Here are two short piano practices I did in the last couple of days. The first one I am practicing the jazz standard On Green Dolphin Street, and in the second one I am working on learning the Billy Strayhorn tune Lush Life by ear. I have listened to Lush Life a lot of times, especially the classic Coltrane version which is one of my favorites, and recently heard Kurt Elling sing Lush Life at his fabulous concert at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival this year.
I did about a 45 minute practice on the tunes Joy Spring and On Green Dolphin Street. I have been practicing quite a bit lately and it seems my fingers are in pretty good shape (but my technique could always be better). In the last part of the practice I mainly worked on getting a bit of fluidity into the motion of my fingers, and didn’t focus so much on what notes I was playing.
I practiced over an hour on the tune Joy Spring by Clifford Brown, as well as some technique. I am using the melody of this tune like a study exercise for working on my technique.
I did another practice, for about 50 minutes, on the tune Joy Spring by Clifford Brown. I’m mainly trying to work on the technique of my right hand. This melody has a lot of notes and runs in different keys, and is almost like some kind of classical “study” piece.
I have also noticed that several keys on my electric piano are starting to stick. This makes it a lot trickier to play and I am concerned that I may be learning some bad habits trying to compensate for the stickiness of certain keys (in particular, the C above middle C). Time to get a new keyboard soon and sell my old ones!
I practiced for about 25 minutes on the jazz standard I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin. I haven’t worked on this tune much before, and it’s a commonly played tune at jam sessions so I thought I’d learn it a bit more.
I did about an hour of practicing on the tunes Afternoon in Paris by John Lewis and Solar by Miles Davis. In my improvising I did specific exercises to strengthen my fourth and fifth finger on my right hand because this is currently my weakness. It’s amazing how many possible motions there are with the hand!
I had a nice Saturday without very many activities planned so I had time to practice quite a bit of piano. I first practiced about 20 minutes in the morning before breakfast, then I practiced in the afternoon for about 40 minutes, and about another hour late at night before going to bed.
I worked on learning more of the tune Joy Spring by Clifford Brown, as well as doing scales and exercises to strengthen my technique.
