At the moment I’m trying to go back to the song All The Things You Are. I’m trying to make sure my playing is in the groove.

I found something I struggle with is different mindsets when playing, in terms of thinking of playing from different angles, maybe different things I’ve worked on in the past that are not completely integrated into my playing….

so I’ve listed those things above and made them into a circular chart. The idea being I can focus on each of the things for a few minutes and then move onto the next part of the circle. Then when it’s done, repeat the whole thing. Also when doing this alternating between one chorus of comping and one chorus of soloing.

Some kinds of things I noticed after I recorded myself and listened back are:

• Comping with a pick the down and upstrokes aren’t always accurate especially when an up follows a down.

• Playing long quaver lines my time feel isn’t so good.

• playing with fingers my time felt better

• Singing I need to work more on singing the basic harmony so I play what I sing but I also like to sing what I play I think that helps learning too.

I’ve been thinking a lot about when I studied a module in Flamenco in Spain (It was super hard!). Every time they learn a passage/ a bar or a song / improvise, they always go back to the groove between each repetition and just sit on it, so I’m trying to think the same with swing. Just between choruses of soloing/ playing the melody/ comping, to go back to the groove and try and find a way I can make it feel good at that tempo.

Hope those thoughts might help someone out there!

happy shedding :)