LearnGospelMusic.com Community

Please login or register.
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: what are you practicing this week  (Read 1242 times)

Offline diverse379

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2084
  • Gender: Male
  • Players Govern Players Spectators Form Opinions

what are you practicing this week
« on: May 23, 2006, 11:02:42 AM »
I try to set my goals for the week on monday I tweak my practice to include new things or things I know I need work on

This week I am replacing my normal major and minor scales with blues scales in every key

and my normal chord voicing practice will expand to include more two handed voicings

my song pracitce wil be to be able to play the song in both left hand chord style with right hand melody
 and right hand chord melody style with left hand playing bass

and full comp style no melody or bass  just two handed chords

my reading will include czerny and a few selected pieces from the african heritage hymnbook

they have an arangement in there of somebody prayed for me which can be used to play over victory is mine it is very syncopated and very funky.

And I will probably digest a few techniques from one of my videos maybe i will explore john peters this week

I would like to her what some of you are practicing this week
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word

Offline MikaSue

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 367
  • Gender: Female
  • Praise God!
    • MikaSue Designs

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2006, 11:17:24 AM »
wow diverse.

I don't have as much time as you but no excuses i'm going to aim for
my scales in every key   
inversions up and down the keyboard  (something i read in another post that)
I have to spend more times with songs than drills (such is my life)
So i'm working on Faithful Is Our God
Let us go into the House of the Lord  - Joe Pace
and Lift Him Up - Hez
Praise God!

Offline T-Block

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 17289
  • Gender: Male
  • I got my MBA!!!

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2006, 11:57:47 AM »
Honestly, I don't even have a goal for my practices, I just get on and start playing.  I let my fingers decide what I am going to practice.  Sometimes, I can hear something on T.V., on the radio, in my head, then just go to keyboard and try to play it.  From there, I end up doing whatever my fingers lead me to until I want to stop.

I can truly say my practices are never the same cuz I play what I am feeling at the time.  I rarely practice songs, I just stick to progressions and techniques.  That is what helps me to play most songs in all keys, by learning the patterns and applying them when needed.  The last "song" I actually sat down and learned like the CD was "Thank You For Your Grace" by Bishop Eddie Long. 

To me it takes to much work to learn songs versus learning techniques.  Not saying that I am lazy, but it's just not necessary to me.  I learn what I need to learn.

I'll try your goal setting techiniques diverse379 and see how it works for me!!!

Real musicians play in every key!!!
Music Theory, da numbers work!

Offline Spiritfingaz

  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 338
  • Gender: Male

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2006, 12:29:42 PM »
I plan on working on my minor scales 4 octaves both hands, the two foundations of the whole tone scale, variations of the over tone scales…so I can figure out where to use it. Still working on my Isadore Phillip exercises for finger independence esp. my fourth finger in the left and my left pinky. I started learning this Cyrus Chestnutt song out of his songbook and I bought a ragtime book by Eubie Banks that I started a song called Eubie Dubie that is hott for good stride piano. I also hope to finish up The Blood by James Hall, I gave up some weeks ago from laziness but I'm going to close it out this week as time permits...all this is ideal so I'll probably get about half done lol.
All to Jesus I surrender and Humbly give my life

Offline playhear

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2420
  • Gender: Male
  • "Shock and awe" was just for Iraq...or was it?

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2006, 12:35:44 PM »
For this week and for weeks to come, I will be practicing picking up songs by ear, then playing those songs in all keys.  It's a long process, and I won't be learning many songs.  Also, it won't be too impressive to onlookers.  However, I feel this skill is what I need to be sharpening at this point.

With this process, I will naturally be working on accompaniment as well.  I am having my girlfriend hum random melodies that she makes up.  I am trying to pick up the melodies and insert the harmony.  Doing so fast is where I want to be.

What I'm not working on right now is all the fancy voicings, fill-ins, riffs, etc.  I'm stepping back into the basics because I think I skipped a few steps in my development.  I need to go back and sure up my foundation.

Offline jlewis

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1350
  • Gender: Male
  • man I'm sleepy

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2006, 03:58:25 PM »
well,


I got the Kurt Carr  "One Church" songbook.


I'm working on the song, "They Didn't Know"

I am moving in the opposite direction and trying to play more and more of what is actually written on the sheet.

What I have discovered is that is something has been transcribed accurately, then many of the fills that we are looking for are right there in front of us.

Diverse, you put out a post last week sometime about not looking at your hands while playing.   Man that really hit a sore spot with me.  I mean I can do it when I I'm with the choir, but during my practice time, especially if I'm reading the sheet music, I have to go slow because I keep looking away from the page and down at my hands.   So I'm trying to really follow more sheet to break my habit.


jlewis

Offline Mysteryman

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7804
  • Gender: Male
  • The Jamaican breakfast patty created by me. :)
    • http://www.geocities.com/mysterymman1

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2006, 04:39:01 PM »
I just bought some jazz books so I can get into a routine practice. Also through this I will be getting back into sight reading from the hymn book. Im still trying to figure out the secret to doing that efficiently. I was told to start with the treble clef then work on the bass clef but I cant do both at the same time. One teacher in college said you learn the intervals and you can see the intervals thats what makes it easy. What do you all think. How long would it take me to learn to read music like simple hymns from the hymn book. I remember one of you saying your piano teacher made you read the lines backwards and forwards Im going to have to try this. Im guessing its probably really about remembering positions. Like you know when you see a triad on the staff they all look the same like 3 different notes all on lines or all on spaces.
Vision without action is just day dreaming. I miss practicing.

Offline diverse379

  • LGM Royalty
  • LGM Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2084
  • Gender: Male
  • Players Govern Players Spectators Form Opinions

Re: what are you practicing this week
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2006, 07:08:44 PM »
I have to say Jlewis you encourage me I am glad you find my  posts insightful that is what I live for to be a blessing to someone or to cause them to think about something a little differently

and on to my brother Mysteryman

reading comes with practice and what you do consistently will consistently get better

hymn books are strange to read because the written music is really choir voicings not a piano arrangement so they are not the most comfortable to play,
unless someone wrote out a piano arrangement (there azre a few of those)
so you are playing strange fingerings which makes it harder

you have to ask yourself a couple of questions
1. do you want to be able to read hymns to play in service
2. do you just want to improve your sight reading 

if your answer is 1 then take the bass note and play that in your left hand and play it as an octave
take the tenor alto and soprano and put that in your right hand if every now and then the stretch is too wide then you put the tenor in between the soprano and alto and when possible double the soprano so it plays below the tenor note

also when it comes to playing hymns in service you often do not need to play exactly what you see.  What I do is focus on the bass note and make that my progression  the one and the three or the one and the four beats of each measure is what I pay attention to.  I never focus on the two

Try it if you play the first chord of each measure and nothing else you will hear the hymn

eventually you will hear stuff to fill in the spaces

if your answer was number two then you should count quarter notes and tap them with your left hand while clapping the rhythym of the right hand line with your right then do the opposite

step two
clap the quarter notes with your left while playing the song in your right

and vice versa

then put them together
and you can play them two note in left and two notes in right

I only like the sound of method if I am using strings piano sounds very whack if you play the hymns note for note unless you begin to use voicings to play the song

I saw a methodist hymn book once and they spoke about upgrading the chords inserting progressions etc   
To be or not to be that is the question you anwer when you pray practice and read your word
Pages: [1]   Go Up