Practicing without a bass (mental practice) tips needed?

[Gladowsky]

I spend considerable time on the road on my commute to/from work. I use this time to review flash cards and listen to music. Obviously, I cannot practice while driving (although I had an uncle who used to do just that. That was a strange sight to any passersby). Does anyone have any tips on how to make the best use of this time to do mental bass practicing? Does anyone else 'see' the fingerboard in their mind and work through song passages that way as I do? What part of music theory should be given the first priority to commit to memory - memorizing interval names/sounds, names and intervals of scales/modes or other? I'm ready to move on to more advanced exercises but want to devote time to the right ones first. Thanks for any tips or shared experiences.

[DudeistMonk]

I like to keep time in the car, or drum, or drum the bass line...Singing can't hurt either, or singing the bassline...Sometimes I'll listen to a song in the car and be like "I know that interval" and I'll go check later to see if I was correct.

[manutabora]

Singing the basslines!! That's something I had never thought about, but I would bet my right arm that it works!
Whatever instrument you play, singing the things you play is a good way to get the sounds in your head, and if the sounds are in your head, getting them through the fingers is not hard

[bottomzone]

Learning and playing notes, scales, intervals and chords on the piano helps me a lot. Singing all of the above is a great way to test your ear.


A Groove is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

[VroomVroom]

Creative visualization....nothing like it! Mentally practice those scales, phrases, licks, etc...."hearing" them in your head just as you "play" them in your head. By all means, sing along. After 25 years of playing the bass I still can't sing a lick, but reaching for those intervals is great ear training.

[daffy]

I do left hand fingering drills on the steering wheel, and use songs on the radio as metronomes. Use the wheel as if it is the bass neck and work on lifting fingers as little as possible.

Patterns like 1-2-1-3-1-4-2-3-2-4-3-4 over and over, or reverse it and do 4-3-4-2-4-1-3-2-3-1-2-1

I also practice my right hand thumb slap against the wheel to rhythms on the radio.

Just don't pick really complex patterns that require heavy concentration, or at least set your fingers up in the pattern while you are stopped at lights - you don't want to do anything that distracts you from the road!!!

[ZonGuy]

I spend 2-3 days a week and sometimes more away from home and bass with lots of downtime in planes and hotel rooms.

I do the creative visualization described. I also read and analyze scores and can "hear" the scores in my head and visualize how to play them. I usually have three or more bass books in my flight bag and a ton of sheet music as jpgs on my laptop.

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Be safe, focus on the road and the drivers around you!

[bonzo4880]

+111 on singing and picking out intervals ... not that im terribly good at either. but it is valuable practice time. i will also rock out the gripmaster as well. not for very long periods of time, dont want to overuse the muscles. mainly on my weakest fingers. it also helps me to smoke less in the car when i have to drive a lot. pure and simple distraction.

i remember from the JAco dvd, him mentioning something about mental practice and how that was important to him. just going over music in your mind and breaking things down, figuring things out. having a good sense of pitch and being able to sing makes that more productive, but even without it is still useful. i also taught myself a good bit of theory just by hashing things out in my mind till they stuck. for example, learning the circle of fifths and the notes in each key and the diatonic chords for those notes. C major C D E F G A B C major C E G D minor D F A E minor E G B, etc etc. Then go through and do different chord extensions, random modes, harmonic and melodic minor, etc etc.
It helped me a great deal. And I did the majority of it while I was working a very boring, mindless job. So it was almost like I got paid for it....

[SBassman]

I have never worked on scales in the car, but I often
use commute time for reinforcing memorization of tunes
when gigging.

[I don't have a good memory, and after learning a song, I have
to repeat it frequently to keep it in the brain. I can do that work
with or without a bass in hand, visualizing the fretboard.]

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by Gladowsky

What part of music theory should be given the first priority to commit to memory - memorizing interval names/sounds, names and intervals of scales/modes or other?

For learning theory, I'd suggest memorizing the sound of common chord progressions and then identifying them in songs on the radio.

[Broseph]

Originally Posted by manutabora

Singing the basslines!! That's something I had never thought about, but I would bet my right arm that it works!
Whatever instrument you play, singing the things you play is a good way to get the sounds in your head, and if the sounds are in your head, getting them through the fingers is not hard

If you can sing it, you can play it. Just keep your eyes on the road please!

[fretlessman71]

Here's a neat trick: While you're listening to a good groove, listen hard to the music and the intricacies of the interwoven parts.... and see if you can PERCEIVE it s-l-o-w-e-r.

I know that sounds a little hocus-pocus, but if you start hearing every little bit of what's going on, you can start to get your head ahead of the parts, which is key to making a good bass line feel great. It also speaks to being relaxed and comfortable in the pocket; if your pulse is racing, you won't be able to play a good laid-back groove.

Another thing you can do is listen to bass lines you've never tried to play before, and see if you can figure out how to play them by the time you get home. Walk over to your bass, and see if you're right.

[ClassicRock55]

A couple things you can do listening to the radio is to figure out intervals between notes in the melody of the song or count out the rhythm of the bass line as if you were going to transcribe it into notation (not recommended, you'll probably crash )

[Gladowsky]

Thanks to all for sharing your perspectives. Does anyone know of a good source of CD's to work on ear-training short of recording the sounds myself? Ideally, a system that would test me on various intervals, scales, and chords of all types (major, minor, dominant, etc. in various inversions) would be excellent.

Thanks much!

[Gladowsky]

Originally Posted by ClassicRock55

A couple things you can do listening to the radio is to figure out intervals between notes in the melody of the song or count out the rhythm of the bass line as if you were going to transcribe it into notation (not recommended, you'll probably crash )

I was issued a hefty speeding ticket once: My plea of "listening to Ric Fierabracci's solo on The Rain Must Fall" did not buy any mercy.

[E2daGGurl]

Great thread.

I wish it were true that if I can sing it, I could remember it (I can't).

I use really simple mental exercises, like picturing the fretboard and a note on the stave, and then squeezing the finger on the imaginary fret for that note. Sloowly.

The "slow it down in your head" thing really seems to help me - thanks.