Never look for results when you practice. The reason is that today’s practice session is not going to show up in your playing until six or seven weeks later. The only thing you want to accomplish when you practice is the time you got in on your instrument. i.e. “I got an hour in.” This will keep you from being frustrated and giving up. Just remember, “X” amount of time spent practicing produces “X” amount of results down the line somewhere. My practice routine I give to my students goes like this: I will use the term “15 Min.” arbitrarily as the time can be determined by you.
- 15 Min. Technical works (Scales, Arpeggios, Technical exercises , etc.
- 15 Min. African Drum Exercises.*
- 15 Min. Melodic activators after the drumming*
- 15 Min. Old Tune ( A Tune you already know and are playing)
- 15 Min. New Tune (A tune you are learning)
- 15 Min. soloing on Rhythm Changes with a half step modulation after each chorus until you have gone through all 12 keys.
- 15 Min. Blues changes, (Same as above)
- 15 Min. Investigation ( analysis of tunes, working out reharmonization, working out runs, practicing pre-conceived II/V patterns, etc.
- 15 Min. performance technique. (playing as you would if you are on a gig or a concert. This enables you to find the weaknesses in your performance and work them out.)
- If you do not know about the African drumming and melodic activators and wish to find out please go to www.jazzbeat.com and investigate a 4 DVD series called “The Rhythmic Nature of Jazz” by Mike Longo