Finally...

Here we go - 2 months late but I had a demon to defeat.

Firstly, apologies to anyone listening to these MIDI files - I know they will be horrible as I haven't seriously practiced in, well, never! Sure I perform professionally all the time and get lots of studio sessions but this is because of my feel and improvisations; not my technique. I don't think I can even play a scale well! But, no excuses - just hard work so here we go!


C.L. Hanon # 1 - 55 bpm - key of C - half time

play consistiently and evenly.

evaluation
stop rushing the beat - only a few notes on time
dynamics not even - the left hand needs to be stronger and is not matching the dynamic of the right.
two hands not always together - good on some fingers overall but watch being late on the left hand 4th finger


C.L. Hanon # 1 - 58 bpm - key of C - half time

play consistiently and evenly.

evaluation
watch mistakes!
stop rushing the beat - worse than the last!
dynamics are everywhere - not consistent though it gets better and more consistent later in exercise
two hands not always together; very few exactly together


C.L. Hanon # 1 - 61 bpm - key of C - half time

3 passes:
- forte
- legato
- staccato

evaluation
Watch mistakes!
Still rushing - relax, you are too tense; no notes on time - atrocious in the staccato section
Two hands not together in forte section; a bit better in the legato section
dynamics uneven


C.L. Hanon # 1 - 65 bpm - key of C

3 passes:
- legato
- staccato
- forte

evaluation
watch mistakes!
timing is worse and out of the window.
two hands are not together in the legato section though it does get better later on in the exercise.
dynamics are more consistent - not great but better - esp. near end of exercise

*****

I was not very focused this session and did only about half of what I should be doing (minimum of 30 minutes of actual playing + whatever review time). I allowed myself to get distracted but the most important thing is that I finally started! I will be working on "My One & Only Love" in the evening.

Also, I wonder if there some sort of MIDI parameter is advancing the timing as I am consistently early by the same degree. I can set these types of parameters in Live 4 but not Cubase which is what I'm using because of the great piano roll view. Maybe the Live 4 settings are stored at the driver level somehow and are carried into Cubase? dunno and will test later

WTF?!? The MIDI export failed as I didn't really understand that Cubase was trying to make a MIDI file of every single damn practice session I have ever done (they're all in the same file). I will have to change the recording process - consider yourself lucky that there is no tortured playing for you to listen this entry!

Those Who Teach, Learn

I am now giving a lesson on piano and composition once a week. Teaching has always been one of my favorite ways to learn and it will be cool to try to really explain composition concepts that have been mostly intuitive and born out of the moment for me. No lesson today as it is the long easter weekend.

Underlying all of my musical philosophy is the concept that music is ultimately about creating and releasing tension - for example, the resolving of a chord progression - and that this principle underlies all dimensions of music: from the movement of one note to another and one beat onto the next to entire pieces of music, such as a song or a symphony. Also, the actual characteristics of the sound the instrument play a critical part as well.

As a composer or a performer, you cannot just drop your listeners along their ride and hope to pick them back up again when you wish. I believe that it is most critical to develop a sensitivity to this flow of tension throughout the music; a flow that is very akin to a trajectory such that, when either composing or performing, the very first notes set the initial course of the creative expression. This is not unique to music - the first strokes of the painter's brush, the first line's of an actor or the first words of a writer all shape their subsequent expression.

Chocolate Fingers

Shameful. A week until the first practice session. And it did not follow the Happy Finger Method.

But instead of being hard on myself, I now say all practice is good!

I was an hour and half early for my gig last night and had to move all my gear in a cab. The gig was a bat mitzvah - over 200 people, three flowing chocolate fountains, huge room, everything first class. I was even able to plug my set-up into the wall and use the room speaker system so that my sound was evenly distributed throughout the room instead of blasting out from the corner.

LET THE GOOD TIMES FLOW!

But enough of that. I brought my headphones with me, and with an hour and a half to kill, plugged them in and began practicing.

The Objective
Have your shit together so you can play solo for at least 2 hours worth. I haven't played a solo piano gig for a long time. (I didn't record anything with my piano's handy recording feaure to listen back to - I just wanted to focus on getting ready)

The Exercises
* My electronic piano comes with a handy built-in metronome, so I turned the BPM to around 60 BPM and just worked on the Hanon # 1 exercise. I gradually increased the BPM but never really past 70 or so. Followed up with some scales - just C and F. Tough at first but it got better. Practiced a variety of dyanmics: forte, legato, piano, etc.

* Then I played thru some latin timba's. I like the two hands togethers appreggio style - lots of excitement. I played to the mambo beat on the piano (a surprizingly good version)

* Tried to follow up with some songs that I had started working on a while back but this was unsatisfying so I switched to the autopilot old favorites and enjoyed myself much more.

Evaluation
I could not really do all that I have done before on the piano. A little in my defense is that, with 200 people in the room and just me, you could only play full fisted, up tempo music - just like in the good old days! I kept it bouncy and the room had a good feel. Had lots of kids dancing around and spent some time with them playing around on the keyboard (drum sounds and other cool noises).

Great reviews from the hosts backed up by a good tip on top of my fee and a promise to hire me again. The moral of the story? Practice pays!

When Is The Best Time To Practice What?

When is the best time to practice? Should you practice first thing, before you do anything? Should you practice in the middle of the day, full of energy? Or perhaps in the evening, when there is an opportunity to relax? Or how about late at night? It is the middle of the night, should I practice now? (headphones please!) And what should you practice? Scales? Songs? Reading? Performing? Exercises? And when should you practice them?

...Chopin for breakfast?...

The Morning
I am going to try practicing as the first thing I do when I awake so that my mind has not had a chance get cluttered with the day's activities. I am trading off that I will not be at any peak in energy (I keep waiting and waiting to experience that peak in energy!)

I am going to practice my technique specifically during these morning sessions. This includes scales, Hanon exercises and salsa exercises as well. These exercises will also be practiced in different keys. Variations will include introducing increasingly complex phrasing - such combinations of staccato, legato, forte etc - into the exercises. The metaphor here perhaps would be of an athelete training for a competition.

The Evening
I am working most days so can only really practice again in the evening. I am going to work on learning a new piece of music. It could be a new jazz standard, a solo from the Charlie Parker OmniBook or a Oscar Peterson transcription, a Stevie Wonder tune, preparing for a session, etc. And then transpose some of these songs into new keys too. The objective is to force the mind to keep learning new structures. Another benefit will be improved sight reading.

Missing
Missing from this regimen is actually making music! That is, practice performing and expressing music. This is the most key. In May, I will most likely be getting a steady gig 3 evenings a week (maybe even 6!) playing jazz in a duo and so will have lots of performance time then! In the interim, I have a few gigs here and there and must perform in the recording studio every couple of days.

Is there any methods/schemes out there already that consider these types of things? I'm going to look around.

Welcome Students!

Firstly, be aware that this might be the single most boring blog on the entire internet. And, as a bonus, you may even participate and post to the this blog as well but you must follow the rules or face The Hand! Now, on with the show...

...Bart better get his shit together...

Why?
Now don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed some great musical moments and had some good shows but am continually frustrated by my technique - I cannot always play what I feel or hear in my head. So, I am going to take a crack at really practicing. I kept a practice journal before and it was very helpful so when I started to do my first entry for this next round, I thought it would be better as a blog. Maybe some other people want to practice too.

How?
Here is the structure of this blog. If you want to contribute posts to this blog, you must be practicing and support the following format/structure:

- a post is about one whole practice session and each practice session is made up of exercises. (no mulitple posts for one practice session)
- an exercise can be anything (even an improvisation). each exercise has an objective/criteria that you are using to measure yourself back against.

For each exercise:

* You first state your objective/criteria for the exercise. If possible, include links to the music/score (if you cannot host your own files, I will be happy to fix you up)

* Include link(s) to the MIDI files created during practice of the exercise - please note the BPM(s). (If you cannot host your own midi clips, I will be happy to fix you up)

* Comment on your performance of the exercise. Did you meet your objective? What was good? What was bad? What do you need to start doing? What do you need to stop doing? Notice anything new in your playing? etc.

Others can then offer constructive comments. Posting from contributors can also be on other piano related topics.

Did He Say MIDI?
Now you are probably asking yourself "did he say 'MIDI' file?". That's right, music and technology. I practice on a weighted keyboard (roland fp-3 - great unit) or my grand piano with a moog piano bar into a sequencer. I then review my performance visually and see my playing as it is being payed back. I can see where my fingers/notes are not right together, or that certain fingers and/or notes need work, or my timing needs work, or my dynamics could be better for this certain passage. Totally objective method. I use the piano roll type view for this, not the score although you could probably use the score view just as well.

What Else?
This means if you want to participate in this blog, you will need:

i) an electronic keyboard or piano interface with a MIDI connectors,
ii) a MIDI interface to the computer
iii) a sequencer program on your computer that allows you save/export MIDI clips.

While I can't help you with i & ii, I can help out with iii! Here is Quartz AudioMaster: free sequencing software that has 16 midi tracks + 4 audio tracks and scoring!

Begin Practicing!
If you read this far, have what it takes and still want to practice on this here blog contact me - HatHead (blogger at hatheadmusic dott com) If you are not a contributor to this blog, your comments to posts are still most welcome and encouraged!

This post took so long to write that I don't have time to practice this morning! I promise to practice today but need to get to work for a couple of hours at least - stuff to do today! This post serves as a good intro/faq page anyway!