Practicing my arpeggios, worth it?

[dukerutledge]

So a while back I was hardcore into a daily ruitine of practicing my arppegios up the scale, usually triple octave. I figured it was a good work out for my left hand, but I also feel it will hardwire some more shapes into my head instead of me playing the same intervals all the time, I'm a suck for 2nd and minor 3rd intervals. Is this thought process right? Is it good for things other than strength building?

[tenorbass]

doing scales and arpeggios will allways come in handy man! I like the way you were practicing. A good thing to do with scales and arpeggios is to say they notes well playing and reading. This way your hand knows the notes, your ears do, your eyes do and you know were the hell they are. It will help when your soloing so your just not Jiving or wanking your hands.

[Freddels]

When you do them, say each note out loud. This will reinforce your knowledge of the fb and you won't need to think in shapes anymore. You'll see the notes on the fb.

[tenorbass]

Originally Posted by Freddels

When you do them, say each note out loud. This will reinforce your knowledge of the fb and you won't need to think in shapes anymore. You'll see the notes on the fb.

Why not learn the shapes? Garry Willis is famous for doing this and like he says ITS THEIR! It would be pointless not to. Its the great thing about bass. I am not saying dont learn the fretboard you should do that but if you can learn the shapes of the notes on the fretboard do it!

[Bassist4Life]

The music you play is made up of scales and arpeggios. Learning these is like learning your ABC's. Arpeggios will help you find chord tones on the spot.

Also, I think it's awesome that you do them in 3 octaves. That takes some practice. If you're bored with these, I would do pitch patterns within your arpeggios:

R 3 5 7, 3 5 7 R, 5 7 R 3, 7 R 3 5...
R 3 5, 3 5 7, 5 7 R...


Joe

[Freddels]

Originally Posted by tenorbass

Why not learn the shapes? Garry Willis is famous for doing this and like he says ITS THEIR! It would be pointless not to. Its the great thing about bass. I am not saying dont learn the fretboard you should do that but if you can learn the shapes of the notes on the fretboard do it!

Shapes are there but if you're limited to shapes then . . . you're limited. I used to play with a guitar player that played in shapes. He would use a box shape for this and a triangle for that. He could play but I think he was limited in what he could do b/c of it. He could have been an even better player if he knew the fb and didn't rely on just shapes. If you want to learn by shapes that's fine for you. I was just making a suggestion that if one says the note out loud while playing the arpeggio two things happen. 1. You reinforce in your memory the notes that are in that arpeggio, and 2. You really learn the fb.

Do it if you want. Don't do it if you don't want.

[Dbassmon]

Arpeggios are part of the language of music. Worth it? not sure what that means only to say that it's worth it if you are willing to learn the language. Otherwise you're jivin and wiggling your fingers, maybe know a few licks but that's not the deal.

[fcleff]

Originally Posted by dukerutledge

So a while back I was hardcore into a daily ruitine of practicing my arppegios up the scale, usually triple octave. I figured it was a good work out for my left hand, but I also feel it will hardwire some more shapes into my head instead of me playing the same intervals all the time, I'm a suck for 2nd and minor 3rd intervals. Is this thought process right? Is it good for things other than strength building?

A resounding "YES"!!!

[The Tim]

Arpeggios help quite a bit, especially if you're doing a walking bass line, or are thinking of learning parts of theory like chord progressions. At first they seemed kinda pointless, but after you start learning more advanced techniques and things like music theory they really help.