Sucking for 2+ years.

[ric1312]

Easiest way to learn groove is to pick one note that you know is in key and only play that at first. If you can't groove with one note you can't grove with a dozen.

[60bass]

Originally Posted by BullHorn

The other reason is that I'm in the army now

Remember your days in boot camp? They drilled you and drilled you until you were able to do whatever it was you needed to do without hesitation. Just like you had been doing it all your life.

Apply the same thing thing to your playing. Go back to basics and hammer it home again and again until it is second nature. If you don't have access to your bass, then mentally do it. Picture the notes and fingering in your mind over and over. It doesn't even matter if you don't know which notes they are, only that you know that those notes sound like this when played together.

I think you'll be surprised if you try this. When you get back and grab your bass, you'll probably just pick it up and all the mental stuff will fall into place and boom you play it.

Good luck

[iandmcelroy]

Hey Man I hear you. Grooving is the hardest thing to do on a bass. You should get a metronome and start slow. One of the tricks I use is to play to the metronome as say 120. Play normal 8th notes nothing fancy then when you think you've got it cut the metronome in half, to 60bpm, and play the same rhythm. Try to stay on time in 120 with the metronome at 60bpm ticking on the 2 and 4 or the "backbeat". Then when your locked in and felling it cut the metronome in half again so it only ticks, tocks, or whatever it does on only the 4 of every bar while you still play the same rhythm. This is very hard and fun. Take it slow and make sure you have it locked in before moving on.

One of the thing every does is rush through the things that we find hard. Find what is hard for you to play then find the tempo that makes it easy for you. Practice everything you can in all twelve keys at the tempo everything is comfortable in then speed up when you have it locked in with the metronome. The most important thing I can recommend is to stay relaxed when playing. Don't tense up when things get hard just take it easy and stay comfortable, but don't be afraid to push yourself mentally.

There are a few books I would recommend as well.

The Serious Jazz Practice Book by Barry Finnerty. Published through Sher music ISBN 1-883217-42-3. Great book.

The Improvisor's Bass Method by Chuck Sher Published through Sher Music. ISBN 0-9614701-0-0. The first book that really taught me anything.

Chuck Rainey's book is great and so is the Berklee "Get your Band Together Bass" practice book.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes and sound different either. We're all just trying to have fun but it becomes a task or a chore when we think we're doing something wrong. There are no wrong notes in Improv so how can we be wrong when improvising. Have fun, take it slow and find your own path.

Good luck on finding your groove.

[chjohnst]

I actually practice in front of a mirror sometimes so I can see my finger positions on the fretboard as well as my fingerpicking hand to make sure I am doing it correctly. Sounds weird I guess but my teacher recommended it to me when I first started playing when I couldn't get both my fingers working in an alternating mode. The more I watched the more I realized what I was doing wrong. Now alternating my fingers is completely natural to me.

Now my main thing is to practice with a drum machine or listen to a song on youtube with my sub on my computer turned off so I can attempt to play along with the song. Its a good way to feel the rhythm of a song and come up with your own licks to the song or even a new bass line.

I have been playing for about a year and I have progressed along greatly from just taking it very seriously, not taking shortcuts and practice practice practice. I have spent considerable time strengthening my fingers for my fretting and picking hands from that. This was important to me for practicing and jamming with other musicians. Feeling the groove is something that I spend considering time on as well, but I think thats more of a thing of "either you have it or you dont", but I could be wrong. When I listen to music I spend most of the time focusing on the timing of the song or trying to feel out the tempo or rhythm from it, that has also helped me alot.

Good luck and have fun with what you are doing this isnt a race.

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by BullHorn

Here is Israel. ._.
I'm still having trouble remembering even the pentatonic minor in all positions. I just can't draw the scale in my head, so whenever I leave a known position, I just get absolutely lost.

2 points on that problem:

1.) Avoid thinking of scales as simply fingering patterns. If you learn how the scale is actually constructed in terms of its intervals (i.e. 1,b3,4,5,b7), and learn how to play those intervals, (and of course learn all the notes on your fingerboard,) you can figure out the scale from any note.

2.) for the sake of visualizing scales on the fingerboard, one thing i did early on that really helped was this: I took a sheet of graph paper and graphed an imaginary bass neck with 10 or 15 "strings", and then plotted out the notes of a c major scale. It revealed the "deeper structure" of the scale on the neck : there is really only 1 pattern for any scale, and what we see on the fingerboard as we start learning are just small 4x4 fragments of it. I can post a pic later if there is interest...

[Lichtaffen]

I'm no music expert. One thing I understand clearly though is that music relates to life in every way. When you listen to people who make statements about how they make X amount of dollars in a signed band, but think reading music is a waste of time, then you are headed for a major downfall. Getting signed is a matter of luck, not musicianship. God bless him, he is very lucky and deserves his success, BUT I think that statement is akin to someone saying "I won the lottery and I'm rich, but I never got past the fourth grade."

Good luck with your playing,
Ara