Shedding On An Original!

I love practicing. The things to improve upon are endless. The journey is life-long. I find the desire to learn insatiable.
The amount of people discussing HOW to practice seems uncommon. In this blog I'd like to focus and explore what I do, and I invite you to do the same. Feel free to contribute your thoughts and ideas, for creativity can exist in practice, too.

The DRUDGERY IS REAL. We all know it: setting the metronome to a slow state, repeating and repeating, and then increasing it by one or two beats…. The drudgery is real. But for me it is also meditative, and can be peaceful, and even fun. We should all get better at doing it, for our egos always get in the way of patience, but patience is the way!

Especially for my compostions; I do it for my compositions! I truly think that one of the best ways to improve as a jazz musician is by getting into shape with our own compositions. Nobody knows our compositions and arrangements better than we do! It takes a good few years of evolving skills to write effectively. Once we can do that, our expression in writing improves. But the question is; can we also get our playing to improve to match our writing?

I'm pursuing exactly that right now! This part of the solo section is in 11/4, and it goes from a concert Ab tonality to Gb, and back. In this I don’t modulate very well, and it’s the first time I played in 11/4 without the metronome (lol). I have a vision for this solo section of one of my originals, and it involves some mighty dexterity that I need to evolve. I've been working on new technical and harmonic things for this. The work continues!

Stay tuned for an update on this particular thing in the coming weeks!

How I Practice

I love practicing.  The things to improve upon are endless.  The journey is life-long.  I find the desire to learn insatiable.  
The amount of people discussing HOW to practice seems uncommon.  In this blog I'd like to focus and explore what I do, and I invite you to do the same.  Feel free to contribute your thoughts and ideas, for creativity can exist in practice, too.

So, this is it, right here.  This is the foundation for my practicing. 
About a month ago was the last time I practiced on the river.  My phone was the only recording device I had on myself (sorry).  BUT: this is the ideal environment for me!  Of course, I cannot ALWAYS surround myself with nature.  I cannot ALWAYS be in an ideal state of mind.  But I can, ALWAYS, take a moment to breathe; to relax; to re-focus upon the task with patience, understanding, and compassion toward myself and any mistake that comes my way.  With a meditative approach I can calmly improve.  My influences in this endeavor?  Kenny Werner, for sure.  Buddhism, for sure.  Meditation, for sure.  Go ahead and check this out.  We, as musicians and artists and preachers, could all stand to use a bit of calm patience from time to time.  I'm not always successful at this, but I'm improving in it just as much as I'm improving in my practice!  

Flute Fantasie in D minor: "wide" version

I love practicing.  The things to improve upon are endless.  The journey is life-long.  I find the desire to learn insatiable.  
The amount of people discussing HOW to practice seems uncommon.  In this blog I'd like to focus and explore what I do, and I invite you to do the same.  Feel free to contribute your thoughts and ideas, for creativity can exist in practice, too.

This is something from half a year ago, while I was working on a cruise ship! Since August I've been back in Southern California. I have been working on scales, range, and sight-reading Brazilian Choro music since then. 

This fantasy in D minor was something I'd been working on for a while. The video turned out...scrunchy. Really scrunchy. Hence my hesitation to share it...BUT, the final product turned out pretty good!

I especially like this take, because between the 1st and 2nd movement there are banging sounds that begin somewhere within the bowels of the ship. In between the 2nd and 3rd movement my concentration is further tested by my good friend walking in. Perfect timing on his part! He walks in right as I finish. I said hi, he's says hi, and then leaves. But the test of my focus is very apparent; heck, I almost stopped the video.

It's always important to consider all the factors that are contributing to your execution of something you've been working hard on. There were distracting moments in this take, but I still really liked what came out!

Pushing Myself: Two Transcriptions On Two Instruments

I love practicing.  The things to improve upon are endless.  The journey is life-long.  I find the desire to learn insatiable.  
The amount of people discussing HOW to practice seems uncommon.  In this blog I'd like to focus and explore what I do, and I invite you to do the same.  Feel free to contribute your thoughts and ideas, for creativity can exist in practice, too.

Playing one transcription can be nerve-wracking enough. But two, on different instruments?

Six weeks or so ago I undertook this personal challenge in order to get more comfortable playing stuff I'd been working on at an effortless level. I could play each of these well, but to do them one after the other was rough!

Hope you enjoy.

River Sessions: working on Jonathan Kreisberg's Shadowless Solo

I love practicing.  The things to improve upon are endless.  The journey is life-long.  I find the desire to learn insatiable.  
The amount of people discussing HOW to practice seems uncommon.  In this blog I'd like to focus and explore what I do, and I invite you to do the same.  Feel free to contribute your thoughts and ideas, for creativity can exist in practice, too.

This particular passage is hard.  Altissimo is no joke; you must hear and feel every note.  And then there are the fingers.  And then, there is the speed; this particular passage is probably about a fifth the speed it needs to be.  I had been working on this for a few days before the rough recording of this video. 

The solo in its entirety is lovely, and yet built off of very logical stuff.  I'll eventually do it all...but first, I need to make sure I'm playing everything cleanly and accurately.  This passage needs a lot of care.