I landed a web programming job, started today. It's pretty fun.

Like I said last month, I'm not practicing full-time anymore. I've been cut down to 2-4 hours a day. That's not bad, but it's no 8-10. It'll be nice to work for money for a while, even if it's not in music yet. Especially after being Craigslist Jockey all month. I responded to over 70 job listings in 4 weeks.

Last time I was working and practicing guitar without playing in a band was the summer of 2004. I was a software engineering intern by day and working exclusively out of Shelton Berg's Jazz Improvisation: The Goal Note Method by night. (That's my favorite out of all the musical books I own.) I think I made more progress in my jazz playing during that summer than I did in this past year. I was focused on working out of a single book, and I was motivated by a specific goal: to get into Bobby Bradford's Jazz Ensemble at Pomona College in my final year at Mudd. It paid off.

I spent the first half of this year working for that LAMA scholarship. I'm proud of the demo videos I produced, and I started developing a unique playing style, but I wasn't studying as much jazz as I would have liked to. I think I'll shift my efforts in that direction again. I've been learning CSUN's and SDSU's repertoire of standards from my fake books (PDFs, all digital, w00t) for a couple weeks. I'm still only halfway through the Berg book, so I'll hit that for a few hours every night again.

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The Olympics on NBC are great programming for practicing scales. Between all the stories and ads, there's plenty of content to ignore.

I've had my eye on the websites for SDSU and CSUN jazz programs since deferring enrollment at LAMA. They have lists of required repertoire and scales. I found my skills moderately deficient in most of the scales listed for SDSU's program, so I've been running them in all positions and keys during the Olympics for past couple weeks. There are even a few weird ones I'd never heard of like Harmonic Major and Oriental Dominant Mode.

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I've been working on the changes to "All the Things You Are." The key of the tune modulates through Ab, C, Eb, G, E. I practice by cycling through the major scale for each key, and this helps with accessing arbitrary scales all over the fretboard.

Within each key is a diatonic collection of chords moving up by fourths. A vi-ii-V7-I-IV progression occurs twice in Ab, once in Eb. I wondered how I could adapt the tonic major scale of the key to navigate through these changes. My usual approach has been to use the arpeggio of each chord as an anchor for my improvisation. That has always been a challenge to remember so many different shapes as they go by often quite quickly. So I worked out a system of pentatonic scales over each chord. Minor pentatonic (1 b3 4 5 b7) is used over m7 chords. Major pentatonic starting on the 5 (5 6 7 2 3) is used over maj7 chords. Dominant pentatonic (1 2 3 5 b7) is used over 7 chords.

Here's how it works out in Ab:
vi - Fm7 - F minor pentatonic - F Ab Bb C Eb
ii - Bbm7 - Bb minor pentatonic - Bb Db Eb F Ab
V7 - Eb7 - Eb dominant pentatonic - Eb F G Bb Db
I - Abmaj7 - Eb major pentatonic - Eb F G Bb C
IV - Dbmaj7 - Ab major pentatonic - Ab Bb C Eb F

Note that only one note changes between each scale, and Eb and F are common to all of them. Rearranged to illustrate:
vi - Eb F Ab Bb C
ii - Eb F Ab Bb Db
V7 - Eb F G Bb Db
I - Eb F G Bb C
IV - Eb F Ab Bb C

Now that's far easier to remember than the arpeggio for each chord. I'm getting that cycle of pentatonics under my fingers for each major scale position. When I switch keys in a tune like "All the Things," I only have to find the tonic major scale and visualize the changing pentatonics over it as a guide through the changes.

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I've relocated my woodshed to San Diego. My immediate plan is to find work for a while and consider cheaper options for music school (starting with CSUN and SDSU). Unfortunately, this means less practice time, but I'm also going to start playing out again. It will be nice to apply and refine my playing style that's been taking shape over the past year.

More updates to come as I settle into my new hometown, look for performing opportunities, and continue preparing for music school somewhere.

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Lucid dreaming has been a goal of mine since I found a website on it five years ago. I've made half-hearted attempts at exercises to induce lucid dreams with, surprisingly, no results.

The strongest advice on every website I've found is to keep a dream journal. I never tried it until earlier this year, then stopped when the shit hit the fan. My routine was pretty simple. Every morning, I'd write down everything I could remember from my dreams. It has to be the first thing I do, before my memory fades: shut off alarm, pick up pen and paper. I'd reread the most recent entry before sleeping each night. While I was keeping the journal, my dreams became more bizarre, and I could remember more details each morning. I only had fleeting moments of lucidity, but more often than ever before.

I've been wondering how I could put this to good musical use. Accessing my subconscious creativity will have nothing but good effects on my music, but I feel there's a more direct route.

Most nights before I fall asleep, there's some kind of music going through my head, usually something I've been listening to or practicing. But as I drift closer to complete sleep, the music often strays from the song I know, taking its own path through new harmonies, melodies, instrumentation, genres. It's all coming from my head, but it doesn't feel like I'm making it up. It's as if I'm passively listening to an unfamiliar piece of music. Tricky chords surprise me, increased tempos excite me, calm sections soothe me. I experience every emotion as if I'm a listener. I can still make conscious changes in the music whenever I want, and it's effortless. I can take complete control of an entire symphony without hiring any musicians and instantly transition to New Orleans jazz without missing a beat.

Every time this happens, it literally sounds like the best music I've ever heard. Nothing mediocre ever surfaces, and I can hear each distinct instrument as clearly as if it were solo. The musical style can be anything, but usually starts with what I've been hearing lately. Unfortunately, I've never captured even a bit of it. If I get up to write something down or plunk it out on my guitar, it's forgotten. If I let it ride, then I remember none of it by morning.

This has occurred more frequently over the last two years, and it's what inspired me to finally start that dream journal. If I can cultivate my ability to remember dreams, maybe I can harness that glorious music from before my dreams. I'll settle for the tiniest piece, as I know this will take a long time to master. In the meantime, I think my best approach is to keep trying to recognize a chord progression and write it down on the spot.

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