Dexterity Exercises for the Electric Bass by Robert Chiarelli

[jlerner]

When I received this book, at first glance, I was disappointed--the exercises seemed so...simple. But I gave it a try, and found that, a lot of those exercise were hard for me to play. So, with a little faith, I dived in deeper, and went through the whole book over the course of around a week. I have, so far, found it to be a very enlightening and practical guide, to help me find areas I am weak in, and to help me improve. It's not about "music"--it's just about technique. E.g., can you play a note on the g-string with your left middle-finger, plucking with your right index-finger, and then play a note on the d-string with your ring-finger and pluck with the left finger. Sounds easy, but, for me at least, it's not always the case.

I think this is a "two-hand" exercise book. The author doesn't go into hardly any detail about technique--he just lays out the exercises. I recommend doing all the exercises starting with the left then right plucking finger.

[sammyp]

i love exercises ....but i don't like 1 2 3 4 and all it's permutations ...i want something more musical .....how does this book stack up with my tastes?

[funkybass]

Originally Posted by sammyp

i love exercises ....but i don't like 1 2 3 4 and all it's permutations ...i want something more musical .....how does this book stack up with my tastes?

It doesn't, which is why I don't like the book. Mindless exercises just aren't my thing.

[jlerner]

True...neither one of you guys will like this book. However, I wouldn't call the exercises mindless--just very technical and not related to music, except that they cover many many technical skill necessary to play music.

[sammyp]

Originally Posted by jlerner

True...neither one of you guys will like this book. However, I wouldn't call the exercises mindless--just very technical and not related to music, except that they cover many many technical skill necessary to play music.

all that stuff is great for the hands and helps with independence and strengthening of the fingers ....i just don't enjoy it and did too much as a young guitarist!

[Down & Outman]

Cutting meat helped the dexterity of my fingers. Worked part time as a meat cutter for 5 years (2 job boogie!).

Got a book that showed some finger doodlings as well. Got cramps in my hands doing them, but once I mastered it made a lot of diff.

I like to use all my fingers, pinky included.

[sammyp]

Originally Posted by jlerner

True...neither one of you guys will like this book. However, I wouldn't call the exercises mindless--just very technical and not related to music, except that they cover many many technical skill necessary to play music.

honesly ....you can do better with Bach inventions arranged for bass or something of that nature ....if you can deem something 'not related" to music it's pretty much a waste of time .....

you never see greats like Victor, Van Halen, Stevie Ray, Jaco etc etc talking about that stuff....

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by sammyp

you never see greats like Victor, Van Halen, Stevie Ray, Jaco etc etc talking about that stuff....

Indeed. Would you like to know how to improve at playing the bass? Just play the freakin' bass...

MM

[Fergie Fulton]

If you play any notes in any order it is music, it may be music you do not understand or like but it is music all the same.

The great thing about playing exercises is they are to develop a physical need, not a musical one. The problem with using musical exercises to improve a physical technique or supposed weakness is that you will focus on the musical part the exercise. You will pause or stop when you lose the place musically rather than continue to play. Your brain and expectations will interfere with the physical side by rationalising it and looking to order it, rather than just accept it and play. The very fact you have to work on the musical side, will inhibit the physical side.

Yes there are etudes and studies that combine both, but they assume a certain level has been reached and passed so the player can use the the pysical properties they have developed without it interfering with the art of playing.

Playing music is a balance between the physical and the mental, in fact it is strictly all mental because it is your thoughts that move your fingers to what you have understood. so it is where the focus is if you will the ability to prioritise.

When you start playing is all physical focus, not mental. You do not have the skills or dexterity to play the bass, so regardless of how musical a song is or how musical the player is, they will not represent that on the bass...so we can say it is a 100% physical focus.
After a while of playing a payer will reduce this balance to 90%...80%... 60%.. etc. so the balance at some point is even, it is 50% physical and 50% mental. Then players, like many around the world, will see Jaco, Victor, etc and decide it is cool and want to do it. What they don't see is for them it is no real mental, there is no real physical, because they have worked all the lives to get to where they are. For these, and any player really, you have to engage the mind to increase the mental thought of something to increase its physical side.
For example, you can play say any Stevie Ray Vaughan song with absolute ease, there is no real thought in it.. you just play. The only thing that you can now do to move on is increase the difficulty of your playing.
So you learn new music that is more challanging and now the mental task is rising because you are learning new ideas. It will soon become physical because you can "hear" what needs to be done, you understand what needs to be done, but you cannot play it, so now it starts to become a physical focus.

This is shown best with sight readers, they will often find themselves in a situation where they can read it and understand it ( mental) but stuggle to play it (physical).
So for them the balance of mental and physical will be constantly moving if they are always getting new music to work on.
Within this lies the fact that when say Nathan East works with BB King, he is using about, and i will be liberal in this, about 15% of his mental or physical powers to do so.
Another player might use 30% and other might use 90%, but to the listener it still sounds good, but to the player the difference means lots more in the tank, so much much further away from any mistakes or problems.
For Nathan it is fun and easy, hence the big smiles, for BB he has the knowledge that his bass is in safe safe hands...one less thing to worry about.

So working on non-musical exercises for better physical development has a great benefit because the focus is on why you have choosen to do them in the first place.. the only focus is physical.

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by Fergie Fulton

If you play any notes in any order it is music, it may be music you do not understand or like but it is music all the same.

The great thing about playing exercises is they are to develop a physical need, not a musical one. The problem with using musical exercises to improve a physical technique or supposed weakness is that you will focus on the musical part the exercise. You will pause or stop when you lose the place musically rather than continue to play. Your brain and expectations will interfere with the physical side by rationalising it and looking to order it, rather than just accept it and play. The very fact you have to work on the musical side, will inhibit the physical side.

Playing music is a balance between the physical and the mental, in fact it is strictly all mental because it is your thoughts that move your fingers to what you have understood. so it is where the focus is if you will the ability to prioritise.

So working on non-musical exercises for better physical development has a great benefit because the focus is on why you have choosen to do them in the first place.. the only focus is physical.

You leave out 1 major part of the process in going from physical activity to mental activity. The feedback you get from hearing what you are playing. The great players don't think about what they are doing, they play what they hear in their head.

The problem with playing excercises that don't sound good and purely designed for building technique is that it takes away time that could be used for both building technique and developing the ability to hear musical ideas that you will actually use in playing bass lines. When you practice arpeggios for example, you not only build technique, you strengthen the link between what you hear and where your fingers go to make those sounds. The hearing part is the key and it is pretty much automatic, the more you practice something, the easier it becomes to hear it and play it without thinking about it.

As far as eliminating the thought process with the technique builders, that comes from having the excercises written out and just following along and eventually memorizing, nothing more. The exact same thing can be done with arpeggio or scalar excercises. Why not get the added benefit of building your ability to hear musical ideas that you might actually use?

I'm not saying there is zero benefit from doing non-muscial technique builders, I'm saying that you get far more from your time if you practice things that are muscial and will actually use.

If you want to learn a specific song and have a fixed amount of time to spend learning it, which method will have the best results, spending half the time building techniques that are similar to that song which make it easier to learn the song and half the time on the song itself or spending all the time building the specific techniques to actually play the song?

If you want to get better at a specific skill the best and most efficient way is to practice that specific skill, period. At least 80% of all the bass lines or melodies you will ever play will be built from chord tones, scale tones, and chromatic sequences to a target note, to master those skills and get them to the point where you can play them when you hear them in your head, you must practice those things.

[Art Araya]

For those of you that don't like non-musical exercises but still want to challenge your left and right hand technique - give etudes a try.

I co-authored a book with Alex Sampson called Bass Chopz Accelerator that's got 30 classical etudes that have many different challenges in them.

But there's also a place for mindless fingering exercises to build up your hands and your technical proficiency.

[jgroh]

I personally like these types of books...I have the bass fitness book and I love it. Ive been playing for a long time so this is strictly for physical technique. Its like football players doing squats in the gym to help their game rather than just playing football all the time. Its something different that builds up your physical technique. YMMV.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by GeoffT

You leave out 1 major part of the process in going from physical activity to mental activity. The feedback you get from hearing what you are playing. The great players don't think about what they are doing, they play what they hear in their head.

Playing an instrument takes time, this is not an issue for a player. There seems to be a thought process that great players are made fast. Non- musical exercises take time and effort away from nothing, because there are many many more things in life than playing and they will always take away from playing.

But then the counter " all the more important to focus on musical things then if time is limited". Who can say what a player takes in and what a player does not, not everyone that takes up the bass will be good players, many will fall short for a number of reasons, they will just be bad players, the same as bad drivers, bad cooks, bad sportsmen etc... they will just not have what it takes and that includes the physical stature to handle the instrument without injury.
Though these days with all the great instruments available that is not so much an issue, but it does mean more chance to mis-match a person to an instrument in their eagerness to play.

Having done both types of exercises, and i have taken benefits from both type, one has helped my musicality, the other has stopped me getting into repetitive shapes that some forms of music use. Also the physical being so different gives my body a reset from constant repeditive use.

Musically all the chord tone, arps, etudes etc have done both a physical and mental approach as you say, but the playing exercises have gave me options to use movement that is not associated with musical thinking.
Now go to any long term players in say an orchestra and you will find the same injuries, dystonias, or muscle re-alighnment among the same sets of players, you could even tell what instrument they played from the symptoms presented without being told if so experienced in dealing with them.

Techniques, such as Pilates, Alexander, Tai chi. yoga etc are openly used by music schools in the UK to help make students aware of such things and keep the fitter and healthier for longer in to their careers. So it is really a journey, not a race, players can do other things as they go and intertwine them with their musicality.

[funkybass]

Originally Posted by Art Araya

For those of you that don't like non-musical exercises but still want to challenge your left and right hand technique - give etudes a try.

I co-authored a book with Alex Sampson called Bass Chopz Accelerator that's got 30 classical etudes that have many different challenges in them.

But there's also a place for mindless fingering exercises to build up your hands and your technical proficiency.

I have that book and I highly endorse it. Of course I'm no pro, but it's still a killer book.