Saturday, April 23, 2011

Piano + Guitar

These two don't have to be mutually exclusive in regards to learning. On the chord tone book, the author has a good discussion on how to practice. In timed little bits. No rushing. I can do this for both instruments, but it will take patience and commitment.

Trying more of the Sudnow Method. I have a bunch of songs I once kind of learned, and thinking about going back, learning them slowly, with no pressure.
And no shortcuts like mentioned in recent posts.

Worked on "Can't Help Falling in Love" today.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Minors

I think I got most of the Minors learned now too. Wondering how I should go for learning those dominants, since there's so many color options.... Maybe minimize choices...

Listened to some George Shearing ... He played some ballads in such a great, dramatic way...

Reading "Just Being at the Piano" by Mildred Portney with an introduction by Lee (Hyman Roth in the Godfather II [!]) Strasberg.

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Majors

I think I got all the mostly used Major Chord patterns learned. I think it will help continuing this method if the goal is voicing songs relatively quickly. However, it will still take some work to learn how to play songs with a minimum of hesitations.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Where I'm At

Piano-wise, I'm going to try something.
Yes, its unorthodox, but at this point I don't care about being unorthodox. I'm using as a role models people like Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, and anyone else who just had the guts to go where their spirit is taking them musically.

I love the piano ballad, but played in the Sudnow, Bill Evans, George Shearing kind of way. Kind of blending dissonant notes with beautiful melodies. I'd like to keep doibg my learning how to do that, and I am learning not to care about folks not really caring for either me focusing on ballads or the dissonance I like. And I also want to lrarn it my way. Blending the Sudnow Methhod with learning put of context (memorizing shapes of chords out of context). I know I've kind of tried this before, but I'd lime to try it again, but with more confidence.

In that vein, I've been focusing on memorizing the mosy widely used major chords.