Practicing Log 1

A year or two ago, I first saw a video from a masterclass with the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire.  In the video he describes and demonstrates an exercise for the trumpet based on the 2nd exercise from Herbert L. Clarke's studies for trumpet and Cornet.  It's one of the foundational exercises for trumpet, every master trumpeter has probably spent a few weeks of their 10,000 hours of practice in executing this exercise in 12 major and minor keys over the full range of the trumpet. 
In Ambrose's masterclass, he outlines a study where he takes the directions from the Clarke's study, but replaces the notes with those of a particular chord voicing, in this case that of a Maj7b5.  
This appealed to me for a number of reasons.  I've always been interested in single-note improvisation that conveyed harmonic information as rich as any chordal instrument, and this seems like a means to that end.  It seems especially suited toward the trumpet. 
 Trumpet players have usually been drawn toward close-interval improvising, preferring linear bebop or chromaticism, which lays better on the instrument.  Even those that were known for improvising with large leaps tended toward more chromatic intervallic playing.  Take Woody Shaw, probably the most influential trumpet player known for an intervallic style of play- his intervallic improvisations included a preponderance of fourths, but was more stylistic and less harmonically exact.  I like the idea that improvisation can, on its own, establish a complete harmonic context for a listener. 
When I started to play around with this concept, I decided on a different harmonic shape for my first exercises.  I settled on the shape of a minor 6 chord (1, b3, 5, 6) for a few reasons.  One, it's an assertive shape with a strong character.  Two, it's flexible and suited to many different harmonic contexts, clearly outlining min 6, min 7b5, dom 7b9b13, and dom 9th chords, as well as being applicable to the diminished scale.  
To organize my practice and ensure I played every key and inversion, I practiced with the first note as the 1, then as the b3, 5, and 6 in order, before changing the first note.  This way I would get all 4 inversions before moving on to a new starting note.  I also like this method because you can hear the ebb and flow of the brightness and darkness of each of the key centers.  
I'm excited to continue practicing this concept and expanding it further.  I'm especially excited to combine shapes/keys within 4 measure phrases, to apply this concept to chord progressions with more than 1 chord.  


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