The Latest

Long story short:

Will go back to piano lessons with my teacher. But things will be changed a bit. Instead of having a lesson every two weeks, I’ll be having lessons once per month. (This will lesson the cost). Having monthly lessons instead of biweekly will also reduce the amount of pressure felt to learn my lesson. Feels ok; not looking forward to the pressure of learning, but also feels ok because I think in the future I would have regretted giving up the piano. 

If I could only turn off these negative thoughts that I have about me learning piano…

To try to do piano and guitar.

Big Music Day

Stopped piano lessons. Not feeling it. But…. I traded in my stratocaster (which I never bonded with) for a telecaster. Loving it.

Trust the Process

Practiced piano. Diatonic scale stuff in C & F, Dom7 chord drill, worked on the song “Loving You” adding thirds to Right hand as well as open chords to major chords. Trust the process. 

Ok

Ok so I practiced piano today. I think part of what I don’t like about practicing is that prior to doing it, I think it’s too difficult. Psych myself out. Be nice to remember that practice had never been so bad as originally thought. Proved that maybe I CAN do what is asked of me for piano homework. 

Scale stuff, diatonic chord stuff, song stuff was practiced today. And it wasn’t so bad afterall.

W o r k I n g

Not a lot of piano playing today; more like learning. Trying to remember the maj7 chords … while trying to make the dominant 7th chords. Trying to make sense out of the chords in the diatonic scale; I think that’s coming along. Tempted to quit piano, but I think I’d regret it.

Bought some blues guitar stuff yesterday. Practiced Christmas music with the band today. 

Figure it out!

Practiced some chord stuff today as well as some song play. Somewhat confused: trying to mix open and closed voicings; sometimes turning the major into a maj7 doesn’t sound right; also, in min7 chords what do I play in terms of the 7th: the seventh or the lowered 7th? I think I can figure it out (using google!). 

Eventually will try to learn “Try to Remember” using open and closed voicings as well as learning it in three keys. A lot to work on. Tempted to purchase some blues instructional guitar stuff. 

🎹 🎸 🎹 🎸 🎹 🎸 🎹 🎸 🎹 🎸 

Ready

Started practicing my newest homework. A little confusing but I think I’ll get it. A lot to learn! 

Piano lesson

What I was hoping for occurred: my piano lesson today helped with motivation. Teacher was impressed with my maj7 chords. Received help with what I should practice. 

I can do this. 🎹 

It’s Getting Better All the Time

Ok the goal was to play all the maj7 chords in 24 seconds. Here’s what I got (of completed attempts):

First attempt -     6 minutes

Second attempt-  3 minutes

Third attempt-     1 minute 25 seconds

Fourth attempt-   1 minute 16 seconds

Fifth attempt-      58 seconds

Sixth attempt -     56 seconds

Seventh attempt - 49 seconds

Eighth attempt-    46 seconds

Hey I’ll take it!!

Piano

Continue to woodshed on those maj7 chords. Negative thinking creeps in with a bunch of self-doubt issues: I’m I really going to get this? You aren’t talented enough. You’re too old. Stay with guitsr. Get your stratocaster out and play blues. You’ll only play elementary arrangements. Etc., etc., etc. Maybe get a jolt of motivation as a result of my next lesson…

Christmas & the Woodshed

Practiced with the band for Christmas shows. Here is my go - to:

Also got some woodshedding in with piano practice. Trying to get those major7th chords in my fingers. It’s definitely woodshedding for me as I’d like to really get better with regards to switching chords quickly. 

Can feel the “stick to guitar and stop the piano” thoughts creeping in; nevertheless want to push forward on the piano.

Time away

No piano again today. Will have to get back at it this weekend. 

Christmas Jazz

 No piano today. From work, I went over to the drummer’s home, and our jazz trio practiced jazz Christmas songs. Thinking about guitar.

Woodshed

The progress is crawling but it’s progressing. Really like the idea of playing songs with open voicings on the piano

Woodshed

Learned a lesson today. Don’t try to play a chord exercise until you first know the chords. Snuck some piano practice in tonight.

Woodshed

Actually making some progress getting those maj7 chords. 

Woodshed

Continue to work on maj 7 chords. Difficult ! 

Cool that my son came for a visit. Here he is with Millie, Oliver, and Carl Jung.

Woodshed

A long term goal is to play a set of 12 chords in 24 seconds. My first attempt ended up with me playing the chords in about 6 minutes. Second attempt: a little more than 3 minutes. Not giving up. 

Thought I’d memorize the 3rds of each chord. So I thought I had that down. But the practicality of using that in a helpful way when I sat at the piano, was shown to be null.

Kind of got an idea (taking advantage that some chords share a particular shape) was to see what chords fit a set of chords. So it’s working somewhat for the following major 7th chords: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab Db.

 It seems to be helping. 🎹 

Woodshed

Didn’t practice long. Got through the Maj7 open position chords for all 12 keys once. The goal is to do that in 24 seconds. Let’s just say I didn’t hit my goal yet. 😂 

Woodshed

Dealing with learning open major 7th chords. So far: C,F,Bb,Eb,Ab. Takes time to do this woodshedding.

Woodshed

Played no piano songs today. Just learning some open chords (C, F, Bb) and 9th arpeggios (C, F, Bb). Started slow but then gained some traction. I should add in there: scales and surprise endings.

Piano Lesson

Piano lesson today helped with motivation. If I was still trying to teach myself, I’d probably have given up. 

Piano?

Consistent with this saying: “Jack of all trades, master of none,” it’s kind of like my piano work. Nothing that I play sounds really great; there’s a lot on my piano plate, but it’s like knowing a little here, a little there….but not feeling like I mastered a lot.

Piano lesson tomorrow.

Yuck

Yucky piano day. Wasn’t really into it. Fumbling fingers. Tried to record something, but it would have sounded bad. My daughter took care of two giant dogs: