Monthly Livestream #38!

Thanks for tuning in to today's livestream! Here's the recording.

I started off by reading through the Barry Harris transcription I posted yesterday! In this transcription he demonstrates a lot of this concept: An application of Barry Harris 6th Diminished Scale, which we touch on briefly at the end of the stream. Then played a version of Con Alma, and played a request for Oleo, which I decided to do in F.

Then had a question about how to use technical exercises for improvising: for this, I cautioned against too much "scale practice": playing scales in octaves up and down is rarely applicable in playing. I like to practice classical pieces, and find ways to use what I learn in my improvising, and I showed an example of this "pencil exercise" I've been practicing. But there is one exercise that I love! I demonstrated it quickly, but here's a video from Patreon where I break it all down: My Favorite Exercise.

Then had a question about putting the melody in your LH thumb, and soloing over it with your RH, which is something that's been coming up recently! I've been practicing this for years, and actually made a video about it here on Patreon - Using The LH Thumb . Since making this video I've gotten a little better at this, and now it's starting to show up in my playing more naturally. I demonstrated a bit on Con Alma in the livestream.

Then had a question about soloing over a LH vamp, and how to be rhythmically free over it. I demonstrated over this LH vamp I learned from Keith Jarrett (video here!)

And this led to a discussion of phrasing between the two hands, and the usefulness of one hand playing "short notes" and the other playing "long notes", and how we can use this idea to make the piano more rhythmic and lively. And this actually ties in to this earlier video on Patreon too: The Importance Of Stopping

And at the end of the stream had a question about Ari Hoenig's rhythm exercise that I love so much. Didn't have time to get into it this time, but I've demonstrated in other livestreams, and here's my video about it: My Favorite Rhythm Exercise  And Ari's video on MyMusicMasterclass.com is here. This is a tremendous class and every musician should watch it!

Thanks as always for tuning in, and see you next month!

Glenn