Hey Janek-
Maybe you can help me give my practice schedule a kick in the ass. This summer I've generally had between the hours of 9am and 2pm to practice during the week, and usually I do, but some days I'm just not feelin it. I gave myself a list of things to do (i.e. transcriptions, reading, etc.) and I've done alot of it but just haven't gotten to it all....mainly because of the rut I fing myself falling into, which is that unmotivated, bored feeling of numbness. I hate that.
Any advice or suggestions?
Thanks man.

Well first of all, if you're not feeling like shedding DON'T!!! that's a big one right away. Lots of peopl try to force the issue, feeling they HAVE to shed at least x amount of hours per day. Sh*t, some of the best playing I ever did was after I took a complete break for three days and didn't touch my instrument.

Inspiration comes from all sorts of places. What keeps me motivated and inspired is listening to music all the time.

There's always something in what I'm listening to that I either don't understand, or have a hunger to do better in my own playing. The transcription is one of the main ways of making that happen, but just listening to as much music as you can is great. Check out things you would never normally listen to. If you've been checking out Dave Holland a lot, why not go and check out Avril Lavigne? I'm listening to one of her records right now as I type. It came on after "the weight" by "the band". Then Cubanisimo came on followed by freddie Hubbard, Eric Benet and the Miles. great little run of things to check out there. I wanted to tighten up my synth bass sounds some more so I was matching the sound on the Eric Benet track before finishing this post.

You just have to get to a point where you can work it into your daily routine and not even notice it's happening. Find a place where you're comfortable with music as a part of daily life, and not put too much pressure on yourself to force shedding, or worrying about not shedding enough. If it's meant to be, you've going to pick up your bass and play it. If it's not, then it shall remain in the case. no big deal at all. Everyone is different, and while my crazy ass practice schedule and everything may seem like a great idea, it may well not be for most people. In fact it could drive you nuts. Cos I'm a little crazy about it.

You just have to find what feels natural and rewarding. Perhaps just 20 mins a day on keeping your chops in shape would be great. Then when inspiration strikes the have the facility to execute whatever it is you're hearing.

Easy,

Janek

As I finish this post Squarepusher just came on in the iTunes. Time to go work on that super ridiculous high tempo playing! DOH!

Thanks Janek; good to hear how diverse your listening tastes are.

This summer I've generally had between the hours of 9am and 2pm to practice during the week...

DAMN! 9 to 2?! I wish I had that time... :eek:

All the best on finding a source of inspiration. I get inspiration from seeing anyone kick a** in their field of expertise. I get a huge surge of inspiration when I watch the Olympics. It makes me want to do my best and I get right down to it.

Joe

MM - you studying with anybody? One thing I've found that teacher's are great for is maintaining forward momentum. It really doesn't matter in a lot of ways if I am inspired or not, bored or not. I have a program of material that I need to work through and no matter how I feel, once you start in and focus then the rest just unfolds. Just like playing, you may feel bad or distracted or pissed at the start of the gig, but once the music starts you go someplace else and none of that is important any more. It never even registers.

Just having your hand on the instrument, even for the least amount of time that you can devote to your session (hitting everything that you work on) can, at the very least, remove that feeling of everything getting backed up. And beating yourself up cause you "aren't inspired to practice" in a lot of ways is just another avoidance behaviour. Kind of, as long as I feel bad about it I have in some way done something positive for my playing. That just ain't the case.

I would say that if you need inspiration to get through a practice regimen, you might want to take a closer look at what you're working on to break down exactly what it is you're trying to acheive. Bands come and go, gigs come and go, cats you play with come and go. The thing that really defines you as a musician is the work you do in the shed.


Listening to other music or watching sports or meditating or any other activity that isn't shedding may seem to make some momentary change, but it hasn't really addressed the base of the issue. You can't wait til your life is perfect before you hit the shed.

MM - you studying with anybody?

Well, I used to study with Todd Coolman, Rufus Reid, and Dave Holland. After about 7 years without lessons, I recently took one with Janek to get some inspiration for my electric playing. He was great, and I hope to do it again soon.


I would say that if you need inspiration to get through a practice regimen, you might want to take a closer look at what you're working on to break down exactly what it is you're trying to acheive. Bands come and go, gigs come and go, cats you play with come and go. The thing that really defines you as a musician is the work you do in the shed.


Well, I'm trying to work on the things that get you hired. You know, reading, knowing tunes, lines, time, tone, plus everything else. And that stuff to me after all these years gets tedious sometimes. But it's work that has to be done, because I want to work. Example: I may not really want to learn "My Foolish Heart" in all 12 keys, or even in 5 keys, but I know from working with singers that it will get you the call backs. And there are 300 other tunes like that on the list.
Look at Janek: he's playing some incredible sh!t; when I saw him with Stern he was killing it. How does he get to that point? Well, for starters he transcribes horn solos like a mofo. So that's another thing I'd like to do, because I wouldn't mind being in his position. You dig? I could go on for days about stuff I want to work on, but for now I've narrowed it down to this:
1. Reading. For upright, electric, piano, it doesn't matter. I read well, but I want to be a mutha at it. So I try to spend lots of time with that.
2. Knowing tunes. Jazz reperotiore. Lots to know there, and I already know alot of tunes. A lifelong pursuit.
3. Intonation/Arco/Classical studies. I have a great love for the bow, but was lax about it for long enough; time to get to buisness.
4. Time feels/bass line content/tone. This to me comes from transcribing bass line from the cats I love, and believe me, I've done a lot already. But everytime I hear something I haven't heard before that grabs me, I feel the need to learn it.
5. Soloing. I've had to transcribe in the past, but I find it to be alot of work. I try to have as much of a vocabulary as I can, but, this is a lifelong pursuit and will never be "accomplished".
6. Ear training. Goes with transcribing, plus a whole lot more. You can never be too good at hearing.

So there's alot of sh!t to work on, and some days it just ain't flowin. But you and Janek are right, even a little bit is better than 0, so when I get in that haze, I will do something, even if it's not what I was "supposed" to do that day.

Thanks guys for your input!!

Well, I'm trying to work on the things that get you hired. You know, reading, knowing tunes, lines, time, tone, plus everything else. And that stuff to me after all these years gets tedious sometimes. But it's work that has to be done, because I want to work. Example: I may not really want to learn "My Foolish Heart" in all 12 keys, or even in 5 keys, but I know from working with singers that it will get you the call backs. And there are 300 other tunes like that on the list.
Look at Janek: he's playing some incredible sh!t; when I saw him with Stern he was killing it. How does he get to that point? Well, for starters he transcribes horn solos like a mofo. So that's another thing I'd like to do, because I wouldn't mind being in his position. You dig? I could go on for days about stuff I want to work on, but for now I've narrowed it down to this:
1. Reading. For upright, electric, piano, it doesn't matter. I read well, but I want to be a mutha at it. So I try to spend lots of time with that.
2. Knowing tunes. Jazz reperotiore. Lots to know there, and I already know alot of tunes. A lifelong pursuit.
3. Intonation/Arco/Classical studies. I have a great love for the bow, but was lax about it for long enough; time to get to buisness.
4. Time feels/bass line content/tone. This to me comes from transcribing bass line from the cats I love, and believe me, I've done a lot already. But everytime I hear something I haven't heard before that grabs me, I feel the need to learn it.
5. Soloing. I've had to transcribe in the past, but I find it to be alot of work. I try to have as much of a vocabulary as I can, but, this is a lifelong pursuit and will never be "accomplished".
6. Ear training. Goes with transcribing, plus a whole lot more. You can never be too good at hearing.

So there's alot of sh!t to work on, and some days it just ain't flowin. But you and Janek are right, even a little bit is better than 0, so when I get in that haze, I will do something, even if it's not what I was "supposed" to do that day.

Thanks guys for your input!!

That's still a pretty general list.

READING - what? Working on reading I've got some etude books, I'll also read melodies in treble clef, I'll read both lines of Bach two parts. In the etude books I've got some for bass, some for 'bone, some that are just bass clef and not for a specific instrument. And the Omnibook.

KNOWING TUNES - what methodolgy are you using to work on them? There are a few tunes that i really tear apart, but mostly it's working on being able to hear through tunes, not really "remember" them.

ARCO - well, OK.

TIME/CONTENT - hmm. Working on time from transcription I'm not too sure about. To me that comes from working with the nome in some pretty specific ways, primarily a "parameterized" approach to improvising over song form. Without having anything to lean on (play along, band in a box, drum machine) other than the nome, you really start focusing on the content of your line.

SOLOING - well, as above. Vocabulary is all well and good, but "data mining" someone else's solo for vocabulary kind of misses the point, to me. It's kind of like going through a Sam Shepard play and pulling out lines in order to have something to say the next time you have a conversation.
The thing that is nice about transcription is that, if you internalise the line (which I work on by learning to sing it at half speed, recreating as much of the nuance that I can, then at full speed and then finally picking up the bass and playing the notes that I can hear and sing accurately now) you are actually working on the process of improvisation: hearing notes/lines/phrases internally with enough clarity that you can get them out into the air on your instrument. To use another analogy, it's the difference between memorizing a line from a book and reading and re-reading the book and thinking about the ideas in the book and integrating them with the thoughts, feelings and experiences that you have had up to this point so that you can speak about the ideas in the book in a personal way.

EAR TRAINING - OK, but again, specifically what? There's listening to an Aebersold and trying to cop root movement and chord function and quality and then there's trying to sing open position 4 part chords with 2 tensions in all inversions.


But I think the big part of alla this is the whole "...trying to work on the things that get you hired...". If you are so outer directed alla time, then you're reliant on all the vagaries of other people to give you reason to be in the shed. If you're working on specific things that get you deeper into the music - hearing with more clarity, understanding what you are hearing, finding more elegant physical solutions to playing what you are hearing - that inner direction can get you past the whoe psychology of "not enough whatever to gig".

I think so many of us are caught up in the whole idea of "alla these great players out there" and " so-and-so has all this **** happening" that we kind of forget that the whole idea in this music is to sound like yourself.

Anyway, my whole point about specificity/generality is that it's gonna be easier to stay in the shed if you can say " I'm gonna spend 15 minutes on HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN playing 3 bars of melody in a different place in each 8 bar phrase and improvising accent 3 triplets in the other 5 bars" than " I'm gonna work on memorizing more tunes".

That's still a pretty general list.

READING - what? Working on reading I've got some etude books, I'll also read melodies in treble clef, I'll read both lines of Bach two parts. In the etude books I've got some for bass, some for 'bone, some that are just bass clef and not for a specific instrument. And the Omnibook.

The Omnibook, Standing in the shadows of Motown, 110 Studies by Zimmerman, Bach Cello Suite in G, Note Reading Studies for Bass by Arnold Evans, The Music of Miles Davis by Lex Giel, any melody from any fake book. Both in bass and treble clefs. I'm sure there's more I'm leaving out.

KNOWING TUNES - what methodolgy are you using to work on them? There are a few tunes that i really tear apart, but mostly it's working on being able to hear through tunes, not really "remember" them.

Yeah, learning them by ear (melody and changes) from whatever recordings I can get and then cross checking with published charts.

ARCO - well, OK.

Right.

TIME/CONTENT - hmm. Working on time from transcription I'm not too sure about. To me that comes from working with the nome in some pretty specific ways, primarily a "parameterized" approach to improvising over song form. Without having anything to lean on (play along, band in a box, drum machine) other than the nome, you really start focusing on the content of your line.

Dave Holland spent alot of time with me explaining how he learned any and every note Ray Brown played on whatever records he had. Would you think that from listening to Dave Holland? I can see the influence, but's it's not pervasive. Ray Brown said he learned every note Blanton ever played. Etc. I find doing these not only informs your lines, but also captures the feel, which is the whole game anyway. I would never be able to play with Paul Chambers' feel, but it's nice to try, as it influneces my own feel, which doesn't sound like Paul Chambers anyway. And I do play alot on my own with a metronome as well.


SOLOING - well, as above. Vocabulary is all well and good, but "data mining" someone else's solo for vocabulary kind of misses the point, to me. It's kind of like going through a Sam Shepard play and pulling out lines in order to have something to say the next time you have a conversation.
The thing that is nice about transcription is that, if you internalise the line (which I work on by learning to sing it at half speed, recreating as much of the nuance that I can, then at full speed and then finally picking up the bass and playing the notes that I can hear and sing accurately now) you are actually working on the process of improvisation: hearing notes/lines/phrases internally with enough clarity that you can get them out into the air on your instrument. To use another analogy, it's the difference between memorizing a line from a book and reading and re-reading the book and thinking about the ideas in the book and integrating them with the thoughts, feelings and experiences that you have had up to this point so that you can speak about the ideas in the book in a personal way.

Right, I agree, and that's the way I try to do transcriptions, but I also always write them down for future reference.

EAR TRAINING - OK, but again, specifically what? There's listening to an Aebersold and trying to cop root movement and chord function and quality and then there's trying to sing open position 4 part chords with 2 tensions in all inversions.

Yeah...well, hearing changes, melodic lines....I'll have my wife play chords on guitar and then name them without the instrument in my hands, i.e. "That's Eb major 7" etc. I'll work on root movement alot, I dunno; I've done a ton of transcription but less of the "trying to sing open position 4 part chords with 2 tensions, etc. I guess that is what my next project is.


But I think the big part of alla this is the whole "...trying to work on the things that get you hired...". If you are so outer directed alla time, then you're reliant on all the vagaries of other people to give you reason to be in the shed. If you're working on specific things that get you deeper into the music - hearing with more clarity, understanding what you are hearing, finding more elegant physical solutions to playing what you are hearing - that inner direction can get you past the whoe psychology of "not enough whatever to gig".

I think so many of us are caught up in the whole idea of "alla these great players out there" and " so-and-so has all this **** happening" that we kind of forget that the whole idea in this music is to sound like yourself.

Anyway, my whole point about specificity/generality is that it's gonna be easier to stay in the shed if you can say " I'm gonna spend 15 minutes on HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN playing 3 bars of melody in a different place in each 8 bar phrase and improvising accent 3 triplets in the other 5 bars" than " I'm gonna work on memorizing more tunes".

Those are great suggestions/ideas that I'm going to think alot about and implement. Thanks alot for your imput into this topic Ed.

De nada, We all on the journey...