LearnJazzPiano.com archives: The Daily Routine

loveforJAZZ -- 08/31/2006, 07:54:30 -- #29562

I was just wondering what the daily routine of practicing jazz should be. How should one practice scales and arpeggios? How often should you solo? How often should you transcribe?

7 -- 08/31/2006, 23:58:07 -- #29562

One should practice scales and arpeggios in the context of an actual progression (rather than singly). <i>How often should you solo?</i> You should solo when it's your turn. <i>How often should you transcribe?</i> Whenever you hear something that you would like to internalize, you should transcribe/learn it.

sdm -- 09/02/2006, 14:25:13 -- #29562

Well, this should be interesting.  I’m attending my first workshop as a piano player.  Wow, unbelievable.  I haven’t been to one of these in 30 years and then it was as a very week trumpet player.  I felt pretty lost the whole time, almost like I felt as a 5th grade basketball player trying to figure out which direction I should run.  Well, 30 years or so after that I learned to play that game.  I was never real good but I did learn to play and had a lot of fun at it.   It was only a couple of weeks ago that I said to myself that I suck (and I do) but I can play.  That’s pretty big but it may really have been the result of my new toy, Band In A Box.  It is tremendous fun and, as I said, makes me feel as if I can play.  Maybe it’s a good time for a bit of risk.  Maybe it’s just the right time for a little reality check.   It could be that I experience nothing but a chemical overload from my self-consciousness and, as I’ve read here, loose 80% of my capability (actually I think it was more like the writer had to learn something to 150% so he could play for an audience).  I’ve certainly lived through this before and if it’s to be humiliation for the day, so be it.  One thing I finally understood in learning skiing at 30 (face-plants under the bunny chair), basketball at 40 (schooled by 13 year-olds), and even flying at 50 (bouncing an airplane trying to land can be not only humbling but frightening!) is that humiliation is good for the soul.  I guess that’s paying dues and even at 55 I can still do it. But there is another possibility.  There will be professional backing on drums and bass.  It could be something like playing with BiB.  Playing with this computer has been amazingly fun and it makes me feel like I can do so much more than I thought I could.  Today Ed, my trumpet playing friend, came by and we used the computer.  I felt great and he had, I think, a good time as well.  Will live professional backing be so much fun it will overpower my own self-centeredness and allow me to enjoy myself in spite of the strangers in the room?  It could be simply outstanding.  I’ll keep that as a possibility. Whatever, I know that I’m nervous about it.  Much of today, even, I was thinking about which 2 or 3 tunes I should take copies of.  The band will likely know everything I might play but I’ll take a few anyway.  “Night And Day” and “Blue Bossa” for sure.   I’d like to play Dexterity but don’t play the head well enough.  Maybe we’ll get a chance to just improvise on it – that could be fun.  I imagine we’ll do some blues and that is changing so much for me right now (finally getting a “bluer” sound with Randy’s help) that I might not feel comfortable.  I’m tempted to take “I’m Through With Love” – it’s a current favorite and a beautiful ballad but I have not worked it with Randy.  The most recent songs I’m working with him, “Beautiful Love,” “Skylark,” or “My Ship” for instance, aren’t all that good.  As Randy predicted, “Skylark” continues to kick my ass (why?!?) and “Beautiful Love” just isn’t far enough along.  We’ll see. There will be the backing, Randy, and four other piano players.  I seem to remember someone on the forum, someone who sounds like a pro, say that he prefers to be the only piano after someone else had reported going to a workshop where “all the other piano players could accompany a singer in any key.”  Randy assures me that this will be intermediates similar to me.   But at the end of the day, you drag your body to the spot and have no choice but to take up the challenge.  It’s what we do. This should be interesting.

sdm -- 09/02/2006, 16:35:20 -- #29562

Lord, that was supposed to be my blog.  Scot, any chance you can kill this?  Sorry for the inadvertant hijack!

Adam1226 -- 09/02/2006, 20:02:49 -- #29562

Hijack or not it was a good post.  The vast majority of us are not pros, and I think it's helpful to remember that a little "humiliation" isn't the end of the world, and is probably a positive thing that helps you improve. -Adam

jazzwee -- 09/02/2006, 22:47:48 -- #29562

Keep it sdm! Paste it in your blog too. It's a great post and is encouraging to others.

sdm -- 09/03/2006, 11:05:04 -- #29562

Thanks guys.  Encouragement is also good for the soul!

ronald1 -- 09/05/2006, 06:33:13 -- #29562

I split my daily routine into the following areas: 1. Scales/Modes/Arpeggios etc 2. Classical Pieces/Sight Reading and Technical Exercises (e.g. Czerny,Hanon) 3. Ear Training (e.g. Playing common songs by ear, transcribing, sight singing etc) 4. Jazz Theory - any new theory I want to build into my playing 5. Listening to Jazz! 6. Improvising (free, over chord progression, comping or whatever else) I find that covers just about everything and fits in quite nicely with my day.  Do other people have more detailed practise schedules?

Copyright © 2005 by Scot Ranney. All rights reserved.

Click Here for more information about performances and clinics. Click Here to sign up for Scot's music announcements.