{"id":58,"date":"2010-09-11T09:32:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T15:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/?p=58"},"modified":"2011-10-16T21:02:45","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T03:02:45","slug":"what-im-practicing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019m Practicing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of a set of blogs about practicing jazz. \u00a0Below I present some ideas about what I’ve been practicing and in a companion blog What Are You Practicing?<\/a><\/em> <\/span><\/strong>I invite you to share your thoughts. \u00a0Hopefully we can all learn from each other and grow in more interesting and beneficial ways.<\/p>\n

When I was doing doctoral study at Indiana University in 1988 I took a class with David Baker. It was a history of Bebop class and half the time in class we played the elements of bebop; tunes, scale fragments, cadences, etc. There’s a specific set of language that identifies bebop as a specific improvisational dialect and David was trying to teach it to us.<\/p>\n

One of his most frequently stressed maxims was that if you really wanted to play bebop, the best way to get the language was to play the bebop tunes. His point was that the language of bebop was codified and condensed into the compositions by the master musicians of the period, especially Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell. \u00a0So, to learn the language you should practice those compositions as etudes in all keys. \u00a0I knew he was right, but among the other things going on in my life and study I couldn’t commit the time.<\/p>\n

However, in the fall of 2008 I decided to devote myself to this endeavor. \u00a0I wanted to try walking that disciplined path to not only engrain bebop language into my ears, mind, and body, but to develop a larger ability – to most accurately play what I was imagining. \u00a0I started by memorizing some bebop heads I didn’t have yet. \u00a0Pretty soon I discovered that I could memorize them quite rapidly and so I started to extend by initially memorizing them in all keys. \u00a0Later, I started going back through the list and playing in all keys some tunes I previously had in just one key.<\/p>\n

Initially the tunes were all bebop heads because I was concentrating on that aspect of language acquisition. \u00a0But I have expanded the list to include some standards, and some tunes that extend from the bebop tradition but are more contemporary. \u00a0This gives me some flexibility in how I practice and what I concentrate on when I practice. \u00a0For example, when I play Cherokee<\/em> in all keys, I’m don’t have to concern myself with the pitches very much so I focus on air stream and keeping my embouchure focused in all registers. \u00a0When I play standards like There Will Never Be Another You<\/em> or contrafacts like Prince Albert<\/em> (written on the changes to All The Things You Are<\/em>)\u00a0I sometimes follow a chorus of the melody with a chorus of improvisation on the changes.<\/p>\n

So, here is the list. \u00a0It grows, some days by adding keys, some by adding tunes and I’ll update it as that happens. \u00a0I’ll also make comment on practicing, observing what effects it might have, challenges it might present (for instance I really have to work on playing Dexterity at all – the tune just doesn’t “ring” with me!). \u00a0Tunes that are followed by “(12)” are one I play in all keys. I invite you to make suggestions, especially of bebop heads, in the comments.<\/p>\n

The List<\/strong><\/p>\n

26-2<\/p>\n

A Night In Tunisia<\/p>\n

Afternoon In Paris<\/p>\n

All The Things You Are<\/p>\n

Altoitis (12)<\/p>\n

Anthropology (12)<\/p>\n

Airegin<\/p>\n

Au Privave (12)<\/p>\n

Autumn Serenade (12)<\/p>\n

Barbados (12)<\/p>\n

Bebop (12)<\/p>\n

Billie’s Bounce (12)<\/p>\n

Bloomdido (12)<\/p>\n

Blue Seven (12)<\/p>\n

Blues for Alice (12)<\/p>\n

Bluesette (12)<\/p>\n

Body and Soul (12)<\/p>\n

Bouncin\u2019 With Bud (12)<\/p>\n

Boplicity (12)<\/p>\n

Broad Way Blues<\/p>\n

Brownie Speaks (12)<\/p>\n

Bud Powell (12)<\/p>\n

But Not for Me<\/p>\n

Butch and Butch (12)<\/p>\n

Bye Bye Blackbird (12)<\/p>\n

Celia (12)<\/p>\n

C.T.A. (12)<\/p>\n

Cantaloupe Island<\/p>\n

Ceora<\/p>\n

Cherokee (12)<\/p>\n

Cheryl (12)<\/p>\n

Chi-Chi (12)<\/p>\n

Confirmation (12)<\/p>\n

Corcovado<\/p>\n

Cottontail<\/p>\n

Countdown<\/p>\n

Crazeology (12)<\/p>\n

Daahoud (12)<\/p>\n

Desafinado<\/p>\n

Dewey Square (12)<\/p>\n

Dexterity<\/p>\n

Dig<\/p>\n

Donna Lee (12)<\/p>\n

E.S.P.<\/p>\n

Eternal Triangle (12)<\/p>\n

Farmer\u2019s Market (12)<\/p>\n

Fifth House<\/p>\n

Fingers (12)<\/p>\n

Four (12)<\/p>\n

Freedom Jazz Dance (12)<\/p>\n

Freight Train (12)<\/p>\n

Fried Bananas (12)<\/p>\n

Giant Steps<\/p>\n

Girl From Ipanema<\/p>\n

Good Bait (12)<\/p>\n

Got A Match? (12)<\/p>\n

Green Dolphin Street<\/p>\n

Groovin\u2019 High (12)<\/p>\n

Half Nelson (12)<\/p>\n

Hallucinations (12)<\/p>\n

Have You Met Miss Jones<\/p>\n

Hocus-Pocus (12)<\/p>\n

Honeysuckle Rose (12)<\/p>\n

Hot House (12)<\/p>\n

I Got Rhythm (12)<\/p>\n

I Hear A Rhapsody<\/p>\n

I Love You<\/p>\n

I Should Care (12)<\/p>\n

I’ll Remember April (12)<\/p>\n

In Your Own Sweet Way<\/p>\n

In A Sentimental Mood (12)<\/p>\n

Invitation<\/p>\n

It Could Happen To You (12)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s You Or No One (12)<\/p>\n

Joy Spring (12)<\/p>\n

Jordu (12)<\/p>\n

Just Friends<\/p>\n

Little Willie Leaps (12)<\/p>\n

Lush Life (12)<\/p>\n

Mahjong<\/p>\n

Maiden Voyage<\/p>\n

Mayreh (12)<\/p>\n

Milestones (old) (12)<\/p>\n

Minority<\/p>\n

Mohawk (12)<\/p>\n

Moments Notice (12)<\/p>\n

Moose The Mooche<\/p>\n

My One And Only Love (12)<\/p>\n

My Romance (12)<\/p>\n

Nica\u2019s Dream<\/p>\n

Oleo<\/p>\n

Omicron (12)<\/p>\n

Opus De Funk<\/p>\n

Ornithology<\/p>\n

Parisian Thoroughfare<\/p>\n

Perhaps (12)<\/p>\n

Prince Albert (12)<\/p>\n

Quicksilver<\/p>\n

Ray\u2019s Idea (12)<\/p>\n

Recordame<\/p>\n

Relaxin\u2019 at Camarillo (12)<\/p>\n

Room 608 (12)<\/p>\n

Sandu (12)<\/p>\n

Satellite<\/p>\n

Scrapple from the Apple (12)<\/p>\n

Segment<\/p>\n

Serpent’s Tooth (12)<\/p>\n

Shaw \u2018Nuff<\/p>\n

Speak No Evil<\/p>\n

Split Kick (12)<\/p>\n

Solar<\/p>\n

Some Other Blues<\/p>\n

Sub-Conscious Lee<\/p>\n

Stablemates<\/p>\n

Steeplechase (12)<\/p>\n

Stella By Starlight<\/p>\n

Swedish Schnaps (12)<\/p>\n

Tempus Fugue-It (12)<\/p>\n

The Days of Wine and Roses<\/p>\n

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes (12)<\/p>\n

There Is No Greater Love (12)<\/p>\n

There Will Never Be Another You (12)<\/p>\n

Things To Come<\/p>\n

Visa (12)<\/p>\n

Walkin\u2019<\/p>\n

Wave<\/p>\n

Webb City (12)<\/p>\n

Wee (12)<\/p>\n

Wee-Dot (12)<\/p>\n

Witch Hunt<\/p>\n

Without A Song<\/p>\n

What Is This Thing Called Love?<\/p>\n

Woody\u2019n You<\/p>\n

Yardbird Suite (12)<\/p>\n

You Are Too Beautiful (12)<\/p>\n

You Stepped Out Of A Dream (12)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of a set of blogs about practicing jazz. \u00a0Below I present some ideas about what I’ve been practicing and in a companion blog What Are You Practicing? I invite you to share your thoughts. \u00a0Hopefully we can all learn from each other and grow in more interesting and beneficial ways. When I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[19,17,20,18,3,16],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazzimprovisation","tag-bud-powell","tag-charlie-parker","tag-david-baker","tag-dizzy-gillespie","tag-jazz","tag-practicing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynnbakerjazz.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}