maintaining your technique

[hardbop200]

Hello all,

 

Well congratulate me - my wife had our third child, a baby boy, two weeks ago.

 

Between a family and work and life, I'm finding that I don't have much time (if any time at all) to practice anymore. Consequently, my piano skills are getting worse. I'm finding that I'm hearing ideas that I just can't execute; what's bad is that I could at one time. My jazz trio rarely plays anything really fast, but last Saturday night we backed up a horn player who called Straight No Chaser at some awful speed, and I couldn't play quarter notes. It was embarrassing.

 

I need to come up with something, anything, that I can do for 30-45 minutes a day that will at least keep my fingers moving. I realize that I will never improve with this small amount of practice time, but it's all I have. So here's where I need your help: I need some advice on how to practice in this short amount of time. Hanon? Bach? Scales? Anything else? Different key a week, a day? I'm hoping that some of the more experienced players (especially those that play jazz on a regular basis) can help me decide how to spend my time.

 

Thanks for your help.

[Dave Horne]

First, congratulations on the new addition to your family (and for the new tax deduction - April 15 is just around the corner).

 

If you're working with a limited amount of time, it makes sense to use your time very efficiently, right?

 

My mantra regarding warm ups - do four things at the same time ...

 

1. warm up (that goes with saying)

2. play something technical (good for the muscles)

3. play whatever the technical thing is in every key (good for the noodle)

4. try to make the first three items on this list something you might actually be able to incorporate into your improvising (good for making your warm up more efficient)

 

That's about the only advice I can give if you're budgeting your time. There really are no short cuts to spending time at a keyboard so you will either try and make whatever time you have more efficient or try and come up with more time.

[Bridog6996]

Just always make time to play "something" every day. Even if it's just for five minutes. It's better to practice for 5-10 minutes every day than for 5 hours once a week.

[hardbop200]

Originally posted by Dave Horne:

1. warm up (that goes with saying)

Hello Dave, and thank you for the advise. That seems like a very simple prescription that I can follow.

 

Can you expound on the warming up item? What exactly do you do to warm up? I think this is an area where I am definitely failing (I know this b/c I'm having to struggle to play, and I'm having a little bit of pain in the arms).

[Dave Horne]

I should have written ... that goes without saying.

 

Can you expound on the warming up item? What exactly do you do to warm up? I

Everyday I do something different. Try a simple four note pattern based on a major chord, for example; let's keep it simple.

 

C major triad in C major, four note pattern:

 

Note 1, chord tone (root, third or fifth)

Note 2, diatonic step above chord tone

Note 3, half step below chord tone

Note 4, chord tone (and now ascend or descend to the next chord tone and repeat, lather, rinse)

 

(If you think in this manner using terms like chord tone, diatonic step, half step, etc., you can more easily plug this information into just about any chord.)

 

Back to the original four note pattern (to be played in unison, one note each hand, several octaves apart) ...

 

You have C, D, B, C ... E, F, D#, E ... G, A, F#, G ... and that's just in C major, there are 11 other major I chords, right?

 

You can create all kinds of patterns, this was just one example, and a very tame one at that. Practice that for 10 or 15 minutes ... you will warm up, do something technical, do something in every key and play something you might actually use when improvising. Efficiency.

 

I'm sure you can come up with all kinds of patterns or .... anything, licks, runs, sequences .... etc. Just be sure to figure out what it is and make it into an exercise. The first drink is on the house, the rest you pay for.

[Dave Horne]

First assignment - after you've mastered that particular pattern in all 12 major keys, plug that formula into a diminished 7th chord (based on a pure dim 7th scale) ... or try it on a ii chord in major. You see how a simple little four note pattern can progress? (Try reversing steps 2 and 3, for example.) Gotta go ....

[ITGITC]

Congratulations Josh.

 

Best wishes for your wife and family.

 

Tom

[Loufrance]

Originally posted by hardbop200:

Hello all,

 

Well congratulate me - my wife had our third child, a baby boy, two weeks ago.

 

Between a family and work and life, I'm finding that I don't have much time (if any time at all) to practice anymore. Consequently, my piano skills are getting worse. I'm finding that I'm hearing ideas that I just can't execute; what's bad is that I could at one time. My jazz trio rarely plays anything really fast, but last Saturday night we backed up a horn player who called Straight No Chaser at some awful speed, and I couldn't play quarter notes. It was embarrassing.

 

I need to come up with something, anything, that I can do for 30-45 minutes a day that will at least keep my fingers moving. I realize that I will never improve with this small amount of practice time, but it's all I have. So here's where I need your help: I need some advice on how to practice in this short amount of time. Hanon? Bach? Scales? Anything else? Different key a week, a day? I'm hoping that some of the more experienced players (especially those that play jazz on a regular basis) can help me decide how to spend my time.

 

Thanks for your help.

congratulations!

Ok, not to sound mean or anything like that, is this common problem mental(Dave Horne I'm sure you've got some info ) I ask not to offend you Hardbop, I was just wondering because this is a frequently occuring problem (of course it's life) and I was wondering if people expierence the same issue in different ways, for example someone else may feel their timing is getting worse etc.

 

I also ask this because I go through the somewhat opposite I REALLY need to practice more but I notice that if I play for 2-3 days straight and skip a day or to after that last day and come back I feel I play much better.

[Finale]

Originally posted by hardbop200:

Hello all,

 

Well congratulate me - my wife had our third child, a baby boy, two weeks ago.

 

I need to come up with something, anything, that I can do for 30-45 minutes a day that will at least keep my fingers moving.

If you only have 45 minutes, I'd say work on your main problem. For example, if it's rhythmic precision, work on practice your favorite pieces or new ones that need concentration on steady flows of notes, that kind of things. If it's about changing keys, Dave's advice is excellent.

 

Also, congrats and have a blue cigar.

[marino]

From a slighly different perspective....

 

Warm ups: A minute or so of gentle shaking of your arms, wrists, hands, shoulders etc., can't hurt. This is to insure that you start with relaxed muscles. Another minute or two of 'arm fallings' (freely transferring arm weight to one finger which plays a note, usually middle finger or index), then a scale or some other simple finger pattern, played very slowly and with good finger articulation.

 

Then, 10 or 15 minutes of *real* technique. This could include scales (at various speeds), arpeggios, some Hanon, extension exercises, etc. Of course, having only that much time, you have to divide your daily technical work into keys (for scales, arpeggios, Hanon etc.) or just face one technical exercise at a time. An example:

On a given day, say Monday, you could choose D minor as your 'key of the day'. So you play:

 

- D minor (harmonic and melodic) scale, four octaves, accent every four notes, first moderately, then faster

- D minor triad arpeggio, all three inversions, same procedure as above

- A couple of 'minor-type' seventh chord arpeggios (say, minor seventh, tonic minor), three octaves, accents every 3 notes

- A couple of Hanon exercises, transposed into D harmonic (or melodic) minor

- At least another important technical exercise; say, extensions.

 

The next day, you change key for your scale and arpeggios, and, instead of extensions, play a different technical 'rudiment' (say, trills, or chromatic appoggiaturas)

 

Next, you could work on either a written piece, learning a few new bars and revising what you have studied previously,

 

- or -

 

work on a jazz tune, just finding new solutions for melodic phrasing, voicings, reharmonization and the like.

 

That's about 45 minutes.

 

Some further advice:

-Don't forget to warm up.

-Take small pauses between sections, even one minute is better than nothing.

-Even if one day you have less time, or you don't feel like doing technique, don't forget to warm up.

(yeah, it's that important!)

 

You know, there's a say among musicians: Studying for half an hour is very close to nothing; as you approach an hour, it starts to become... something. I've found that's true.

 

Good luck and... don't forget to warm up!