Yes it’s been a while hasn’t it? I think the state of reports written in this blog regarding my practice have been fairly consistent with the level of practice I have been doing lately. However I have decided to try and get back into the rhythm again, there are too many nice things to learn and not enough time so I must make the most of it.
Tonight after successfully surprising myself at completing an exercise which was going up to a reasonably decent speed, I gave a go at another jam over a backing track. That’s what I’ve been doing a lot of lately so didn’t let myself become completely rusty but those fingers of mine do need a regular workout if they’re to follow the path my brain is taking. Anyway, I couldn’t find a lydian BT so I put on a Dm one and started playing.
Normally, I tend to play within a few pentatonic shapes I know how to expand into minor / major / lydian / myxolydian tones but tonight I just picked my starting note and followed along the intervals. Half way through I realised I had no idea which shape I was in, so I just kept going along the interval. On the one hand it meant I found myself limited on where to go next while jumping strings, which does denote a need for more focus in that area, but on the other, it allowed a more melodic play than usual, something I’m not entirely displeased about. Ok so ballads aren’t exactly challenging in terms of improvisation but still it’s nice to realise you can find variety in things you’ve played along before that tends to always sound the same when played within a certain framework.