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A Strong Start To My Piano Year

The first few days of January have been some of my best piano days ever. I started a new practice setup, and so far it’s working surprisingly well. I feel focused, energized, and more intentional than I have in a long time.

Foundations Level 4 Course: Playing Lead Sheets with Seventh Chords

I’m back in the lead sheets course, but this time I’m actually committing instead of endlessly restarting it like a broken record. I already know the first two lessons (circle-of-fifths and turnaround progressions), so I jumped ahead to Lesson 3, which focuses on extended turnarounds. I’m practicing it in C, G, and the most common flat keys (F, Bb, Eb, and Ab), depending on the day.

I’m also working on the course’s sample tune, "Gone Away," which has a bossa nova feel. Can’t say I'm much of a bossa nova fan, but I’d like to make a video of this one eventually. It’s not flashy or technically brutal, but at the recommended tempo of 120 bpm it demands focus and consistency. So it's exactly the kind of challenge I need right now.

To connect this work with my jazz analysis studies, I’ve been examining lead sheets from other standards that use extended turnarounds. I’ve also been listening a lot. I can reliably hear a basic turnaround, but not so much the extended versions. For now. I'm guessing I will eventually be able to hear them.

Analysis Courses: Jazz Analysis 1 and 2

Over the weekend I took PWJ's Jazz Analysis 1, which focuses on "Autumn Leaves." Even though I already knew much of the theory, going through a familiar tune with a more analytical lens was incredibly helpful. It reinforced how understanding the structure of a piece makes everything else easier: memorization, interpretation, and improvisation.

I’m nearly ready to move on to the next course in this sequence. Analysis will be a permanent part of my practice. I've always liked analyzing my classical pieces, and it is so good to finally start to understand how to analyze a jazz piece.

Styles Course: “After You’ve Gone”

This piece is already hard, and I’m only in Lesson 1. My short-term goal is to record a video of myself playing the tune with simple four-on-the-floor root chords in the bass. I’m close, but there’s one stubborn measure near the end that keeps tripping me up.

If all goes well, I should be able to record and post a video by Wednesday or Thursday. After that, I’ll move on to Lesson 2, assuming the piano gods allow it.

Creative Projects

I’m continuing to put steady work into "You Are My Sunshine," even though I’m a little tired of it at this point. Maybe that's a good sign? I still expect to have a video to share by the end of January.

I also did a preliminary analysis of "Hey Look Me Over" (a.k.a. the LSU fight song). It was … chaotic. The harmony doesn’t behave the way the pieces I’ve been studying do, but after some wrestling I at least understand what’s happening: lots of dominant sevenths generating constant forward momentum. I won’t seriously start this project until I’ve finished my You Are My Sunshine video and gone much deeper into After You’ve Gone, but it was fun to poke at it and see what kind of trouble it might cause later.

Technique

Alongside my usual scales and arpeggios, I’ve been revisiting seventh-chord exercises from the Level 4 foundations. They’re familiar and not very hard anymore, but they’re excellent brain work. I’m also practicing diatonic sevenths in multiple keys and occasionally turning children’s songs into tiny improvised rags as a way to work on rag rolls.

Closing Thoughts

All in all, it’s been a fantastic few days at the piano. I’ve already practiced more this month than I did in all of November last year. To be fair, November was a slump month, but still. Progress is progress.

To close, I'd like to introduce you to Roland Nicholas LX.

Roland Nicholas LX replaces Roland Nicholas the HP406. I think that's what it was called. See, I can't even remember! This new piano is an LX-6, to be specific. I traded the old Roland in as a down payment on the new Roland. I'm a little nervous about playing on a new digital piano, but I do love how much more the LX feels like a real piano ... and I'm curious to see how it affects my playing.

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