Played last night. Played shite. God knows why.

Warm Up

Same as usual

Scales/Arpeggios

30 mins. Maj, Min, Harm, Mel, scales maj7, min7, dom7, min7b5 arpeggios.

Rehearsal

Approx. 1hr. Practiced a couple of tunes with Danny for Yew Tree Christmas Open Mic. Mainly finger picking stuff using open triads. Need to be conscious of not getting in the way of the other guitar part! Less is more sometimes and all that. Take a solo over I-IV-II-VI-I progression.

Repertoire

2hrs. Basically practiced the two tunes I'm playing tomorrow without the charts. Also practiced the solo, integrated some of the intervallic stuff I worked on yesterday and also concentrated a lot on developing motifs. Found it helped to leave a lot of space at the start of the solo. Don't over think it and just go with whatever happens tomorrow.

Did a bit of an analysis on the gig from sat with Bridie, basically it was good. Lucky to be playing with such a good singer. Noticed that some of the sparser parts I put in worked well at points and helped to emphasise the voice. What tempo to start certain songs was still an issue, far too used to having a drummer do that for me! Possibly need to look at learning all the melodies of the songs on guitar. 

Creative Practice

1hr 15. Continuation of the stuff I was doing yesterday on intervals, finding that I like the sound but as with the chromatic stuff don't over do it mix it up. Also did a bit on time and accenting off beat phrases. like the effect!

So, most of today has been spent Christmas shopping and then youth music workshop in the evening, not left a great deal of time for practice! Never the less managed to get a bit done...

Warm up
2 mins. Again left hand exercises from pumping nylon.

Scales
20 mins. Major, Minor, Mel. Minor and Harm. Minor through cycle of 5ths.

Time feel
30 mins. Worked on trying to play 'in the pocket' used the chapter from jerry bergonzi's book on time. Playing broken triplets and then improvising straight 8th notes afterwards. Think it helps although I have to be consciously thinking about it. Need to devote much more time to this!!

Bends
15 mins. Noticed the other day a few were out. Often bending flat on high e.

Creative Practice
1hr. Focused on intervallic lines and mixing up intervals. Trying to break the habit of only sticking to one interval at a time when playing like this. Liked the stuff I got from mixing 3rds, 6ths and 7ths.

Warm-Up
5 mins on some of the left hand exercises from the book 'Pumping Nylon'

Scales/Arpeggios
40 mins playing scales at 62bpm with various subdivisions. Major, Minor, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor and Diminished scales covered. Also maj7, dom7, min7 and min7b5 arpeggios covered. Think this works well at the beginning of practice, gets co-ordination going well.

Time/Rhythm
1hr. Played through all subdivisions of the beat at 40bpm and broken demi-semiquavers at 62bpm. Also worked on playing three notes per bar through 'Blue Bossa' struggled maintaining discipline although I am finding practicing like this is giving me better control and awareness of where I am in the bar, I think.

Chops Practice
35 mins. Arpeggios through 'Blue Bossa' mainly 3rd and 5th positions, spent too much time exclusively in those positions need to be stricter in moving on.

Creative Practice
1hr. Double chromatic embellishments of maj7 and min7 arpeggios. Like the lines that these give me, need to not go over the top with it. Improvised around Blue Bossa using these ideas.

Chart Reading
40 mins. Focused on the chord charts from the melodic rhythms book. Need to be more disciplined with voice leading!