How good can you get in a year?
On any instrument.
Using good practice methods.
It's a question I've been asking myself for a while now. I've been giving advice to others on practice for the past five years in person and via my website. I've played as a professional musician in London and all over the UK in various orchestras, bands and shows. The trouble is that the practice I tend to do on my main instrument is of a maintenance type - I put in the hours of hard work many years ago. This has left me feeling a little detached from the feelings of the beginning musician.
What I'd like is to recapture some of those feelings of inadequacy, frustration, joy, excitement and everything else that being new to an instrument can bring. I also think it wil bring a huge benefit to the advice I offer others on practice.
So it's back to basics for me.
Or rather BASSics
What I'm going to do is to see how good I can become on the bass guitar in the space of a year. I'm going to commit to doing regular practice everyday in order to try and meet some goals (tbc). I'll post warts and all updates via fora and video so that everyone can see how well, or badly I'm doing.
This will also be a test of self-teaching and of how the internet can help you learn. If approached by someone in the same boat I would usually recommend going to a teacher - however this is part experiment so I'm going to go down the self-taugth route on this occaision. Who knows, next year I might learn something else with a teacher . . .. . .
Where am I now?
The good news for me is that I can read music without any problem at all. So I guess an advantage over those that are startign completely from scratch. I don't really read TAB so that's something I'll need to pick up. I did dabble for a few weeks with the bass a couple of years back but let's just assume that I'm a complete beginner (which is about my standard
)
I've got a 5-string Ibanez Soungear Bass and a Marshall 4x10 combo. I'm not going to focus on gear as it's learning, technique and music I want to focus on. Better gear might make me better in future but not now.
Goals:
By the end of the year I would like to:
To be good enough to play in Jazz/Pop/Funk band
Play good gig within a year
Comfortably 'walk the bass' on basic jazz tunes
Read well enough to play in show
Preferred Styles:
Jazz, Soul, Big Band, Pop, Funk
Artists:
Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Horn led pop, Buble, Sinatra, Connnick Jnr
Questions;
I have so many questions about all this it's tricky to know where to start. I'm really hoping that the above doesn't sound naive to more experienced bassists out there. I'm sure there are already some errors in my thinking - but hey, I'm here to learn
How good do you think I could get?
What materials would you recommend?
What techniques/exercises would you recommend?
Any good sites?
Video lessons?
I'm really looking forward to any tips, help or advice I can get. I'm going to continue to read and prepare for a week or two longer before jumping in with both feet.
Wish me luck!
