass/drums are playing an up-tempo swing kind of feel, improvise by emphasizing the half-note. It makes you play lines as if you are implying the actual half-time (but the form of the song is still passing by as is).

The end result is improvisation rhythmically anchored in beats 1 and 3 of each bar of 4/4. (The half notes!) … and it grooves very hard!

If it’s very fast, it’s even possible to imply the whole note of each bar (it’s like “quarter-time”).

In short : less work, more groove. (By work, I mean struggling on long streams of 8th notes instead of relaxing with quarters, half and whole notes…)

[On a personal note : I guess the opposite is also possible and common. Playing faster value on slower tunes, like ballads for example.]

What a great session/lesson it was!

Practice is not “long sessions of focused musical training” these days…and, believe or not, I think it’s ok. I’ve always been hard on myself and I’m now reconsidering the multiple factors of my professional musical life. I also have a little cold, which greatly reduce my will and desire to play music in general…

These last two days, I practiced/played scales, triad pair, on a few tunes, part of transcriptions and compositions etc. It’s not very organized (yet focused and highly rewarding) and I really go with the flow of “what I feel” I should be playing/practicing.

Also, I think I’m in a phase where I “ask more questions” :  What should I do? How should this-that sound? What should I practice? How’s my future looking ? etc. I’m reading different books and pondering my musical identity.

And that’s all happening in the gigs/rehearsals/sessions/teaching lifestyle I’ve been living for a while now. I guess it might be the spring time (birds singing!) that make me re-adjust my aim. And, to add to that, I know for a fact that I’ll stop playing 2 of my regular gigs for the summer (back in september…)

That makes a little jazz guy THINK ya know…

Anyways…

On the bright side : I’ve been composing new fresh tunes and playing sessions here and there. It’s great.

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And, now for the most exciting part :

I’m reading The Pat Metheny Interviews book and I got to do something I think I’ve never done before in my life ; Honestly and Truthfully answer this question:

“What do you want to do?”
(which stems from “What do you love?”)

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I’m figuring that if I find the part of music that really, really “knocks me down” as Metheny says, motivation and productivity won’t even matter anymore! If I can find that little “gem” inside me, I won’t have to obsess over my practice routines (and decisions) and time spent playing and gigs, etc. Just go with the heart…

Meanwhile, I discovered that being organized (with great practice regiments for example) and staying true to yourself are very different aspects that should’nt be confused for one another.

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So here are my answers …

1- Lead my band (compose/record/concerts and tours)

2- Maintain and Update JazzGuitarLessons.net

It could have been only the first answer, but I wanted to include my “teaching reality” into the frame; it really does matter to me, especially these days.

Some of you may think “woah, that’s just too obvious”. Yes, every musician would naturally want to start a band and make it happen, I know. But on the other hand, I had never quite realized that I want to have my own band and write tunes, and tour and whatever comes with it.

My musical endeavors were pretty  much always  “zoomed in” my practicing that I was almost avoiding this big picture. You know, the music is out there, not in how many ways and fingerings you can apply the diminished scale (or what about that Coltrane solo, etc.) I never thought of it this ways; my thinking was usually “Practice more, get better, we’ll see later”.

I think for me the first step is to acknowledge that this is REALLY where I want to be in X number of years. It feels good to know that THIS is the big picture for me. Starting from there, I realized that the part that is lacking (the most) for my first goal to be achieved is composing. I need a huge repertoire of original tunes.

Hence my intense will to write new music.

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I hope that keeping that big picture in mind will feed my desire to write and practice daily. (Because I really need a reason to compose… what a pain!)

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…

Not much practicing today, but I played a great trio session in the afternoon at McGill U.

Before the session, I warmed up for about an hour blowing on tunes (All the Things, How Deep is the Ocean).

At night, I also worked a little on some Lee Konitz concepts over a few different standards.

Then worked on JazzGuitarLessons.net many hours. I love it!

First actual “practice day” in a long time!

• Warmup : blowing Blues for Alice and Freight Trane

• “Modal Arps” + diagonal bebop scales (of C major)
• Fun trio session @ McGill
  • Reading new tunes and playing some of my ol’ originals

• Some jamming and blowing on Garzone stuff. Mostly free

• Teaching for two hours

• Composing a new tune for two hours (still in progress)

Quickie log entry today :

• Tune review/learning
• Garzone stuff (major triads)
• Trio session @ McGill (2 hours) Fun!
• Rehearse with Singer (for duo friday)
• Teaching at night

The more real music I “do”, the less time I have to describe it here on the blog!