Piano Practise

Being a part time pianist but still having gigs to play, I needed to find effective exercises to help me develop my jazz playing - particularly finger exercises to aid my soloing. The two books that I have found most useful are the well known Hanon "Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises" and Alfred Cortot's "Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique". Both books, particularly the latter, cover well beyond the limited scope of my technique but nonetheless have offered many great exercises. The Cortot book in particular is very thorough and covers an entire range of techniques under the categories listed below. In fact I understand that by practicing these entire areas one should be able to master any technical problems!

1. Equality, independence and mobility of fingers.
2. Passing under of the thumb (scales - arpeggios).
3. Double notes and polyphonic playing.
4. Extensions.
5. Wrist technique, execution of chords.

The Hanon is in comparison a little more down to earth. I started adapting the exercises to a more "jazz" approach by firstly playing them in every key and then adding various rhythmical exercises to them. As they are laid out in endless 16th notes playing them with varying accents and rhythmical patterns made them alot more interesting to play. I took this further by practicing them on the saxophone too. In addition to this, varying the placement of the metronome was also a good exercise.

For more information check out the articles below. The Hanon seems widely available but the Cortot looks like it’s out of print and hard to find.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Cortot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtuoso_Pianist_In_60_Exercises

Youtube Ballads

Herbie Hancock has always been one of my favourite players. Here are a couple of truly beautiful ballads, one solo and the other featuring the great Joe Henderson. Someone to watch over me, is in particular quite breathtaking, the musical colours and textures Herbie creates, great examples of the things I like most about his piano playing. Reminds me of his poignant Stella by starlight solo with Ron Carter and Tony Williams on Miles Davis famous 1964 live recording; something else to check out too!

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qf6tphTKuA&NR=1

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-wIFZuYgg&feature=related

More mind Scales

Due to a cyclone in our area that put off the power for a week I was forced to find alternate ways of practising in the evening as playing in the dark was getting quiet difficult. Since I couldn't afford time off as some gigs were approaching I decided to spend some time reviewing pieces and applying some of the visualisation techniques I had mentioned before. Although I was not able to do for long periods of time because my concentration wouldn't allow it, I was really very happy with the results. Using a metronome to avoid 'cheating' I went through scale choices in my head in various combinations and speeds. Once I got back to the sax the results were quite noticeable and I already felt more comfortable particularly in tricky spots of certain pieces. Working this way highlights those weaknesses very quickly. Now I just have to apply this more often even when the laptop is available for practise!