Hey, Cus I really enjoyed the dreamy yet melancholy flavor of your Solitude.
Knotty, you really put all of yourself into All of You.
And 10, in my opinion your Lady Bird flew and landed quite well.

I also greatly enjoyed the recordings of Jarrett and Kelly doing ATTYA and AL, respectively.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on Buck Trends, while adjusting to a new keyboard. I replaced my 61-key Yamaha E313 with an 88-key Yamaha P-105. It's a step closer to the real thing, with a wider expanse and weighted keys. I'm building muscles.

Well, back to the drawing board. Keep those cards and letters coming in!

Congrats on your new purchase Norm. Looking forward to hearing Buck Trends on your bigger board.

Norm,
That's great news. It will help everything you do. It's crazy how much difference a responsive touch can make.

Dave (and others):

Is this an accurate version of the head to Lennie's Pennies:


Real Book 2 has a version which seems quite accurate, but a few differences.

Also, for the first 4 measures, C-6 | C-6 | D7 | G7 seems good. Also for soloing, or should we use D-7b5 for solos ?

Gracias!

Thankyou Norm, and congratulations on your new instrument! As for building muscles, are you sure to keep your shoulders and arms relaxed as you play? I remember you'd had some physical problems, and lately I've seen people sooooo tense while playing.

As for me, I've instituted a weekday 8-9am practice slot in the house during which I can make noise and have minimal interruptions. It's going a bit better and I'm hoping once the dust settles I can get back into joi. I just have such a desperate need to work up some classical stuff first.

Thanks for the reminder. I tend to forget what I need to remember when I most need to remember what I tend to forget: shoulders and arms -- tense, relax, and release -- with suggestions of warmth and heaviness.

So far, my cervical "issues" are at bay. And I know what exercises to perform to keep arthritis ignorant of its purpose.

Meantime, I'm working to get through Buck Trends just once without any glaring errors. Once accomplished, I'll push Record and forget again how to read music.

Now. Where was I?

I was gonna call that one Bust Trends but then it seemed a bit too risque..

haha

my favorite title is Porky's Best. Gershwin wrote I Got Rhythm, I'm kinda chubby, so that was my best line on that one..

Hi Dave, Cus, 10, Knotty, and to whom it may concern:

The typical tool in dealing with anxiety issues is Exposure and Response Prevention. In my case, I expose myself to a microphone, and prevent the natural albeit dysfunctional response to hightail it out and head for the hills.

I approached this enterprise fully intending to quiet my hands, and model a smooth legato without tripping over triplets. After a few takes, I forgot all that and just wanted to get through it one time without freezing into a stunned deer-in-the-headlights form of paralysis. So dutifully I lowered my standards, slowed the speed to a clipped 45 bpm and then pushed ahead to a breezy 93 bpm.

I'm on book 2 of the Four Star Series, so I'm still only pretending to read the JOI tunes, while my sight reading skills remain solidly at the "Run Jane Run" level.

So for what it's worth, here's my go at Buck Trends. Out of 7 takes, this one was the best of the bad lot: Normy's Best. I stayed pretty mellow with the singing as exhaustion outstripped inspiration:

Buck Trends

Hey Norm
Lesson 10 was great. I liked the LH chords version the best, it sounded really nice on your new keyboard, your rhythm and singing were perfect.
For the 2 hands version, now that you have a fully weighted keyboard, you can try to keep your LH soft. I know that this is difficult, I also tend to play my LH loudly when I am stressed out improvising.

93 bpm is fast for these hard songs. Even 84 bpm is enough to absorb this language and tonality.

Congrats for moving onto Book 2 for the sight-reading. When you come to arrangements, you will probably want to write down the nice chords you come up with, so your sight-reading will be richly rewarded.

Hi Norm,

Everything that Cus said!
Really nice work!

10 and Knotty,

Thanks for the kind words of support. I'll do what I can to keep the left hand unleaded and light. I had great fun playing with the last four measures of Buck Trends. I just had to repeat them over and over again at different strengths and speeds, with varying levels of sloppiness. And I just had to stand up and dance with it too, making like the second coming of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Fortunately, no one saw me.

So, now I can return to the relative sanity (and hyperkinetic triplets!) of Blues Angle.

Hey guys,

just wanted you to know, that I got laid off recently and had to look for a new job in new town. I hope I'll be back very soon and get back to my old routine, I'm still stuck at lesson 5 :-(

greetings

Sorry to hear about your job Simou, but hey, it's best to love your job.
Hope you're having fun with the blues in Lesson 5, you can listen to this for inspiration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLaIrVB1av4

Simou, I'm wishing you the best in your vocational quest:

May the longtime sun shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on to gainful employment.

...and to take a break to enjoy that sugary sweet lesson 5!

In my meantime, I'm lingering in lesson eleven for that bluesy taste of heaven while taking time to tangle with a doozy of an angle:

Blues Angle

Two with piano, complete with errors
Two with voice, fraught with terrors

Next: The Eyes Have It, but I don't. Not yet.

norm do you do kundalini yoga?

Hi Dave,

I did Kundalini with cool dude named Nirba, from the 3HO foundation. I have fond memories of his gentle coaching, "Come on you hypoglycemics! You're feeling that cheeseburger now, aren't you?"

I still occasionally wake myself up with the breath of fire.

cool, my wife and I run a kundalini yoga/jazz center in NYC, she's a master teacher in 3HO and I'm a daily practicioner:)

Blessings and keep swingin

DF

Norm
Your sung versions of Blues Angle were awesome, I loved the improvised outro.

Wow Dave. Blessings back to you and yours.

Jazz and Kundalini. What a connection!

Does the fifth chakra then rule that infinite loop of coiled creative improvisational self-expression known as jazz? If so, I've got to tap into that channel.



Thanks Cus. I'm happy that my outro wasn't outré.

I'm just having fun with it --veering further and further away from the initial tune, banging on the keys, stamping my feet and singing. Fortunately, I keep most of that under wraps when I record.

Thanks again for your encouragement, and now back to Eyes.

Norm: sit on a potato. Think of the greatest Guru you ever heard of while watching reruns of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Chant "me wants to play jazz good" at the fifth chakra for 31 minutes. The jazz channel will open in your brain and you'll play fantastic!

DF

I think it's working....

if this lasts for more than four hours report to your nearest ER

How true, How true. 2 hours and 37 minutes later, I've returned to my normal distribution disturbation disposition.

Now, back to playing... with my fingers!

whenever the improvising mood strikes, you'll be ready Norm, you could be on the beach, at a restaurant...

DF

...or sitting on a potato, watching Regis and Kathy Lee.

Dave, stay away from the beach! You OK? Seems to have been a bit blowy your way.

We lucked out in midtown, everything fine here. Much of NYC, 90 % of Long Island and New Jersey are without power, anything close to the beach got pretty much wiped out. No subways at all in the city for the foreseeable future..

tx 4 askin