Practice Log: 10–16 March (Sunday–Saturday)

This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series 2024 Practice Log

This is my regularly updated practice log, mostly for accountability with my saxophone practice. Below you can see my practice for the week. If you’d like to check it out, here’s my goal list of tunes for the year. 

Having gotten a good handle on “Fly Me To the Moon,” I’ve selected my next tune for my study project: “Four.” It’s a tune I’ve known of for years, with early exposure due to my interest in the music of Miles Davis right when I was starting to get into jazz as a teenager. (Here’s an early, slower-tempo version by Davis. In my experience the faster versions are sometimes sloppy, but this one is crisp and tight. I like this up-tempo take by Phineas Newborn, too.)

I’m also kinda-sorta working on “Skylark,” a beautiful tune by Hoagy Carmichael that I’ve liked for many years now. (Here’s a Dexter Gordon take on the song.)   

Below, you can see a log of my practice sessions for the week.

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Practice Log: 3 March–9 March (Sunday–Saturday)

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series 2024 Practice Log

This is my regularly updated practice log, mostly for accountability with my saxophone practice. Below you can see my practice for the week. If you’d like to check it out, here’s my goal list of tunes for the year. 

This week, I learned “In A Sentimental Mood” and started work on “Fly Me To the Moon.” I don’t love the latter song—it’s a staple in Korea and I’ve seen too many people trying to make it profound and melodramatic in a way that turns me off… but I like the idea of doing it as a bossa nova or something, and anyway, I guess I need to know it because it would inevitably be called in a jam session, right?

Below, you can see a log of my practice sessions for the week.

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Practice Log: 25 February–2 March 2024 (Sunday–Saturday)

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series 2024 Practice Log

This is my regularly updated practice log, mostly for accountability with my saxophone practice. Below you can see my practice for the week. If you’d like to check it out, here’s my goal list of tunes for the year. 

This week, it seems I’m finishing up work on “Up Jumped Spring” (especially on Eb horns, where I feel a little weaker on it) and casting about regarding what I’ll transcribe next. Maybe that Dexter Gordon solo on “Misty” I mentioned last time, but I’m not sure. I’m taking a little break for now, or rather, I’m focusing on preparing for the coming semester this week, since classes start on the 4th of March and I’d rather not be in a mad rush when the time comes. (I dread how much less practice I’ll be able to do when school starts, sigh. If only there were practice rooms on campus, I could get something done during my downtime between classes.)

Below, you can see a log of my practice sessions for the week.

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February Reads

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series 2024-Reads

This is the second in a series of posts about books I’ve read in 2024. Some of them are book club books, most of them not. Being in a book club has been helpful for me in widening my reading a little, but getting into the habit is something I’d attribute more to just pushing gently until the habit came back somewhat. The other issue is time, and I’m taking steps with work to moderate (i.e. eliminate) time spent grading work as much as possible, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up once the semester starts in March. 

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