Some goals

Here's what I posted recently on the Sudnow Forum:

NEW LONG TERM GOAL:
Have a number of songs that I can play that could last a few hours in a performance, say, in a restaurant gig!

SHORT TERM GOALS THAT CAN ULTIMATELY LEAD TO ACCOMPLISHING THE LONG TERM GOAL:
Well, my old goal was learning to play on the fly from fakebooks. But I'm changing the goal. Success now would be defined NOT in terms of how many songs I have MEMORIZED (always frustrating to me), nor will it be defined as the ability of playing requests ON THE FLY from fakebooks...
Rather.....if I can bring a binder of prelearned leadsheets of songs to a gig, and can play them while peeking at the sheets, and they sound reasonably on time and perfect, well, thats success for me.

So my short term (more managable) goal is to simply amass a number of lead sheets (including fractions) of well voiced songs that I can play well.

STRATEGIES:
1) Learn one song at a time REALLY WELL. Will allow myself to peek at lead sheet.
2) Using my own voicings, but...
3) ...also using Suds's voicings in his Dot Books. I'm currently working on his arrangement of "All the Things You Are," and figuring out his fractions that I'm copying to a lead sheet. Listening to him talk about his working of the songs is also cool.
4) Continuing to get those scales pounded in my brain and fingers. I got them down mostly OK, but I continue to struggle with seeing scales degrees quickly.
5) Keep reviewing songs that I'm adding to my binder.
Recently added today:
6) Minimize the use of arpeggios that in the past I utilized to cover up my shortcomings
An important one:
7) Approach each practice session with a goal for that particular session.

July 5, 2011

Continue to work on ATTYA.
What might continue to be helpful is approaching each practice session with a goal for that particular session.

July 4, 2011

Making good progress with ATTYA. Taking it all slowly is key. Go over difficult parts. Not doing arpeggios as much. Hitting bass with melody note and then internal right hand cluster at one point sounds cool. At the point of adding thirds to three melody notes played singularly. Sounding really nice. Can't move on too quickly. Small amount of practice daily rather than marathon sessions. Interesting how what was difficult yesterday gets easier today by going over difficult section.

Learning

Working on "All the Things You Are" (ATTYA).

Some notes/observations/concerns, etc.

1) For this to work, I really need to slow things down big time, and in more ways than one.
a) follow Sudnow's dictates for practice
b) slow down my tempo
c) work on a piece of the song at a time and not move on until its learned

2) Concerned that in order to play it right, it will need to be memorized....not good news.

3) Tempted to experiment with not using full clusters for each note.

The Sudnow Method

Back again to the Sudnow Method.

Doing it a little different this time around....

1) Will work on one song at a time, but will stay at the song for much longer than I did previously, to get it to sound RIGHT.

2) I'm using Sudnow's Dot Book, for now, anyway. Maybe the next song I'll voice, but I want a little different direction at this point, so I'll use his wonderful arrangements. For now, I'm working on "All the Things You Are." What I'm doing is writing down his fractions on a lead sheet so that I'm not just using dots. He has what seems to be some cool ideas as he talks about the arrangement verbally as well as on the written page.

3) Thinking of continuing to pound those major scales in my brain. I got the paths down pretty darn good, but its still a challenge to QUICKLY get to some scale degrees.

4) As I'm typing this, I realize I may not work on memorization as that seemed to lead to frustrationville. Will just work on getting a lot of songs down that I can do with the lead sheet as a cheatsheet. It seems to me that perhaps a lot of memorization might come as a result of doing it this way, because the focus will be on not moving on until a song sounds really good. Really good.

POP PIANO / Memorial Day / New Direction

Ok, so I've been all over the place with learning methods, and even tempted to sell the ole 88 keys.... But I think I'll make another effort. Started to read a book about Billy Joel, and got psyched again. Been thinking I'm a bit too old for the rock and roll guitar thing, but will stay in the band and play blues and some other stuff.

Been all over the place with ehat I should do musically....
Get a new guitar? Learn my scales on guitar? Concentrate on the blues on guitar?

Was losing enthusiasm for music after what I felt was a less than stellar performance by me yesterday at practice.

Would like to get back to the piano, but less than enthused with the prospect of memorizing tunes.

Decided to get back into Mark Harrison's "The Pop Piano Book" in a pretty serious way. Made a packet of stuff to go through, focusing on material like scales and diatonic scale triads. Will try to go through a key a week, at least, using some of David Sudnow's ideas on practicing. Hey, that Sudnow stuff will also come in handy later... Would really like to play on the fly from fakebooks, but not sound elementary. Maybe if I keep at it, using the Harrison book, I can learn some stuff to sound pretty good. Want to play more popular oriented sounds. I have a friend who can play what I'm after....

Perhaps if I focus more on learning outside of the context of songs for awhile I can come closer to the sounds I'm after....

Stay tuned.

May 24, 2011

Enthusiasm is lower. But working on"Satin Doll." And some ear training.

May 15, 2011

Working hard on this tune, and this is how its sounding today. May need to copy and paste:
http://www.box.net/shared/uog116qhv0

More practice....

.....of the Elvis tune.

Patient Practice

Patient practice is key for me. Worked on the Elvis tune. Would be soooo great to have 15 songs memorized.....but quite a challenge.

Back at it.

Cannot stay away too long. My continuing struggle has to do with utilizing PATIENCE. So here's a tentative thinking out loud kind of learning plan:
1) Go over my songs again. But slowly. Learn them using good Sudnow voicings. Just don't move to a different song until the first song can be played perfectly and at a perfect tempo.
2) Dot rush the learning.
3) Play songs I want to play.
4) Do not rush the learning.
5) Do not expect instant greatness.
6) Utilize voicings with the dissonance that I like.
7) Do not rush the learning.
8) do not neglect stride. Try to incorporate it into songs or learn outside the context of songs....maybe one per week.
9) Concentrated daily practice in a short period of time is OK.
10) Do not rush the learning.
11) Write out fractions


Worked on "Can't Help Falling in Love With You."

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.

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.

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.

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.