| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: practicing scales | |
| dudsy -- 10/02/2004, 19:10:21 -- #7672 | |
| i'm a newbie to this site....but anyway any of u guys have ideas as to how i should practice scales. i've been looking thru some of the rooms with all the pdf files but im pretty bored of practicing them going up and down....i really wanna internalize them. practice them yet make them seem less boring so do any of u guys have your own and interesting ways of practicing scales?..... | |
| Dr. Whack -- 10/02/2004, 22:33:30 -- #7674 | |
| I do different keys in each hand...(LH C, RH E, etc.) and of course You can vary direction (contrary motion, up 1 1/2 octaves, down 2, etc.) Don't spend too much time on em though...there's lots of music to be playin:) | |
| dudsy -- 10/02/2004, 23:00:23 -- #7676 | |
| true....but i mean, do u make patterns or something? i just really wanna internalize them....i'm classically trained for 12 years...and i've been studying jazz for just about 2 years now...i wanna be comfortable and confident soloing on an F# major scale as i am with C major.....i dunno, i guess in time it'll all come..but i wanna know them inside out you know.....thanx for the comment btw | |
| Guillaume_Haydn -- 10/03/2004, 01:09:29 -- #7677 | |
| hey dudsy, my students internalize scales like this: play the scale as chord clusters (e.g. CDE with fingers 123, then FGHB with fingers 1234), this gives an idea of the material's "picture". play the scales in rhythmic subdivisions, intervals. Most important: learn to use the scale by playing short chord progressions again and again, e.g. II-V-I, right hand playing f.e. dorian-altered-ionian or locrian9-HP5-melodicminor. from the heart of europe, haydn | |
| Mike -- 10/03/2004, 05:32:56 -- #7679 | |
| I make sure I can play any new scale like this hands together before I move on... or let any of my students move on: one octave up and down - quarter notes then with out stoping or missing a beat two octaves up and down - eight notes then with out stoping or missing a beat three octaves up a down - eigth note triplets then with out stoping or missing a beat four octaves up and down - sixteenth notes. All with a metronome on. and get the tempo up to a minimum of quarter note = 60 | |
| Dr. Whack -- 10/03/2004, 07:50:52 -- #7680 | |
| sure, you can practice random, on the spot variations, to sharpen your improv skills...no rules here, the more different ways you play em, the better you know em... | |
| docz -- 10/03/2004, 13:52:51 -- #7690 | |
| This is how I practice. I picked up this tip from a video of Joe Pass, he is a guitarist, but I think the same method of practicing aplies to piano aswell. In my left hand I play a chord, then I try to improvise over it with my right hand. Then I try to remember what I do, and do something simular. Then I change chord and after a while I let it develop. Then I modulate, or just try some crazy changes to see If something sounds good. The things that do I keep subconcious, the stuff that doesn't I toss. This is what helps me. Doc-Z | |
| docz -- 10/03/2004, 13:54:04 -- #7691 | |
| I've enclosed a midi file. It's just a recording of me practicing, nothing fancy, just to show what I was writing about. You know, one sound says more than a thousand words, or a hundred atleast :) Doc-Z | |
| dudsy -- 10/03/2004, 13:57:21 -- #7692 | |
| thanx to everyone......i shall try those methods! -dudsy | |
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