Time: 1 hour

Comments: Well, I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve been so long in between practice sessions. That’s certainly no way to marshal the benefits of a consistent practice regime. Nonetheless, I was able to get an hour in last night.

I really wanted to work on improvisation last night, so I put on a ii-V-I backing track in Ab and went to town for an hour. Phrasing was obviously something I focused on, but from a harmonic standpoint I also tried to focus on a few things: b3, b9, #11, and E Major and E diminished triads.

I generally have a tendency to focus the b3 over the AbMaj7 chord, and the rest over the Eb7, but I also tried to work these intervals over the other chords as well. You can’t really do much with a b3 on the Bbm7 chord since it’s already a part of the chord, but you get the idea.

Overall, I’m happy with the session. It’s been a while since I was just able to practice by making music, so to speak; most of the time I’m bogged down in sight reading, chord studies, and ear training.