Monday, January 19, 2009

Practice Month. A bit further on.

Onward

While I have not posted on this subject for a while I am still at it.

One of my occasional pursuits is "tune farming". This activity consists of me going through fake books and trying out new (to me) material. This latest harvest has yielded a good crop. "Little B's Poem" - Bobby Hutcherson, "Loose Change" - Hal Galper, "Luny Tune" - Larry Young, "Paris Eyes" - Larry Young, "Triple Play" - Hal Galper and "When Love Is New" - Cedar Walton.

These tunes are now subject to a good going over using ideas gleaned from several books including "Forward Motion" - Hal Galper and "Almanac of Guitar Voice-Leading" - Mick Goodrick.

Other practice pursuits have been working on legato bowing out of the Simandl book for upright bass as well as plugging away at John Patitucci's "60 Melodic Etudes".

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Practice Month Continued

Day two.

Situation controlled and focused...........

Today was fretless (no worries) day.

The focus today was on sight-reading using the first Bach Cello Suite, "Standing In the Shadows of Motown" transcriptions of James Jamerson basslines and "Bass Bible" by Paul Westwood.

As I play a six string bass a conscious effort was made to play across the strings, as opposed to the more linear approach that is a hold-over from the upright bass.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Practice Month

Well I have been somewhat lax in my posting but, I endeavour to improve.

So with that in mind I will unveil what I am working on this January (aka practice month).

Throughout the year I gather interesting looking method books and make notes of ideas from previous practice periods. Much of my time is spent preparing for gigs and maintaining my chops so new ideas are recorded for later study. As I balance my time between basses and Baliset I look to and develop ideas that have applications on either axe. Some of these ideas are for soloing others are more compositional in nature.

Today I focused on bowing on the upright bass. The three books I worked from were: "New Method For the Double Bass (F Simandl)", "60 Melodic Etudes (John Patitucci) and Cello Excerpts from Bach's Overture in D.

My goal is to improve my intonation which had been slipping as of late. The results will be revealled after much sweat has been poured forth.

More soon.........no really I mean it this time.