My 10 rules to erradicate this very common problem

[Alejandro Lozan]

When your head only contains short ideas to improvise. Someone says: improvise! Your head thinks in 5 common notes... awful!

My dear friends here you have:

1.-Watch many videos about great bass players.

2.-Study with a professional teacher not with your guitar player.

3.-Read scores from other instruments.

4.-Play a lot of melodies as you can.

5.-Transcribe ideas from piano to electric bass.

6.-Listen many musical genres.

7.-Remember your bass hero is not the unique voice in the universe.

8.-Clean your bass after play, please!

9.-Read all magazines about bass.

10.-Turn off your video game and play until say "wow... today I reached something new for my hollow head and for my lazy fingers..."



www.alejandro-lozano.com

My web site very soon!

[bobbth]

ok... welll while you do that ill go and learn to play bass guitar

[Deacon_Blues]

Nice pieces of advice, essential if you want to become a pro, or just better at what you do. Nothing new on that list though...

[derrenleepoole]

This list implies improvisation within more traditional musical boundaries... scales, motifs etc.. Ever tried total free improvisation away from harmonic restraints! That is really hard, even though you would think it would be easy. At least Derek Bailey makes it look easy!

[onlyclave]

Cleaning my bass after I play helps my improvisation? Interesting.

Non sequitur.

[Jonyak]

my rules to learning improvising.

1. Play

2. play with people

3. put yourself in situation that you normaly wouldn't and play what you can

[Sahm]

This is a very convoluted list, especially the "clean your bass" part. How would that improve improvisation?

A simpler list is:

1. Know your fundamentals- a lot of improv road blocks happen when folks don't have the tools to express what's in their head. You can work on fundamentals with a teacher, with videos, magazines, etc. but it all falls under the same general rule.

2. Listen to and attempt to play as many different musical styles and musicians as possible - This pretty much consolidates rules 1 and 3 through 7!

3. Practice. A lot folks complain they can't improvise, but they don't ever sit down and practice. There are many good resources out there, even if you can't get a good group togeher. The Jamey Aebersold books are one good example.

[Alejandro Lozan]

1.- Essential if you want to become a pro: Of course, these 10 nice advices were written for a pro.

2.- Cleaning my bass after I play helps my improvisation? Sure, remember wash your hands before eating. Playing a dirty bass neck is disgusting

3.- Listen to and attempt to play as many different musical styles and musicians as possible - This pretty much consolidates rules 1 and 3 through 7! You are right Sahm.



To be a bass player is a life style, almost a religion.

www.alejandro-lozano.com My web site very soon!

[swanny88]

I never really clean my bass unless someone spills beer on it.

[E2daGGurl]

I was going to ask what are we cleaning our bass from? I'm pretty clean and don't sweat all over it or anything. I dust it off after inspecting it each time I play it, which is every day. It doesn't really do much to get dirty (you should try keeping a pair of cocker spaniels clean!)

I call people who think bass playing is a religion Bass Players. I call people like myself bass players. I am more religious about music-in-general than about bass-playing-in-particular. In other words, I think bass playing sounds best when it is cognizant of its role in the music-as-a-whole (if we're going to get metaphysical).

Gotta go, they're playing without me!

[soong]

Originally Posted by bobbth

ok... welll while you do that ill go and learn to play bass guitar

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[MyUsernameHere]

I don't play video games, so I can't turn them off. How am I ever going to be able to fill my hollow head?

Seriously though, I just stuck a pencil in my ear...and it ain't hollow in there. Getting kinda lightheaded noow.. ... owww.

[Evan_S._Brown]

i try not to clean the funk off my p bass.
it likes to be dirty...sounds better too

[BuffaloBass]

Dont judge me until you feel my groove, but when I clean the bass off, I not only clean it, but I THANK IT for letting me do what I do with it.

An odd mental game, to be sure, but it has efficacy.

A very good list Alejandro!

[Bruce Lindfield]

Actually one thing that opened up my improvising was discovering the whole tone scale - I would never have thought of playing anything like this, until a teacher showed me how it could be used...

[SirCanealot]

Originally Posted by Alejandro Lozan

10.-Turn off your video game and play until say "wow... today I reached something new for my hollow head and for my lazy fingers..."

!

What's wrong with practicing for 30 minutes, then playing Metal Gear Solid 4 for 4 hours?

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by Sahm

Well, I contributed constructive feedback. You just criticized the OP and offered no alternative as to what you think are essential tips for improv. It's certainly okay to think somebody's opinion blows, but at least offer yours so we can compare!

The OP suggested watching videos and reading magazines about great bass players and cleaning your bass.

Magazines exist to stir up controversy.
Bass hero videos are analogous to musician porn.

Here is a list of my 10 things to do to make your improvising better:

1. Learn the melody inside and out.
2. Learn the chord changes in all 12 keys.
3. Look for voice leading opportunities between the critical tones.
4. Stay away from the root.
5. Look for the bigger harmonic picture.
6. Always play with impeccable time and rhythm.
7. Force feed and transpose short phrases from the melody through all of the chord changes in the song.
8. Practice slowly.
9. Transcribe and analyze and UNDERSTAND who you want to sound like.
10. Leave space.

Now I think those are more constructive improvisational tools than not playing video games.

[manicbassman]

Tetrachords & Pentachords...

[Sahm]

Originally Posted by onlyclave

1. Learn the melody inside and out.
2. Learn the chord changes in all 12 keys.
3. Look for voice leading opportunities between the critical tones.
4. Stay away from the root.
5. Look for the bigger harmonic picture.
6. Always play with impeccable time and rhythm.
7. Force feed and transpose short phrases from the melody through all of the chord changes in the song.
8. Practice slowly.
9. Transcribe and analyze and UNDERSTAND who you want to sound like.
10. Leave space.

Good stuff.

One thing about number 4, I think it's also important not to fear the root. Sometimes, folks get so caught up in avoiding the root, that their solo's sound so far away from the chords, you'd think they were soloing in their own key.

So, utilizing point number 7, as you familiarize yourself with the phrasing of the melody, you could match it with your solos, and start each phrase with the root of that chord. This gives the listener a subconcious outline of the melody and makes your solo more connected to the song. There are just certain landing points within the structure of the song where it's good to hit the root and tie everything back in.

[jsingles]

I think music in general, hell. any serious activity or interest in general... should be approached in a serious way... its all common sense to make a serious effort