Getting slack

Don't worry! Not in my practice regime, in posting on this blog. my intention was to have a much better practice diary because 1 I wouldn't loose it, and 2 because I would keep posting as its online.

So on Tuesday, I woke up and had actually started to feel a little bit six as I had an ear ache and soar throat, was petrified that I was going to end up with some kind of flu and not be able to do my 2 exams. So after an hour of long tones in the morning I decided it would be best to go home and rest. Which is what I did.

I woke up on Wednesday and felt fine! I did a crammed version of practice as I had an Improv exam and a harmony exam that day. So my practice went for 2 hours and consisted of 20 minutes of Long Tones. 20 minutes of scales that consisted of all Harmonic minor stuff, and Melodic Minor in Particular the Eb and Ab harmonic and Melodic minor modes. All performed in variations of around 120 and then again at 130. I then attempted 20 minutes of my transcription of Hi-Fly in 6 keys, I worked on the double time parts in all 6 keys, working them from slow to speed. The second hour of my practice consisted of about 20 minutes of playing through the changes of Confirmation and Have You Met Miss Jones with the metronome set at various speeds around 120. Doing that all from Memory. I then had 2 good friends join me for around 30-40 minutes in which I played my Dexter and Kenny transcriptions of the 2 songs with the other guys tapping time along with me. I did the same for them listening to their various solos over the same tunes. Then in the exam, we ran out of time so I had to do my test on Friday.

On Thursday I spent 30 minutes on Long Tones, 30 Minutes on the Pentatonic Scales in 4 note cells, and the Blues Scales, Bop Scales and Diminished (Dominant) scales. These where performed up to 140bpm. Then I performed my transcriptions in about 18 minutes or so and then spent the remaining 40 minutes on trying desperately to memorise my list of 20 tunes. The one thing that I've neglected over the semester. While I should have (and will in the future) focused on a song at a time, I was trying too hard to get through the list of 20 tunes that in the end I only had 5 memorised and couldn't play them well anyway. NB for next year!!!!!

On Friday I spent a half hour on Long Tones, In the scale department I spent a half hour on the major modes, harmonic and melodic minor modes, the pentatonic, Blues, Diminished and Bop scales at 200bpm. Some where not flash, but most where fine. I then spent about 40 minutes on my transcriptions. Then 80 minutes including 4 small breaks to have a quick drink and stretch. This 80 was on the tunes, yet again, I can see my problem was rushing through tunes trying to memorise every single one of them. While on the morning of an exam, I should have studied smarter and learned one at a time.

I the test I did ok up until the tune part in which as you could imagine I could only play 5 out of 20 which doesn't go well for a good mark! Then of the 3 I got to play, Confirmation, Miss Jones and There Will Never Be Another You, I stuffed all the melodies up and soloed like crap as well. So I'm very disappointed how I went, I know I could have done better. I don't know, I think it was a head space thing.