Wednesday March 29
Interval study continues. Last night was the subdivisions of 4. It's taking less time to complete this session as I am so much more familiar with the fingerings. The metronome helps a lot too as it inspires me to be as fluid as possible. Although as the subdivisions increase, I still need to slow the metronome down to about 63 bpm. With the 2's and 3's I can still hit it at higher tempi; up to 132 bpm.
I got a new book called Reading Rhythms (??) from MIT Press. It's tough but fair. I could get through the first page and found it easier at 94, 115, and 120 bmp but much harder at 44 and 49 bpm. This book should help my reading problem a ton. More later

Tuesday March 28
Interval study, again?
Well yea it's the new black, in bass playing anyway. 3's were the call of the day, and was able to keep it solid (mostly) at 116 bpm. Have also been integrating a new arpeggio study that makes it easy to go up and down the scale with each arp. As it turns out, the 7th of each chord is a whole step above or below the next chord. NEaTo! Also, according to Carol Kaye bassists should stick to the root, 3rd, 5th and octacve for most chord/scales. She says to add the 6th for major and that playing scales uses up most of the players options. Ya see, bassists don't play chords very often, especially when playing with chordal instruments or horn sections. Keeping simple by using mostly chord tones offers more flavor and anticipation for the listener. I tend to agree but there are plenty of opportunities to solo using scales, probably to many. In a jazz harmonic progression, most chord tones are very close to the next chord tones root or other chord tones. For example the first 4 chords in Sonny Rollins "Oleo" are:
Bb7 -> Gmin7 -> C7 -> F7
Where the 3rd of Bb7 is the 5th of Gmin7,
The 3rd of Gmin7 is the 7th of C7,
The 3rd of C7 is a half step below the root of F7
and the 3rd of F7 is a half step below the root of Bb7 which is the next chord in the progression. This information is important to both lead (horns, piano, voice, guitar etc) and comping instruments (bass, piano, guitar, sections etc) because the melody and harmony is outlined and what notes make up these parts? CHORD TONES!
By sticking to the roots 3rd's 5th's and octaves of a chord, jazz not only becomes slightly easier to play. How does this fit with the interval study. ANY interval pattern can be used over any chord tone of any chord, as long as it resolves on a chord tone or root.

Saturday and Sunday March 22, 23
Spent Sunday jamming with Paul. We played Oleo, Surrey with the Fringe on Top, Sirhaborn, Wave, I Remember Clifford, Naima and maybe some others. We sound pretty good together, and Paul kicks my ass sometimes, when I fuck up. YEA!
Saturday I had the day to myself so I practiced a bunch. Interval studies, reading, jamming etc.