Saturday, February 19, 2005

What I'm actually practising (should you care...)

Janet's a star!
she brought my alto, and my music, from the office to her place yesterday, then to here when she came over today - which meant I could do some practise!!!
did 2 slots - one earlier, at around 5pm, of about 1 1/2 hours, and another hour or so at 10ish.

I also started a "2" reed (still Vandoren) today, as well as buying 2 "2"s for the tenor in Herga Music. We were in there because we took about 8 binbags of clothes (ex-mine!) to the St Lukes Hospice Charity Shop, then took the 2 old Hoovers (we've ordered a Henry), 2 more binbags of clothes (ex-ex-mine!) to the dump, then came back via Herga, mainly to let Liz & Janet get Janet's Grade 1 cello programme sorted out. She's going to do the Skye Boat Song, The Elephant, and either one of two early pieces from the ABRSM "Time Pieces" book.
I bought a couple of sax books while I was in there - 2 scale books & one study book - aren't I good!

My Saxophone Library now looks like this;

Jazz Scales and Chords, Paul Harvey
Noggin the Nog Suite, Vernon Elliott
Jazz Sax Aural Tests & Quick Studies, ABRSM
Jazz Sax Scales for Grades 1-5, ABRSM
Jazz Tenor Sax Tunes - Grade 1, ABRSM
Julian "Cannonball" Adderly Transcribed Solos (Eflat), internet downloads
Julian "Cannonball" Adderly Transcribed Solos (Bflat), internet downloads
Learn As You Play Saxophone, Peter Wastall (Sophie's)
Progressive Jazz Studies - Easy Level, James Rae
Jazz from the Beginning, Paul Harvey
80 Graded Studies for Saxophone - volume 1, John Davies & Paul Harvey
Rock 'n' Pop Scales - Grades 1-3, Hilary Taggart
Absolute Beginners Alto Saxophone, Ravenscroft/Midpoint Press
The Scales Wizard, Jeffrey Wilson & Malcolm Miles
The Complete Saxophone Player - Omnibus Edition, Raphael Ravenscroft
Razzamajazz for alto sax, Sarah Watts
Jazz Alto Sax tunes - Grade 1, ABRSM
Junior Musical Postcards for alto sax, Mike Mower
+ various studies written by me for me!



Here's this week's practise plan;

Scales on C, 2 8ves (using the Jazz Scales & Chords book)
major
major arpeggio
minor (harmonic)
minor (melodic)
minor arpeggio
pentatonic
(Ionian Mode = major scale)
Dorian Mode
Phrygian Mode
Lydian Mode
Mixolydian Mode
Aeolian Mode / Natural Minor

Locrian Mode
Whole Tone
Augmented Chord
Diminished Chord
Diminished Scale
Major 6th Chord
Minor 6th Chord
Dominant 7th Chord
Minor 7th Chord
Major 7th Chord
Half-Diminished 7th Chord
Augmented 7th Chord
Dominant 7th Chord
Minor 7th Chord
Blues Scale
Major 7th Chord
Half-Diminished Chord
Doing these to;
get an even tone across the registers,
get clear changes between notes,
improve fluency,
get to know the modes & their relative sounds better
C (1 & 2 8ves above middle C) is my weakest note

80 Graded Studies
1 - for even tone, esp on Cs
2 - for even tone & clean accents
3 - for even tone & clean changes, esp on Cs
11 - for tone, dynamics, esp aware of Cs
12 - for Cs, tone, articulation (staccato)
13 - for even tone, clean note changes, esp Cs

Learn As You Play Sax
Unit 3 - for tone - even & loud, Cs
Unit 4 - for tone - even & loud, Cs
Unit 7 - for tone - even & loud, higher register, Cs

Rock 'n' Pop Scales - on ALTO
Hoe-Down - for C major in different context, tone, articulation
In the Fall - for C major arpeggio in different context, tone, clean changes

Rock 'n' Pop Scales - on TENOR
(transposed from alto book for transposing practise)
Road to Wembley - C major in different context, tone
Summer Shade - C major in different context, tone, dynamics
Down Home - C major in different context, tone, dynamics
Plain Sailing - C major in different context, tone, dynamics
Cape Town - C major in different context, tone
Manhattan With You - C major in different context, tone

Progressive Jazz Studies
7 - for tone, articulation (accents), Cs
8 - for tone, clean changes, Cs
26 - for tone, articulation, Cs
50 - for tone, Cs, articulation, clean changes

Jazz From The Beginning
2. Vitamin C - Cs, articulation, tone
6. Topsy - Cs, C major & C major arpeggio, articulation, tone

> my masterpieces <
;)

Warm Up Sheets
for TONE & even sound in all registers
Octave Oscillations
Contrary Climbing
Chromatic Contemplation
Chromatic Scale Between Bflats

Simpsons Study
for articulation, even tone across registers, getting used to awkward key sigs, getting used to awkward fingerings/intervals

"C" Hello (aka variations on Teletubbies theme!)
for tone, Cs, clean note-changes

A.H. & H.I.G.N.F.Y. Study (aka Animal Hospital & Have I Got News For You themes!)
for tone across registers, A.H.-up to the break, H.I.G.N.F.Y.-down to the break

Grade 1 Pieces
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Mack the Knife
Oye Como Va

it looks like a lot of stuff to do, but bear in mind that the pieces & studies are very short, and I won't necessarily be doing all of everything every day - rather trying to make sure I do what I do do WELL.