New Year's Eve, 2010

Looking at some other possible piano stuff to learn in addition to the Sudnow Method. A book on stride? A book on Improvising Blues Piano? An internet course?

Either way, here's a ragged work in progress of Norwegian Wood:

Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/p8bfc2bxqh

New Year's Eve's Eve, 2010

Practiced repertoire. Tried out a new song. Didn't "grab" me. Then a cool thing happened. I pulled out "Norwegian Wood" that my piano buddy shared with me some time ago. It's quite cool, with jazzy chords. Fun stuff! Messed around with "improvising" during it....fun! I didn't finish it yet... Perhaps may get an Internet course....may get a book on how to play stride....my left hand play is dangerously weak!

December 29, 2010

Here's how "Someone to Watch Over Me" sounded today:

Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/e5t80n7874

Addendum
1) Practiced repertoire
2) Perhaps will order a piano learning course.

Addendum II:

Here's a little fun:
Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/u2kls8x7kk

December 28, 2010

Played repertoire. Working on new song, and incorporating some stride into the break part. Got the Thelonious Monk bio in the mail today! Enjoying The Piano Lesson Book. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WONDERFUL !!!

December 27, 2010

Practiced repertoire and the new song. Interesting comparing my voicing of the new tune to Sudnow's.

December 26, 2010

Worked on repertoire, and working hard on the new Gershwin song. Cool.

Christmas Day, 2010

Worked on repertoire and "Someone to Watch Over Me.". May get a book on stride, too. Santa brought me a cool book...the Music Lesson, as well as a CD of Harold Arlen (the writer of "Over the Rainbow") songs.

Christmas Eve, 2010

Played repertoire. Started work on the new song: "Someone to Watch Over Me." I tried it some time ago.

A safe and Happy Christmas and/or Holidays to everyone reading this, and let's make 2011 a great year.

Christmas Eve's Eve, 2010

Practiced repertoire. I wonder what the next song will be.....
Hmmmm......

December 21, 2010

Practiced repertoire...

Frustration...

Listened to "Crush" today....wasn't impressed.....
To work on switching off the internal critic.

"I've Got a Crush on You"

Here it is, as recorded today....
...you may need to copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/7u7qxqja55

Addendum: Also worked on repertoire....will pick another song to voice! Will it he a Christmas song? That's tempting, but by the time I learn it, Christmas will be over, and I'm not sure I'll feel like practicing a Christmas song when it's not the season!

A Challenging Day

Worked hard on "Crush on You.". It's coming along well. Thought it was possibly ready to record, but I was mistaken! Needs more work, but that's OK. This learning stuff is a process and not a race.

Thanks go out there in cyberspace to my piano buddy who corrected my last post: As a fellow Sudnow Method user, my piano buddy reminded me that I have get those clusters ingrained in my "fingers" as opposed to my "brain!"

A Hard Working Day at the Piano

Worked on Rainbow and Winding Road. Went ok, but had a bit of trouble remembering them! Maybe what I'll do is just start considering review of songs learned as an ***important part of practice that is just as essential as song learning.*** I used to mostly just go from song to song, and mostly not see review as a critical part of practice. But a shift of perspective might be in order here. All songs learned, I think, need to be seen as not just learned forever, but as continued works in progress.

Also worked on Crush on You. It's too easy to just see practice as the process of learning a new song, because of the novelty factor of newness that the new song brings. But, again, seeing the old songs as "works in progress" can help not only with making the songs sound smoother, but in the learning process of getting my brain more and more used to voiced clusters.

December 16, 2010

Worked more on "I've Got a Crush on You." Incorporated a new color tone for minor chords. Fun stuff, this is. Been listening to George Sheering, and really like his impressionistic, dreamy ballad stuff.

December 14, 2010

Just worked on smoothing out (and writing out) some rough parts of Winding Road and Rainbow. Worked on Crush on You also.

Working Part II !

Working hard on "Crush." Slow down! Played repertoie a bit too. Things getting somewhat jumbled, so will SLOW DOWN! Downloaded a bunch of Sudnow material to have as a hard copy.
S L O W
D O W N !

Working !

Working hard on "Crush." Sometimes just walking away from the piano when hitting a plateau. Did some repertoire stuff too.

Color Tones

Practiced "I've Got a Crush on You" utilizing some great color tones. It was great using some stuff I don't usually use....at least not lately. Also taking my time. Played some repertoire stuff also. The Sudnow Method Rules.

The Long and Winding Road

Here it is with mistakes (may need to copy and paste):

http://www.box.net/shared/ftrrssg9t2

Although its not perfect, I like it. I'll continue to polish it. Worked on Rainbow, and "I Got a Crush on You."

I Got a Crush Over the Long and Winding Rainbow

Practiced "Over the Rainbow" and "The Long and Winding Road."
I think the next song will be "I Got a Crush on You.". Been listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing ballads, and I'm getting into those old standards. She sure has a beautiful voice....getting some other similar songs sung by others soon on CDs.

Mastery

Today's work: Working on mastering "Over the Rainbow." It's getting there. Though it may be sometimes difficult to know when it's mastered (and time to move on to a new tune), I think I will just feel it.

Effortless Mastery

Been reading Kenny Werner's book, "Effortless Mastery.". What a great book. He offers some great advice which really has some practical value....master what you are doing even in small doses...go for mastery, not sloppy execution...

Thanksgiving Day, 2010

The Long and Winding Road is complete, but needs practice. Sounds very nice! Interesting how what seems very difficult at first gets easier with practice. Also playing Over the Rainbow. Looking for a new song to voice....thought of What a Wonderful World, but decided against it. I think it may be one I did awhile ago, and want to play again....another Beatles song with a beautiful melody: She's Leaving Home. Or maybe another beautiful Beatles tune: If I Fell.
Addendum....started working on She's Leaving Home....in a different key from the one I did awhile ago.

November 23, 2010

Practicing "Over the Rainbow" and working on "The Long and Winding Road."

"Over the Rainbow (2010)"

Here's how "Over the Rainbow" sounds today memorized.... Again, its not perfect, but it gives you a good idea what I'm looking for.
You may need to copy and paste into your browser:
http://www.box.net/shared/ly36cnsycp

Trying not to get ahead of myself by trying to move on too fast, but started "The Long and Winding Road." Its too easy to move quickly when the sounds sound so gorgeous using the Sudnow Method.

November 19, 2010

Over the Rainbow is coming along nicely, taking it slow. Thinking about using lead sheets with memorization as opposed to focusing on only memorization. Thinking also about ditching the goal of playing fakebook songs on the fly in favor of just having a repertoire of songs that I can play even if I need to look at the lead sheets every now and then.

Taking it Slow

Taking it slow is I think, key for me. Not playing a song at slow tempo, as much as learning the song slowly, trying to incorporate learning what the song has to offer. Trying to memorize chord configurations and closed voicings as I go. Slow, concentrated learning is better than fast and sloppy attempts at learning a song. For me, anyway. And letting go of the ego in learning the piano is also a good thing for me. Slow, concentrated egoless learning is the ticket.

Sudnow

A cool piano day. Taking my time, relearning "Over the Rainbow" but trying not to rush learning it. Thinking through the process, incorporating open and closed voicings and learning. Thanks again, David Sudnow, for demystifying the process. It's up to me to be patient with the tools he has provided.

Consolidation!

Ok. I'm definitely on to something with these ideas. However, it's not the "secret tolling the piano instantly.". Going for the Sudnow type handshapes is helping. Getting to know some good ones for the present song is helpful. But I still should not rush the process. Take the time to learn the songs. With this different track I'm taking, it's helping me in actually remembering the chords, and thus helping to remember them when I'll need them in future songs. But I STILL will have to work on getting the songs to sound smooth.

Reevaluation!

Not sure the memorization of closed voicings is the way to go. I want to play SOLO piano, and learning closed voicings may minimize the color notes used. Maybe today I'll try to figure out favorite OPEN voicings to use for low and high melody notes. Or maybe today I'll smash my piano with a hammer.... ! Using the Open voicings sounds soooo nice.... Stay tuned....

November 13, 2010; Forging Ahead With My Own Rules

I think I'm on to something cool here, and it's gonna take some work. Memorizing closed voicings to play in low/medium/high registers. Sounds like three, but it's really two fingerings for each chord (they repeat). Using closed voicings in the right hand. Going song by song, learning the chords for each given song.
Combining:
1) Rote learning out of context: The Voicings.
Going over them, over them, and over them.
2) Contextual application in the context of songs.

First Projec: Working on learning closed voicings involved in the chords in "Wichita Lineman," and applying my knowledge of those chords by playing them in the song.

Worked on this throughout the day......ITS DIFFICULT (Confusing the chords while simultaneously making them hit the melody note)...

Patience....patience....

Working on the C, Bb, Am, Dm chord voicings.....the song also has Other chords for me to learn.

Good 'ole patience needed.

Closed Voicings (Again)

Interested now in making my own piano rules. I'm now in a different yet related direction...
I'm incorporating Sudnow, a jazz voicings book I recently got, and some ideas to try something. I'm interested in memorizing closed voicings and utilizing them in the right hand.

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"

Worked today on "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Interesting how the strong desire to play piano kicks in. Here's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (copy and paste):
http://www.box.net/shared/8p0sn4z0j5

"Wichita Lineman"

Here it is with closed and open voicings, along with a run adapted from the book "Tons of Runs" by Andy LaVerne. Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/k7j3g3ov8g

Closed Voicings (Again)

Went thru "Just the Way You Are," and struggled thru it!
Working on "Wichita Lineman" with closed voicings....but here's the cool part: Sudnow made sense not emphasizing closed voicings over open voicings. Cool to play the left hand closed voicing form with the right hand open one. Also using a book to help with a little piano run during the song.

Closed Voicings

Update: I've been working recently on keeping "Just the Way You Are" in my hands. I haven't really been working on "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." But yesterday at the piano warrants reporting:

I listened to David Sudnow's teaching of closed voicings recently, and I tried to put some of it in action yesterday. I kind of surprised myself with how many I was able to get in hand relatively quickly: C, Bb, D, Gm, Dm, Am, and G. I tried playing "Wichata Lineman" using the closed voicing. interesting. One thing What ffrustrating was using the right hand to play the melody; I was fumbling with not only playing the correct right hand melody notes, but also with using a fingering that was not clumsy. The other frustrating thing was trying to get timing down correctly using these closed voicing. Sudnow calls these voicings "Stride," and for good reason; to get it sounding really good, I guess you need at least two beats per chord. It's frustrating for me trying to get my timing right.

But on the other hand, these closed voicings add a great addition to how to make sounds at the piano! Of course I've been tempted to buy another piano method, but Suds' emphasis on self-learning makes sense to me. I'm still not convinced there are any "easy" methods of learning to play the piano sophisticated out there. David Sudnow's approach (to me) offers the student ways of making sophisticated sounds at the piano, but it forces the student to put all of his pieces of knowledge together in a self-learning kind of way. Sometimes blending various pieces together in one tune (open voicings, closed voicings).

So......because these closed voicings can add to a tune, I'll keep learning them. My piano buddy has told me how they are key, and I agree.

September 26, 2010

Working on "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

Septenber 25, 2010

Here's how "Just the Way You Are" sounds today...
Copy and Paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/q14pcvlprt

September 19, 2010

"Just the Way You Are" is sounding nice. Just a little bit more to learn.

September 18, 2010

Still working on "Just the Way You Are," and it feels good taking it slow and doing it correctly.

September 10, 2010

Voicing "Just the Way You Are."
Difficult, but I'm getting there. Has clusters I'm not too familiar with, due to being in an unfamiliar key (two sharps). Take it slow....take it slow....

September 9, 2010

Its been awhile since my last post! Back using the ideas off David Sudnow. First song of 20 I'd like to voice: "Just the Way You Are." Going to just have the goal of voicing 20 songs, keeping six in hand at any particular time.

Patience, Patience, PATIENCE ! ! !

Patience is needed for this piano stuff. Simple but true. Trying to figure out what to practice takes patience. Patience needed playing songs and then forgetting them. Patience when my fingers don't get the idea. Patience with learning and then forgetting scales. Patience needed when things get forgotten. Today, I worked on some songs. Patience needed there. Learning a song isn't like making a painting, to me, anyway. When a painting is finished, we can stand back and enjoy it forever. But learning to play a song is different. I have learned songs, they have sounded nice, and sure i can have them recorded, but then I FORGET HOW TO PLAY THEM ! ! I'm going back and forth between the Harrison book and song learning...

"How High the Moon"

Interesting couple of days. Was frustrated because I thought my "What a Wonderful World" (see yesterday's post)lacked something. I let a friend of mine hear it, and he had some great advice. He said that I should do more peppy type of songs in order to build up my chops. He had a great point; I'm working on "High High the Moon."

"What a Wonderful World"

Here's me playing this favorite today...copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/7l3e35unsh

July 23, 2010

Not in the mood to study scales today too much. Playing around with "Blackbird," experimenting with some Sudnow voicings with it... Would be nice to blend a Sudnow version with the more traditional voicings.

The beauty and the frustration.... July 22,2010

Scales, scales, scales. Trying to remember the minor scales and pentatonic scales is a pain. Started learning the blues scales. The value of learning these scales is getting obvious to me. Fitting in these scales in fills during songs can be pretty cool. And the pentatonic and blues scales sound quite nice to my ears. But the frustration of getting them learned!!! I continue to have fun playing "Blackbird."

July 18, 2010

Worked on minor scales, and pentatonic. Learned all the minors, and eight of the pentatonics. Of course, they are not mastered yet! Having fun playing around with "Blackbird." Listened to some of the great Elton album "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road" album. I think I'll reach my October 1 goal.

July 17, 2010

Check out my music player that now plays songs when you go on my blog. I included some of my favorite piano popular tunes. Thanks to my son who helped me install this!

July 16, 2010

Must have spent too much time having fun learning "Blackbird" in that of course my learning of scales has gooten slow. Practiced minor scales today, and have two more to learn (Ab and Bb). [Not that I'm an expert at the other ones!]

July 14, 2010

Here's how "Blackbird" sounds today. Mostly played it staight, but added a little run, and some Sudnow stuff. Still needs work, of course. Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/1iddjvukhd

July 10, 2010 - Addendum

Worked on playing "Blackbird." Sounds nice; using some of the C minor scale I've been learning to add more color to it. Working on C mior, D minor, E minor, F minor, G minor, A minor, B minor, and Eb minor scales.

July 10, 2010 - Some More Goals

With the piano, I'd like to just sit down and play songs "on the fly" with as little prep time as possible, utilizing fake books. I'd like to play background music at retaurants, and take "requests" as long as the songs are to be found in the fakebooks I'd have with me.
The Sundow Method has been helpful to me, and a look through this blog will reveal my ideas and reactions to the Sudnow Method. My issue with it at this point is that for me anyway, it takes a lot of repitition of songs learned inorder to maintain the songs "in my fingers." But I've learned some great stuff with the Method that I will retain in my play.
I'm now using the Mark Harrison Pop Piano Book, and I'm trying to go through it but in a time limited way, breaking up its contents into deadlines by which I should be at a particular place. At the current time, I'm in kind of the foundational part, where I'm to learn scales, chords, etc.
So I'm hoping that learning this stuff will help to achieve my goal. I'd also like to compose more stuff on piano!
As far as the learning process itself, what's helpful is the book "Effortless Mastery" by Kenny Werner. It really streeses getting rid of the ego/self-criticisms that hamper the learning process.

July 9, 2010

Practicing mostly minor scales: C minor, D minor, E minor, F minor, G minor, A minor, B minor.

I've been tempted lately to invest in yet another piano learning method, but my better sense has so far prevailed. Just trying to stay with one method here....

July 8, 2010

Working on C minor, D minor, E minor, F minor scales....getting complicated.

July 7, 2010

Saw Ringo in concert last night with my son, and I'll never forget it!
Today, practiced mostly the C minor and D minor scales.

July 5, 2010

Working on my scales, mostly. Tomorrow, I'll be seeing Ringo Starr!

July 3, 2010

Worked on first chord inversions for all major chords. Interesting. A lot of work ahead...

July 2, 2010

Worked on 1st inversion of: C, F, G, Bb, Eb, and Ab chords.

July 1, 2010

Back again.... could not stay away.....

New direction that's not so new:
Trying to use some ideas from The Pop Piano Book by Mark Harrison. Worked on second inversion chords for C, F, G.

May 16, 2010

A hard working day at the piano. Working on "Just the Way You Are," with some good results. But the old frustrations kick in while I'm struggling over some past learned stuff...

May 14, 2010

Time to move on to "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel. Here is "The Way You Look Tonight." Needs practice, but I'm ready to move on.
Copy and Paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/tums5bcoq6

May 10, 2010

Well what do you know.....three practice days in a row.....
Worked on my two tunes.

May 9, 2010

Just taking my time....no rush! Working on my two tunes, and refreshing my D closed voicing.

May 8, 2010

Closed voicings for the three C's, and D major worked on.
Worked on "All the Things You Are" and "The Way You Look Tonight." Adding some closed voicing stuff in there. A great piano day.

May 5, 2010

It was a drag practicing tonight. Spent very little time, very little accomplished, and was too tired to make it work.

May 2, 2002

Working hard on "The Way You Look Tonight" and "All the Things You Are." Reading Kenny Werner's "Effortless Mastery." Finding that my brain can handle only so much while I'm at the piano, so breaks are needed!

May 1, 2010

After a little break from the piano due to the realities of life, I got back today and with a vengence. Worked on "All the Things You Are" and I'm pleasantly surprised at how relatively quickly it got back together. Working on "The Way You Look Tonight," and its sounds nice. Looking forward to the song after that, which will be a little change of pace: Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are." Have been playing around with the intro to it, and it has the potential to sound really nice. Have been toying around with maybe looking into New Age doodling, but nothing will take the place of me building a repertoire of songs using the Sudnow material. I'll probably be playing on and off throughout the day....

April 21, 2010

Working hard on "The Way You Look Tonight." Getting "in the zone" while playing...
Fm7 = new closed voicing using a bit in the song.

April 19, 2010

Started working on "The Way You Look Tonight," and ordered some sheet-music. Its really quite interesting about how quickly voicing has become, and how the clusters Suds talks about are getting in my hands. At one point Suds says that the problem won't be finding enough time to practice, but the problem will be finding time to do anything else. He's right. Having a good time.

April 18, 2010

I don't think I can do the memorizing stuff! But an interesting thing happened yesterday....After playing "All the Things You Are" about 7000 times, its kind of memorized alreday (tried to memorize it, too, but was frustrating). I think I'll just forget the memorizing stuff, and just work to get songs smooth. The memorizing (or close to it) might occur without even trying too much. On to the next song.....I wonder what it'll be...

April 17, 2010

Here is how "All the Things You Are" sounds at this point (copy and paste):
http://www.box.net/shared/6kbvuk1ui5

It sure ain't perfect, so I'd like to work it up so that it has less pauses and perhaps less of a rolling notes sound...

Working on memorizing it....I think I have voiced a bunch of songs in the past that have evaporated from my fingers, and I'm going to try to memorize to minimize the probability of that happening...its a pain, but, well, I think the benefits are worth it.

April 16, 2010

Working hard on "All the Things You Are." Using a little C closed voicing and C7 closed voicing. I'm drained! Sent away for a book on piano runs, a CD of Andre Previn playing piano, and Dr. Faustus (by Thomes Mann). I believe that the Mann book was a favorite of Sudnow's. Recently listened to Suds talking about using the tritone substitution. Interesting stuff.

April 15, 2010

A sneak preview. Copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/cxdxbljq67

April 14, 2010

Just some musings....

...I've read some great stuff recently regarding the jumping from one piano method to another, the tension between wanting to play and wanting to play quickly, how its interesting how we sometimes practice as if we are waiting to be done the learning, and then beginning playing, and perhaps that is a shame....

I'm at a different place with the Sudnow Method than I've ever been, and that's a great thing..... What I mean is that although I've said it before, I think its sunk in that there's no magic bullet method. Its a matter of getting to the piano and utilizing some focused practice. And having fun along the way. Enjoying the practice. And the Sudnow Method helps me to do just that. Suds' Student Club and Members Club is just awesome.

Thanks, Suds.

Piano Buddy, thanks to you too. I couldn't have come this far without you believing in me.

April 11, 2010

Working on "All the Things You Are."
Using that "C" Closed Voicing a little with it. Finding the color tones seems to be getting easier, as is writing fractions. My speed/smoothness leaves a lot of room for improvement.

April 10, 2010

Just having a great time with the Sudnow Method, working on "All the Things You Are." I'm going to try to have two or three songs in rotation at al times. Sounds nice. I think I have voicing down pat. Want to work more on actual P L A Y I N G of the songs.

April 7, 2010

Working on "All the Things You Are." Just taking my time....enjoying the sounds.....taking it slow, exploring the different sounds available.

April 7, 2010

Yet a new direction. I'm going to just use this blog to talk about and document my piano progress with the Sudnow Method.

April 3, 2010

Using the Sudnow Method to work on "All the Things You Are" on piano. The Sudnow method really helps to give those sophisticated sounds on the piano.

NEW DIRECTION - March 28, 2010

Here's the deal. Its a big change in this blog. Its no longer titled "The Piano Experiment," but is now titled "An Artist." I'm not giving up the piano, but I've decided to broaden the scope of what I'm covering here, with what will probably become a less emphasis on the piano. I'm no longer in the rock and roll band. However, other things are going on with me which I'm going to try to develop. Most stuff is stuff I've dabbled with on and off throughout my life. But I want to get into some stuff more. Here are some things I may get more involved in that you might be reading about in future posts. And some of the stuff below I may not get involved with. But here are some ideas:

1) Continue to learn piano. Using a bunch of ideas/methodologies.
2) Working on songs in a current blues band that I'm involved with.
3) Songwriting
4) Creating original musical compositions
4) The visual arts: drawing, sketching, painting
5) Improving my fingerstyle guitar playing
6) Improving my lead guitar playing
7) Photography
8) Creating a Youtube Station of my music
9) Learning more Gypsy Guitar
10) Wring poetry, stories ... who knows..a novel?

Cool.

March 12, 2009

Yet another detour / winding road ...

I'm going to go back to try to learn the piano by ear using Matthew Stephens' program (it's here: http://www.thepianobyear.com/ ).

March 4, 2010

Made a quick one-take recording of "In My Life."
http://www.box.net/shared/vntelsdx5c

March 3, 2010

Worked on "In My Life" playing according to the Sudnow Method. Such nice sounds come as a result of using those voicings. Playing around with the dominant colors that I didn't ordinarily use.

March 1, 2010

DETOUR

Going back to the Sudnow Method. But less strictly with regards to practice time. If I get to it, I get to it. Finding that life has more important priorities than piano. And finding that music has other opportunities than just piano (Currently playing guitar in a rock and roll band). But piano will still be involved in my life!

Day 329

On p.28 of the first Swain book.

Day 328

Working on p.26 of the first Swain book. Learning the new chords Ebmaj7 and Fm7.

Day 327

Finished "Londenberry Air." Here's how its sounding:

http://www.box.net/shared/5beskrgksf

Also worked on the chord constructions on p. 21 of the first Swain book.

Day 326

(Should have posted this for yesterday).
Continued to work on "Londenberry Air" and the chord construction page in Swain's Book 1.

Day 325

A Cool Piano Day.
Started out with the decision to not memorize. Relief!
Was frustrated starting on "Londenberry Air" again today as it sounded bad as i forgot it..... But then stuck with it, and its sounding better! I thought I didn't have to go through the chord constructions on p.21 anymore, but I was mistaken! I went back to them today, and realized that I better stick with them!

Day 324

Frustrating day. Worked on "Londenberry Air," but I'm getting confused as I'm trying to memorize it....I memorize new parts, and the lose memory for old parts as I do such.....

Day 323

(Should have posted this yesterday)
Continue to work on chord constructions and "Londenberry Air."

Day 322

Continue working on "Londenberry Air," and chord constructions...

Day 321

Working on working out the chords on p.21, and working on "Londonberry Air" on p.25 in the first Swain book. Enjoying this process. I like the idea of combining the strategies of memorizing chords and learning how to make them. Its going quite well. I just hate memorizing tunes.

Day 320

Practiced forming chords on p.21 and the tune on p.24 in Swain's Book 1.

Day 319

Practicing forming the chords on p.21 and playing the piece on p.24 of Swain's Book 1.

Day 318

Practicing the chord construction on p.21, and working on memorizing the piece on p.24 in the first Swain book.

Day 317

On p.24 of Alan Swain's Book 1. Up to memorizing six chords, and practicing his rules of making other chords.

Day 316

On p.20 (yes, you read correctly, p. 20) of Swain's first book. Learning 7th, 6th, major, minor chords, and finding that the procedures are similar to the Sudnow Method.

Day 315

Working on p.5 of Allan Swain's Book 1.
Playing "Send in the Clowns."
Here's how it sounds today:
http://www.box.net/shared/bzqxbczf0y

Day 314

Working on p.5 of Allan Swain's Book 1.
Playing "Send in the Clowns."

Day 313

http://www.box.net/shared/uxof2gbqve

Day 312

Just some more work on "Send in the Clowns."

Day 311

Trying to figure out what to practice, and how much.....so I worked on this:
http://www.box.net/shared/v9r24r2elx

Day 310

Practicing diatonic scales.

Day 309

Practicing diatonic scales.

Day 308

On Chapter 3 of the Harrison book....

Day 307

Practiced major scales in both hands.

Day 306

Practicing major scales (L & R hands).

Day 305

http://www.box.net/shared/x0vyp09ch9

Day 304

"Something" again played today:
http://www.box.net/shared/cx3z6roaef

Day 303

On p.22 of Pete's book. Also, continue to play and have fun with "Something."

Here's "Something:"
http://www.box.net/shared/2fbtxs7elq

Day 302

Working on "Something." Will post very soon. Deceided to also use Mark Harrison's The Pop Piano book.

Day 301

Working on "Something."

Day 300

Practicing p.20 of Pete's book and "Something" using Pete's ideas. On the bright side, my piano recorder/computer now works again.

Here's how "Something" sounds today:
http://www.box.net/shared/4jst9xj3y8