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Working on original tune – Joy
I wrote a tune last fall which is my most harmonically advanced as of yet… it’s called Joy and I recorded it in a pretty hasty recording session last weekend (click here to listen). My bass playing friend Jason said that this tune is the most difficult to play of all the tunes I have…
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Days of Wine and Roses and Originals work
I love practicing because it allows me to take as much time as I want to work out nice ways to play tunes. When playing with a group I am always trying to play in time, and there is less time to be very thoughtful about learning new voicings and ways to play the chords.…
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Free improv and Stella By Starlight
I couldn’t sleep, so I tried to relax my mind by doing some freeform improvisation on the piano. I find that it can sometime have a calming effect to improvise freely on the piano for about 10 minutes, or longer if I feel like it. At the end of this session, I worked a little bit…
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Practice recording – How High the Moon and Satin Doll
I was inspired to work on my jazz chops a bit after attending a wonderful concert given by Amanda Tosoff quartet with Brad Turner at CBC Studio One. So I picked the standard How High the Moon and did some practice on playing a bit faster, trying to get some lines to flow, and my hands…
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Practice Recording: original stuff and Giant Steps
Worked a bit on an original as well as the standard Giant Steps. (Click here to listen).
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Article: experiences at a summer jazz camp
Felicity Rubinstein writes in the Times Online (click here to read article) about her experiences taking a jazz improvisation course with her son. She writes: Unless you play to concert standard, which I don’t, the piano is a lonely instrument. Jazz offers more of a chance to play with other people. […] But here’s the…