A month of Progress

So now I'm pretty confident at playing the major scales in 3rds, alternating 3rds, 4ths, 5ths and 6ths between 100-120 bpm. Have also been working on the minor scales in the same alterations.

I have started working on the variations of scale tone 7ths.

Altissimo range is growing up to the last concert D on the piano, but it is quite an effort to get up that high. I've been learning Coltrane's Countdown up the octave so that has helped improve the use of my newly acquired range, as well as learning my scales up there in the same way. Also my various Kenny Garrett transcriptions have also helped, especially with the use of F#, G, A's an Bb's in soloing.

In my transcription work I've almost got Giant Steps up to the CD's speed, Countdown, and Kenny Garrett's versions of the two are coming great and at least a chorus of all of them have been memorised, and I have gotten Trane's Giant Steps in a few keys now, or at least the first few chorus's and the others I've started taking them around, trane's countdown I found the first 32 bars easy, but Garrett's stuff I've found really hard. The way I've been thinking about it is by thinking of the arpeggios and scales and in Jerry Bergonzi's melodic structures book, where he talks about playing 1, 2, 3, 5 on major chords and 1, 3, 4, 5 on minor chords. Well I noticed that these are a major part of Coltrane's solo's that make it much easier to transpose it. I've also gotten the solo's off Amandla down with the Cd, and have looked at a lot of Garrett's solo's off Songbook, starting with She Wait's For The New Sun, which I have got down with the CD.

On the song front I have to learn 10 songs this semester. Which I will choose shortly.