12 keys

dude, that’s great!!!

I’m listening to the Milt solo now. That’s the S&*t.

You’re probably getting tons out of it aren’t you?

That’s the magic potion!

You know what I hear also? I hear your feel getting better and better as you play through each key. Keep that in mind when you’re playing. It’s really hard to swing at the tempo you’re playing.

I think you’re ready to move on to a different solo! I think it should be another instrument. Clifford Brown maybe? You’d be suprised how comfortable Trumpet solos are on the vibes. Maybe they are on all instruments, however I always feel great when I play trumpet solos on the vibes.

As a follow up, you should now work on playing solo choruses through all the keys of you sort of being influenced by him. Know what I mean?

Work on that, record yourself going through a bunch of keys and send that to me

Good Job!

bluesette

hey,

i’ll get to bluesette i think monday. cool? i prob won’t post it here, i’ll email it to you.

 

cu

tony

Update

Hi Everyone,

Finally another update...! I'm terribly busy so I'm trying to keep up with things and still keeping some practicing going. I've cut down the stuff I'm doing and focusing on a few things. I do a couple of technique things every day and the rest of the time I'm mostly working on Don't Get Around in 12 keys.
I recorded some things yesterday. I played the 2 milt solos in F and also did some soloing in the same key.
I'm now working on playing the 2 solos in 12 keys without stopping. So I'm modulating in 2 ways(cycle and chromatic). I'll upload a recording of this when I'm able to play it through. I'll also record soloing in 12 keys in the same way.
The other thing I'm gonna post soon is a solo version of Bluesette and Tony is going to post the same tune at the same time. That will be fun!

Here are the recordings:
dont_get_around_sept_2007.zip

Let me know what you think!

cu

Tjaco

recording gig 29th of august

Here's a recording of a gig I did last wednesday. I went a little crazy with the reverb, so maybe I'll post another mix in a while.

Let me know what you think.

Tjaco

gig_29-08-07

Update week 34

Ok, here's an update of the last week of practicing. From now on I'm gonna try to post a detailed update every week to get it a little more organised.

Technique:

• White note scales: Worked them up from 82 -> 86 bpm. It's getting better, sometimes I just hit the right notes without even paying attention to it...
• Major scales: Worked from 95 -> 100 bpm
• Major modes: worked from 89 -> 95 bpm
• Melodic minor modes: I'm now playing 2 keys everyday at tempo 60 bpm. I play one key untill I can play all the degrees in one take through without making any mistakes.
• Arpeggio's: I started also with playing all kinds of arpeggio's. I'm doing all arpeggio's in 12 keys and this takes about 15/20 minutes. I made 3 groups of exercises:

1. Triads: maj, min, aug, dim -> playing it at tempo 80 bpm
2. seventh chords basic: maj7, min7, min/maj7, dom, maj6, min6, halfdim., dim. -> playing them now at tempo 71 bpm
3. seventh chords more difficult: maj7b5, maj7#5, dom7b5, dom7#5 -> now at tempo 61 bpm

note about technique:
I'm now playing about 1 hour of 'single' line technique each day. I'm not thinking about making music, but I feel that I really have to connect with the instrument fysically. It still feels that I sometimes can't be free to play stuff that I hear because of lack of technique. I'm really trying to structure this hour to build my technique gradually. I practice with metronome and when something feels comfortable I increase the tempo by 1 bpm. So this is hardly a difference, but I think this is the way to gradually increase my technique and speed.
I guess I'm gonna try to get some 4-mallet technique stuff going. I'm gonna think about how to structure that...

What else?

• Preparing for gigs 25/26th of august

I have two nice gigs this weekend on a big festival in Amsterdam. One is with a brazilian/pop band. I actually play drums on this gig, but I wanted to learn the tunes by heart so I had to put some time into that this week
The other gig is on vibes with a funk/jazz group and they play all kinds of odd-meter stuff. 11/8, 7/8, 5/4 etc... Also not the standard 2-5-1 changes, so this is a challenge! I also learned that stuff by heart so this took a lot of practice time this week. I'll try to record the gig and post some audio on here.

Because of these gigs I didn't have a lot of time to practice other stuff, so that's a little disorganised at the moment... What I have been doing is:

• Green Dolphin Etude: I played it a couple times through at tempo 65 bpm
• Don't Get Around(only in original key):

1. Played it monophonically
2. comping melodically
3. soloing
4. recorded the two milt solo's (see links below)

• Practiced soloing on Blue Bossa(I also started transcribing the milt solo on the album Big 3!)
• Practiced I loves you porgy chord changes

The milt solos:

• solo 1
• solo 2

There is one thing that I think I should do more, but I still don't... PLAYING SONGS IN 12 KEYS!! This is still hard. It's easy for me to play only melody or only chords in 12 keys, but when I put that together I get lost and have to think hard and take it slow. This takes a lot of concentration and so takes a lot of energy... But I'll just go and DO IT!!

Next week I have a trio gig on wednesday, so that's gonna be nice. So after the weekend I will be working on that repertoire only! So from thursday I'll pick up the old practice stuff.

Let me know if you have questions and what you think!

cu

Tjaco

What's Up?

Quiet around here.

comping

yo!

I posted an mp3 on comping for you. Just turned on the recorder and played and talked a little. Should give you some ideas. There’s some BS in there. It’s hard to just comp and attempt to be creative on the fly. I think though I make my point.

If you want to get notifications of this blog...

If anyone out there wants to get emails on updates on this blog, please send me an email and I'll add you to the mailinglist!

My email: info@drumusician.com

Let me know...

Tjaco

two new songs

I transcribed two new songs. The first one is I Loves You Porgy and it's from Tony's Philly Five record. The other one is from Bag's meets Wes: S.K.J.

I Loves You Porgy --> I'm not sure about the second half of the bridge...??
S.K.J. --> The changes for the solos are a little different from the head, I hope I got it right...?

Here are the files:

1. I Loves You Porgy
   
2. S.K.J.

Let me know what you think, Tony

Don't Get Around Duets + All Blues idea

Here are two duets of Don't Get Around. The first one I recorded and played along with, sorry about the distorted left channel... The second one I played seperately with a click and then put them together.
I also worked on an idea for All Blues. I have played it a lot as a 4/4 funk version(on drums that is...) So I'm working on getting a 4/4 groove on vibes for the trio gig I'm doing(with sax and bass). It's actually only G7 that I'm playing. I'm probably gonna play something like this as an intro. I still have to work out something for the theme.

Here are the files:

Don't Get Around 1
Don't Get Around 2
Myxolydian sketches...

two recordings

Here are two mp3's of me playing.

The first one is a slow version of the Green Dolphin etude, not very good, but I made it through...

The second one is me playing solo(out of time) on some changes. There are some spots that I thought were ok, so I decided to put it up here. If you can guess the tune, that means I'm doing ok...right?

1. green dolphin
2. soloing on...

I'm gonna record a duet version of Don't Get Around and upload it tomorrow.

new update on stuff I'm doing

Hi Everyone,

Here's another update of what I've been doing the last week.

Technique:
Still doing the same stuff. So white note scales, major scales, major modes, mel. minor modes(1 a day) and some arpeggio's and 4-mallet stuff. BUT, I've been slowing things down a little and practicing with metronome. I don't go faster untill I'm really comfortable playing at a certain tempo...

Songs etc...

I've been working on:

Don't Get Around: just soloing
Bluesette: mel + chords in different keys
Milt's solos in different keys
I loves you porgy: working on the lead sheet(transcribing)
St. Thomas: soloing over it

And I've been working a lot on the green dolphin street etude. I recorded a slow version and will upload it soon... It's still not very good. I can play some parts faster, but if I want to play the whole thing through, I really have to take it SLOW...

After I loves you porgy, I'm gonna transcribe S.K.J.

Oh yeah, I also started on a song by Dan McCarthy: Sun Chaser, I love the way he plays! Chech out his cd interwords. You can download it from itunes or get it at his own website: www.danmccarthy.net

Ok I'll upload some recordings soon...

Is anyone else reading this blog....??

Hey Tony,

Do you think anyone else is reading our stuff? If there's anyone out there reading this, let me know! Otherwise we could just as well do it on the other site, Tony? And maybe discuss some general topics here and post some audio once in a while...But... if other people think this is usefull, let us know!!

What do you think Tony?

Getting organized... stuff that I'm working on now

Ok, here's an update of what I'm doing to get my stuff a little organized...

Technique:

• Major scales
• white note scales
• major modes
• mel minor modes
• some arpeggios and 4-mallet stuff(just making it up as I go...)

Tunes:

• Green Dolphin Etude(recording it this week...I hope) and let's start playing the tune solo and in different keys
  
• Don't Get Around: - practicing milt solo's in 12 keys
• Don't Get Around: - practicing solo on changes
• I added the last B of milt's solo on the alternate take. It's here
  

Tunes for Gig:
I'm transcribing the tunes I want to play on the gig the 29th of august. I have all the sheet music, but that's the easy way. So I'm posting what I transcribe and maybe you(tony) can tell me what is wrong, so I can go back and try to correct it...
Here are two tunes:

• On Green Dolphin Street
• St. Thomas

I'll start on I loves you porgy now. I have a version by Joe Henderson, so that's nice... Or maybe the Philly Five version?

Tony, maybe you can look at my tunes list I posted. And maybe you have some more ideas? Some of the tunes I already know, so transcribing them would be fake, because I know the changes. If you have some ideas, I might not know those tunes and then I can work some more on my ears, right?

I'll get the list of tunes organized and I'll get versions of every tune and listen to it a lot and transcribe it all.

ok, let me know what you think...

Tjaco

next update coming soon

My next update is coming soon. I'm working on the changes of Green Dolphin Street and St. Thomas. It's not that hard so I should have it down by tomorrow. I'll also record the Green Dolphin Etude by the end of the week.

Tjaco

song list for gig 28th of August

Here's a list of songs I'm gonna work on the coming weeks. I might change some things, but we'll see...

1. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
2. Caravan
3. Bluesette
4. St. Thomas
5. On Green Dolphin Street
6. Stella By Starlight
7. Willow Weep For Me
8. You Don't Know What Love Is
9. S.K.J.
10. All Blues
11. Solar
12. What Is This Thing Called Love
13. Yardbird Suite
14. Blue Bossa

Ok, I'll keep updates of my progress and also what kind of arrangements I come up with. I already have an idea for Caravan... A sections in 7/8 with a unisono bass/sax bassline with vibes playing melody over top. And then the B section in 3/4! That's gonna be nice!

cu

Tjaco

plan for a gig on the 28th of August

Ok, I got a trio gig (bass, sax, vibes) on August 28th, and I figured I'm gonna try something. I don't have a lot of gigs on vibes, because I'm not really actively looking. Also because I think I don't play very good yet... So what I normally do is play out of a realbook on the gig. But I figured it would be nice for the next gig to play everything by heart, right?
It's my gig, so I can call the tunes, so that's good.

So the plan is that I'm gonna select about 14 tunes, it's a 2 hour gig, and learn them by heart(from cd, NOT from the sheet!). And if I have time I'm also gonna try to work up some simple arrangements. So I'll post a tunes list and keep updates on my progress and then I will record the gig and post some audio on here... Also if anyone has suggstions on arrangements I would love to hear them!

Tony --> Any suggestions for some nice tunes...? I'll get started, but maybe you have some ideas...

update on the last couple of days practicing

I thought I would give an update of what I've been doing the last couple of days.

I've been concentrating on a few things.

I've taken the milt solo through twelve keys, and that's going ok. I'm also going to put the solo I just posted through 12 keys.

I played bluesette in some different keys, and the voivings are getting a little less boring and the same. It's actually easy putting chords or melody through 12 keys. But I think it's difficult to put the chords and melody through different keys. This is also probably because of the voicing problem I mentioned in another post...

I'm almost ready to record a slow version of the Green Dolphin Street etude. I'll post that soon...

Milt solo 2 on Don't Get Around

Here's another milt solo on an alternate take of Don't Get Around from the same recording session.

Let me know what you think!

Solo_Milt_2_dont_get_around

Getting stuck with the same voicings...

Yesterday(Sunday the 29th of July) I had a short practice session, so I decided to focus on just one thing.
I practiced Bluesette for 2 hrs. Most of the time I spent on soloing over the changes, but also I put some time into playing the tune just chord melody, and also just comping the changes. When I play the melody with chords it's relatively easy, because the melody follows the changes in a logical way. But the thing is, especially when I'm just comping the chords, I tend to play a lot of the same voicings for the chords. It kind a get's a little silly after a while. It feels like I'm a band-in-a-box backing track...
So... any ideas on how to get out of this chord voicing boredom...?

I figured that it's probably a good idea to play simple melodies on the changes and try to voice underneath, right?

This is also something I noticed in the duet on Don't Get Around I put up with Tony. When I comp it's a little too much of the same, but when I listen to Tony he's really moving up and down with the voicings logically and there is also a lot of melodic voicing happening.

So, just a thought, let me know what you think?

Don't Get Around - solo Milt corrected

Ok, I corrected some things in the Milt solo I transcribed. So here is the new version. Let me know if it's correct now, tony?

There are two things that I corrected:
1. The 5th and 6th bar of the bridge, he plays a f# on the 4th beat of the 5th bar and f#, d# in the beginning of the 6th bar

2. one note 3 bars from the end, in the line downwards he plays an Eb instead of an E

solo milt - don't get around

new tunes for the coming week?

Hey Tony,

Do you have some suggestions for 2 new tunes to work on the coming week. Maybe we could also do Green Dolphin Street. I'm working on your etude, but maybe I should also play the song aside of that? I have a version by milt with the Oscar Peterson Trio, maybe I could also check his solo?

So we could do that and maybe another tune?

Also, I've had this idea many times but didn't do anything with it... Is it a good idea to practice technique but base every technique exercise on the tunes I'm currently working on? Now what I mean. So if I practice scales, I'll practice the scales that are in the tunes and maybe also make up some 4-mallet exercises on the changes of the tunes I'm studying. Now what I mean? Let me know what you think?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Today I had a f$#cking bad technique day!!! Somehow I just kept on hitting wrong notes and my sticks bumped into each other the whole time... THAT SUCKS
So after a half hour of trying to play some scales I decided to leave the technique stuff for today and figured I was just gonna play...

So I played solo on Don't Get Around for 3 hours. And this was actually very helpfull. Just practicing lines on the different chords for a while whithout keeping the time going and after that I started playing at a slow tempo(half note=50 bpm).

A lot of the time I tend to play too fast, I listen a lot to milt playing and i really want to get his stuff down so somtimes I go crazy and play too much and it makes no sense... I figured that I don't have the speed of thinking to play like that in fast tempo's yet. So I'll try to keep practicing soloing in slow motion, right?

Gigs Practicing and More

To pick up our email conversation!!!

Tjaco:

Money, practicing and gigs. Practicing won’t necessarily make you money it will make you great. If you think about it practically, when I’m talking someone obviously wealthy and they say “Man how did you get so good?”. I usually say, well while you were making lots of money I was practicing!

So in a financial sense it doesn’t pay to practice. That’s why there are lots of bad players making money and getting gigs right? Cause they ‘ain’t’ wasting there time getting better. They’re using it effectively to make money build contacts and get gigs.

F*(ck that, because they still SUCK. If you’re going into jazz for the money, well then that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. If that’s your first goal then do something where you’ll make real BREAD.

Music is about the music. It has taken me 47 years to make a decent living with this pile of metal, and I did it by practicing hard AND making friends and supporting soloists as best I could AND by spreading my gigs around.

So in one sense by practicing you’re losing time making money, however in another sense if you really love this, then you’re helping your situation because you’ll get better and better, people RESPECT hard work and you’ll make money.

If you really think and study then someday that’s worth money to others who are trying to learn and get better.

You probably know this already but I thought it would be cool to put this up. I’ve led a very hard life and spent most of it penniless living in run down homes. Finally I’m reasonably comfortable and secure. The word there is REASONABLY. But I love music and this is where I want to be. The idea of putting a tie on every day is sickening to me. It’s not to others and that’s cool. I’ll settle for the occasional penguin suit.

I respect you alot for busting your ass like you do. I do understand that this is a major choice that you have to make and I also respect people that aren’t great players but made financial choices based on things like ‘kids’ and ‘family’. However being a musician I REALLY respect the guys who make the sacrifice trying to be great. That helps all of us, it helps the instrument and the music and that’s my first concern so I respect those people more.

I think we all try to get through life and do the best we can. Some day we’ll kick the bucket and we’re done!!!!! That’s cool also. Take a break from all this crap. “-)

I DO BELIEVE THAT THE BETTER YOU GET THE BETTER I GET. SO I WANT PLAYERS TO GET BETTER AND BETTER SO THAT WE RAISE THE BAR. so if you’re practicing hard that will make me do the same. in some ways healthy competition is good.

More of me

While I’m at it. I found another one!

Some Thoughts based on your duet solo

Listen

Tony Miceli Playing with Jimmy Bruno

Yo TJ,

I put this on my other blogs but I figured since you’re studying with me you might want to check out stuff like this. Somebody found it and sent me the link.

Actually it might be cool to fine youtube videos of the ‘real’ cats and put them up and we can talk about them. what do you think?

 

Don't Get Around duet + 2 solo's

Here is a duet of me and Tony Miceli and also 2 solo's I played on a gig a few weeks ago. I'm adding the 2 solos because I'm having trouble with the solo on Don't Get Around. And the other two solo's I was a little more satisfied about. I don't think they are good solos, but just a little better than I played on Don't Get Around... So I'm comparing how I play on the different solos
I'm trying to figure out why this is... I'm gonna do a duet with myself on Don't Get Around also, but in a slower tempo and maybe also in some other key. I'm guessing the trouble is either the key of C or maybe the tempo is just too high.
But anyway, the lines ar just not flowing on Don´t Get Around. Maybe I should keep on working on that...

So let me know what you guys think(or Tony if nobody else is reading this....)

One other thing I noticed lately is that my time is terrible on the vibes! I guess that, because I´m a drummer, I figured my time would be ok on vibes too, but this is not the case at all!!
I guess I´m thinking too much about what notes to play, that I don´t pay enough attention to the time, and I think the time should be more importatnt, right??

Ok, here are the files:

• Don't Get Around - duet
• Solo on Recordame
• Solo on Ab Blues

On Don't Get Around my vibes are a little soft... I didn't have time to correct this and I think I left a low filter(filtering the low freq) on, also on the solo mp3's so it sounds a little thin...

Friday, July 27, 2007

Ok, here’s another update. I talked to Tony about maybe leaving the detail for my own notebook and put more of a general update on this blog. That’s probably a good idea. At the moment I have loads of time, but when I don’t have lots of time I won’t be able to put all the detail, so I’ll try to keep it consistent. Anyway, here is an update of what I’ve been doing friday:

Technique:

I played my major scales, modes and the white note scales. I’’m getting faster with the major scales, but now I’m noticing that also the f and g major scale or not as good as the other’s. That’s probably also because of the amount of white notes that are in the scale…

I also did the chromatic scale again and made up another exercise playing the whole range of the instrument.

I made up two more 4–mallet technique exercises. One is a wrist exercise playing arpeggiated chords and the other one is more a block chord exercise. I also played these all the way to the high register where they get really hard! Especially with Burton grip, because you have to turn you’re wrists a little…

Green dolphin street etude

I played through the first 3 pages, it’s getting better.

Solo milt jackson on Don’t get around

I practiced the first 8 bars in 12 keys, but now Tony told me it’s not totally correct I’m pobably gonna do this again when I have the solo down correct.

Duet Don’t Get Around

I worked on the duet of Don’t Get Around. I recorded it and will post it later, with some comments and some other mp3’s.

Maybe it’s an idea to give weekly updates on what I’ve been doing and during the week I can post thoughts on things that I’m doing so everybody can talk about it… Let me know Tony or other people that see this!

Here are some new exercises that I did:

• Whole range_4
• 4-mallet_8_9

Don't Get Around

Was checking out the solo. The 5^th and 6^th bar of the bridge are wrong. Check it out before I tell you what’s wrong.

also 3 bars from the end one note wrong

cool?

Taking Care of Business

Check out bar 3 of the solo. Notice it’s an A7 and Milt plays a G#. Well I have a way I think about all that, I call it ‘Taking Care of Business’.

So Milt hits a G# then an E and then a G. Can you see that that’s only a chromatic passing tone? G# to G. You can do just about anything you want as long as you ‘take care of business’.

But here’s the important thing! Milt’s using his ears to ‘take care of business’. It’s not a rule in his head it’s the line. You have to hear your lines like that so you ‘take care of business’.

Make sense? Licks like that are great to work with because they’ll train your ear to take care of business!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Technique/warm-up:

• 10 mins - major scales, 105 bpm
• 10 mins - white note scales, 70 bpm
• 10 mins - major modes, 90 bpm
• 10 mins - dom. 7 arpeggio's, 80 bpm
• 10 mins - whole range ex. nr. 3
• 10 mins - chromatic scale, 100 bpm

4-mallet technique:

• 20 mins - 4-mallet ex. nr. 7 in 12 keys, this is kind of a poppy groove
• 10 mins - walking bass(left hand) on Oleo(Bb Rhythm)

soloing/tunes:

• 60 mins - soloing on Don't Get Around + checked out some of Tony's solo!
• 30 mins - Green Dolphin street etude page 3
• 30 mins - Donna Lee melody in 12 keys
• 30 mins - Bluesette solo version

So, as you can see I'm trying to organize my time a little more into different area's of practicing. If anyone has some more ideas I'd love to hear them!

Here are the exercises I mentioned above:

• 4-mallet, ex. 7
• whole range nr. 3

The whole range 3 is a nice exercise for tritones that mess up you're sticking. I play it all alternate sticking and try to avoid hitting you're sticks into one another...haha

Thoughts

I'm glancing at your transcription:
Notice how every time at the end of the A section where you have Dm7 there's an F# in Milt's solo? That should def be setting off alarms in your head about that chord. It's a D7 not min7. cool?

If we were to make up a rule it would be: there are many ways to make min 3rds work over a maj chord. esp dominant ones (it’s the sharp 9)! it's much more rare to make a maj 3rd work over a min chord. make sense (one ex. is as a passing tone from f to Eb a realy typical bebop line)?? So that should set off flags about that chord. anyway it's a D7.

The solo is f*(*KIN' GOLD MINE of material. I bet you see that. This is one to put through all the keys!!!

Your thoroughness is really cool with the blog. Remember consistency is most important, so post what you think you can handle over the long haul.

Do you have the solo memorized? Play it in all the keys. That’s most important. That solo is a bebop text book.

What’s up with the duet?

I think it’s totally cool that you’re thinking up your own technical exercises. Save it all! Who knows might make a great book!! Isn’t this a great way to build your technique? you’ll get good at figuring out your technical problems and solving them!

Keep at it and post some mp3s for me and everyone else to listen to.

When you’re ready you should post a notice of the blog on thevibe.net, right?

cu

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

• 10 mins - major scales, 100 bpm
• 10 mins - white note scales, 80 bpm
• 10 mins - major modes, 80 bpm
• 10 mins - min/maj 7 arpeggio's, 75 bpm
• 10 mins - whole range ex. nr. 2
• 10 mins - chromatic scale, 90 bpm
• 10 mins - 4-mallet exercise nr. 4
• 10 mins - 4-mallet exercise nr. 5
• 10 mins - 4-mallet exercise nr. 6
• 60 mins - Donna Lee soloing in 12 keys, 60 bpm
• 30 mins - Bluesette, melody + chords in 6 keys
• 15 mins - Don't Get Around(alt. take) transcribed 2nd A
• 30 mins - Chord changes ||: Fm | Gbmaj#11 :||

Total practice time: 3 hrs 45 mins

Notes:

• All the exercises I do I make up when I do them and then write them down. I'll put some pdf's at the bottom of this message. I guess I should make a page where I can put them all up, coming soon...
• As you may have noticed, I'm getting a little more organised. Somehow the writing down of all this forces me to really think about what I'm practicing!
• The chord changes is just playing around with four mallets, solo + acc.

Exercises: I'll put up new versions of the same pages sometimes when I write out more stuff:

1. Milt Jackson solo on Don't Get Around
2. Milt Jackson Licks
3. 4-mallet exercises
4. Whole range exercises

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

• 10 mins - Major scales, 100 bpm
• 10 mins - chromatic scale over whole range and playing the accidentals on the end of the bar, 90 bpm.
• 10 mins - minor 7 arpeggio's, 80 bpm
• 10 mins - exercise playing the whole range, ex. nr. 1, no tempo
• 10 mins - Major modes, 80 bpm
• 60 mins - Donna Lee, melody in 12 keys, 60 bpm
• 15 mins - Green Dolphin Street etude, page 1/2
• 30 mins - Green Dolphin Street etude, page 3
• 30 mins - Don't Get Around, soloing at 70 bpm + played along with Tony Miceli duet
• 30 mins - Transcribed 1st A of Don't Get Around(Alternate take)
• 20 mins - lick nr. 3 (Milt Jackson) in 12 keys

Total practice time: 3 hrs 55 mins

Notes:

• White note scales suck! By white note, I mean the white notes of the piano ofcourse! So the scales: F lydian, G Myxolydian etc... So I'm going to practice those seperately.
• My soloing on Don't Get Around really sucks! I guess I'm having trouble with the key of C...
• The alternate take of Don't Get Around is also on the album "wizard of the vibes"
• I figured I would play the chromatic scale to practice playing on the ends of the bars. I'm focusing on getting a good sound also on the end of the bar.
  

Monday, July 23, 2007

• 10 mins - Major scales, 2 octaves, 100 bpm
  
• 15 mins - Major 7 arpeggio's 2 octaves, 80 bpm
  
• 10 mins - Major modes, 12 keys, 2 octaves, 80 bpm
• 30 mins - Green Dolphin Street Etude, 65 bpm, 1st 2 pages
• 90 mins - Bluesette: Melody + solo in 12 keys, 50 bpm(dotted quarter)
• 30 mins - Don't Get Around Much Anymore, solo Milt Jackson(Wizard of the vibes) + lick nr. 1 in 12 keys.
• 15 mins - Don't Get Around: lick nr. 2(Milt) in 12 keys
• 30 mins - Don't Get Around: Duet Tony Miceli + practiced soloing(80 bpm)

Total practice time: 3 hrs 50 mins

Notes:

• All scales and arpeggio's I play sixteenth notes.
• Green Dolphin street etude is by Tony Miceli
• Solo Milt Jackn on the album "wizard of the vibes"
• The licks I mention are licks I wrote out from the record.

General note: I'll try to put up some pdf files of the licks and exercises I do!

My practice blog is up and running

Hey Everyone,

As you can see my vibe practice blog is online and I will be putting in detail what I'm practicing here everyday I practice. Feel free to comment on what I put up here! The first few days of practicing are coming online soon...

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at: info@drumusician.com