I felt like I had a breakthrough in practicing the other day. I was practicing whole-tone scales – two octaves up and down – the way I have for years. Suddenly, it seemed really boring, mechanical and wasn’t going anywhere. It occurred to me to repeat the upper octave two or three times, faster. This way – it’s more fun and more interesting. After all, in an improvised solo, when are we ever going to play whole tone scales in the lower register of the horn? Pretty much never! Next month, I’ll put up a sound file of what it might sound like.
