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100 Days of Practice

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Nice! Glad to hear about your progress.

Heck, even when the brain "gets it" from a logic/understanding standpoint, the fingers almost always still need a lot more work to catch up so that they can solidly execute it. So your poor brain is going to be sitting there during your practicing, being totally bored and ready to move on to the next thing, while your fingers are like "um, sorry, could you run that last one by me again?"
Worse than that my brain has grasped tje conceptualisation of slipping between mixolydian and bebop scales dependant upon starting point and is so bored with my sausage fingers its whispering... "forget this shit, who needs bebop anyway, no one likes it and pentantonics are SO cooler".. And sometimes im ready to believe brain....
Ive a feeling the "ornamentations" you're practising may be called "enclosures" in the bebop world.... And brains not sure about them either.... ?
 
Ive a feeling the "ornamentations" you're practising may be called "enclosures" in the bebop world....
Most of the ornaments I'm playing in the video are mordents. A quick, grace-note-like alteration of the initially-played target note to (in this case) a half-step up, then quickly back. (I think I'm also doing some regular grace notes too, where the target note isn't played first.)

The thing about ornaments is that you could omit them entirely and you'd still have the melodic line. In fact, that's the best way to work on a piece like this--learn the melody first and only then dress things up with the "noodley bits". The book I'm reading it from actually doesn't even have them written in! You're expected to listen to the including recording and then salt to taste.

I think of an enclosure, on the other hand, as being a full-fledged, rhythmically-timed part of the line in its own right, rather than mere dressing. (And, of course, an enclosure "encloses" the target note on both sides, whereas a mordent is upper or lower only.)
 
@JeffJetton thank you for clearing that up....
I'm playing with various full and half steps beneath and above the target... ?
 
@JeffJetton couldn't edit last postbto mention ive been following a 30 day challenge (though i think the word should be education) on youtube
Methodically doable with plenty effort...
Thanks for nudging me into precision learning
 
I know the feeling! Good work! I made it through 3 weeks at an average of an hour a day.... What new songs are you looking at? I was looking at Summertime yesterday, deceptively easy but difficult....
 
Easiest songs always the hardest as there is that space on them that needs to be filled with genuine emotion...
I'm just working scales, be bop enclosures, shell voicings to hopefully improvish better... Promised myself first 30 days of tje 100 texhnique only... Some split seconds i even think I'm pulling it off..
. Good luck
 
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Good work on those scales, Terry! I made it to six weeks with 9 hrs. / week average. How are you all doing?
 
I'm happily plugging away, couple hours a day average, abandoned scales as exercise but consider them as linkage nothing more or sound too mathematical... Got distracted with vid comp and boxing gloves drum machine, now studying gospel harmonies and should be getting Hammond organ rhythm unit this week so boxing gloves in the bin..... Hopefully swinging metronome will kick me in touch.... Real pleased eith progress even if been hard brain work... Will post video around the 25th which is 56 day's in and my 57th bitthday...
Main fly in ointment at moment is Oscar Petersons Hymn to Freedom which is so lovely i can't stop playing... Nice bass work out though at slow pace....
 
So 25th feb, 56 days into practice and 57 years old today...
Was going to post a video of progress on practice project but heads muddled with overload, too many fingering options, too much messy bellows interptetation, too much mathematics, to many what ifs..
Pah, the simplicity of a single line instrument, or the percussiveness and decay of a piano are becoming increaslingly appealing....
Good luck to everyone trying harder....I'm struggling to believe I'll ever be able to play the thing.... .
 
So... while some are celebrating success, I am being forthright and stating that I failed. I did not make it a week before work and life pushed the accordion aside. Man, I don't know WHAT I have to do to make room in my life... wait, I do... retire. Too poor to stop working, too afraid to deal drugs... lol
 
So.. 18th March and im still plugging away.... Sometimes its a slog and others a breeze.... 100 days is up 12April which is end of lockdown here for non essential business so guess i won't have so much time either after that....
Bern through scales, bebop, rootless voicings, voice leading and had planned to spend the last three weeks on bellows technique.... Then @stickista passed me a link to Barry Harris 6th Diminished voicings and WOW how wonderful are they... For me the missing link and purely perfect for CBA.. Gold dust...
So its a 50/50 split between that and bellows technique till shcools out for summer....
Heads down and keep up the good work...
 
Now 7 weeks since I bought my Roland Fr1xB BCA and have only missed 3 days. I did have a Chinese PA years ago but work, a cold and a bad back along with finding the Anzaghi book moving on a little too quick meant it went up in the loft. Retirement and down it came but it seemed heavy and sounded awful so after a lot of consideration purchased the small and light Roland in button form. This time I'm using Maugain for method, Palmer Hughes for light relief and Anzaghi for practising pressing things in the right order. Must say I'm finding the BCA much easier than the PA was though that might be having retired practise time is easier to find. I seemed to make quite progress initially, all three of those books are the same for C through G. However, once A and B came along it went haywire as now it seemed fingering was whatever was most suitable for what was coming up, that did throw me a bit and I seemed to be going backwards but seem to have overcome that now so moving forward once more. Hopefully after the 100 days I might be a bit better with not so many stumbles.
 
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