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How Consistent…
By Ernesto | February 29, 2008
A while back I talked about how one should always relate their practicing directly to music, and not spend so much time practicing abstract things like triad pairs. Well, guess what I was practicing today? Yeah, triad pairs…over a really dull G7alt - C backing track, too.
So did I change my mind? Not entirely. What happened is that I’ve always wanted to be able to play more intervallic-sounding lines, but it just doesn’t come naturally to me. By practicing triad-pair patterns over a simple progression, I’m concentrating on getting that sound in my head and under my fingers before worrying about using it in my playing.
I’m doing the same thing with polyphonic patterns. Instead getting overwhelmed by trying to apply these patterns to every tune and progression I can think of, I’m starting out slowly with patterns in a single scale so that I can get a handle on them.
But it’s still important not to lose perspective. I’m only interested in achieving a certain level of familiarity with these patterns. As soon as I feel that I have accomplished this, I’ll start applying this to actual music and my improvisation. The idea is to break the whole process into manageable steps so as not to lose focus and interest…which can happen when you try to many things at once.
Topics: Practicing |
