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Saturday, January 2, 2010

Quitting before getting started

Last year I bought Jazz Keyboard Harmony by Phil DeGreg, read the introduction, played through one of the exercises, then closed the book. This wasn't because the book was bad, but interestingly enough because whatever I played from it actually sounded good. If that's hard to understand, it's pretty similar to someone stopping treatment once it starts working because they start feeling so great.

After I recorded that short progression of nine chords, I felt like I had really accomplished something. I have been playing it back to myself over the past year either to: 1) remind myself that I found something that will lead me to the beautiful sounds I'm yearning to make, or 2) remind myself that I have wasted all this time not learning how to make these beautiful sounds. Whatever the reason, I'm finally starting back at square one. I really think that this book will start me off in the right direction.

I'm starting with Chapter 3, which uses only the guide tones. My goal is to make it through the entire chapter by the end of January.

So now I have three goals for January:
1. Learn all the Major scale fingerings.
2. Make it through Chapter 3 of Jazz Keyboard Harmony.
3. Brush up on counting rhythms (something I was pretty good at when I played clarinet.)



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