Student Feature Jeremy: Beautiful Practice in A
One of the milestone exercises I assign to almost all of my students over the course of me working with them is our Beautiful Practice Routine.
Beautiful Practice is an exercise that I featured in a Talking Technique Video. Because it was so successful on that platform, I brought it back a while later in a minor version.
Some of the reasons I love this exercise so much is:
It sheds the diatonic cycle
I regard the knowledge, understanding and practice of the diatonic cycle in all keys as one of the most important practices one can do.
Why? Because it manifests understanding of all chords of a key. And most importantly, it achieves that in the order those chords most often show up in songs. Maybe not all songs feature the entire diatonic cycle (such as “Fly me to the Moon” or Santana’s “Europa” do for example).
But even if you just have a V – I, there is your snippet out of the diatonic cycle (that’d be the very end of it).
One before the end: II – V – I.
One more: VI -II – V – I.
Or how bout III – VI – II – V – I…. see the pattern?
You just have to add diatonic fifths in front of it and there you have it. It is literally everywhere in any type of music that features diatonic elements.
It features triad inversions
You have to think on your feet!
It incorporates open voicings
Now you really have to think on your feet!
Beautiful Practice is a heck of a technique workout
String crossing galore means you are shedding your left hand’s nimbleness and speed and your right hand’s aim (as in – hitting the intended string)!
And watch just how consistently Jeremy alternates with his right hand. He had to work at that and he succeeded!
Beautiful Practice fits right into my “Pattern System”
My new book will hook you up with that!
We cover all areas of the bass here. Pretty comprehensive!
Versatility – it never gets boring
You can practice it in all keys and of course, do the major and minor varieties.
Really fun to play
Whether you use the delay pedal with this or not, it sounds beautiful. And even though it is quite a bit of a challenge, all of my students love practicing it!
Enjoy! And leave some props for Jeremy in the comments.
here is the PDF – link https://www.notreble.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Diatonic-Triads-Open-Voicings.pdf
Related:
Watch my student Carmie play Beautiful Practice in Eb
More beautiful sounding shedding using the diatonic cycle
Please don’t call it the cycle of Fourths
More on the cycle
