progressing by yourself?

[houseparty5]

is there a point you get to where you can't really progress without jamming with a buddy, or playing in some type of band? it seems when i practice, i'm not getting much better, if at all, it seems like i've learned all i can really learn by myself. are there ways to keep learning when you're not playing with other people? thanks.

[Asher S]

Originally Posted by houseparty5

is there a point you get to where you can't really progress without jamming with a buddy, or playing in some type of band?

Music is a social, interactive art. If you're not playing with others, you're not developing that critical ability.

Originally Posted by houseparty5

are there ways to keep learning when you're not playing with other people? thanks.

Play along with your favorite recordings. But it's still a poor substitute for playing with other live musicians.

[houseparty5]

Originally Posted by Asher S

Music is a social, interactive art. If you're not playing with others, you're not developing that critical ability.



Play along with your favorite recordings. But it's still a poor substitute for playing with other live musicians.

so no, there really isn't a way? damnit.

[superhand]

I can't give you much advice because I am in a similar situation. The best thing I can tell you is get a drum machine and jam with that. It's way better than a metronome and it gives you good practice for locking into the beat with a real drummer.

If you don't want to buy one you can download Hammerhead or Tunafish for free those are both pretty easy to use and you can make some pretty cool beats with them.

[Ed Fuqua]

Playing is playing, but practicing is practicing. If you don't have SOME kind of formalized approach to understanding (theory), ear training and physical approach (technique), you're going to have a pretty hard time making steady progress.

If you think of the three legs of the tripod being:
1. physical approach
2. understanding
3. hearing with clarity

you kind of have to have achieved some ability with each skill set to play with other people. Once you start playing music with other people, it should raise "areas of interest" in your playing - you hear things, but not clearly enough to get them out on your instrument. You can get them out, but you have to scuffle to play them and maybe don't play them as precisely as you want to. all of this points out stuff you want to go back and practice.

Not for nothing, but it REALLY helps to go through all of this with someone who has more experience than you. Teachers are great at this kind of thing.

[TFunkadelic]

Originally Posted by houseparty5

so no, there really isn't a way? damnit.

Whether you are playing with others or on your own, failure to progress can only mean one thing - complacency.

If you're not progressing in your own practice, you're not applying yourself to the task at hand (or finding new tasks to take on).

If you're not progressing with your group, it means your group is not working to master the material you already know, or you're working to master new material.

[XylemBassGuitar]

houseparty5,

There are many ways to progress on your own without other people: the drum machine and playing along with recordings have already been mentioned and you can also get a loop station and play along with that to go a little further...

BUT, there is no substitute for playing with other real people...especially those with more experience than you like Ed Fuqua mentioned.

I was in a similar situation when I started playing many years ago: I didn't play along with many people and wanted to learn everything on my own. Of course every person is different, but I know that my progress/improvement definitely slowed down past a certain point while learning on my own exclusively.

Then one day I played with a friend who was far better than I and almost overnight I grasped the theory far better than I had before and had a massive amount of new ideas: playing with this person really accelerated my learning and improvement and helped me to break out of the cycle of playing songs that all sounded the same.

Nowadays I put a lot of effort into finding new people to play with, as every time I play with someone new (especially someone who is more accomplished than me), I learn something new and my motivation to practice and work outside my comfort zone increases. I would highly recommend that you make the effort to play with many other people, especially if their style differs from your own.

Even if you plan on becoming a famous solo musician, I would still play with other people...you will almost definitely learn things that you wouldn't on your own.

[Mikeus]

writing songs also helps...i think so...

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by XylemBassGuitar

BUT, there is no substitute for playing with other real people...especially those with more experience than you like Ed Fuqua mentioned.

That's not what I said.

[gregoire1]

Try learning some new songs that you never considered before, or revisit some old material you haven't tried in years. This instantly broke me out of a funk once.

[INTP]

This is just a metaphor, but I like to think of a series of thresholds for learning with three zones. The inner zone is stuff I know well enough that repeating it isn't really much to help me improve. The outer band is stuff that's so far beyond my reach that I just get frustrated instead of getting better. In between is the threshold where I am challenged but not overwhelmed. When I practice on these things, I make progress.

A good teacher can help you find that zone for practicing. By yourself, it's easy to miss and either repeat what you already know or else try things you aren't yet ready for. But if you think about it, you may be able to do some of it yourself. It takes a bit of foresight, but it can be done.

But remember that it isn't a single event horizon. We are all at different levels on multiple facets of playing at any given time. An exercise like practicing scales that was once useful for learning modes, for example, could later be used for a new right hand technique, or using different rhythms, or dynamics, etc. By leveraging on something that's in the comfort zone, you can push yourself in a different area.

Playing with others is certainly useful, and it can help generate ideas or areas that you want to or need to work on. But done wisely, woodshedding can be very, very productive.

[BassDeluxe]

I would suggest lowering your standards for the band you'd play in or the teacher you'd work with for a while. I used to play in a band where I didn't really fit in because I just wanted to know where I stand with my playing. I stayed as long as I could and kept my opinions on the other musicians skill, their equipment, the practice room, and the band leaders visions and leadership style to myself.

Some of the things that are important when playing with other people is timing, groove, just the ability to make simple things sound good, and to develop some stamina if you have to play 8th for a while. These things might be neglected when sitting at home with the Jazz theory book...

[tobie]

Practicing at home is not a substitute / competing with playing with a band. They complement each other - playing with others will drive your progress during private practice sessions (you'll want to get better and your buddies will notice if you do). One of the biggest rewards for a bass player is when a vocalist insists that the bassist plays some of the chord progressions (specially between verses and lines) because it makes them feel comfortable when switching to that chord (verse / line).

Playing live is my motivation for practicing when I don't feel like it - and it makes me work endlessly on challenging licks & fills which I would not have attempted otherwise!

Grab at any opportunity to play with someone else - even if it's only a single acoustic guitarist. It's a lot of fun and it will help you grow as a musician!

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by houseparty5

is there a point you get to where you can't really progress without jamming with a buddy, or playing in some type of band? it seems when i practice, i'm not getting much better, if at all, it seems like i've learned all i can really learn by myself. are there ways to keep learning when you're not playing with other people? thanks.

I'm a practically 100% solo player nowadays myself. The drunkeness, the pot and coke all over the place, god-knows what else going up every orifice, fighting, narrow scrapes with the law (because of the aforementioned pot/coke), pi$$ed-off managers and club owners, incessant Bangladesh-level poverty, fleeing chicks and all the rest finally drove me into my living room and out of gigging. I havn't returned to it since.
Now, instead of having to sit around for a half hour at the start of rehearsal while everyone else gets 3 beers and a bunch of other crap into their bloodstreams, I can pick up my bass and start playing or working on a tune right away. I can get as anal as I want to make sure something's right and I don't have to fight with someone else to get something I need. I can pay attention to the music and not fight all this other garbage.
So there's a lot to be had by moving into a cave with your bass and amp and a fair bit of stuff you can do.

It is true, tho, that I've had to become creative. Now, I agree with others that without playing with other musicians (sober and with no arrest warrants anyway) you can fall into a rut; it is a more limited situation particularly if you can't play other instruments. And you can actually become accustomed to the metronomic time of software drums and instruments.

But some of the ways I've directed my attention as a solo player that help keep me going:
- technique. It's a golden opportunity to examine technical problems in your playing that you've never had time to look at before. I.e. I've taught myself how to play fretless, the floating thumb technique and a few other things that have actually made me a little better player technically.
- instrument fit. Spend some time looking at your current bass and finding fit problems. I.e. neck dive, neck sticking too far out to the left, incorrect PU placement, tone issues etc.
- pick up different things musically. Try learning the modes, different fingerings, arpeggios, etc.
- learn how to read music. I learnt the bass clef back in high school when I played trombone. I've recently begun relearning it and translating it onto the bass. Slow going so far but it'd be a great skill to have.
- learn other instruments. I've been trying to learn to play my guitar. I'm up to I think 4 chords now. Pretty good for me!
- learn to record. I.e. get some software for your computer or a recorder. This can really be an adventure and you can try all kinds of different things. You can pick up little things in jams that get recorded that can give you musical ideas..

But ultimately it's true that you stall out eventually without input from other musicians. Just jamming with other folks it's amazing what you pick up. And if they happen to like the same kind of music you do, it's a real thrill.
So if you really want to advance musically, getting out of your room is ultimately the best medicine.

But going solo has its advantages too and there's lots of ground you can cover....

LS