Are you doing proper warmups on your instrument when you practise?

 [To the melody of 'Going to the Zoo']

I'm going to a jam today,

Jam today, jam today.

I'm going to a jam today,

It'll feel like I've stayed all day.

I'm going to a jam, jam, jam,

Pete won't give a damn, damn, damn,

Playing tunes in F, Bb, C and Am,

I'm going to a jam, jam, jam.

Listen HERE if you don't know the tune.

I'll be taking my violin, but how will I be heard over those trumpets and saxophones? I have a small, and easy to carry, battery powered amp and a cordless receiver on my violin that is also battery powered. I can easily compete with those other instruments AND I can play much higher notes on my violin than the average trumpet player can manage. Most musos at this jam will have charts (music) in front of them. I don't do this. I have enough jazz standards in my head, and I can hear my way through most songs that might come up. Playing by ear is an important skill. Hey, singers do it all the time!

I'll do my regular warmup exercises this morning while Shelley is reading the Sunday paper. When she has finished, I'll take the paper over to our elderly neighbour. She loves a chat, so it'll take me about an hour to drop off the paper. Hey, she's a lovely lady so I'm happy to chat! 

Never forget, when you're warming up, that tone and intonation come first. Then you should have things that you repeat every day. For me that's double stops, 3 - 7 voicings and arpeggios. Why not scales? Well, I actually do them a lot too. Then there's the chord progressions to my four solo pieces and any tricky bits, like the chorus to The Orange Blossom Special with its Hokum Bowing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. These are double stops with the bold underlined notes using higher strings. 

Peter is in Wellington AND it appears that he found his carpark at his new apartment! He even found time to leave a lengthy, though not proofread, comment on my last post. I assume that things are going well for him and Lynn. 

Robert had a little post on display yesterday, but today it's back to this.

I know that he's now doing quite a few AI posts on Facebook AND he has even reverted to his correct name! I can never work out why he frequently deletes his blog posts. Maybe it's something to do with being a cellist? Maybe a priest tells him to? Who really knows?

Well, it's nearly time to start thinking about practice. I'll leave you there for today.

Ciao tutti.