A Good Sunday

• Rode exercise bike for an hour. Yes!! A good diet day too.

• Continued work on my Sudnow songs.

• Looks like our band will have a rock and roll gig at the end of August.

• Played a bit of the "PET SOUNDS" box set for my son. I'm looking forward to the "LOVE AND MERCY" movie coming out soon, which is about Brian Wilson.

• My son and I watched the John Carpenter version of the movie "THE THING" tonight. I like the old school special effects better than the computer generated stuff. 

Guitar, Piano, and God

• A good day of practice of jazz standards with the band with me on guitar; a good day of piano practice too.

• In order to attempt to balance my exposure to atheist stuff, I'm reading some stuff that attempts to show the existence of God.

Buddy Holly Jamming at a gas station!

THE SUDNOW METHOD

• Will stick with The Sudnow Method. Practiced the 2 songs and worked on DANNY BOY. Did a little melody hunting by ear.

Holding Pattern

• No exercise today. Diet went horribly today. Will get back to them both. 

• Was in kind of a slumpy holding pattern with piano. Played MISTY and AS TIME GOES BY, but couldn't really get into getting into DANNY BOY. The reason was probably due to spending perhaps not enough careful time at the piano and instead putting that time into wondering if I should change methods. I really am into the sounds that The Sundow Method offers, but I still wonder if another method might be better (for me, anyway). I am impatient, and that quality does not help.

Syd Barrett

Alan Swain

• Haven't exercised today or yesterday, but I'll get back to it. Diet going fairly ok.

• Reading an interesting book on mindfulness/meditation: "WHEREVER YOU GO THERE YOU ARE" by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

• Thinking of going back to Alan Swain's books with the goal of playing piano from lead sheets / fake books.

Fatigue

• Tired tonight; not a lot of piano work done, but did a little.

• Tempted to use John Valerio's book: "JAZZ PIANO CONCEPTS & TECHNIQUES."  A familiar dilemma returns: Learn the tools first of chords OR learn songs?

Same

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Just continued work on my 3 piano songs.

Memorial Day, 2015

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Worked on my 3 Sudnow piano songs while still being tempted to learn boogie-woogie and/or stride and/or ragtime.

• Took a couple of pictures of some visitors in my yard today:

And seen during an outing:

Sudnow

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Looked at some old piano books I had; was a little tempted to use one and then decided no way; Sudnow is the way to go for me. Read part of his "Ways of the Hand" book today, too.

• Went over my piano songs today, including attempt to continue to learn DANNY BOY.

• Visited my dad today. Here are a couple of cute pictures of him with my kids:

Mellow Mood

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Had band practice that went ok.

• Was tempted to give up on piano and stick to guitar but that whim passed.

• Worked on my three piano songs.

Suds and Silver

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Worked on the three Sudnow songs.

• Thinking of riding exercise bike for 1/2 a day every rather than what I was trying to do (which was taking Mondays off from it and riding an hour on Saturdays and Sundays). The 1/2 hour daily seems more doable.

• The Sundow Method is still my primary musical focus. However, I'm looking forward to using Mr. Silver's ideas in guitar improv as our band will be playing some jazzy cocktail hour music soon. The Silver book was fun.

Lady Madonna

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Continue to work on my three piano songs, trying to learn DANNY BOY slowly but surely.

• Learned the beginning of the Beatles' absolutely phenomenal rocker LADY MADONNA and it is fun!!

• Listened to some old 1920's boogie woogie piano and I think it's cool stuff!

• Improved on diet today.

Danny Boy

• Before leaving for work this morning, managed to actually find the time to practice the two songs as well as begin the first notes to "Danny Boy."

• No exercise today; did not adhere to diet. Time to snap back into it!  Note to self: IT FELT GREAT TO DIET AND EXERCISE!!!!

• Continued to work on the three piano songs. 

• Will be playing music with the band during the cocktail hour for a wedding soon. Looks like we will be playing mostly jazz standards so I'll perhaps be working on my guitar improv chops.

Blah

A blah day. Not feeling too well physically. Just went over my two songs and started to work very very little on my new piano song: DANNY BOY. Decided that the "Improvising Blues Piano" book will be a cool secondary learning path. 

Grueling!

• A grueling day practicing piano. Difficult to get AS TIME GOES BY in my hands, but I think I finally got it (even though it needs work).

• Blues piano CDs have shipped. Now I'm wondering with all of this song play that I'm focusing on if I should focus more on Ari Kast's book "Stride Piano Tricks" more than the Richards book. The Sudnow Method is still my dominant focus, but we'll see as I go what I'll be using as a secondary learning focus.

• Just thinking out loud/brainstorming: it'd be cool to slowly add one stride trick (from the Kast book) at a time to my arsenal just as I slowly tend to add a little of Sudnow's open voicing ideas to my songs.

Happy Birthday to Me!

• Did some good practice of AS TIME GOES BY.

• Rode exercise bike for an hour.

• Had a nice birthday luncheon with my wife, son, and two daughters.

• I think I'll work on Tim Richards's book "IMPROVISING BLUES PIANO" book too. Ordered some old time blues piano CDs as birthday gifts to myself and cancelled the Blues Guitar book.

As Time Goes By ... Birthday Eve

• Rode exercise bike for an hour. A good workout today.

• Ordered a blues guitar instruction book for my birthday.

• Though my birthday is tomorrow, I had a nice Birthday-Eve dinner at my in-laws complete with the singing of "Happy Birthday."

• Worked on my two piano songs; almost done with "As Time Goes By."

- Rest in Peace: B.B. King -

• Rest in Peace, B.B. King.  Saw him in concert some years ago.

• Burned 376 calories on the exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

BB and Ringo:

• Worked on my two piano songs. Just for fun, thought of doing some guitar stuff, but didn't get to it.

• Listened to the Bill Evans' CD, "I WILL SAY GOODBYE." I love the gorgeous ballad piano sounds. These are the same sounds I believe can come from utilizing the Sudnow Method. However, I just can't seem to get into the songs with faster tempos. The piano solos in the faster songs just do nothing for me except the ending of one of the faster songs when the piano is playing some wonderful sounds. Just can't get into those upright bass solos, either. But those sounds in the ballads.....!

BB and Buddy:

Weird

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Questioning the Catholicism/Christianity that I've assumed since birth to be True. Exploring a bit of atheism and agnosticism.....heck, there's even Buddhism out there.....

.....very weird to question.....stopped following a bunch of Catholic and Christian stuff on my Twitter...

• Working on MISTY and AS TIME GOES BY.

• Went to one of my daughter's school chorus show tonight.

• Weird dream I had: mom was alive and no longer had Alzymers. It went away. Things were like normal. And I told dad something like, "You know it's a miracle."

This Post Has No Title

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.  Not a great diet day.

• Squeezed in a tiny bit of piano practice.

Good Practice Day

• Up early this morning; worked on MISTY and AS TIME GOES BY and rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

- PAUL MCCARTNEY RECORDING THE VOCALS TO "SHE'S LEAVING HOME" -

• Was able to practice more of the two songs this evening. Had fun with my youngest daughter as she sang some Beatles songs with me at piano. Thinking this was the way it was in the older days when families actually sang around the piano rather than watched TV! Also played around with playing HERE COMES THE SUN ON PIANO. Continue to listen to the basic Sudnow course on CD.

Monday

• Today is my day off from exercising. Didn't eat too great. Gained some weight. Will get back to diet and exercise tomorrow.

• Played MISTY and working on AS TIME GOES BY. 

Just Another Sudnow Post

• Rode exercise bike for an hour.

• Listened to the last Sudnow CD of the basic course.

• Continue to practice AS TIME GOES BY and MISTY.

Vacation a couple years ago or so

Mother's Day, 2015

The Beatles and their moms:

Mother's Day, 2015

My mom died a few years ago or so, but here are a few pictures of her and my dad:

Buddy Holly

The May 2015 Piano Challenge

• Rode exercise bike for an hour.

• Continue work on Sudnow's MISTY and AS TIME GOES BY.

• Playing guitar during Mass tonight. I consider myself Catholic, but then again, maybe I am not. So many years of dealing with it being taught the wrong way, an emphasis placed on stupid things, not to mention exposure to hypocritical leaders and money money money lead to doubt. The Protestant Churches also don't cut it for me. General doubts about Christianity also don't help the issue.

   Did Jesus exist, and if so, was he / is He God? I do believe in a God because I am yet to be convinced by any arguement that makes sense to me about how the universe came from nothing. And then from my admittedly limited personal looking into the matter of other religions, Christianity makes the most sense to me. And it follows for me that Catholicism makes the best sense for me since it came first, and all the Protestants came later. Makes me wonder though how much a function of me staying Catholic is a function of fear and how much is a function of true  belief.

• Continue to listen to my Sudnow material.

• Had a good talk with my 17 year old who uncannily (considering my entry above where I talk about spirituality) confronted me about why I keep saying I'm Catholic. Long story short: Confusing for me. However, my relationship with my son seems to be quite fine in that we talk about this stuff and he appreciates that we are able to. 

• Playing music at Mass tonight went well.

• Bought some stuff that will help my exercise with the exercise bike: a fan as well as an extension chord to easily connect the fan and a box to get play music on my phone. May not sound like a big deal, but it will truely help me while I exercise. I just wish that the batteries in the bike would not die so quickly. The batteries control the resistance levels on the bike as well as the screen which keeps count of calories burned, carbs burned, etc. With weak batteries, before my routine is over, it all shuts down and I lose track of how I'm doing and I have to rest the resistance.

• OK so here is my latest and (hopefully!) final music goal that I will attempt this year:

Voice and memorize 15 songs on the piano, the Sudnow way. In addition, have his versions of MISTY, AS TIME GOES BY, and DANNY BOY in my hands. 

I do realize that this goal may take more than a year to accomplish. But that's my newest challenge, and I'll call it: "The May 2015 Piano Challenge."

No Piano Today

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.  Lost 48.6 pounds since Jan. 5. Ate a lot of pizza tonight and will need to get back on track tomorrow to make up for it!

As Time Goes Misty

• Lost 47.6 pounds since January 5.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Worked on MISTY and AS TIME GOES BY.  So cool. Love the Sudnow Method. Although it is frustrating dealing with memorization issues, this difficulty is offset by the beauty of the music.

• Did a little reading of a book that deals with practicing the piano. Reinforced the notion that memorization and piano play can help deal with aging. Well, my mom had Alzymers and dementia, and I'd like to avoid that road, thank you. 

Losing Weight

• Burned 366 calories on exercise bike for 1/2 hour.  Lost 46.6 pounds since Jan. 5!

• Not a lot of piano practice today but did a little.

- Piano -

• Burned 351 calories on exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• A cool day of piano practice of Sudnow's MISTY and working on Sudnow's AS TIME GOES BY. Continue to listen to his seminar.

• Found some old piano sheet music stuff in the basement including some Chopin (with CD). May tinker with it!! Why not?!?!?!

• Quit the old style jazz band. I'd rather put time into piano.

The Sudnow Method

• Lost 45 pounds since Jan. 5. No exercise bike today, but did some weight stuff and knee bends.

• Played MISTY and worked on AS TIME GOES BY utilizing Sudnow's course.

• I think I sell myself short by going too quickly to negative forecasts of what I'll be able to do on the piano in the future.

• Listening to Sudnow's course. 

Mr. Thomas "Fats" Waller

Thomas "Fats" Waller

• Rode exercise bike for an hour; burned 724 calories; burned 116 carbohydrates; may have went 22.5 miles. 

• Continue to work on perfecting MISTY.

Tough line for me to draw with regards to knowing when a song is learned good enough to move on to another. There's a tension there - gear gets involved with learning something new and that fear of failure may lead to delay; on the other hand, it's good to perfect a song.

• Reading a really good biography of Fats Waller. What a time to be learning the piano as when Mr. Waller did!  Seems like there's so many excuses to be lazy these days with all of our toys. Inspiring to read about Mr. Waller. I'm really a fan of stride piano as well as ballad piano. 

• Took a one hour walk.

• Decided to stick with The Sundow Method. Just have to trust that it'll lead to easier play in the future. Worked on MISTY today.

Buddy Holly

Friday Gig

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.  Lost 44.6 pounds since January 5th!

• Gig went ok. I first played with the old style jazz band. Highlight for me was scatting during "Puttin' On the Ritz." For the second part, I played with the Rock and Roll band. Didn't go too great. Just about no one in the audience seemed to get into it except with a few exceptions. 

• Sudnow Method is calling me.

ME AT TONIGHT'S GIG DURING THE OLD JAZZ BAND PORTION: