Warmup

[MikeyFingers]

I'm in a rutt. 3 months ago, I was able to play the beginning (like the first minute) of Donna Lee, and I could do it pretty damn good.
Now, I'm having trouble getting past the opening line. My left hand especially is getting slower and sloppier.
I've noticed this with a lot of my playing lately, not just that song.
I think the problem is that I never do any warmup excercises or anything. When I pick up my bass, I usually just play. I'm not in a band or anything so I don't have anything specific to practice, so I just screw around and make stuff up.
But now it's starting to catch up with me. I'm starting to tackle harder songs now, but I've been slacking lately and I'm not as good as I was. I need some good excercises to get my hands primed before practicing. Something, anything, whatever will fix this.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

John Patitucci's "Spider" is a great one:

[seequeue]

Originally Posted by Alvaro Martín Gómez A.

John Patitucci's "Spider" is a great one:

what kind of speeds do you get that up to usually?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Oh, and I don't know if you use the slapping technique, but just in case, this exercise from Mike Dimin's website is excellent for keeping your "slapping wrist" in good shape.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by seequeue

what kind of speeds do you get that up to usually?

Well, IMO, speed shouldn't be the goal here but consistency. The fastest I play this is 80 bpm, but after some time playing the whole exercise as written, I take the 16th-note sections alone and try to play them at the same speed for 5 mins. non-stop at least.

[MikeyFingers]

COol guys, I'm gonna try that Patitucci thing right now.
And BTW, yes I do slap. I'm gonna try that out too.