Help me be a human metronome

[rpsands]

I'm looking for a bass teacher for one or two one hour lessons a month, in the Phoenix, AZ area.

Background: I've been playing for about a year and a half. My theory-fu is weak, but good enough to improvise adequate, but certainly not inspired, bass lines for rockish type music. I'm steadily improving the theory on my own.

My biggest weakness is losing the groove. It's annoying as heck! I'll drop the groove, particularly in areas where I'm not steadily playing or in weird time signatures (we do a lot of 7/8, 6/8, 12/8). Steady eighth notes I can hold down, but when I'm required to do droney stuff, or off time stuff, I fall apart.

Obviously one cure for this is practice, but I've taken lessons for half of my time playing and it helped a lot. However, I'd like to focus on this weakness, and I find I get a lot better faster with help.

I want to be more reliable than the drummer, to always know where one is, and to play four measure riffs and never get lost. I want to solo and not get lost. I want to play syncopated triplets without breaking a sweat. And I want my band to be able to rely on me for keeping things together.

Anywho, shoot me an email/pm if you're the master of the pulse and able to help me out.

[rpsands]

Also, if you have any recommendations or study tips, please feel free to hook me up

[Phe]

Funky weird, I was just about to post the same kind of request. I'm back from band rehearsals and I noticed I suck. With time signatures at least. Like with exotic 3/4 The reason why I drop the groove is the drummer who plays in 6/4 (or in 9/8, can't remember...)

Hmm.. I gotta get me a metronome. But if anybody has great tips I'm open for them too.

[louieeadg]

www.studybass.com

Best exercise is to turn a metronome on and clap with the 'click'...try to be on point and make the 'click' disappear...

That's the best website on the net...and its free as well as taught very well.

[fenderhutz]

When you listen to music tap the tempo with a hand or foot. Whether it be in your car and just get in the habit of when you are listening to or playing music to have that tempo in your mind.

It really does help after repetition.

[rpsands]

Let me give a basic rundown of my rhythm practice regimen so I can give you more of an idea of where I am at.

Random non-practice things:
Tap to music in the car, hum bass lines along with music (in time), tap out bass lines I hear in songs, etc. I do this and am pretty solid on picking out the rhythm of most pieces. But then again 97/100 things you hear on the radio are in 4/4 with simple non-syncopated rhythms (e.g. straight eights or sometimes a mix of sixteenths/eights).

Rhythm practice session:
1) turn on Metronome at 60bpm. Do very slow 1-fret stretch exercises (e.g. 1-2-3-4) in first position until warmed up.
2) Play scales at 60bpm until I'm perfect. Then play eighth note scales at same bpm. Usually up and down the fret board with the G-pentatonic at least, though I am working on major/minor along the whole board.
3) Fingerboard exercises at 88bpm, 100bpm, and 120bpm (eighth notes chromatically across each string then backwards back up, down to the 12th fret, then back up). Then one alternate exercise, like stair-stepping down the strings, string crossing exercises, etc).
Other stuff I mix in:
a) Eighth note rhythm exercises
b) A small sheet I have with weird mixes of sixteenths/triplets/eighths
c) Improvisation with a given chord progression
d) Learning song
e) Random wanking with a given tempo
f) Slap practice of various sorts

I will spend some more time over at Studybass. I did like a lot of the theory on that site

[louieeadg]

Originally Posted by rpsands

Let me give a basic rundown of my rhythm practice regimen so I can give you more of an idea of where I am at.

Random non-practice things:
Tap to music in the car, hum bass lines along with music (in time), tap out bass lines I hear in songs, etc. I do this and am pretty solid on picking out the rhythm of most pieces. But then again 97/100 things you hear on the radio are in 4/4 with simple non-syncopated rhythms (e.g. straight eights or sometimes a mix of sixteenths/eights).

Rhythm practice session:
1) turn on Metronome at 60bpm. Do very slow 1-fret stretch exercises (e.g. 1-2-3-4) in first position until warmed up.
2) Play scales at 60bpm until I'm perfect. Then play eighth note scales at same bpm. Usually up and down the fret board with the G-pentatonic at least, though I am working on major/minor along the whole board.
3) Fingerboard exercises at 88bpm, 100bpm, and 120bpm (eighth notes chromatically across each string then backwards back up, down to the 12th fret, then back up). Then one alternate exercise, like stair-stepping down the strings, string crossing exercises, etc).
Other stuff I mix in:
a) Eighth note rhythm exercises
b) A small sheet I have with weird mixes of sixteenths/triplets/eighths
c) Improvisation with a given chord progression
d) Learning song
e) Random wanking with a given tempo
f) Slap practice of various sorts

I will spend some more time over at Studybass. I did like a lot of the theory on that site

Just keep hitting up studybass...his exercises are great. Very functional...

[BassChuck]

Give Jeff Berlin a call.

[Phe]

Sorry, I forgot what Jeff Berlins phone number is.

Gotta stop being lazy and start counting.

[mattofash]

My timing never used to be great, and for a metal band with a lot of triplets appearing out of nowhere that was never good, what I did was recorded the tune lightly played on a snare onto my phone (or something similar) and listened to it untill it drove me crazy and now I Just tap them out on my desk all the time, and can play them like a piece of piss, and it helps pick up other rythems a lot quicker as well

[DocBop]

Just takes practicing everything you do with a metronome so you are constantly hearing and feeling steady time. Then start reducing the number of metronome clicks so you are on your own more and only check in. First set metronome to only click on 2 and 4, then only on 1, then only on 1 of every other measure. Get a metronome that you can turn the sound off and on while it is clicking. Then have a friend run the metronome and turn on sound for a couple measures, then turn it off for a couple measures, then back on. How well do you maintain the time on your own. Get rhythmic sightreading books flip on the metronome and clap the rhythms or play them just using one note on the bass. Again set metronome to click on 2 and 4.

I get to where my metronome will be on all day constantly clicking steady time. I get to where i only hear it subconsciously. You need to get to where metronome is just partof everything you practice. Like learning to play fretless in tune no matter what you practice part of you is listening to intonation.

[Dave R]

Use your body as a metronome.

By that, I mean don't just stand there with both feet flat on the floor. (Or sit there with both cheeks flat on the chair.)

Move with the music!

I realized this when I was in a band with 2 guitarists. The guitarist who lost the beat played like a statue. I've never been able to do that.

Moving anything, even the neck on your bass, will help you keep the time, particularly when someone else is syncopating something.

For more complex time signatures, I just remember that everything goes back to 2's or 3's. 6/8 can be played as a slow 2. ONE two three FOUR five six. 12/8 is just 4/4 with all triplets.

I dunno about that 7/8 stuff, though. Probably played like a 4, then a 3, then repeat. So you move like a typewriter. Over 4, then back 3.

[visa]

i count 7/8 as one-two one-two one-two-three sometimes

[Factory Owner]

[quote=Dave R;4776624]Use your body as a metronome.

By that, I mean don't just stand there with both feet flat on the floor. (Or sit there with both cheeks flat on the chair.)

Move with the music!
QUOTE]


I feel this way helps to internalize music quickly! Afterall, our goal, is not to just be a metronome, but to have feel, have a pulse, and make others feel that pulse too! If we can't dance to our own music, chances are other people will not dance to it either!

I hear the burying the metronome exercises being expressed in here! That's a great exercise...however I recommend not burying the metronome when the metronome is clicking to many subdivisions. This tends to create a stiff feel. It feels stiff because your feel ends up metronomic. Instead, I recommend having the metronome only clicking to one particular subdivsion and burying that subdivision!

For instance, just have the metronome click on beat one. Then groove for 5 minutes burying the metronome on beat one everytime!

Then, have the metronome only click on the "and" of beat 1. Play the same groove for 5 minutes! If your groove does not actually have a note being played on the "and" of 1, that rest needs to still be stringly felt and that rest should feel like it burys the metronome on the "and" of 1.

Keep doing this until you hit all possible subdivisions!

This is tough. But I try to think of the metronome as a drummer just placing his backbeat on a challenging beat!

Let the metronome become your slave, not the other way around. Strive to make the metronome groove, not you groove like a metronome.

This will give you solid time, but not lose your sense of time-feel!