Day One
COVID-19 has made me all the more aware that human connection is the thing that motivates me to do almost everything.
The transition to a human free or, let’s say, “human-lite,” life has been weird and hard, hasn’t it? I feel that I’ve settled into a life with less highs and lows. There’s something nice about consistency and time to yourself…. and yet, what motivates you to do anything in a world like this?
This is where this blog comes in. I want to be good at the things I do. I want to understand diminished scales and when to use them. I want to like the way it sounds when I sing. I’ve been studying these things for a few years (specifically, jazz) and I want a place to log my progression. To make it feel like even though I’m doing these things alone, maybe I’m doing them alone, but together, with all of you. Or maybe just me! But if I have to post about it, I’ll be more likely to see progression and results. This is my hope.
Today I had a jazz piano/theory lesson. What did we discuss… Ah yes.
Straight, No Chaser:
So I’m working on the Thelonious Monk song, Straight, No Chaser. Now that I’ve played it several ways (melody in RH, no melody and both hands playing chords, walking bass in LH, etc), we are going to add some improv practice on top of this.
This week I’m going to practice the diminished scale and practice playing the diminished scale over V—>I. I’m also going to play through some Bebop scales by David Baker. It doesn’t really fit in quite with the more complicated chords of Straight, No Chaser, but it will still be good to practice.
I’m also going to practice playing ii—>V-I progressions that I have a worksheet for, and sadly, have not really worked with.
I would love to know why there is an a cappella group named after this song. Were they big Thelonious fans? Is any of their music jazz-derived? I mean, I know all a cappella music is a derivative of vocal jazz style singing, but certainly in this day and age it is not really all that jazz related. Maybe the really good groups are. Thoughts?
Skylark:
I’ve been working on Skylark. So far I just have it written out as two notes in my RH, one note on my LH. It sounds a little plain but is probably good for practice. So this week I should fill in the 5 &9s to make it a little more robust and then actually practice that. YES. Practice that.
Also I need to learn how to sing this song.
Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye:
My accomplishment this past week was filling in all the notes for 4-note RH chords. Now. I just need to practice it!
I also made pared down lead-sheets so my friend, Eric, could record himself playing these arrangements. What takes months of study for me, takes him just 3 minutes and a glance. But now I have it into my AnyTune+ app so I can listen to it on repeat while I practice, and even slow it down.
Okay, let the work begin!
