Sunday, November 30, 2014

Practice Journal: 17 November 2014

Monday:
Modus Vetus - I'm sticking with working with these books by Lars Edlund. I have found that this one in particular is a nice place to start a session and get the horn warmed up.
Overtones - I don't seem to get tired with working on overtones.
Modus Novas - 1 phrase in all keys.
Started learning Ornette Coleman's "Broadway Blues" - I purchased New York Is Now! last week from Reckless Records and this melody had been in my ear.

Wednesday:
Modus Vetus - 1 phrase around the cycle of 4ths.
Overtones - Letting It Fall (descending octaves without the octave key) and then working my way up to play around on the 4/5th overtones. Played a few bugle calls too.
Modus Novas - ascending whole tones
Balkan Tune - been a couple of days and I remembered most of it (still need to work on articulation a bit)
"Broadway Blues" - working on it slow and then playing it with recordings (both takes from the album).

Thursday:
Modus Vetus - 1 phrase in all keys
Playing against a drone (E) - long tones (E and B) Similar to Steve Lacy's "Bugle Boy" exercise but slower.
Overtones - I was struggling with them, a new reed seemed to be the culprit! I returned to them briefly later in the session and things were a little better.
Modus Novas - 1 phrase in all keys (cycle of 4ths).
Balkan Tune.
"Broadway Blues" - working on the melody slowly and then along with the recording.

Friday:
My mind was quite distracted today and I only had a 30-40 minute window to play during.
I blew a few long tones to get some air into the horn and then decided to do something a bit different - playing through some of Joe Viola's Technique of Saxophone: Vol 1 Scale Studies. I worked through a few of the "Pentads - Polytonal Variations" (see example below). I kept things nice a slow, occasionally raising the tempo a bit.
Saturday:
Felt like a pretty good practice session today. Just the usual stuff...
Modus Vetus
Overtones and tone matching.
"Broadway Blues"
Modus Novas
Balkan Tune - I feel like it is time to move on. I want to find some tunes similar to this one.
Finished things off with a bit of improvising.

Sunday:
Alternated sax and rhythm work today. Playing a bell pattern with various pulses underneath (6,4,3 and 2) from Pure Rhythm.
Modus Vetus - started the next chapter - Root to Minor 3rd.
Overtones - Letting It Fall and Top Tones (parts of page 14). A bit more luck with E off C fundamental. Still a bit unstable but I felt there was progress.
Modus Novas - 1 phrase in all keys around cycle of 4ths. Had a little bit of trouble focusing on this one, once I did it fell into place quite well.
Balkan Tune - there are just a couple of little bits that I forget.
Finished things off playing "Broadway Blues" and some improvising.

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