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02-04-2012, 03:37 AM
| | | | What to practice when you don't know what to practice?
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K well,
Today i was watching some more jaco video's, so i decided to practice again for my usual 2 hours. Last night during practice i nailed teen town, opus pocus, liberty city, band songs and otherwise did some theory work and improv with a looper. Today i hop on my bass, couldnt play any of those songs, couldnt improvise to save my life and spat the dummy quite badly before having a chance to practice theory  i've never been so pissed at bass in my life and i just about broke my bass and amp by throwing the bass at it  (out of character im normally very mellow.) After a few hours i went back in to do scales, still couldnt do songs or improvise 
So what i need to know is what do you need to practice, when you can't practice or don't know what to practice? 
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by wvbass  Black on Black. White on White. I don't know why so many people have trouble with this. Mirror is only cool if your name if Phil. | |
02-04-2012, 05:45 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Deep East Texas Piney Woods | | | I think you just had a bad day, no, you had a really bad day. The practice session seems to be OK and not the culprit. Chill out, take a day off, this too shall pass.
Good luck.
Last edited by MalcolmAmos : 02-04-2012 at 06:16 AM.
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02-04-2012, 08:24 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Ireland | | As Malcolm says, you had a really bad day. It happens to us all. I'm sure you will be on top of your game again, very soon. 
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Flatwound Club # 53
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02-04-2012, 01:24 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Ontario, Canada | | | Bear...i have had the same thing...my prof..tells us/me...rudiments..rudiments...rudiments...play a song...mess up...go back to rudiments...the other thing that he always states... is know the melody inside and out...so this gets back to my problem when i havent prepared myself....i have started to listen and visualize the tune...(this could be closing my eyes for a few minutes,,count in the tune and sing it to myself...some how it rights itself with timing and feel...)
Hope it helps...if not go back at it in a few hours...
__________________
The more worn a string, the better it sounds. And do you know when it sounds best of all?..Just before its about to break. PABLO CASALS
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02-04-2012, 03:24 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indiana | | | Maybe try a totally different practice routine for a while for a change of pace. |
02-04-2012, 04:36 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Macon, GA | | | I recommend, in all seriousness, illegal drug usage.
I have written the best, most creative songs of my life under the influence of substance.
Also, I would like to site the immeasurable impact of psychedelics on the creativity of music in the 60s to 70s, the impact of marijuana on blues based metal/rock (Stoner is actually a popular genre), and the fact that Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and others have written their best material to date during periods of extended heroin usage. |
02-04-2012, 04:42 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Norway | | | Time.
Shout, shake, stomp and clap like a savage. Work on polymeters, swing, whatever, just practice time.
And when you practice improv, simply scream the pulse and play against nothing but that. Internalize, internalize, internalize.
__________________
"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." - Ornette Coleman
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02-04-2012, 06:56 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indiana | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Schpector I recommend, in all seriousness, illegal drug usage.
I have written the best, most creative songs of my life under the influence of substance.
Also, I would like to site the immeasurable impact of psychedelics on the creativity of music in the 60s to 70s, the impact of marijuana on blues based metal/rock (Stoner is actually a popular genre), and the fact that Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and others have written their best material to date during periods of extended heroin usage. | Your drug use has FRIED your brain. Bad advice. I hope you are joking. |
02-04-2012, 07:26 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Schpector I recommend, in all seriousness, illegal drug usage.
I have written the best, most creative songs of my life under the influence of substance.
Also, I would like to site the immeasurable impact of psychedelics on the creativity of music in the 60s to 70s, the impact of marijuana on blues based metal/rock (Stoner is actually a popular genre), and the fact that Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and others have written their best material to date during periods of extended heroin usage. | Hello, enjoy your trolling tonight much?
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TC RH450 #8, MM Stingray #153, MM SUB #15, Warwick #325, OLP #13, G&L #411
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02-04-2012, 07:38 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brooklyn Park, MN. | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Schpector I recommend, in all seriousness, illegal drug usage.
I have written the best, most creative songs of my life under the influence of substance.
Also, I would like to site the immeasurable impact of psychedelics on the creativity of music in the 60s to 70s, the impact of marijuana on blues based metal/rock (Stoner is actually a popular genre), and the fact that Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and others have written their best material to date during periods of extended heroin usage. | LOL!!!
__________________
It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.
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02-04-2012, 07:47 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Downingtown, PA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by funkybass Your drug use has FRIED your brain. Bad advice. I hope you are joking. | He CAN'T be joking! He said he was serious!
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by bassinplace WHAT A GIANT CROCK OF HORSEDUNG THIS THREAD IS!!!!!!! | |
02-04-2012, 07:52 PM
|  | Bassman7654 | | Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: North Las Vegas NV | | If your stuck in a rut with your practice routine, jam to some hard to play songs. or just jam Works for me
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GK 1001RB II, & MB800, NEO 212 & 210 cabs, Boss GT10-B, Roscoe SKB 3007, Brubaker Brute MJX-5, Fender 62 USA RI, Ibanez SR400, Barcus 6 string. And various other toys. G.A.S. and G.E.
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02-05-2012, 01:27 AM
| | | Thanks for all the advice. I took a day off, came back and did a portrait of tracey/okonkole y trompa cover with my band. I asked keyboard player what he thought happened, apparently too much practice in 1 seating can do more bad than good? Anyway everythings back to normal and i apologized to my bass and amp 
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by wvbass Black on Black. White on White. I don't know why so many people have trouble with this. Mirror is only cool if your name if Phil. | |
02-05-2012, 04:22 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Sydney | | | I've been playing for 40 years. Some days it's gold but the next day it can be crap. Where a player is really at is somewhere in the middle. The point of practice is to make even bad days acceptably good. Don't sweat a bad day. |
02-05-2012, 07:42 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: South Jersey, USA | | | Pick a song that you like most. Maybe one with a tricky bass line... play it via Windows Media Player and you can slow down the playback so you can pick out each individual bass note. Practice that and when you get good at it, up the speed to normal and play along with the song. It wont be as boring. Its hard to practice the bass by yourself. I get A.D.D. by just doing scales/runs on the bass. That lasts about 5 minutes and I give up.
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Fender Jazz Bass/Hartke LH500/Hartke XL210 X 2
Hartke Club member #155
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02-05-2012, 07:49 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2011 Location: Tampa Fl | | | Don't do 2 hours a day - you sound like you are quite advanced. Thinking about it, reading about it all serves as practice. Switch to a few days a week and less time. Unless you have a band, just keeping your fingers moving an hour a day 3-4 times a week is good. Learn to change a song key quickly with Theory. Get in a band
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"Sometimes it's a bitch...sometimes it's a breeze"
Drummers Who Became Bassists #51, ATK club #194
Last edited by madurolover : 02-05-2012 at 07:52 AM.
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02-05-2012, 08:07 AM
| | | | Actually sounds to me like you may have overloaded yourself in the first session the night before. I do it all the time, learn a bunch of stuff only to have it disappear later. It's usually because I took too much in at one time.
My fix for re-inspiring myself involves a half-sized Yamaha keyboard. I randomly pick one of the preset 2 bar songs (this one has 100) pick a key, and try to emulate the bass lines. It's one of the most satisfying learning tools I've come up with. A bonus would be that I have 100 really cool bass lines to use whenever I want. |
02-05-2012, 08:21 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: NYC | | | If you're serious about music, find a good teacher.
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"It takes a pretty great drummer to be better than no drummer" -Chet Baker
BECAUSE AWESOME CAT IS AWESOME!!!!!
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02-05-2012, 07:17 PM
| | Bassman7654 | | Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: North Las Vegas NV | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Bear_Bass Thanks for all the advice. I took a day off, came back and did a portrait of tracey/okonkole y trompa cover with my band. I asked keyboard player what he thought happened, apparently too much practice in 1 seating can do more bad than good? Anyway everythings back to normal and i apologized to my bass and amp | Sometimes the best thing to do is something else to clear your head. Take a walk, play a game, or what ever you are into. Then come back to bass.
__________________
GK 1001RB II, & MB800, NEO 212 & 210 cabs, Boss GT10-B, Roscoe SKB 3007, Brubaker Brute MJX-5, Fender 62 USA RI, Ibanez SR400, Barcus 6 string. And various other toys. G.A.S. and G.E.
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02-06-2012, 12:43 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Québec, Canada | | Quote:
Originally Posted by madurolover Don't do 2 hours a day - you sound like you are quite advanced. Thinking about it, reading about it all serves as practice. Switch to a few days a week and less time. Unless you have a band, just keeping your fingers moving an hour a day 3-4 times a week is good. Learn to change a song key quickly with Theory. Get in a band | I did play more than 2h a day for the vast majority of my musical life ... Going to college to earn a degree on the classical DB. It was more of a 5h a day of practice + every others homework that I had and on weekend 5h practice with my band. It was the most creative moment of my life and we were studying complex music and of a matter of fact, it ended in what we were playing too.
But yeah, sometime you have to take a break, thinking of nothing.
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