September 9th practice

Stabilised Donna Lee at 80, rusty due to missing day practice.

Also did arpeggio practice... Need to spend time on m7b5... Others are very good.

September 7th practice

Donna Lee at 85. A little rough, so keep practicing 80-85.

Jaco exercise 1. Used 80bpm for this too.

September 4th practice

Donna Lee up to 80bpm.

Also looked at exercises from the Jaco video/pdf. Especially #1 and #5, for finger strength.

September 3rd practice

Started using half tempo, 2 beats per measure (half beats).

This is necessary for the faster bpm, but is also very good practice for counting and timing discipline.

Started at 60bpm (120 effective). And now raise by 5bpm intervals.

Good up to 70. Start to get sloppy at 75.

2nd September practice

Practicing Donna Lee at 120bpm. Nice and smooth so far. Keep cranking by 10bpm.

Dynamics!

Need to work on some dynamics. Especially with Donna Lee.

8th August practice

Scott's left hand finger exercises at 120bpm.

Two positions for autumn leaves. Progressing well. First position on gm7 was wrong and needs practice to correct!

Also started to learn the whole song structure, with help from the chord chart. My-jazz.com/tips-and-insights/autumn-leaves.html. - Lots of useful stuff!

8th april practice

Practicing looping patterns for cmaj arpeggios.

Moved onto dom7 practice. Remember it's just a flat 7th compared to maj7!

Continue practicing with root notes - especially focus on groove and rhythm.

4th April practice

Have been practicing plenty recently, but
Not putting anything in my blog.    

How been working on major arpeggio in C and G.

Also various major scales positions.

need to press work on building song structures using Scotts beginner lessons:

Looking at the lesson on theory

also on building your own bass lines using great notes which is very useful.

March 18th practice

Worked on CMaj7 arpeggios, which are very smooth.  Need to do a little more linking work between positions - especially bridging the 12th-fret.

Also worked on Gmaj scale, which was also pretty smooth.  Surprised by this - as I am guilty of never bothering to learn more than the Cmaj scale.  In spite of that, clearly I understand the various positions and patterns very well.  Was able to do the myung-style 'modal' scale approach with relative ease - although should probably spend a few more hours on it.


Feel like I'm starting to make quite quick progress on various things, after being stuck for a while.


Probably want to take some time looking more at the circle of fifths - it's good knowledge to have.


Might also want to follow Scott's beginner lesson on diatonic harmony - referncing the Shania Twain track.  Can't believe I'm back to playing that stuff again - but it's all good.

March 17th practice.

Moved on to Cmin arpeggios and I'm pretty comfortable there.  Tried Amin and Gmin, both pretty smooth.  Time to move on to Maj7!

Also have been watching some of Scott's new 'beginners' course, but there's some great stuff in there!  Especially enjoyed the diatonic harmony section, as it filled in some gaps for me.  Probably need another watch though.

Arpeggio types that NEED to be learned:

Min7
Maj7
7
Half-Diminished (m7b5)



Also did a little bit of triplet string-crossing.  These are pretty good now, but probably need to step up the tempo for both double and triplet practices.

Need to move scales practice onto another key now.  Try GMaj (next on circle of fifths)!

March 10 practice

Need more time in higher register.

Bmin going well with backing track.

Played some songs, to keep my hand in.

Triplet string crossing much smoother today.

Need to through in some fast double-notes in scales/arps practice... To free right hand from regularity.

March 7th practice

Mostly concentrated in triplet string crossing. Need to focus on the highlighted bits! Especially the second loop.

Also more practice on songs (6:00, etc) not to get out of practice!

March 4th practice

Worked out fingerings for triplet exercise string skipping. Need focus on highlighted sections of pdf (lesson 43).

Basic cmaj and Bmin stuff also refreshed today.

Feb 28th practice

Cmaj fine.

Bmin ok. Need to practice arpeggios in reverse (moving DOWN neck, etc). Need to be able to spot downward patterns.

Started looking at moving from high-C string, up the arpeggio to E string. (11th fret C, 14 G, 16 D, 17 A, 19 E). Could be very useful if smooth!

Also look at the string-skipping exercise, especially fingerings for triplets!

Feb 25th practice

Bmin arpeggios: generally very good. Need to make efforts to start backing track work next!

C major scales: good, but slower more focused practice needed on higher frets. Be patient!

Feb 24th practice

Just a little on Bmin arpeggio and cmaj scales, generally all good.

Feb 23rd practice

Moved onto Bmin now. Work on this with learning B placements on neck.

Feb 21st practice

Dmin very good with a couple of backing tracks. Probably need to move on now, returning occasionally.

Did more string-skipping at 160bpm. 170 needs some work.

Need to start practicing 3-note string skipping, noting correct raking technique.

Feb 20th practice

Not much time today. Ran over basic cmaj patterns, Dmin loops and progressions (with backing track).

Found that with the cmaj full-neck progressions, it's good to practice different starting positions (eg C on the A-string).

Anything that seems hard or confuses the mind is worth concentrating on.

Also did string-skipping exercise and some fun playthings.

Feb 18th practice

Did cmaj in all positions. Might need more time above 12th fret, but positional knowledge is good now.

Did more 6-string position extensions. Much smoother today.

Full-neck cmaj is smooth @140bpm.

Feb 17th practice

C major scale - good in three positions. Decided to read notes out loud while playing backwards. (c,b,a,g,f,e,d,c).

Started extending-out each scale position, over all strings. Helps with right-hand discipline when done fast.

Did whole-neck cmaj @140bpm. Must practice this more, as not yet smooth!

Dmin arpeggios, practiced all positions.

Started Working on continuous arpeggios at 140bpm. This is good.practice and allows me to see the links between positions.

Also tried playing double-notes for root-root cycles in each position. Needs more practice, as very sloppy!

When playing loops, need to look attracting these backwards, or in the opposite diagonal (high string to low string), as this is a very weak area!

Noted I've lost ground with the fun bitnof 6:00. Need more practice on this and Donna lee!

Feb 13th practice.

1/2 hour on C Maj scales.  Much better and tried doing some looping ideas in the sub-12th-fret positions, with fair success.

Dmin arpeggios - ever smoother.  Need practice looping from first-finger (A string) to fourth-finger (E-string).

More practice with backing tracks required for Dmin.


Speed training - double-notes on alternate strings:  Ok at 120bpm, but a little rusty.  Definitely need to commit a little more time to this and similar dexterity and speed exercises!

Feb 12th practice

No practice yesterday, as Mum had a laptop emergency.

Today:

Cmaj Scales in three positions.  Much better than Monday, but still need more practice time on those.  Might start to loop around between two positions (a-la the arpeggio stuff).

Dmin arpeggios same as before.  Seem ever smoother with different position-swapping and with backing tracks.  Not sure where to go with them now though  - seems there's a leap to knowing them all.  I might have to try learning them on one-string, for each string.

ALSO:  With the Dmin arpeggios, found that doing loops over just two strings can be quite difficult, so do more of those!  (e.g. Start with D on the A-string, then move to F, A, C, A on D-string, then F, D, C, D on the A-String again (then loop).

10th February practice

No time at work.

Found some Dmin backing tracks and dud some slow arpeggio patterns. Used the looping pattern technique for this.

Need to continue work on second- and fourth-finger (tenth fret) positions, but much better today. Very few mistakes. :-)  feel that I tend to ignore 2nd finger positions a bit.

Scales: followed scott's first scales lesson (TN8pECkKO5Y). Need to learn focus on first finger and fourth finger positions!

Spent 10 mins on Donna lee @160bpm. Needs work.

Practice 9/2/14

C major scale up the neck @150bpm. Ok, need to work a little more and then speed up ~175bpm.

Dmin arpeggios: two-position loops and full-neck progressions. Struggling with some positions around 10th fret... Need practice here!