Practice Techniques

Peter P Longo ( intune@juno.com )
Wed, 12 Feb 1997 18:59:02 EST

Andrea Chiodi wrote,

<snip>
>.....when I panic looking for a voicing for F#7b5 while
>the 2 beat where I should play it are near to end.
>So I thing that I have to find some form of exercise.
>
>I'm trying two ways:
>- an 'intelligent' progression
>- a set of tunes

<snip>
>Regarding the set of tunes, I think it would be the best method.
>I mean to have a list of tunes that touches many different tonalities
and modes.
>Not necessarily tunes with many keys, but also a well assorted list of
tunes
>which covers the whole range.

>Each tune can be transported to other tonalities in order to involve
other
>keys, but I think it should be better to limit the tonalities to the
useful
>ones, for example the instrumental key and the typical male and female
vocal
>keys.

>I will try to compose this list, but obviously I think everybody of us
have
>some idea.

>The only examples I can imagine now, before to start a real search, are:

>Any anatole, in typical keys
>Any blues, in typical keys (even rock/guitarisic ones (E,A,..)
>Giant steps
>Very early
>Walts for Dave (Chick Corea)

What is an anatole?

Andrea and others talked about playing in twelve keys which leads to the
following
interesting (I think) point:

I can accompany in all 12 keys, (some better than others), and solo in
most keys,(again some better than others) E and B being the exception. I
can solo in them but not well at all.

I've often wondered about this and can't quite get a handle on it though
I do have some theories.
Any ideas?

One idea I've had is that I tend to think(?) better in 'flat keys'. For
example, I never play in D sharp, always
Eb, never G# always Ab. E and B do not lend themselves to this kind of
thinking.